Meeting Minutes

Town of Lind Monthly Board Meeting Minutes Lind Town Hall, N1315 County Road A, Waupaca, WI Monday, January 13, 2025 immediately following the Town of Lind Caucus 1. Meeting called to order at 6:35 p.m. 2. Open Meeting Statement deferred; done at Caucus. 3. Pledge of Allegiance deferred; done at Caucus. 4. Roll call: K. Nickel, Z. Nelson, C. Hardy, F. Neumann, K. Barrows all present. Public attendance per sign in sheets/head count (73 remained for meeting). 5. Approved Agenda: Motion by Chair Nickel to amend the agenda with the following: Correct the date on minutes from monthly meeting to Dec. 9, 2024 Add to item 10, that Plan Commission is seeking a new member Add to New Business: MiTech Contract to sign Town Hall Rental Application Flag Pole for Town Hall Weyauwega Fire Dept – New Truck Second by Supervisor 2 Hardy; motion passed unanimously by voice vote. 6. Public Input/Comments: none. 7. Approve or Amend Minutes: • Board meeting December 9, 2024 -Elector noted that item #16 – the date should read January 13, 2025 vs. “December” 13, 2025. Motion by Supervisor 2 Hardy to approve as presented with correction of date on item #16; second by Supervisor 1 Nelson; motion passed unanimously by voice vote. • Special Board Meeting December 18, 2024 – Motion by Supervisor 1 Nelson to approve minutes as presented; second by Chair Nickel; motion passed unanimously by voice vote. 8. Treasurer’s report: Treasurer Barrows reviewed monthly balance sheet. Explained reason for need to change monthly Board meeting date for February based on tax payment distribution; Motion by Supervisor 1 Nelson to move February Board meeting to Monday, February 17, 2025 at 6:00 p.m.; second by Chair Nickel; motion passed unanimously by voice vote. 9. Clerk’s Report: • Clerk Neumann presented draft transaction list; gave explanation that bills and checks were not complete due to issue with recent update done by QuickBooks program. The update caused issues with reconciliation of accounts, throwing balances off. Clerk is working on resolving these issues; Board had an urgent work session on Sunday, January 12 at 12:30 to work on a resolution. Supervisor 1 Nelson raised an objection on payment of two invoices received from Town Counsel Law and Litigation. She stated Chair should have instead utilized WTA’s Attorneys at no cost to the Town and referred to WTA’s Legal Opinion sheets from Attorney Nawrocki- unknown date of publication; and Attorney Ruth, dated June 2020; (these Legal Opinion pages are available on the WTA website). Nelson stated Chair had no authority to spend town money without prior approval by the Board and that she acted “in gross misconduct” to approve Attorney R. Carlson to do analysis of Waupaca County Dairy Farmers Alliance proposed amendment to the Comprehensive Plan. These two invoices total just over 60% of allotted 2025 budget for legal fees. Chair Nickel responded that she acted on legal counsel and direction from Attorney Carlson with his work for the Town on the Brooks’ Digester Applications in 2023-2024; we were instructed to keep him informed of any developments or updates regarding the digester or digesters in general. WTA’s attorneys are able to give legal information only; not legal advice and they would have referred us to our municipality’s legal counsel. An elector shared that she believes the Town has a Resolution from the past that allows the Chair to spend up to $5000 without Board approval. Discussion followed. Matter to be tabled until meeting on Wednesday, January 15, 2025 when bills/receipts will be addressed. Chair will contact Attorney Carlson with Supervisor 1 concerns and will also research to see if a resolution is in place re: amt Chair is authorized to spend without prior Board approval. Clerk Neumann also shared that Board of Canvassers reported that several new registrations from November 5, 2024 election had not signed the poll book; Clerk verified the signatures were logged as required in poll book. Chair shared that C. Golke Snowplowing sent 4 separate invoices for the $12,000.00 set up fee; stated we can pay one invoice a month, or pay all of them at once. Will address at next meeting when approving bills/receipts. Clerk Neumann shared that the CFCU credit cards have been cancelled due to fraudulent charges on Clerk’s card. Discussion held on if we activate new cards through CFCU or research other options with a generic Visa or Mastercard. Tabled to future meeting with Treasurer Barrows doing some research on options available. Clerk and Chair will continue to use personal credit cards and submit for reimbursement of expenses. 10. Land Planning Commission meeting: no report due to no meeting in January. Chair Nickel received a call from a current member of the Commission stating he will be moving out of state in next 4-7 months. Will post notice and application on webpage to seek replacement. 11. Oral Report from County Board Supervisors meeting: Supervisor Hardy stated nothing new to report. 12. Oral Reports from meetings attended by Lind board members: Nothing new to report. 13. Update on Roads, Culverts, Fire Numbers • 2 stop signs had to be replaced due to vandalism --Lindee Lane and Kristin Lane; Lindee Lane and Shambeau Trace. A tiger board by bridge on Hatton Road had to be put back up after a vehicle snapped the post. We had a pile of 4 tires left in the center of Pope Road; J. Gunderson picked them up. • Letter was sent to a resident on Xmas Tree Lane after it was reported that he was witnessed by neighbors emptying the barrel of sand/salt into his ranger and sanding his personal driveway. Letter informed him that this is not allowed and he would be billed for the sand/salt if it occurred again. Informed him that the County Highway Dept has sand/salt available at no cost to residents. Resident called Chair after receiving the letter and stated he only sanded the roadway and cul de sac in front of his driveway. • Tree trimming/brush cutting is being done by J. Gunderson. List was given to him and included the two apple trees in the front of the Town Hall. He will also be filling potholes that were noted on Zabel and Cemetery Roads. 