Elmwood Village Board Meeting for June 2010

Policy Change for Auditorium Rental Agreement

Elmwood - During the Village Board Meeting on Monday night, the Board discussed the Auditorium rental agreement. A wedding party on May 1st, 2010 ended with the elevator locked up on the first floor. This is a safety feature the elevator has, and when the technician came to do the repair, it was (ONLY) assumed that kids may have been playing in the elevator, (pressing all the buttons), causing the lock up mode to be reacted. The cost for the technician to come to the auditorium and reset the computer was $600.00. The members of the board agreed that they needed to make a change to the agreement to ensure they would not have to pay for this again. Village President Bill Stewart stated “During or after the event, Whoever rents it and this happens, will be responsible to repair it. Other than normal wear and tear, someone who uses the elevator with abuse and damages occur, will need to pay for it.” It was then questioned by a citizen (Delorse Radtke) about the groups that are given the auditorium without any agreement being signed, such as the 4H group. The Board responded by stating that they usually keep the elevator locked, unless needed. Stewart then added that a line was being included in the agreement to state the liability of the renter for the elevator use. “We need to notify the Public” was stated. The change was unanimously voted in.

(Note-- This is the policy that the Deputy Village Clerk told Matt Marose about, just 4 days prior to his wedding date, causing him to take his wedding elsewhere after having an agreement already signed with the village, back in Feb. 2010. It was stated to Matt after the meeting by Village Clerk Wayne that the village was going to pay Marose his deposit back now. This after being told they would not refund his money due to he did not give them 31 days notice of the change, yet they did not give him any written notice to the change at all. we will have to wait and see how long they take to pay him back. it should have already been done in my mind)

UPDATE- I made contact with Matt this week, and he has received his deposit money back. He then stopped into the village office to pay his water bill, and Wayne acted very unprofessional with him, speaking in a snotty manner. While there Matt noticed that a copy of Pierce Co. Herald Sari Gordon's article was printed out and copies were available for citizens to take. This was a glorified article making the village out to be saints in making this policy against the renters. At the bottom of the page, was my added comments that I left on the website, making it a bit more clear on the steps the village took, costing Matt and Emily much anxiety and stress for their wedding just 4 days prior to it. The village was forcing a policy that had not gone through the legal steps to be valid. THANK YOU Village Clerk for providing my views to the citizens, hopefully you are not charging for the copies, being that is another policy of the village . Charge for any copy given out. I do believe it is 25 cents per page.


The 2009 CMA Report and the 2010 Resolution was reviewed. Jamie Reitz of the Public Works spoke to the Board, stating proof that the board was reviewing the information was needed, and that is why this was on the agenda. There are numerous questions that need to be answered, such as the number of basement backups that have occurred, and the number of complaints received are just a couple that are asked. After a short discussion the board approved the information provided.

The Village Clerk, Amy Wayne told the board of the Identity Theft Program that is being put in place to protect all of the Village Records from any electronic theft. “This is now required” she added. Also the Financial Statement from there Audit was reviewed by all the members. “This was a summary of the CPA is what I gather,” stated Wayne.

A handful of Operators Licenses were reviewed and approved, as well as the Liquor Licenses for Tiffany’s, Sandbar, Cenex, and the Longbranch for the next year. “Everything pretty much looks like normal” explained Wayne.

Renae Stohr requested a Conditional Use Permit at 147 W. Winter Ave. to start a home based business out of their basement for Message Therapy. It was stated that the Plan Commission had met on May 22nd, and they approved the re-zoning needed. (again Delorse Radtke questioned if they had gone through the plan commission first and clerk Wayne explained that they had, and everything was published) The board voted unanimously to approve, with Member Rick Stohr abstaining.

(I did not hear him say anything, but Stewart stated that he abstained)

Another lengthy discussion ensued over the Drainage Improvements needed to the intersection of Hwy 72 and Main Street. There has been a problem with water standing at the intersection for years. Public Works asked Steven’s Engineering to review the problem and give the board a cost estimate to put a valley from the North to the South side of the street. A bid of $10, 295.00 was received. Half of this cost would be the business owners responsibility as well. Rheil’s Funeral Home and Highland Hollow would be given letters of assessment prior to any work starting. Member Bob Weix added that there is a spot between the Library and Paul Peterson’s building that has sunk after a repair. This now is ponding as well. This repair could be done at the same time, and would be a Village cost of just a couple hundred dollars. The Board discussed the fact that only 1 bid had been received, and the cost to the village would be approx. $5900.00. There is $15K available in the Sidewalk Fund to cover the work. (Bob Weix added that he was told by a lady in town, that she had fallen due to the problem.)

