Village Board — Minutes

Village of Benton August 16, 2023 Board Meeting Minutes Members present: Scott Cruse, John Perkins, Jill Knight, Kenneth Farrey, Chuck Wartner, Joe Slater, Absent members: Cal Robbins Village employees present: Sonya Silvers, Jim Goffinet, Brian Hammill Others Present: Dan Wackershauser 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, August 16, 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 (Wartner, Slater) to approve the minutes from the regular Village Board meeting held on July 19, 2023 with corrections. Voice-all ayes. Carried Brian Hammill has been working in the office on Lexipol policies to get the police department up to federal and state compliance. The grant to New Glarus has been submitted and this would be used to purchase two new solar speed signs. Jim Goffinet mentioned the black top on N. Van Buren Street and Water Street should be completed by the end of August. Well #1 will be installed within the next week and should take a couple days to complete. They will need to complete testing before it goes back online. Zoe Stluka started trimming the curb tops and the curbs will get painted before Labor Day. 6,380 pounds of electronics were picked up today in the Village and taken to Wiederholt’s. There was a water main break on Second Street and Joe Slater asked about the road repairs. The road will be patched when it settles. Well House #2 received storm damage from a tree falling on the building. Estimates for repairs have been received. The insurance company will pay for half of the roof to be replaced where the tree damaged it. Jim mentioned that we should redo the whole roof and replace all of the gutters on the building. The Village would be responsible to pay for the side that was not damaged in the storm. This cost would be under $5,000. Motion (Slater, Perkins) to approve the replacement of the roof and gutters at well house #2. The Village will pay up to $5,000 for half of the expense that is not reimbursed by insurance. Voice-all ayes. Carried Sonya Silvers has submitted the insurance claim for the well house damage and a check was mailed from the insurance company. Police expenses were submitted in June to the LEA grant. Sonya has been in contact with them and it is still processing. Jared received notice that he passed his last two water test. All water testing has been completed and he will move on to the last four test required for wastewater and phosphorus. Committee Reports:  The Finance committee provided an overview of the audit summary. Chuck Wartner noted an error on page 3 with the years. Water and sewer continue to have expense over revenues. A full water rate case will be needed to even the revenue out. This year a simplified rate case was done and the rates increased 8%.  The Nuisance committee has been sending letters out to properties. Property owners have been receptive and cleaning up their yard.  The Park committee met and went over items on the to-do list. Metal on bathroom partitions have been fixed. Eric Mowry and Leland Felderman will meet after Labor Day to start tree removal. Jill Knight will be contacting Cory Ritterbusch for ideas of new trees to plant in the parks. The Scout Park has been Village of Benton August 16, 2023 Board Meeting Minutes getting cleaned up by volunteers. The cabin needs to be cleaned out. There will be a meeting next week with a group of volunteers to brainstorm ideas to get more utilization out of the land. Eric is checking the status of the bathroom doors that were ordered for the park. The Village will be receiving a grant August 30th at 6:30 pm to help with the purchase of the doors.  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. Jim, Eric, and Sonya put together a list of the water main breaks on Main Street and all the expenses. Scott has passed the cost onto the grant writers that had requested the information. The retirement letter from Greg and Linda Gardiner was presented. Bruce Gardiner will be taking over their business in December. Bruce sent his resume and a maintenance contract for Benton to consider. The price of service will not increase. Motion (Farrey, Knight) to approve the 2 year contract to hire Bruce Gardiner as the Village of Benton assessor. Roll-all ayes. Carried Sewer deduct meters are currently $300 to purchase and have been for at least the past eight years. Jared looked into pricing of the meters, radios, and parts and he recommends that the fee get increased to $450. Motion (Perkins, Slater) to approve a fee increase to $450.00 for sewer deduct meters. Roll-all ayes. Carried The DNR response to Compliance Maintenance annual report was presented to the board. Jared is looking into the permitting to be in compliance and will update the board at the next meeting. Temporary replacement Class B retail licenses were presented for Hoppy’s Bar & Grill, Lawrence’s Pub & eatery, McCarthy’s Tavern, and the VFW Joseph McCrea Post 7896. Operator Licenses were presented for approval. Motion (Knight, Perkins) to approve temporary replacement Class B retail licenses to Hoppy’s Bar & Grill, Lawrence’s Pub & eatery, McCarthy’s Tavern, and the VFW Joseph McCrea Post 7896 from 6:00 pm September 3rd, 2023 thru 1:00 am September 4th, 2023 for Benton’s Labor Day street dance. Roll-all ayes. Carried Pay the claims against the Village. Motion (Wartner, Slater) to pay the claims against the Village. Voice-all ayes. Carried Meeting adjourned at 7:16 p.m. Motion (Slater, Wartner) to adjourn. Voice-all ayes. Carried