20260506 Village Board Minutes

PROCEEDINGS - VILLAGE OF ARGYLE - MONTHLY MEETING May 6th, 2026 The regular monthly meeting of the Argyle Village Board was called to order by President Joe Schutte on May 6th, 2026 at 7:00 pm in the community room located at 321 E Milwaukee Street . Roll call was taken with all members present . Proper posting of the meeting was acknowledged. King made a motion for approval of the minutes, Helfvogt seconded, motion carried. Helfvogt made a motion to approve the agenda, Hinojosa seconded, motion carried. APPOINTMENTS President Schutte appointed Kirk Wenger, William Johnson, Diane Martin, Dave Phillipson, Garry Rossing, and Neale Tollakson t o the Plan Commission for another 3 -year term. King motioned to approve the appointments, Hinojosa seconded, motion carried. Hinojosa mentioned that he has received complaints about a dark German Shepherd dog and a brown dog roaming the Village. Chief Saalsaa stated these two roam from outside the Village and the owner has not been identified. Hinojosa also mentioned receiving complaints about residents not cleaning up after their pets. Deputy Cl erk McGuire will send out letters to all dog owners with reminders about cleaning up, leash laws, registration reminders, and other dog related ordinances. CITIZEN COMMENT Randy Russell wrote to President Schutte to request approval of a multiple dog license for 3 additional dogs with a total of 5 dogs at his residence located at 915 North Street. Helfvogt motioned to approve with the terms that all dogs must be vaccinated and licensed within 30 days, K ing seconded, motion carried. OLD BUSINESS Kayla Emberson presented updates on the Argyle Community Parks Foundation fundraiser for new playground equipment. They have currently raised $164,000.00 towards the new equipment and are planning to install it before school is back in session for the 2026-2027 school year. The playground orientation will be swapped for safety, and the equipment will feature ADA accessible decks. The accessible elements of the equipment will not be fully ADA accessible until more fundraising is completed to unlock phase two of their plan to allow the removal of the woodchips and the installation of a po ured-in-place rubber foundation. They are currently looking into finishing smaller sections of this foundation first rather than installing the foundation in the entire park at one time. A sidewalk fr om the parking lot to the playground is another goal for better accessibility. ACPF is looking for skilled volunteers to help with m oving of current equipment and site preparation for the new equipment. Emberson requested permission to sell the current park equipment through Wisconsin Surplus Auctions to utilize the proceeds for the new items. Kayla will work with Deputy Clerk McGuire to list the items and would like them to be gone by mid -July. King motioned to approve the sale of the equipment, Hinojosa seconded, motion carried. Ben Heidemann of Town and Country Engineering presented the final pay request for Maddrell for the Fairview Ave street project’s general street portion at a total of $18,000.00. Helfvogt motioned to approve, Ploessl seconded, motion carried. Heidemann also updated on the final lead line loan closing which was both a private and public funded project. The DNR has decided that engineering, interim financing, and bond cost cannot be put onto the private side of the project, it must be funded by the Village. The two options are to utilize revenue borrowing and pay f or roughly $25,000 out of pocket from the general fund or convert the entire loan to a general obligation loan and include the $25,000 in the loan since the water utility cannot fu nd private side assets. Clerk Flannery suggested adding to the general obligation as it was not budgeted for. Action on this will be taken at a later meeting. The Recycle Center hours will remain the same as they have been . It will be open Wednesdays from 9: 00AM to 12:00PM and 4:00 PM to 7:00PM and on Saturdays from 8:00AM to 1 :00PM. Street Operator Falsey met with Stone Guardian for a quote on the restoration of headstones in the Old Argyle Cemetery. Many stones are sinking into the ground or broken into multiple pieces. Clerk Flannery suggested repairing either select stones that are not in good shape. King motioned to spend up to $2500 on restoration of headstones that need work most importantly for liability purposes, stones that are easier to tip and more liable to injure, Ploessl seconded, motion carried. President Schutte called on Chief Saalsaa regarding the property located at 811 Monroe Street in regards to removing the portions of the deck that have been cut and left in the yard. Saalsaa stated that she recommends following through with the Village attorney to proceed with the legal process. Helfv ogt motioned to follow recommendation to Chief Saalsaa, Monahan seconded, motion carried. Two driveway applications have been submitted, and one is interested in applying for a driveway permit. Deputy Clerk McGuire requested King’s comment on if enough information is in the application, and he stated that it was sufficient. The driveway application will have no changes. The contract for Summer Recreation Program Coordinator Kevin Slater was presented for approval for the 2026 season. King motioned to approve the contract, Ploessl seconded, motion carried. Approval was requested for allowing Brayden Slater to mow at the park under the Summer Recreation Program Coordinator’s instruction. Helfvogt motioned to approve hiring Slater, King seconded, motion carried. Schutte updated that at the library board’s April meeting Library Board President Detra had resigned and will now be working as staff at the library. Valerie Steiner and Jean Margaret Beech were appointed by Lafayette County to the Argyle Public Library board and will be appointed during their May meeting. Schutte stated he would l ike to move the remaining $9,800 budget from the Community Development director to the Library budget to staff the library as they take over the Community Dev elopment role which will be combined with the Library Director role. Schutte stated the Economic Development portion of the position will still fall unde r him as he represents the Village as an elected official rather than an employee, and the community events will be the responsibility of the Community Development Di rector. Helfvogt motioned to move the $9,800 Community