20241211 Village Board Minutes

PROCEEDINGS - VILLAGE OF ARGYLE - MONTHLY MEETING December 11th, 2024 The regular monthly meeting of the Argyle Village Board called to order by President Thomas Moore on December 11th, 2024, at 7:00 pm. President Moore took a vote to appoint Wyatt Webster to fill the vacant Village Board spot left by David Green. The vote passed unanimously. Roll call was taken with no absentees. Proper posting of the meeting was acknowledged. King made a motion for approval of the minutes, Fransen seconded, motion carried. Hinojosa made a motion to approve the agenda, Helfvogt seconded, motion carried. CITIZEN COMMENT There were no citizen comments presented. OLD BUSINESS Johnson spoke on the ATV/UTV speed limit ordinance change in the Village. The DOT is not currently open to changing the speed limit on Country Road G currently, but it will be investigated in the future again. The Board discussed opening all streets to ATV/UTV access in the Village. The ordinance will have to be amended and sent to the Village attorney for changes, and new signage will need to be placed in order to put the change into effect. The speed limit for ATV/UTV will be set to follow the speed limits posted currently for all traffic. This will be on the agenda once received for approval. See Me Flags will be placed on all four corners of Milwaukee Street and State Street and additionally at the school crosswalk on State Street near the park in conjunction with this change to help the safety of people crossing the street. Moore motioned to approve Resolution No. 6 -2024, allowing the sale of public property for the construction of a non -property-tax-exempt Child Care Facility within TID No. 3 located at Lot 4. Helfvogt made a motion to approve, King seconded, motion carried. Johnson questioned the status of the repair of the merry -go-round at the park; it will be pursued by the Park Committee. NEW BUSINESS Helfvogt has been in contact with Johanna Chenous’ coworkers from CESA 3, they are planting a living memorial tree in her honor at the park. CESA 3 has worked with Aspen Ridge in Mineral Point to obtain a tree. Kevin Slater has been working with Andy Chenous to pick out the location and the type of tree. The tree is to be planted prior to winter. Helfvogt brought up the idea of a name-plate for the tree; Moore mentioned the Board could put funds towards the plaque since Johanna and Andy have done a lot for the Park and Rec department and community. Tyler notified the board that currently Karen Johnson, Bonnie Vlasak, LouAnn Gollakson, and Sandra Flannery are all certified as 2024 to 2025 Election Poll Workers. Nicole Webster and Tyler will be doing the training required to become certified Poll Workers before the April 2025 election. 3 to 6 hours of training is required depending on the certification level, and they will be certified until 2027. King motioned to approve the Village Poll Workers, Hinojosa seconded, motion carried. COMMITTEE BUSINESS Hinojosa updated that the scale for the chemical tanks which were purchased had been delivered and are being installed for the Water Department. Hinojosa and Jared Johnson have been working with Cody James in making of a foot valve tool for hydrants. They are lookin g into splitting the cost of building it with Blanchardville to have a tool both communities can use. The cost of building it would be around $1,200; the cost to buy a new tool would be around two to three times the cost. An agreement will need to be written and agreed upon with both munic ipalities about this plan. King presented the quoted costs for street repairs on East Street, North Street, South Green Street, and South Broad Street. The cost for sealcoating and repairs on these streets would be $51,200.20. Helfvogt inquired about future repairs for other streets, and King informed the board that the repairs are part of a 5 -year plan for street repairs in the Village. Fairview Avenue will be repaired this upcoming year. Moore updated about a mee ting that was held with Town and Country Engineering along with J. Johnson about this repair. They discussed the logistics of where water will drain to during the repair, and about possible work that can be completed by Village employees to keep costs down. King also spoke about an invoice received by Garthwaite Homes. The Village had allowed to have fill -dirt that is not usable to be dumped by the useable fill -dirt as a place for them to get rid of it, however they were invoiced for the dirt being moved. The dirt is not usable as it has large boulders, piping, and debris throughout. King also updated that the work on the hydro plant has been going well, and that the dam is in good shape currently. Koch had brought the issue to King about the work that needs to be done in the pit. Currently they cannot get into this area for the repairs that they need as the flow gates have hardened sediment surrounding them, and they cannot close properly. This prevents them from safely draining this area to work on as it presents a safety hazard. The generator has be en able to run continuously for over a week straight, which has produced enough energy to power 30 homes continuously. Moore added to this that the water in the pit acts as a vacuum, which helps to spin the turbine and provides a more stable kilowatt output as opposed to a natural