Village Board — Minutes

Village of Benton May 18, 2022 Board Meeting Minutes Members present: Gary McCrea, Chuck Wartner, John Perkins, Scott Cruse, Cal Robbins, Jill Knight, Kenneth Farrey Absent members: Village employees present: Sonya Silvers, Jim Goffinet, Brian Hammill Others Present: Bill Feuchtenberger, Lisa Schemehorn. Brandon Espeseth, Adele Rowe, Kelli Kerrigan The regular board meeting of the Benton Village Board was called to order by Village President, Gary McCrea, at 6:30 p.m. in the conference room of the Benton Business Incubator Building at 244 Ridge Avenue on Wednesday, May 18, 2022. 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. Motion (Robbins, Perkins) to approve the minutes from the regular village board meeting held on April 20, 2022. Voice-all ayes. Carried Members of the public attended the meeting for updates on the agenda item regarding North Van Buren Street right of way. James Kearns was ordered to cease and desist by Officer Hammill until after the Board meeting. Officer Hammill needs to get property pins replaced to solve property line disputes. The pins will need to be reestablished by an engineer at the full expense of James Kearns. Kelli Kerrigan addressed the board with concerns about no parking on Main Street from North Van Buren to Bean Street from 3-6 a.m. year round. Kelli has just opened an Airbnb and a catering business on Main Street. The current drive way is only big enough for 2 cars. There will be times where additional parking will be needed. Discussion was held and it was decided Kelli and Officer Hammill will work together on a parking permit that can be given to Airbnb guest for special overnight parking situations. The driveway often gets parked in and Kelli wondered if a sign for a private drive would help eliminate that. Cal offered to look at the tree in the back yard at Kelli’s by the transformer and cable box. Jim stated they have been working on the seeding where the water main project was completed. Eric will be getting the incubator parking lot expansion dug out. Jim had placed an order for transformers for the new subdivision because they are around 58 weeks out. The street sweeper is back. Officer Hammill presented the police reports and stats. Officer Hammill attended SWAT training most of the week. He also assisted the FBI on a case, at this time no further information is being released. ATV are out full force and it is a concern that all of Benton’s streets are not open as they are in most villages. ATV traffic is not wanted on Main Street and it is also a State Highway. Committee Reports:  Chuck announced the Public Nuisance committee will have a meeting on Friday, May 20th at 10am. Officer Hammill was asked to bring public nuisance records to the meeting.  Gary mentioned the LDC will have a meeting Monday, May 23 at 6pm at Kelli’s Place in Benton. Gary has been in contact with the state about the tree at 341 E Main Street. The attorney will be reaching out to the Village attorney. Gary will be calling the state again. Village of Benton May 18, 2022 Board Meeting Minutes Discussion on the trees at Swift Park was held. Jim will contact Felderman’s to evaluate the trees. Sonya presented the board with the final audit report from Johnson and Block. Jill made comment to closing remarks from the auditor regarding journal entries that could be done. The auditor would also like to see offsite backups being done of the server. Sonya has starting taking care of the 2 monthly journal entries and talked to Jason Walter about the backing up of the server offsite. Water and Sewer rates of surrounding municipalities along with a history of the last ten years of the Village rates was given to board members. Water and sewer funds continue to carry a loss. Discussion of completing a simplified rate case was held. The board would like Sonya to gather more information on numbers for a rate increase and information on adding Public Fire Protection to utilities. An update of the Employee Policy Manual was given to the board to look over. There will be a special meeting at a later date to go over the manual for any changes. Once the board approves the manual Tasha will send it to the league insurance attorneys to look over through a free service they offer. Roling Oak Heights subdivision has covenants stating construction of a new home on an empty lot must begin within 12 months from the date of purchase and the home must be completed within 18months from the date of purchase. There are a few lots that will be coming up on these timeframes. A letter will be drafted and sent to the owners of the lots nearing these deadlines. Pursuant with Chapter 19.85 Sub (1) par (c) of WIS. STATS, motion (Farrey, Robbins) to adjourn to closed session to discuss employment, promotion, compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility, including personnel issues. Roll-all ayes. Carried. Adjourned to closed session at 8:00 p.m. Motion (Wartner, Robbins) to reconvene to open session Roll-all ayes. Carried Reconvened to open Session at 8:08 p.m. Motion (Robbins, Knight) to approve personnel issues to be discussed with the attorney. Voice-all ayes. Carried The claims against the Village were presented for payment. Motion (Knight, Wartner) to pay the claims against the Village. Roll-all ayes. Carried Meeting adjourned at 8:15 p.m. Motion (Perkins, Robbins) to adjourn. Voice-all ayes. Carried