Development funds to the Library to handle the community events, King seconded, motion carried. Schutte stated that breaker rock was put in parcel 101.0104.4200 which will be the parking lot for the daycare to help navigate with equipment in the mud. Some of the costs associated with building the parking lot, such as the construction of the lot, the building of the retaining wall and others will need to be bid out, whic h will cause issues with the shared construction. Schutte reached out to daycare construction managers Keith and Tina Ritschard to gauge their interest in purcha sing the parking lot back. They were interested in purchasing it back for the same purchase price they sold it at as it would be an asset for the daycare when the building is complete. Heidemann stated that a utility easement would need to be put in by a CSM before selling the lot. This would also prevent the Village from tak ing out a loan to pay for the lot and retaining wall and allow it to be installed without any bidding process. Helfvogt motioned to complete the CSM and easement a nd sell the lot back to the Ritschards, King seconded, motion carried. Detra requested the approval of installation of a water fountain in the new library building. Helfvogt motioned to approve, M onahan seconded, motion carried. Schutte stated that he would like to see a Meeting Owl installed into the meeting room in the build ing as well. Helfvogt motioned to approve the installation with a total cost of up to $1,500.00, Ploessl seconded, motion carried. NEW BUSINESS Liquor Licenses have been filed at the Clerk’s Office for the 2026-2027 license period for Blanchardville Co-op, Good Fellas Tavern, The Corner Pub & Deli, Sportz Page, and the Legacy of Argyle. Schutte stated that multiple people have received phishing scams pretending to be board members and said that he would like to get board members emails through the argylewi.gov domain. These would have warnings on the bottom of them for e mails outside the organization and would help prevent any potential phishing scams. This would be $210.00 per user for the year for Microsoft 365 which would come to a total of $1,000 for the rest of the year pro-rated. King motioned to approve, Hinojosa seconded, motion carried. Heidemann presented the facility plan for the wastewater treatment plant since DNR changed the phosphorus variance level allowed for the plant. Aluminum sulfate or ferric chloride can be added to help lower the level of the phosphorus . One option would be to store chemicals outside with pumps and have it pumped into the plant , which could be a larger brick and mortar building with utilities or a smaller more temporary building. The sampler requires upgrading as well as the control system. A 20 year plan will need to be put together for the DNR to acquire DNR or USDA funding for the project which includes reviewing the quantity and quality of treated water, assessing the community’s needs and growth, and laying out the plans for what the Village will need by assessing magnitude and priority. The plan will cost arou nd $35,000 to com plete within the next 1 2-18 months, and the sewer equipment replacement fund could cover this cost. Future replacements could also come out of this fund. The penalty for phosphorus in excess of 0.2 parts per million will need to be paid to the county annually in the me antime because of their new phosphorus limits, which will be around $35,000 to $49,000 annually until the issue is solved. Heidemann suggested by Johnson ’s recommendation to complete the cheaper installation now with upgrad es to be per formed later to avoid these fines. The first penalty payment would begin March 1, 2027 for April 1, 2026, the date the permit was acquired, to December 31, 2026 period. King motioned to approve starting the process with the cheaper, quicker version to bring us closer in compliance with upgrades possible later, Ploessl seconded, motion carried. Helfvogt motioned to complete the study, Hinojosa seconded, motion carried. COMMITTEE BUSINESS The water tower transducer threw a false positive for overflowing, which caused the tower to not fill and run almost empty. Johnson cau ght the issue and had the transducer replaced. The SCADA system in the water tower is aged, and replacement would likely trigger a simple rate case. Koch requested to King that he look into the broken snow blower sooner rather than later as it will cost more to repair this in winter. K och will begin investigating repair for it before winter comes. The Argyle Community Wide Garage Sales will be the 2 nd weekend in June this year. The first Argyle Open Market will also be that same weekend. Vendors can sign up online for the garage sales and the market at argylewi.gov. Schutte stated there will be no Mud Volleyball this year as there is not an interest to set up and run it this year. He stated that the Booster Club may be interested, but would have to follow up with them on this. PRESIDENT BUSINESS Schutte updated that the state assembly changed the requirements for the SWWRPC Comp rehensive Recreation and Outdoor Plans to include more information. This will require more work for SWWRPC to complete the plan at an additional cost of $3,000 and another 30-day public review. It will appear at the July meeting. Schutte handed out new committee assignments for all board members. The payroll report for March overtime paid to full -time employees was presented as follows: Johnson – 1.70 hours, Koch – 6.45 hours, Falsey – 2.57 hours, Flannery – 0.47 hours, McGuire – 1.17 hours, Saalsaa – 7.55 hours. King made a motion to approve overtime, Hinojosa seconded, motion carried. CLERK BUSINESS A building permit was issued to Allan Olson for a three-season room at 911 North Street. First Nati onal Bank & Trust will be switching over to Bank First from March 15 th to the 18 th. Clerk Flannery also stated she did not have a c ompleted agreem ent for the tractor test and tune at the park or insurance information. Kayla Barnes stated she was a part of th is group and would complete the agreement before t he date. King made a motion to approve total April 2026 accounts payable checks $ 93,129.31, May 2026 invoices paid to date $ 58,029.64, Helfvogt seconded, motion carried. The next monthly meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, June 3rd, 2026, at 7:00 pm. King made a motion to adjourn at 9:12PM, Hinojosa seconded, motion carried. Mallory McGuire Deputy Clerk