Annual Meeting of the Electors — Minutes

TOWN OF EAGLE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE ELECTORS April 21, 2026 Unapproved Minutes Town Chairperson Mommaerts called the meeting to order at 6:30pm. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. Those in attendance included Town Officials Chris Mommaerts, Ryan Hajewski, Duane Domagalski, Rick Kugel, and Faith Lang. Electors Mary Zipprich, Diane Knauer, Randy Mielke, Lori Kugel, Janet Prokop, Barbara Puza, Sandra Shorr, Shawn Lang, Kelly Lang, Abigail Lang, Debbie Domagalski, Mark Bendler, and Scott Mommaerts. Also present is Town Clerk/Treasurer Mercia Christian. Establish Voting Method: Motion by Janet Prokop to use show of hands as the meeting’s voting method. Second by Shawn Lang. Motion passed unanimously 18-0. Introduction of Elected Officials: The Town officials introduced themselves as follows: Duane Domagalski lives on County Road ZZ on the northwest side of Eagle and has been a resident since 1994. He started out on the southeast side and eventually moved to the northwest side. He loves the town and plans to spend the rest of his life here. Rick Kugel lives on the north side of the town on Ulrickson Road. He has been a resident since 1970. He grew up here and spent a lot of time in the Kettle Moraine State Forest. He enjoys it here and enjoys being elected to oversee and watch out for citizens. Chris Mommaerts built a house here in 2000 when she was a deputy sheriff and had to live in the Waukesha County area. She fell in love with Eagle and decided to build a farm here -the place with the “Oreo” cows. Once retired, she decided to give back to the community and be part of a solution and not a problem. Mommaerts feels we have a great board that truly wants to do what is good for the community and do what is right. Faith Lang has lived in Eagle since 2013, was homeschooled and graduated last year. She got her private pilot's license in her senior year of high school. She enjoys flying, hunting, gardening, and playing music. In January, Lang decided to run for town board. As your elected representative, Lang’s goals are keeping taxes low, reducing government regulation, and also maintaining the history of being a rural town. Lang thanked the residents for electing her and states she will strive to protect the citizens' God-given constitutional rights and responsibilities. Ryan Hajewski is in his second term, third year on the board. He has been a resident of the community his entire life and specifically the location he is living at now since 2019. Hajewski is hoping to do his best here and to work best for the residents in the Town of Eagle. Minutes of April 15, 2025: Motion by Shawn Lang to approve the April 15th, 2025, Electors Meeting minutes. Second by Scott Mommaerts. By show of hands , the approval of the minutes passed 18-0. Financial Report: Treasurer Mercia Christian presented the 2025 Financial Report. The Balance Sheet and Budget Comparison Reports were reviewed. Shawn Lang questioned the amounts on the Balance Sheet for the road accounts. Christian noted that since the end of last year, all but one of the accounts have been closed. Any remaining funds have been disbursed to the road masters; a road master is a person designated to oversee the matters of each private road. The town ended 2025 at 110% of their projected income and 92% of their projected expenses, again staying under budget. Motion by Janet Prokop to approve the finances as listed. Second by Lori Kugel. Motion passed 18-0. Chairperson Report: Mommaerts gave the Chairperson Report stating our population is around 3,500. We have 2,758 registered voters. A struggle with the town is that we are 40% state land. Part of what we enjoy about the Town of Eagle is its ruralness, but with 40% state land, it becomes a problem. We still have to take care of all the roads and everything else and deal with that. Mommaerts thanked volunteers that step up to be on boards, especially our civilians, our library, our fire board, our fire commission board, and our planning and zoning. These people take time out of their day, and people do not realize they are volunteering for this. Mommaerts thanked Diane Knauer for her years of service; all the work was very much appreciated. Mommaerts also recognized board and community members for work that has been done, citing the following examples: Two board members and their spouses spent a weekend replacing lights and outlets in the municipal building at no charge. The board member was certified to do this, saving a lot of money. Hiring a contractor would have cost thousands of dollars. Board members work on grants. We do not hire it out to the tune of $7,000 for a company to write a grant. We had a board member revise our HR manual to include job descriptions. That also saved this town a lot of money. We have board members that bring their own equipment to help the town, from the park to everything else. They bring their own chainsaws, they help out, they pick up on their own, without being asked to do it. We have a volunteer that works for a horse trail committee. He goes out on his own and clears the horse trails and builds obstacles on the horse trails. We have a board member that researched radios that were going to cost the town thousands of dollars through the county. This person found us other options to save money for this town. We have a clerk who prepares meals for elections instead of bringing in food from other places. We have residents that clean up the roads. We had a resident clean up a tree that fell into the road. We have a great community that really steps up. The thing that is unfortunate that needs to be mentioned is that in the past there were lawsuits against the town. Most of those lawsuits were from planning and zoning. The town was dropped by their