flow of water. King prese nted a report stating that having our generator is beneficial to keeping rates down; the rates we get for having a backup generator and generating our o wn power is around half the cost of the rates if we did not have a backup generator and did not generate our own power. Flannery presented a letter stat ing that we did get approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for finalizing dam design repair plans for their review. Kleinschmidt is currently working on these plans for the Village and will submit them by January 15th, 2025. Fransen updated that he attended the library meeting, and they still do not have a director currently in line. Moore added that he had spoken to Rossing and mentioned looking into other options for a new library loca tion in the wake of being declined for a grant from the Department of Administration’s Flexible Facilities Program. Community Development director Joe Schutte presented an Endorsement form for ISP Brightspeed’s application for Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding. Brightspeed is the only ISP that has come forward to apply for this endorsement, and their plan currently is to change their network over to fiber rather than DSL internet. Schutte has been working on this with Lafayette County Economic Development and Tourism Director Allison Taylor. Currently Argyle is categorized as an underserved area in need of reliable and affordable internet access, which is defined as an area without access to at least 100mbps download a nd 20mbps upload speed ; Argyle does not meet the current definition of the term “broadband” at a government level. The PSC is handling this grant pr ocess currently and the bids. Nation-wide this program was allocated $42.45 billion, Wisconsin received $1.05 billion of this amount based on a calculation of the state's proportion of locations lacking access to broadband service. If another ISP decided to bid on the county, the Village is not prohibited fr om endorsing them, however Schutte mentioned that Brightspeed has made many improvements around the area and suggested to support them in their effort. Helfvogt motioned to approve, King seconded, motion carried. The Welcome Holidays event went very well this year; there were only 2 less people than last year’s event and it was noted that an away basketball game might have been part of that reason. Schutte noted that he had put a full -color ad insert in the Pec Valley Leader with the Welcome Holidays and Holiday Lighting Contest for Village residents as well as creating Facebook posts to help sprea d the word. Schutte spoke on future events as well, suggesting that the Christmas in July event be moved from the second Saturday in July to the third Saturday in July, which would allow it to not conflict with the County Fair weekend, would be closer to the 25 th of the month, and will align with the Argyle Open Market. It was suggested that this event could be larger this year to celebrate the renovations made to the Shelter House. King motioned to approve the date change, Johnson seconded, motion carried. Schutte also suggested moving the Argyle Open Market to a new location for 2025 with the upcoming construction that will be starting for the Child Care Facility . This would allow the market to be more visible and easier for people passing through the neighborhood to see and enjoy. H e suggested having the market on Milwaukee Street set up in the parking stalls with visitors having access to the market via t he sidewalks. Helfvogt mentioned looking into having live music along with the markets for some entertainment; local musicians or the community band or choir were also suggested. Schutte stated he would like to re -invigorate the markets and have more opportunity for residents and more traffic for our local businesses. The Community Calendar is almost complete for 2025; the calendar will be mailed out with Argyle Municipal Utility bills when complete. PRESIDENT BUSINESS The payroll report for August 2024 overtime paid to full-time: Johnson – 3.14 hours, Ritschard – 6.22 hours, Koch – 2.76 hours, Tyler – 0.54 hours, Saalsaa – 0.20 hours. Helfvogt made a motion to approve overtime, Hinojosa seconded, motion carried. Committee assignments were handed out and board members received payment for 2024. Moore noted the Caucus for 2025 will be held on January 7th, 2025 at 9:00 AM. CLERK BUSINESS There were no building permits to be approved. Helfvogt did mention she would like to see follow -up on previous permits that are open and have not seen any progress and that are not in compliance. Building inspector Scott Jelle will be contacted about these permits by the Clerk’s Office. Tyler inquired about a Village Employee Holiday Party, stating a few employees have stated they would like to schedule a gathering possibly after Christmas. January 18th, 2025 at 6:00 PM was selected as a date to get together, Tyler will inquire about a place for employees to get together. Ki ng made a motion to approve total November accounts payable checks $143,563.96, December invoices paid to date $65,139.11, Fransen seconded, motion carried. The next monthly meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 8th, at 7:00 pm. Helfvogt made a motion to adjourn at 8:36 PM, Hinojosa seconded, motion carried. Mallory Tyler Deputy Clerk