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....