During Public Input, the final cost for the Eau Claire Press Co. lawsuit regarding the release of information on Jodi Pulk’s Suspension was requested. The attorney fee’s for the Leader Telegram were $3,042.09 with another $100.00 paid in Statutory Damages. The payment of this was approved last month during the board meeting. (the amount was not published in the paper, nor was it reported by Sari Gordon of the Pierce County Herald)

( I was given a slip after the meeting by Clerk Wayne, claiming $ 3,242.09 as the cost-- 100.00 over what I was told by the editor of the leader telegram. I do not understand why the 2 would have a different total. This does not reflect the cost of village attorney Robert Loberg's fees either. This cost is directly the cause of the lies by village trustee's and president in trying to state the clerk resigned, instead of she was being terminated through a suspension. If they would have simply told the truth to begin with, the village residents would not be paying for their lying..tax increase coming to pay for this action again...Just like the Meyers case that cost the village at least 20K, Stewart even stated to a citizen it probably cost them the entire budgeted money they had--that was 70K. all this for nonsense actions by Robert Rupakus and Bill Stewart)

Finishing up the meeting was the Committee and Board reports. Patricia Knops gave information on the Nursing Home, stating they had a Presentation on June 8th by the River Valley Architects over doing an Analysis and Concept Design for doing “In Room Therapy”. She also added the Nursing Home had removed most of its money from Elmwood’s Citizen State Bank, and placed it with Bremmer Bank and the Wisconsin Credit Union. Bob Weix gave a report from the Library Committee. They will be holding a Underwater Expo at the Village Auditorium this Wed. at 1pm. “You can come and pet a shark” he added. There have been 2 new computers set up, new shelving and 4 new outlets have been put in place. A $500.00 donation was received in memory of Donna Weinzirl. He then asked about a bike rack that was outside the auditorium building that has disappeared. Jane from the Library would like to use it for the kids to park their bikes in back, instead of having them on the sidewalk out front of the library. The Summer Reading program starting next week is planned too.

Submitted by Citizen Journalist Rick A. Talford
(journalist for the Spring Valley Sun/Elmwood Argus)

note-- this article has my personal opinions included. The article submitted to the newspaper does not..It was also brought to my attention that several calls had been made to the Sun/Argus questioning my position with the paper. I only told one person about by affiliation with the sun/argus and that was in private. The Village clerk apparently told everyone she could after we spoke to have this happen. The word spreads fast when you tell a clerk I guess!! WHY???? is my only question....is their a bit of anxiety by the village board now..I am only reporting what I hear....My position is not a paid one. I have absolutely no benefits from doing it....I read an article in the paper in early may, regarding the new website for the sun/argus. In that article it told of a citizen journalist program that was being offered to anyone with interest. I had such interest and sent a letter of interest to the paper.........so that is all that is needed to be known, I will cover different functions in and around Elmwood, and send in articles to be looked at for publication.

UPDATE 7-2-10
I picked up this weeks Argus to find the minutes from the clerk posted. Well......she is not very accurate I tell ya..maybe the recorder needs to come back to the meetings, so the accuracy does...I am not the professional here, but she has enough wrong just with her statements on what I asked and stated....1st of all she claims My son Kenneth was attending the meeting......He was not with me at any time during the meeting.........2nd..She stated that when I requested the information on the lawsuit, she told me she would get it after the meeting............WRONG....Bill Stewart told her to go into the office and get the information for me, and I spoke up, telling them they could waite until after the meeting , so it would not hold the meeting up......3rd.. She states that I requested more clarification on the auditorium policy.....WRONG AGAIN....I asked Bill twice to give me a direct answer on whether this policy was going to be used against all functions in the auditorium...he half answered yes,..... then went right back to the wedding story... so I asked him again to get a clear answer if they were going to hold the policy against all the functions held or not...again he said yes. .........This is not the way the article is written by the clerk now though......seems the wedding parties are the only ones going to get this policy against them.....I do record the meetings myself, so I have the proof of what I write...WORD FOR WORD......I also noticed she claims that Bob Weix stated the repair spot by the library would be the libraries responsibility....that was not the case...they said the bad spot was between the library and paul petersons building, and it could be reapired by the village for just a couple hundred dollars....

Elmwood Board President Does it Again!!!

