Town Meeting Minutes July 10, 2017
MONTHLY MEETING JULY 10,2017
The monthly meeting of the Town Board of the Town of Cedar Lake met at the Cedar Lake Town Hall in Mikana on Monday, July 10, 2017 at 6:30 PM. Board members present were Ken Leners, Chairman, Kory Weiss and Tony Wolff, Supervisors, Maryhelen Drew, Clerk and Gladys Roux, Treasurer. Also present was RJ Severude, Police Chief and Mike Gallo, Patrolman, as well as 46 other persons.
The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance. The minutes from the previous monthly meeting were read. These were approved by Kory and seconded by Tony. All approved.
Under public input, Ron Richlick thanked all those who helped clean the Town Hall. It looks very nice. Second, he would like to thank Mike and Scott for mowing along the parade route. Also like to thank RJ for all his help and patrolling on the day of the parade. He is wondering about the rumors to get rid of the police. Ken stated that there are a lot of misinformation being said. This will be addressed.
Ken would also like to thank all those who helped with the cleanup of the outside of the Town Hall, Ken & Carol Osmer, Doug Fischer, Gregg Hopper, RJ. Hopefully, he hasn’t forgotten anyone, but thanks to all. He would also like to thank Dick Kerber for all his contribution thru the years of mowing the east side of the Town Hall lawn. He would like to thank Mike and Scott for using their own equipment to help with getting ready for the parade.
Gary Garbe also thanked everyone for all their help. He said if not for all the volunteers, we would not have a parade.
Also, under public input, Brent Smith had some questions regarding the police. Ken said that this will be discussed later in the meeting.
Also, under public input, Mike Wolff stated that he does not have the correct fire number. Also, mentioned was that some people are listed under the wrong town. There followed much discussion. RJ will send a request to Mike Judy to request the the 911 numbers of those living on Riverside Dr. in Mikana.
The next item are the financial reports from Gladys, Treasurer and Maryhelen, Clerk. Bothe are balanced with all the bank accounts as well as each other. Also, Ken spoke about the budget and explained that the Town needed to borrow $50000 for a short-term loan as we have no cash reserve at this time. A special meeting was held on July 16,2017 with Ken, Tony and Gladys as Kory and Maryhelen were absent. This will be paid off after the tax settlement in Aug. Tony made a motion to accept the minutes of that special meeting. Ken seconded and all approved. Tony than made the motion to accept resolution 7-10-2017 to borrow $50000. Kory seconded. 3 ayes and 0 nays. Interest will be 1.63% for three months.
Next on the agenda, Mike spoke about the roadwork for the past month. There have been so many storms, that cleanup has had priority. They have had a total of 217 trees this season. The first round of mowing has been completed. Kirkwall has had heavy traffic and is still having frost boils. Tony has taken on the Xcel Energy calls to help with storms.
The next job to begin will be crack sealing to be done by Barron County. This should begin on the 18th. There will be 11.42 miles to be crack sealed with 2.45 miles to be chip sealed, also by the county. The cost will be approximately $80000. At this point, blacktop costs $120,000 per mile. They will be doing cold mix for wedging.
Mike than discussed all the action on Loew’s Drive with the beavers. Bill Robarge, who purchased RJ’s property feels that most of the problem appears to be on his property rather than Loew’s. There followed much discussion on this situation.
RJ than gave his report for the month. One of the most recent issues due to July 44th are the fireworks which people are shooting. At this point, the town has no resolution or permit process in place. Should there be permits issued and what would be the penalty for shooting fireworks without a permit? The Board will pursue this further.
As the meeting for the Birchwood Four Corners Emer. Services will not be until later this week, there is no report.
The next item is to discuss the website which Tony is working on for the Town. As he is researching this, he is finding that all e-mails received and sent by Board members are subject to the public records law. He will be creating 7 e-mail accounts with backups for all. The annual fee is $600 with an $80 fee for the host. There will be a labor fee to set this up with DCS Netlink of approximately $360. Once setup, we will discontinue the current website. Tony made a motion to spend up to $1000 to setup web page and e-mail addresses for the Town website. Kory seconded and all approved. Ken mentioned that other companies would charge as much as $3000 to complete what Tony and DCS are completing.
Deb Truitt asked what would be on the website. Tony answered that community events, minutes, agendas, ordinances, resolutions, parade info, property tax info. Also, anything else people feel would be beneficial to the community. The old contract with DCS runs out on August 1st, so hope to have this going by then.
Kory has no update on Town Hall stairs except to say work will begin in September.
Next, Tony spoke about the uniform Dwelling Code Inspector which we currently have, will be retiring Aug. 1. We had received two resumes for this position last month. Both have been reviewed. As John, from Luck had not given any references, he was unable to contact anyone regarding his work. Also, he lives in Luck which is quite a distance away when he would be needed. Several of the references for Scott Scheiflebein were contacted and gave favorable references. Scott lives on Big Chetac and would be close for everyone within our township. Tony made a motion to hire Scott Scheiflebein prior to August 1, contingent on the contract agreement. We may not have an inspector for 2-3 weeks until the contract would be finalized at the August meeting. Homeowners would pay the fee directly to the building inspector. Homeowner pays the land use permit to the County Zoning office.
Next on the agenda was the discussion regarding Aramark and Extensive Lawn contracts. Kory explained that when going over payments these two stood out as unfair. He will look at contracts as well as costs for Aramark, as well as the lawn mowing contact to save money. This will be tabled until August.
Ken than spoke about the Town of Cedar Lake Law Enforcement. He described the future plan and rules for this plan. There will be a public hearing on Sat., April 19, 2017, opening at 8 AM, beginning at 9AM at the Town Hall. The purpose of this hearing is for everyone and anyone to talk and state their thoughts regarding the Police. Each person attending will receive a number to speak if they wish. These will be handed out at the door as people come into the meeting. This meeting is for the Town Board to listen to everyone, no decision will happen at this time. Ron Richlick asked about voters versus landowners, saying he wished there was a way for all to vote. This is governed by State law, only those who are registered voters in our town will be able to vote if this goes to a vote. Brent Smith asked who makes the decision after the results are in. Ken stated that the Town Board by ordinance makes that decision. Doug Fischer asked if it would go to a referendum? Ken stated that is an option. Kory stated that this is no different than the ATV/UTV issue was. As the discussion continued, it was decided to move the meeting to the shop on Aug. 19th due to the expected volume of attendance. Ken stressed that this is not about performance, the issue is about safety, cost, and procedure.
Ken will start the meeting off with Sheriff Fitzgerald speaking, as well, as leaving room for questions. After some discussion, it was determined that RJ will also speak after Sheriff Fitzgerald with questions also. Then it will be opened to the floor for those to speak by number received. No decisions will be reached at this meeting.
Next on the agenda, was Sandee Walton, 2808 East Lakeshore Dr. requesting the Town to give approval for golf carts to be used on the roads to get to the golf course. There is a new state statute passed in 2015-16 which gives the Towns the authority to allow this. Kory mentioned that the golf carts where not approved with the ATV/UTV ordinance. Ken mentioned this would be limited to area open to golf carts access to the golf course. Sandra requests the Board to consider 1 mile within the golf course for the carts to have access. Ken feels good about pursuing this. Board is not sure how they can help, but Kory will contact WTA regarding this.
The Board than discussed the mail received during the month. We will take propane bids for next month.
Tony made the motion to pay the bills and adjourn. This was seconded by Kory and approved by all. (9:35 PM)
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