14. New Business: • Electronics Recycling Services—Chair Nickel gave brief overview of information sent to the Town from COM2 regarding free recycling of electronics for the Town. Sounds like an excellent program but in checking with references that were sent, Chair found that biggest concern was for having a large enough area to handle a large amt of vehicles, along with needing availability of persons to work the event and a forklift for getting boxes of recycled items up into semi-trailer. It is also noted that the City holds one or two of these events each year. Discussion held; felt we would not pursue this any further. • MiTech contract – needs signature to renew landfill monitoring contract. This year is “fifth year event” that involves more extensive monitoring, therefore costs are higher than expected and budgeted for. Hoping to negotiate a new monitoring schedule after July of 2025 for less frequency of testing to be done. Motion by Supervisor 2 Hardy to sign contract as presented; second by Chair Nickel; motion passed unanimously by voice vote. • Town Hall Rental Application – reviewed application for hall rental on April 27, 2025. Motion by Supervisor Hardy to approve; second by Supervisor 1 Nelson; motion passed unanimously by voice vote. • Replacement of Flag Pole at Town Hall – Flag and flag pole will be down indefinitely until replacement can be put up. Pole is in disrepair. Motion by Chair Nickel to purchase new pole and replace when frost is gone; second by Supervisor 2 Hardy; motion passed unanimously by voice vote. (Note: Chair was approached by elector after meeting was adjourned and he stated he would like to donate a new telescoping flag pole and flag that he has and is not using.) • Weyauwega Fire Truck Replacement – Supervisor 2 Hardy shared that Weyauwega will be working on replacing a pumper and a tender truck with one new truck that can serve both purposes. The tender and pumper trucks have been in service >25 yrs and are rusting out. Plan is to sell the two trucks outright. Town of Lind has budgeted monies each year for our share of this type of equipment purchase. Cost is estimated to be approx. $550,00.00. Will need additional information to come from Weyauwega Fire Dept. 15. Old Business: • ARIP Application-Chair Nickel shared that the Town of Lind was selected to receive a round 2 ARIP award for our submission of the Stecks Road project application. Estimated cost of the project is $450,000.00 and our award is for 90% of the allowed costs associated with this project. Waupaca County Highway Dept also received an ARIP award for County Road A and this project will start in 2027. Supervisor 2 shared that part of the ARIP application was having agricultural owners submit commerce information about their operations for consideration of the ARIP application. • Miracle Mountain Way: Lind and Dayton were waiting on Farmington’s approval of the quote to take down the few dead trees along the border of the landfill and Miracle Mtn Way; received a letter from Farmington Board that they felt this maintenance work was sole responsibility of Dayton. Response letter sent by Dayton showing deed that clearly lists ownership percentages of the landfill. Will continue to follow. • Election Poll Workers: Final clarification is that the list of poll workers that Board approved in January 2024 is the list that Clerk Neumann is to work from for future elections of 2025. If additional workers are needed, they will have to be approved by the Board prior, receive proper training, and will be approved only for the immediate upcoming election, not the remainder of the two-year term. • Town Hall remodel: Bauer Electric has completed their portion of the work and transfer switch for a generator is in place. Chair Nickel will label the switch on the electrical panel. Chair Nickel finished staining of voter booths and priming of walls in office and kitchen; painting of the office and kitchen will be started with new lights and blinds also being installed. Have received notice from two electors of their availability to help paint. Star Communications will be coming within the next week to repair the security camera system and move the monitoring equipment to the office area. 16. Future agenda items & Upcoming meetings: • Board will hold a special meeting on Wednesday, January 15, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. to approve bills/receipts. • February Meeting changed to February 17, 2025 at 6;00 p.m. and agenda to include: ▪ Tony’s Cemetery Service attending to help clarify and finalize process used for payables and receivables for cemetery services. ▪ Proposed amendments to County Ordinances ▪ Approval of additional Election Workers if needed for Spring Election on April 1, 2025 ▪ Credit Card options for Town Board • Planning of Boards Road Tour – possible early March • Spring Election is April 1, 2025 • Annual Town Elector meeting is April 15, 2025 • WTA 2025 District Meeting—virtual or in-person; St Point date is March 21st and will include annual Board of Review certification training. 17. Adjournment: Motion by Chair Nickel to adjourn; seconded by C. Hardy; motion passed unanimously by voice vote. Adjourned at 7:30 p.m. Submitted by Nickel, Chair; Neumann, Clerk