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.