insurance carrier but has obtained coverage at a substantial increase. We now need to have an attorney at all our planning and zoning meetings, adding additional costs. Mommaerts concluded by talking about Shared Revenue, which towns in Wisconsin rely on. Waukesha County sends roughly $1.5 billion of our personal income and sales tax to the state every year, getting back 60 million in shared revenue. That is 4% of what is sent in. We send at the top and get back at the bottom. We do not get any money back to help us; the towns are at the rock bottom of this. The state is keeping our revenue; we need to go to our state legislation and get that back because small communities like us are suffering. We are seeing it with the fire departments, with the roads, with maintenance and everything else. Sheriff’s Department Report: A representative was not present. Mommaerts spoke that Town of Eagle is one of the last communities, along with Town of Ottawa and Town of Genesee, who are covered by the sheriff's department through state statute. We do not have to hire and pay a contract. Some villages do, but we are one of the last. Our sheriff's department is state mandated to cover. The Village of Vernon, for example, is paying $1.5 million for a sheriff's contract. Obviously, we cannot afford that. Recreation Department Report: Supervisor Hajewski reported the Eagle Recreation Department strives to meet current and future community needs for quality, safe, and affordable programs to all Town and Village of Eagle residents. Hajewski has been the town representative for the last year and states in the last year, our recreation department director became Reebee Ratkowski, replacing Melissa Dehne. Reebee comes to us with experience having been involved with the YMCA and with the Skyhawks sports program. Recently, the summer activity guide was completed. One of the new things that you will see in this activity guide is that there is a collaboration between the recreation department and the Skyhawks Milwaukee sports program. The collaboration is dedicated to teaching kids life skills through sports by offering high quality camps and classes. These include soccer camps, a beginner golf camp, a tee-ball camp, and a basketball camp. These activities are opportunities that we did not previously have. Beyond that you'll find creative movement and games for two- to four-year-olds, fall soccer, the ever-popular pickleball program- which has new times and new ways to pay, yoga, Zumba, Forever Fit, cribbage and sheep's head, mahjong and needle nuts knitting, crocheting, quilting, and various other crafts. Also, again this summer, there will be WPRA discounted tickets available through the rec department. Attractions include Milwaukee County Zoo, Mount Olympus Theme Park, Noah's Ark Water Park, Pirates Grove Mini Golf, and the original Wisconsin Ducks. Hajewski urges that when looking at the Eagle Recreation Summer Activity Guide, take note of the sponsors and please patronize them. They help us to pay for the activity guide and activities that we have. Alice Baker Library Report: Library Director Alli Chase was not in attendance but provided a written report which was read by Supervisor Lang: In 2025, the library circulated 38,542 physical items, which was 3.57% higher than in 2024. They had 11,652 digital circulations of audiobooks and e-books from Wisconsin's Digital Library. There were 299 programs with attendance of 4,550. 197 kids registered for the summer reading program. Other highlights of 2025 included the second book release by local author B.W. Hoff, family mini-golf, field trips from Eagle Elementary School, the first bilingual Memory Café in which 20 people spoke Spanish, Hug a Horse Memory Café, a Badger Talk customized for Eagle “A conversation about land use: Rural vs Development”, and a Back to School Escape Room. Garbage and Recycling Report: Supervisor Hajewski has been the garbage and recycling representative for the past year and reported the Town’s garbage and recycling hauler is GFL, Green for Life, based out of Canada. GFL has 135,000 contracts in Canada and the United States. They bought out our previous hauler, LRS, who bought out Badgerland, whom we have had contracts with. We have a contract continuing with them through 2029. That company has a recent expansion in the state of Wisconsin, and you will find their characteristic garbage trucks all over the state of Wisconsin. For those that missed it, they sent three reps to the last board meeting. They acknowledged issues that they had with communication during their transition into our community last year. They have said they have worked to address these issues. Hajewski acknowledged that complaints have gone from many to very few. Coming up on May 9th, is the spring yard waste event at the Eagle Town Park from 7 to 11 a.m. Debbie Domagalski asked if we are going through 2029 with the GFL contract. Hajewski replied that GFL Representative Justin Montani, said the unsigned letter of intent to work with GFL is not an issue. They will continue to serve us as they have. Getting out of the contract may have certain legal ramifications attached to it. Debbie Domagalski stated that at a meeting a few months ago, it sounded like everyone was on board to switch to Johns and asked if that is something that is still on the table. Hajewski stated that GFL made some points at the last meeting. The contract when it has been purchased goes with the company that has purchased it. There is a certain amount of wording in the contract that seems to indicate that if there are issues, they have a chance to mitigate those issues. We have talked about the possibility of getting out of it, but Hajewski’s personal view is that getting out of it might be very difficult. Duane Domagalski has an acquaintance that is familiar with