Village Board — Minutes

Village of Benton September 20, 2023 Board Meeting Minutes Members present: Scott Cruse, John Perkins, Jill Knight, Kenneth Farrey, Chuck Wartner, Joe Slater, Cal Robbins Absent members: Village employees present: Sonya Silvers, Jared Roling, Brian Hammill Others Present: The regular board meeting of the Benton Village Board was called to order by Village President Scott Cruse at 6:30 p.m. in the conference room of the Benton Business Incubator Building at 244 Ridge Avenue on Wednesday, September 20th, 2023. 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 (Farrey, Slater) to approve the minutes from the regular Village Board meeting held on August 16, 2023. Roll-all ayes. Carried Sonya Silvers stated that Iverson’s had a state project to finish and they will be back in Benton soon to finish Water Street. Eric Mowry has spoken to Cory Ritterbusch regarding the tree plan for Village Park and they plan on meeting in Village Park on Thursday. Diggers Hotline was called to begin work at Dan Aurit’s on the storm drain. Cuba City Telephone will be installing fiber in 2024 and the electric hut will be placed sometime this year. There will be a special board meeting Friday, September 29th at 10:00 am to approve the liquor license for Whitey’s Bar and Grill. Sonya was asked by a resident if lot 10 in the subdivision would be available for sale since no construction has begun in the allowed time frame. The board instructed Sonya to call the owners and ask what the plan is regarding construction. Trick or treating hours will be Tuesday, October 31st from 5:30-7:30 pm. These are the same hours as Cuba City and Hazel Green. Jared Roling mentioned that the spectrophotometer for fluoride injection has not been working properly and the cost of a new one is $4,000- $6,000. Jared has been working with the WI Department of Health Services (DHS) regarding available grant funding for anything to do with fluoride. If the money is used there is a five year contract to continue testing fluoride. The board agrees that Jared should fill out the application for the funding. Motion (Knight, Slater) to approve submitting the grant application for water fluoridation from the DHS with the understanding that a five year contract will be set in place for continued fluoride testing. Roll-all ayes. Carried Ben Cernek has approached Jared about connecting to Village water. Discussion was held and the board made the decision to table any action until more information on cost and the results from testing the wells is available. Motion (Robbins, Perkins) to approve tabling an action regarding Ben Cernek’s well until more information is available from the well testing and the cost of access. Roll-all ayes. Carried Committee Reports:  Scott Cruse has been talking to Kurt Muchow regarding grant funding for the Main Street water main project and Kurt is putting together a timeline of funds.  The Finance committee has discussed the short term borrowing for next year. This year’s budget in the streets department will be over and all other budgeted items seem to be tracking as expected.  The Park committee met with Cory Ritterbusch for ideas of new trees to plant in the parks. Cory will be developing a tree plan for Village Park. The expense of the plan can be used for the urban tree grant.  The Personnel committee is working on the police contract to make it similar to the employee policy manual, while following the rules of ACT 10. Village of Benton September 20, 2023 Board Meeting Minutes Brian Hammill has been back on duty since Labor Day. Jill Knight mentioned that a resident stated the lights on the barricades that were used for Labor Day were not working. There were a few incidents with parking and car accidents on Labor Day that Brian will be looking at and developing a plan for next year to avoid future issues. Sonya presented the community marketing audit. Ways to improve the website will be looked over. Scott announced that Terry Sheffer will be removed from the Zoning Board of Appeals committee and Carol Alexander has agreed to accept the appointment to the committee. Motion (Perkins, Wartner) to approve the appointment of Carol Alexander to the Zoning Board of Appeals committee. Roll-all ayes. Carried The park committee has recommended that the Village applies for the Urban Forestry Tree grant again this year. The authorizing resolution #2023-07 for the Urban Forestry Tree grant was presented to the board. Motion (Knight, Slater) to approve the authorizing resolution #2023-07 for the Urban Forestry Tree grant. Roll-all ayes. Carried The Lafayette County Ems Resolution was presented to the board. Discussion was held. A motion was made to pass the resolution. Joe Slater requested more information on the amount that will be applied to the County levy. The motion was rescinded and the resolution will be tabled until the October board meeting unless the resolution is needed sooner. Scott Cruse will look into the full amount that will be applied to the County levy and the timing of the resolution. Motion (Wartner, Knight) to approve the Lafayette County EMS resolution. Motion rescinded. Motion (Slater, Perkins) to approve the tabling of the Lafayette County EMS resolution until the October board meeting where more information will be presented or at a special board meeting. Roll-all ayes. Carried The recommendation to approve the variance for Russ Carius from the Zoning Board of Appeals was presented. Motion (Robbins, Slater) to approve the recommendation from the Zoning Board of Appeals to approve the variance from Russ Carius. Roll-all ayes. Carried The recommendation to approve the zoning amendment for Ryan Carver from the Planning and Zoning Commission was presented. Motion (Robbins, Knight) to approve the recommendation from the Planning and Zoning Commission to approve the zoning amendment from Ryan Carver. Roll-all ayes. Carried Motion (Perkins, Robbins) to approve a 2023-2024 operator’s license for Julie Byrne. Roll-all ayes. Leaf, garden, and brush pick up dates, Hydrant flushing, and supervised burn dates were presented to the board. Pay the claims against the Village. Motion (Knight, Robbins) to pay the claims against the Village. Voice-all ayes. Carried Meeting adjourned at 7:45 p.m. Motion (Wartner, Perkins) to adjourn. Voice-all ayes. Carried