Village Board Meeting — Minutes

Village of Benton May 21, 2025 Board Meeting Minutes Members present: Ken Farrey, John Perkins, Jill Knight, Chuck Wartner, Joe Slater, Cal Robbins, Scott Cruse Absent members: Village employees present: Sonya Silvers, Jared Roling, Brian Hammill Others Present: Michelle Savatski, Matt Pivot, Kevin Eipperly, Adam Linden, Tim Wiederholt The regular board meeting of the Benton Village Board was called to order by village president Ken Farrey at 6:30 p.m. in the conference room of the Benton Business Incubator Building at 244 Ridge Avenue on Wednesday, May 21, 2025. In compliance with the open meeting law, proper notice of the meeting had been posted in four public places: the Zephyr Depot, Benton State Bank, Benton Post Office, and the Benton Business Incubator Building. The minutes from the previous village board meeting were presented. Motion (Wartner, Slater) to approve the minutes from the regular village board meeting held on April 16, 2025, as presented. Voice-all ayes. Carried Sonya Silvers reported the flowers were put up on Main Street today. 442 White Street in the new subdivision will be listed for sale by the end of the week with Lori Droessler. The village has 4 rolls of chain-link fence that used to be around the tennis courts that have been sitting for years. There is someone interested in purchasing and inquiring about a price and protocol to sell. The board was supportive of selling the fence. Eric Mowry is inquiring about how to proceed with seal coating, whether the five-year plan should be followed, and what type of seal coating should be used. 216 W. Main Street is being purchased, and closing will be on June 2, 2025. The plan is to restore the house and keep it as a single-family home. Brian Hammill updated the village board on the police calls for the past month. He has been working on state and federal reports. Matt Pivot with Republic Service provided a proposal to switch recycling to biweekly and extend the current contract another five years. There is currently a contract that provides weekly recycling pickup, and it will expire in June 2026. Kluesner Sanitation has partnered with Wiederholt Enterprises to provide residential trash and recycling pickup. If the current contract is changed or opened, they would like the opportunity to put a bid in. Ken Farrey suggests tabling the proposal from Republic Service. Matt will provide an updated option to switch the recycling to biweekly for the duration of the current contract as well as update the presented proposal. Kluesner Sanitation will provide an estimated proposal. Sonya Silvers will reach out to the village attorney for legal guidance with the contracts. Jared Roling has been looking through the 300-page facilities plan and getting quotes for alternative options that were given in the plan. While looking at the interceptor a shared sewer was discovered; the engineer is updating prints with new information from lateral locates. Programming has been done on the VFD at Well #1, and Water Well Solutions will come to balance it. Fire Flows was rescheduled for the second time. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has another fluoride grant they are pushing. Jared called his DNR rep to get more information, and a contractor came to look at what could be done within the scope of the grant. Quotes will be received for chemical heathers, new ventilation, and proximity power switches. Jared would like to do maintenance on the piping in the well houses and replace bolts with stainless steel bolts. This would involve sandblasting and painting at an estimated cost of $4,000. The RAS pumps have been rebuilt, and Jared wants to add a 4” tee and 4” full port plug valve to process piping in the RAS pump room with an estimated cost of $2,000. Ken Farrey stated the unrestricted water and sewer accounts could be used to fund the projects. Motion (Robbins, Cruse) to approve Jared to proceed with the maintenance projects to the well houses and the expansion of the RAS pumps with a cost not to exceed $7,000 from the unrestricted water and sewer accounts. Voice-all ayes. Carried. Jill Knight announced the recommendation to the village board from the library board to appoint Stacey Addie as the new library board president to fill a vacancy. Village of Benton May 21, 2025 Board Meeting Minutes Motion (Knight, Slater) to approve the appointment of Stacey Addie as the library board president. Voice-all ayes. Carried. Scott Cruse, chair of the Community Development Authority of the Village of Benton (CDA), announced the recommendation from FEH and the CDA to approve the award to J Squared Construction for the bid for the community center, library, and museum project. Motion (Knight, Robbins) to approve the Community Development Authority of the Village of Benton's recommendation to accept J Squared Construction, LLC's bid of $1,850,000 to build the Benton Library, Museum, and Community Center pending contract approval by USDA and Village legal counsel and enter into a contract with J Squared Construction. Voice-all ayes. Carried. Michelle Savatski announced that there will be a preconstruction meeting on Friday, May 30th, at 8:00 am at the firehouse. Ken Farrey reported that the Central Broadband/Cuba City Telephone had stopped by the village office and sent an email that they would not provide free internet to the current village office because of the service being shared in the incubator building with other businesses. They will provide service to the new location on Main Street, to the police department and village office, as well as to the wastewater treatment plant and the village garage, but not to the community center. Based on the signed contract, the village board believes it should be provided to the community center as well. The board is ok with not providing the free service to the village office while at the incubator building. Sonya will reach out to the contact Jerry from Central Broadband/Cuba City Telephone to discuss. Committee Reports:  No committee reports provided Pay the claims against the village. Motion (Knight, Cruse) to pay the claims against the village. Voice-all ayes. Carried The meeting was adjourned at 7:32 p.m. Motion (Slater, Robbins) to adjourn. Voice-all ayes.