garbage trucks. GFL was saying the lift is automated, and that is actually not true. They can control how fast that bin comes back down, how fast that bin goes up. They can put the bins down slowly, so they do not end up in your ditch or upside down. Randy Mielke asked if the asked if the GFL rate is fixed until 2029. Treasurer Christian answered that there is a contractual increase each year of 3%. Mark Bendler states every week he picks his garbage can out of the ditch and does not need a gym membership because of it. Debbie Domagalski states she feels the community would rather support a local company than a company from Canada. Eagle Spring Lake Management District: Ryan Hajewski reported Eagle Spring Lake Management District is set up to serve the needs of 279-acre Eagle Spring Lake. Hajewski has served as the town representative for almost three years. The Eagle Spring Lake Management District oversees maintenance of the dam that has created the lake, invasive species mitigation, lake-related emergencies, preparedness, keeping up with legislation affecting lakes and lake residents, plus they offer an annual fireworks show. The issue that has received the most attention is invasive species control. As with many area lakes, invasive species such as carp, Eurasian watermilfoil, hybrid Eurasian milfoil, starry stonewort, and others are found in the lake. The district has a weed harvester and hires people to operate it. A new operator was recently hired for this coming season. There is a chemical treatment in spring to keep the weeds down. People are hired to watch as boats are put in at the launch. The Clean Boats, Clean Waters program has inspectors to check boats for weeds attached to a boat or trailer to hopefully stop an issue before it starts. The next biggest thing is dam maintenance. The lake has one dam with two outflows at Kroll and Wambold. Trained dam operators work together to monitor lake levels and adjust as needed. Recently, the dam received a risk rating that the district has contended is inaccurate. Part of the problem is that the data that is really needed doesn't exist, so the district is looking at purchasing the necessary equipment and engaging in what will become a multi-year study to properly assess inflows and outflows on the lake, which will properly assess the risk level for the dam. Our lake patrol is run underneath the contract between the Eagle Spring Lake Management District, the Town of Eagle, and the Town of Troy, who provides patrol services. Though it is the same group that patrols Lulu, there is a difference between the patrol on Lulu and Eagle Spring Lake. We are finalizing plans for patrol in 2026. For those interested in learning more, there is the district website, a regular newsletter, monthly meetings, and the annual meeting in August. Kettle Moraine Fire District Report: Chief Nottling emailed a report noting 378 EMS responses and 573 total calls for 2025. Mommaerts took the opportunity to address rumors on social media, stating we are just re-evaluating the intermunicipal agreement not discontinuing the department. The agreement is not working. Ad hoc committees are being set up. Mommaerts encouraged residents to attend the fire department meetings held the fourth Thursday of every month. Shawn Lang asked if we are still in the agreement. Mommaerts replied that the agreement will be standing until 2027; the problem that we have is that portions of the agreement have been breached. There has been no audit since this fire department was established. You throw money at them and there is no audit to show us where the money is going. Shawn Lang asked who is responsible for scheduling the audit. Mommaerts replied that it is the chief and the administrative assistant. They did finally get it scheduled with the auditor that also does the Village of Eagle. Mommaerts wanted an outside agency but was voted down. Mommaerts also stated that the same attorney represents the Village of Eagle and the Kettle Moraine Fire District. The same attorney represents the Town of Eagle and the Village of North Prairie. This co-mingling of attorneys just does not work. Mommaerts went on to question how can we ask our constituents, taxpayers, for more money if we do not know where the money is going? What do we do to fix the problem? It is staffing, we are looking at going down to one fire station rather than two. That way we can staff one fire station, meaning less equipment and less staffing. Janet Prokop pointed out that at the last Town Board Meeting it was stated that if they staff the Eagle station, they are roughly seven minutes from most locations. When they are staffing in North Prairie, Eagle Springs Lake would be 15 to 20 minutes away. Mommaerts pointed the station locations out on a map, stating it makes so much sense that we should not staff both. Debbie Domgalski stated that she had a medical situation a few years back and received a $2,500 bill for a one and one-half mile ambulance ride from her employer to the Fort Atkinson Hospital and asked if Kettle Moraine Fire District is invoicing for emergency response. The reply was yes, but only if they transport. Mommaerts said the ad hoc committee will look at service call fees. We need more revenue and less expense. It is as simple as that. For example, if they do a lift assist, there is going to be a service fee. If you are a responsible homeowner, you do not have a bonfire during gale force winds. Why should you have to pay for somebody else’s irresponsible behavior? We are not the City of Waukesha; we are not the City of Brookfield. We cannot afford these multi-million- dollar fire departments. At the town’s association meeting, they said in the state of Wisconsin, 11% of all fire departments have nine or less members, and 12% have four or less members, especially up