A wedding was to be at the Elmwood Auditorium on Saturday June the 12th, 2010. This was Emily Felling and Matt Marose day to be wed in the Auditorium. Today Matt went to the Village Office to pay for the rental that they signed an agreement on Feb. 9, 2010, and upon speaking to the Deputy Clerk of the Village, he was told that Bill Stewart the Village President made a new policy that anyone using the Auditorium must agree that they are 100% responsible for any break downs of the elevator used to get upstairs to the auditorium by anyone who is handicapped or has other needs for the elevator use. (This could lead to a bill in the thousands easily, over an unwritten policy) He questioned why this is just now being stated, being he signed an agreement and paid a deposit long ago, and the clerk stated it was discussed at the May board meeting. (nothing was in the Pierce County Herald report about it, nor was anything written by the Village Clerk in the legal minutes of the meeting posted in the Elmwood Argus) Matt requested his money back that he paid the clerk, stating he was going to have to make different arrangements for their wedding in just 4 days. She gave him everything except his deposit back, stating they would not refund that because he did not provide 31 days notice. He was never told about the policy until today, just 4 days before the wedding.(food for thought---What if Matt would have waited until Friday to stop in and pay the rest of the rental fees, he would have been stuck accepting their unwritten rules---maybe that is exactly what they expected to happen.) No one with common sense would take such a liability, especially when they had no knowledge of it prior.( this was suppose to have been done in May, yet nothing was done to contact anyone that had deposits down already to inform them of this change a month later) Matt then went back later in the day, and requested a copy in writing on this policy Stewart created, and the clerk said "There is nothing in writing, it was something they discussed" Matt asked how they could have a policy without it being in writing, that would not be considered legal. Just a bit more information, Matt spoke with Bill Stewart on a back road in Elmwood, questioning some of the poor actions the village board had been taking (just a couple weeks ago, and now this happens just days prior to their wedding.) This has caused the bride and groom much stress and anxiety and the Village is responsible 100% for failing to provide the contracted agreement between them and Marose. I will hope that Matt takes the appropriate actions against the board for his losses and stress they have created wrongfully. (This may very well lead to another legal fiasco caused by the Village Board once again) I will help in every manner that I can. Who knows, this may even end up in the local newspapers as the past stories have. Other citizens have verified this information to be true by calling the village office and getting told the same nonsense. Actions like this need to be stopped, especially when it looks like a simple target action against someone that was questioning the boards actions. One good thing out of this, is the local Methodist Church in Elmwood has agreed to have the wedding done there with such a short notice..Thank God and Pastor Charles Demaris



UPDATE- 6-13-10

The wedding for Matt and Emily went on without a problem Saturday at the United Methodist Church in Elmwood...Even though the Village President did his best to wreck a bride and grooms day, it was a perfect success. Leaving the wedding and heading home, I swung by the village auditorium to check out the notice for Mondays meeting of the board and noticed that they have now placed it legally on the agenda for Junes meeting to speak about the changes to the rental policy for the auditorium....so in fact they where wrongfully taking this action against Matt for his wedding....Nothing had been done legally, so they should not have caused any problems for his rental agreement that he signed in Feb. This just proves the action was taken prematurely by the Village President and the Deputy Clerk that informed Matt of the unwritten policy..Matt will definitely have the rights to sue the village for breaking the agreement they had, and get every penny it cost him to change their wedding plans......Get ready Mr. Stewart....you caused yet another legal action to be coming to the Village of Elmwood , and I am sure you will let the citizens pay for your actions just as all the other cases have....The citizens of the community should not be held responsible for your dumb actions, yet I am sure you will claim you DID NOTHING WRONG, Right?


UPDATE 6-18-10

Well, the Board meeting went on, and the Board unanimously created a policy against what seem to be a policy against the Wedding Parties at the Auditorium.Listening to Board President Bill Stewart, it seemed like they really did not have any factual information that the problem with the elevator was definitely caused by kids at a May 1st wedding, but the elevator did stop working during that event. It went to the lower level of the building and went into a lock down mode. The President stated that when the technician came, he claimed that kids must have been playing in the elevator and were pushing all the buttons, causing the issue to occur. The repair cost the village $600.00 stated Stewart. The members of the board immed. decided that they needed to create a policy to keep from paying for repairs again. I asked the Village President if this policy was going to be held against all functions, and he half answered yes, but then went into a story against the wedding parties again, and kids playing in the elevator. I tried to ask the question again to get a definite answer to whether the policy was going to be used with all functions in the auditorium, and he responded yes. Delorse Radtke then asked about the groups that get the auditorium for free, without signing any agreements, that have many kids in the groups. It was stated then that they keep the elevator locked for most of those events. Bob Weix then stated, well we need it for the library on Wed. for the underwater expo that is coming up their. So there is really no way that they are going to hold everyone using the elevator responsible under this policy, it really looks like the wedding parties are the ones getting targeted by the change in the agreement. This is not suppose to be a cost for normal wear and tear, but yet they only have a technicians beliefs to what may have caused the problem the first time. I see problems coming with this agreement change, and possibly less people renting the auditorium, if they actually read the policy through and see this change, making them responsible for break downs of a Government building elevator. After the meeting ended, Matt asked the Village Clerk what the Board decided to do as far as his deposit, and the Clerk responded that they were going to pay him back. He stated he was glad, that would keep them from going through the court hassle, and the clerk snapped "What did you say" and Matt simply said it again. She apparently did not hear him correctly, but it is seeable that she cracks pretty quickly and becomes verbal as well.