Village Board — Minutes

Village of Benton April 20, 2022 Board Meeting Minutes Members present: Gary McCrea, Chuck Wartner, John Perkins, Scott Cruse, Cal Robbins, Jill Knight, Kenneth Farrey Absent members: None Village employees present: Sonya Silvers, Ryan Carver, Brian Hammill Others Present: Lisa Schemehorn, Brandon Espeseth, Kasse Espeseth, Adele Rowe, William Feuchtenberger, Chris Jenkins, Ashley Alvorado 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, April 20, 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 (Wartner, Farrey) to approve the minutes from the regular Village board meeting held on March 16, 2022. Voice-all ayes. Carried Members of the public addressed the board regarding the end of North Van Buren Street, which is a dead end street and the end portion of it is undeveloped. James Kearns was granted access to his property in the Benton Township through the undeveloped section of N Van Buren Street by way of a permit in 2018. There are concerns of damage to other residents adjoining properties and trees being damaged and removed from the Village property by Kearns. This is Village owned property and no tree removal should be taking place. Damage to neighbor’s property should be reported to Officer Hammill. Officer Hammill presented the police reports and stats. Alternate side parking has been an issue this year. The way the ordinance reads is not relative to the way things have been done and the message residents are receiving. Brian asked about looking into the ordinance and possibly changing the time to starting after 5pm. The ordinance committee will review the ordinance. The house located at 216 W Main has received many complaints with the condition things were left and the debris laying around the yard. Contact has been made and it should be cleaned up soon. There is a Staffordshire bull terrier dog that has been caught running lose in the Village. It has been reported to have bitten residents several times and is aggressive in nature. Police reports have been filed at the Village level as well as the county level for the bites that have occurred to several different people. The dog is not licensed and the owner has not been in compliance with any of the Village ordinances regarding the dog. Brian will follow up with the owner. Cal has requested that Brian has more of a presence around the school at release time. There is heavy traffic with speeding and a lot of little kids out walking. Ryan presented a way to fix up the pickle ball courts by adding 6” crushed rock and 5” of cement on top of the existing cement. If the 3 pickelball courts were done the estimated cost would be $38,500, the estimated cost to include the 2 half basketball courts would be $66,000. This would include a fence to separate the pickle ball and the basketball courts. Ryan will get an estimate if they used asphalt instead. There should be a plan for moving forward with the renovations and possible grant funding could be looked into. The courts are useable this season and they will be resurfaced soon. It was also mentioned that in the meantime the trees around the court could possibly be trimmed to reduce further damage to the existing courts. The water main on Water Street had a couple of breaks last year. The original leak was repaired and when they turned the water on another leak occurred. In the past few years, there have been four to five breaks just on that particular water main. It runs on an easement and potentially runs right under a house. Village of Benton April 20, 2022 Board Meeting Minutes Ryan proposes to get ahead of any big issues by abandoning and rerouting the main. The estimated cost for this is $46,000 that would come from the water fund. Ryan would need to get state plans approved. Motion (Perkins, Robbins) to approve Ryan Carver to submit state plans for the abandonment, rerouting, and replacement of the water main on Water Street. Roll-all ayes. Carried Bill McCauley will be mowing this summer. Jimmy Haas will also work 20 hours for the Village. 20 hours should get the flowers watered in the morning, the park bathrooms cleaned, and miscellaneous mowing. There are many odd jobs to finish up and another summer helper would be recommended. Committee Reports:  Chuck was approached and asked about cleanup of gravel from snow plowing on Main Street between the sidewalk and the curb. The Village workers do not cleanup from the sidewalk to the curbs.  Gary would like to have a public nuisance meeting on Monday, April 25th at 10:00 am.  The street sweeper is at Windy Hill waiting for parts to finish the repairs. Gary provided an update regarding the tree at 341 E Main Street. He has spoken to the state and they will not remove the tree. Discussion was held and Sonya will reach out to the lawyer Eileen Brownlee for the best course of action. The policing discussion on the agenda will be moved to a personnel committee meeting. A map of the subdivision on Arbor Street was presented to the board. This is a new layout than previously present to the board. Keith Dalsing is looking for board agreement to move forward. There was concern about only having one exit off Arbor Street for all the traffic. It was agreed an exit onto Hwy 11 would be needed if the state will allow it. Ryan will talk to Keith Dalsing. The claims against the Village were presented for payment. Motion (Knight, Farrey) to pay the claims against the Village. Roll-all ayes. Carried Meeting adjourned at 8:00 p.m. Motion (Farrey, Robbins) to adjourn. Voice-all ayes. Carried