north. Domagalski stated he has always questioned the fees that they are charging when they transport. They seem to be low compared to what other communities are charging. The fire department is a business, not to make a profit, but to at least cover expenses and supply a good product to the people of the Town of Eagle, the Village of Eagle, and the Village in North Prairie. Duane went on to say in his business background he was given a budget every year and had to make it work. It is the same thing with the fire department. He has been told that there are no volunteer fire departments but found out there are 660 of them in the state of Wisconsin. When he looks at the way it is being staffed right now, it is a paid volunteer fire department because the employees dictate when they want to work. It should not be that way. They should not hire 20 people that want to work Monday night when they only need two. Even with the fire fees and the usage fees, the last thing he wants to do is make everyone, including himself and everyone in the room, pay more money than we have to. We need to keep it cost effective and provide a good service for everybody in the community. The whole west side of Eagle would be better served right now by Palmyra. It is shorter response time than what we are dealing with right now. We are trying our best to make it better. That is the ultimate goal. No matter what anybody tells you, that is what we are trying to do. We are not trying to take it apart, we are not trying to destroy it, we are trying to make it better and make it efficient. Rick Kugel spoke on research he did at the State of Wisconsin Fire Department Registry. There are currently over 600 full volunteer departments in the state of Wisconsin actively providing fire and EMS service and we do not offer volunteering here as an option. I think our community, our fire district, needs to embrace volunteerism rather than kill it. They say it is dead, but it is dead because full-time departments have killed it off. It needs to remain an option. We need to embrace it, and we need to see if we can nurture that, whatever that looks like. 600 departments cannot be wrong. There are also a number of other departments that are either hybrid, volunteer, paid on call, and part-time, but 600 of them are completely staffed by volunteers and I think that should at least be an option here. They do not even advertise for volunteers at the Kettle Marine Fire District. Mark Bendler noted that people need to use common sense too by having a first aid kit and fire extinguishers in their homes. Road Report: Rick Kugel reported on the communication improvements. The Town was notified that in the coming years Waukesha County was going to be upgrading their two-way radio service. The upgraded radios came in at a tune of anywhere between $8,000 and $12,000 dollars each. We did some research and elected to put together our own wide area digital public works communication system. We did some testing and implemented a system currently being shared by the town and the village. The town had budgeted $3,000 for the entire system. To date, we have spent $1,500 on the radios that are in the trucks and some handheld radios. The village purchased their own handheld radios. We are still working to get their truck radios installed. It is at no cost to the town. For roads, we do have a $370,000 grant application with the state of Wisconsin for Wilton Road. It is still pending. Some roads are in bad shape. Nature Road has a culvert that is collapsing and needs to be replaced; we need to look at how to fix that. The only major equipment failure was our 25-year-old tractor having catastrophic engine failure late in 2025. That was recently replaced. Kugel also mentioned that our longtime employee, Tom Betts, has announced that he will be retiring sometime this spring or summer. He has not set a date and is willing to stay on and help. He is willing to come back and plow snow as long as he can. Recruitment is currently underway to fill that position. Abigail Lang asked if we took a loan out for the new tractor. Kugel replied that we did not. A resolution was made to move some funds around and pay cash for it. Shawn Lang asked about the comment regarding the roads being in bad shape and if there is anything financially that we need to be preparing for in the coming couple of years. Kugel replied that we have a better road program than we had in previous years. Every other year, we should be entitled to some grant money. Of the $370,000 grant that Kugel wrote for Wilton Road, the Town would be responsible for only 20% of that. The rest would be state funds, so we would get a lot done with less amounts of town money. The next road that we would look at would either be Betts Road or Nature Road. The PASER rating is done every other year. We hire a company to come out and rate the roads. The program that we are on with crack filling and chip sealing is a lot better now than it was in the past. This year was the first year in about three that we posted roads for Spring weight limits. We had a decent frost and a decent thaw so there was a lot of moisture in the roads. We took precautions. As far as a long-term plan or needing to borrow some money, we are going to try and work around that. Chris Mommaerts reported that she does the drive around with Jeff of Crack Filling Services. Prior to this board taking over, they were only budgeting $10,000 to $15,000 for crack filling. We are up to $50,000 allocated for crack filling. People do not care for the chip sealing but that is the only thing we can do right now. Eagle Aires roads are 25 to 30 years old and basically did not have any maintenance done. Maintenance needs to start at least seven to eight years into it. Nobody did that and now it is crumbling. Mommaerts added that the town