August 2021

TOWN OF PORT EDWARDS MONTHLY BOARD MEETING MINUTES Date: August 9th, 2021 Call to Order: Chairman Randy Moody called the Town Board Meeting to order at 10:01 a.m. in the Town Hall with the Pledge of Allegiance. Meeting Certification: This meeting has been properly posted (on the Town’s three posting boards, and on the Town Hall door) as well as published on our website and in the Daily Tribune, to notify the public of date, place, time, and agenda. Attendance: Chairman Randy Moody, Supervisor Tim Schmidt, Clerk Michelle Sorenson, and Road Superintendent Al Goodness. Absent were Supervisor Jeff O’Donnell and Treasurer Kathy Reese. There was also one person present from the public. Approval of minutes from July 19th, 2021, Town Board Meeting: Clerk presented the minutes from the July Board Meeting. The minutes looked accurate and acceptable. Motion was made by Moody and seconded by Schmidt to accept the minutes as printed. Motion carried. Agenda: Approve the agenda Approve previous meetings’ minutes Nekoosa Ambulance Service Presentation Approve payment of bills Treasurer and Clerk’s monthly reports Set date for next month’s board meeting Review correspondence New business: Old business: Kellnhofer update Public input Adjourn Motion was made by Schmidt and seconded by Moody to approve the agenda. Motion carried. Nekoosa Ambulance Service: Joe Krcmar participated via speaker phone from a cellular phone call. He informed the Board that the Ambulance Service is experiencing staffing shortages. There is no longer an ambulance kept in the Town of Rome. The Nekoosa Ambulance Service has also been relying on Wisconsin Rapids Fire to assist in picking up calls. Krcmar also reported that the level of care the Ambulance Service provides has gone from Critical Care level of service to EMT Basic service; should a paramedic be on board for a call then they are able to do all the cares done at a Critical Care level of service. Board scanned the submitted Nekoosa Ambulance Service contract. Krcmar pointed out that the contract is no longer for five years and this contract we were looking at was for one year only. The rate for the year 2022, will go from $22,771.00 paid in 2021, to $31,174.00. In the year 2023, the Nekoosa Ambulance Service is planning on adopting the rate used by the State of Wisconsin and will jump their rate to $36/capita costing the Town $51,012.00. The Board thanked Krcmar for the information and discussion continued. A question was raised as to 1 whether the Town would be interested in doing an ambulance district. It was agreed by the Board that it is probably too late to secure an alternate type of coverage for emergency care services for the year 2022, but scouting for other options will need to be explored prior to 2023. This subject will be put on the September Town Board meeting agenda for further discussion. Bills: Schmidt made a motion to approve payment of the town bills listed by the Clerk. Motion was seconded by Moody and the motion carried. Total disbursements for the month of July were $32,566.53 with total revenues being $38,547.13. Treasurer and Clerk Financial Reports: The Treasurer and Clerk reports were reviewed by the Board. All reports balance. Treasurer was unable to complete the reconciliation report because she did not have the bank statement. Total Town money as of July 31st, 2021, is $266,390.43. Schmidt made a motion to accept the available reports. Moody seconded said motion. Motion carried. Correspondence: Clerk received a quote from ProVision Partners for propane. Their bid proposal was $1.49/gallon. The Town does not do pre-pay contracts for their propane supply so correspondence was discarded. Chairman Moody continues to receive resumes in response to our Highway Superintendent job posting. New Business: Clerk received a fire call report for a barn fire located on Wilhorn Road. From the report it was shown that there were twelve different agencies on scene in response to the fire. The Board directed the Clerk to bill the barn owner for $1,000.00 as allowed by Town ordinance. Clerk presented the Board with an updated version of the Boundary Line Agreement used with the Town of Armenia. The Board was in approval and signed two copies. It will be left at the Town Hall for Supervisor O’Donnell to sign at his convenience. Once all the signatures are obtained the Clerk will forward it to the Town of Armenia Chairman. Swanson Road has been pulverized. Both the Chairman and the Clerk have been receiving complaints from several residents along that road. The road did appear to be in rough shape and in need of grading upon Moody’s inspection. Al graded it on Friday of last week but the County needs to put down some road base so the road covering will stick together when graded. The Board is hopeful that the County will finish the project by either the end of this week or early next week. The County informed Moody the Town has $9,000.00 in available 50/50 Road Aid. The Town plans on using that towards the Swanson Road expenses. Due to an abundance of telephone calls, the Board needs to have a conversation about what to do about the stray animal situation. The Board would like to know if they can appoint an animal control officer, how to compensate said officer, and if it is possible to bill the responsible parties whose animals run at large? This will be brought forward to the September meeting’s agenda. Old Business: Kellnhofer was brought up. It appears his collection is growing once again. The Board needs to meet with him once Supervisor O’Donnell gets back. Moody would like to schedule a time for the Board to interview Brian Krotzman next week. 2 Old Business Continued: Al distributed some tire estimates he received from Schierl Tire Center and Matthews Tire Center. For four back tires and two front tires, the estimate from Schierl was $3,348.44, and from Matthews was $3,714.52. This estimate includes mounting, balancing, and disposal of the old tires. Al also informed the Board that steer tires are in very short supply so a decision should be made soon. Schmidt made a motion to accept Schierl Tire’s estimate for new tires to be put on the Mack truck. Moody seconded the motion and the motion carried. Public input: There was none. Next Scheduled Board Meeting: The next regularly scheduled Town Board Meeting is set for Monday, September 13th, 2021, at 6 p.m. The meeting will be conducted at the Town Hall. Adjourn: Schmidt made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 11:35 a.m. and Moody seconded. All were in favor and the motion carried. Respectfully submitted, Michelle Sorenson, Clerk 3