does have citation books, so we can get serious about posting roads, as well as enforcing the Class B weight limits. Now that we have the tickets, we can start issuing citations for those violators. There is a lot of semi-traffic on Wilton Road, Road X, and all the roads that run between 67 and 59. There's some heavy traffic on Nature Road as well because it is the direct connection between two communities. Other businesses deemed necessary by the electors: Diane Knauer asked to give a library report from her perspective of being the Town appointed library board trustee during her term. Knauer reported as follows: Alli reported on how many people visited the library, and how many books were checked out, and how many hours they were open. That is all great information, but looking at it from a town financial standpoint, there are a lot of things that were not mentioned. For example, the town board voted to use the option for the municipality to go with a three-year average (for the annual library levy resolution). This should hold our portion of the cost of the library somewhat static. It does not prevent them from asking for more, but as far as the minimum amount that we need to appropriate, we are now on a three-year average. Eventually that will become a static number by doing that. Also last year the town board and the library board approved an amended joint library agreement that was out of date and not being followed. We had a nine-member board, and we were not supposed to. There were other things in that agreement that needed to be fixed. It was a big project between the library board and the joint village and town boards. Additionally, the agreement stated all along that town was supposed to be the fiscal agent, and that was not happening. Mercia (Town Clerk) took that responsibility and is providing reports to the library that are similar to the reports provided for the town. The library board loves the reports. They are not being hand manipulated; they are coming right out of QuickBooks. That made the financials for the library a lot easier to understand and be approved. We produced a chart of accounts so that the information needed to be reported by the library was reflected in the chart of accounts used in QuickBooks. We approved the first ever library audit so that in 2026 we could audit the 2025 books. We went through a number of written policies. One of the most important things that was addressed was the computer policy as there were no filters on the computers and signing in was not required. The policy we came up with has filters being applied to keep kids safe. The director - and only the director - would have access to information of who was signed on to computers at a particular time only in the event of needing the help of law enforcement, not to keep track of people or what they are looking at. There has been a lot of discussion regarding collection and standards; that policy is being looked at. There is a lot of discussion about the retention of books. Our weeding policy is not effective. We have magazines from 1950 on the back wall in the library, just as an example. Hannah Lang has taken the project of trying to rewrite the collection policy and make sure that the books that we have in the library are books that the Town and the Village of Eagle want to see in that library. We talked about storage. It started out as a storage shed but has progressed to a possible addition on the north side of the building so that shelving, boxes of books, FABLE book sale items, and things like Christmas decorations do not have to be right in the library space. The library has purchased a 3D printer. For the rest of this year, it is going to be used only by the library employees, so they learn how to use it. The plan presented was that by January of 2027, it would be available to the public to do 3D printing. We need a policy, a plan, and educated people on how to run it. The library did change its e- mail to .gov to be more secure, just like the town did. The board is working on some big topics like fiscal responsibility to the taxpayers and a safe environment for our kids to come into our library. Act 150 for new library standards failed the first time, so it is going up for a vote a second time. Rick Kugel thanked Diane Knauer for her service, stating that her knowledge and input is invaluable. Everything that was contributed was very much appreciated, including the love for our numbers. He has learned a lot from Knauer and hopes to learn more. Sean Lang spoke in appreciation of Knauer’s work as well and agrees with the comments she made regarding the advancements the library board has been making. A couple of comments Lang would put out both for the citizens and for the boards: It seems like the library and the recreation department are bumping into each other and we should get a little better alignment on what those two organizations are supposed to be doing so that we are not duplicating efforts. Second, both the library and fire district do not really have their financial houses in order as compared to the Town of Eagle, which is really a pretty stark contrast. Those are problems that we need to keep working on. As far as library collection development, he encourages citizens to go to the library, look at what is on the shelves, check out the things that you agree with and make sure that the library staff hears when you see things that do not agree with your values. Set the next annual electors meeting date: Motion by Abigail Lang to set date of April 20th, 2027. Second by Diane Knauer. By show of hands the motion passed unanimously 18-0. Motion to adjourn was made at 7:43 by Scott Mommaerts and seconded by Debbie Domagalski. By show of hands the motion to adjourn passed unanimously 18-0. Respectfully submitted, Mercia Christian, Town Clerk