Another
Elmwood Police Chief Resigns
Submitted by Rick A. Talford
Citizen Journalist
ELMWOOD, WI - The Monthly meeting was held Monday
evening at the Village Auditorium. After changing the board meetings to the
first Monday of each month instead of the second Monday, to keep Trustee Brian
Buck in attendance of the meetings, he was absent. Trustee Josh Bleskacek was
also absent, as he was at the school for the parent-teacher conferences. The
first item to deal with on the agenda was the resignation of the Elmwood Police
Officer Sam Petrasko. In a letter of resignation, Petrasko informed the Board
he would be done as of September 25, 2014. This happened about the same time as
he was to have his one year job review by the Police Committee. The Police
Committee also met and made some changes to the Personnel Policy since this
resignation. Trustee and Chair of the Committee Delorse Radtke spoke to the
members present with the changes made. (Rick Stohr, Brian Buck and Neil Boltic
are the Committee members) Effective going ahead, the policy will enforce a 24
month probationary period, instead of a six months. There will be a shortened
amount of time between the want ad publication, and the deadline to get
applications put in for job placement. Radtke will be in charge of all
scheduling of the officers hired. New employees will be given six holidays, but
will not be able to use them until they have been employed for six months of
continuous employment. This also includes sick time. The Village will no longer
allow for personal or floating holidays. Village President Bill Stewart
commented that this is the way other communities are handling the probation
periods, and Trustee Radtke stated “We have been very generous”.
Note: After making several calls to other community
clerks, I found that they all remain at six month periods, and places like Plum
City and the City of River Falls have done away with probationary periods all
together.
The next area on the agenda went into the Sewer
Treatment Facility. Resolution 2014-04 Authorizing the Issuance and Sale of
$2,820,000 Mortgage Revenue Bond was approved by the board unanimously. Village
Clerk told the members, they had a change in the money they were borrowing, and
this reflected those changes. A second Resolution 2014-06 Establishing
Post-Issuance Debt Compliance Policy was also discussed again, as the Attorneys
did not like the wording the Village used in the first round of this policy.
This was approved again with the change made. A quick update was given by Public
Works Employee Jamie Reitz on the process of the plant. He provided some
information in regards to the wet well was in stage one, as the construction
has been going forward now, after some delays early. It is estimated that they
will backfill the area by October 14. He reported that they poured 121 yards of
concrete on Thursday.
A Draw Request for $235,138.30 by Staab Construction
was then looked over and approved for payment. It was near $60K in rebar costs,
and another $54K in concrete in this billing. After a few questions by members,
Clerk Wayne told them that Jamie Reitz had looked over the bills and cleared
them. Another Draw request by Foth for $27,192.50 was then discussed and
approved. Again this month, it was stated that two forms were submitted with
only one being signed off. A breakdown of the many items on the bills, were
then discussed and the statements were looked over by Reitz, before the motion
was made.
In Committee and Board Reports, Reitz gave
information on the McCarthy Well, stating the cost was paid over two months at
the price of $22K each month. He told the members that the pump runs well, but
is not on-line yet. He added that he still needs to take additional samples
from it. Trustee Radtke spoke of a meeting held by the Personnel and Finance
Committee. The Budget numbers are starting to be looked at, but will not be
able to be gone through until later in the month or next month. She added they
have not received any numbers from the Library yet. No other Committee meetings
were held over the past month.
Payment of the bills was approved and the meeting
adjourned at 7:18 pm.
Elmwood
Board Approves 2015 Budget
Submitted by Rick A. Talford
Citizen Journalist
ELMWOOD, WI- The monthly meeting for the village
board was held on Monday, November 3, 2014. Prior to the regular board meeting,
a public budget hearing was held at 6:30 pm for citizens to come in and ask
questions. There was no attendance for this hearing by the community. Absent
from the meetings, was Trustee Josh Bleskacek. No information on the budget was
shared during the meeting. I asked the Committee Head (Delorse Radtke) if they would provide any idea of where funds
were being spent, and I was given a copy of the budget report, without any
verbal explanations. Reviewing the budget numbers from 2014 to the 2015
provided, I seen considerable increases in the following areas. Medical
Insurance, Dental Insurance, Street and Elevator Expenses, Outlay for the
Auditorium and Bowling Alley, as well as maintenance for the Bowling Alley and
Utilities for Butternut Park. The amount for Celebration Decorations went from
$7.88 to 1,500 for next year. I also noticed both the Village Board and Village
President wages are being increased for 2015. All in all, it is close to
$100,000 increase for the proposed budget over the actual costs this year. To
get a better understanding of where the funds are being used, you can get a
copy of the 2015 Budget from the Elmwood Village Office.
Approval for an increase in water rates was
completed, for the maximum allowed three percent. Trustee Brian Buck stated,
“We are still not in the green.”
Draw Request #7 for Staab Construction in the amount
of $294K, Foth Engineering in the amount of #18K and RuderWare Law in the
amount of $5K were all approved with little discussion. While reviewing the
documents for these bills, it was stated “Some documents were not received in
time for the meeting, and some had not been signed off by the engineer.” A
Chapter 30 permit was also dismissed by the DNR, with a savings of about $300
for the Village. “The ball was dropped again,” added the Village Clerk.
Next on the agenda, the American Legion has asked
for a Picnic and Operator’s License for November 15-16 for a Spaghetti Dinner
that is planned. This was approved unanimously.
An Approval was then completed for a Resolution
2014-07-Addendum B for Mutual Aid Box Alarm System Agreement. This is an
agreement for a tri-county style alert system that Elmwood will be part of,
where if it is necessary for the Village to send Emergency Aid to a large event
style disaster outside of the community. It was stated that it would be for
Dunn Co., Pierce Co., St. Croix Co. and possibly Pepin Co. The idea of this
system is to notify the community of what equipment and how many members will
be needed to assist the event. These numbers will all be pre-determined at the
worst case scenarios.
In Committee and Board Reports, Trustee Delorse Radtke
provided information that the Personnel and Finance Committee had met, and the
current budget was brought to the board for approval. Trustee Mike Sand told of
the water rate increase, that the Public Works Committee had met and brought
for approval. No other reports were available for the month.
Bills were then approved and the board meeting
adjourned at 7:20 pm.
Correction: Last month’s report, I had written that
the Village made two payments of $22K for a well repair, when it was a total
payment of $22K over two months.
Elmwood
Village Board Hires New Officer
Submitted by Rick A. Talford
Citizen Journalist
ELMWOOD, WI- Monday evening was the regular monthly
board meeting at the village auditorium. Trustee Neil Boltic was absent this
month’s meeting. Public Works Employee Jamie Reitz was also in attendance.
The Elmwood Library had a position available on the
Board of Directors, and Pat Ginsbach was appointed the seat for a two year term.
Two payments were next on the agenda for the
Wastewater Facility. Staab Construction requested an amount of $198,799.18, and
Foth Engineering also requested payment in the amount of $18,144.67. These both
were approved. A short discussion about the progress was then held, as Jamie
Reitz provided a little information. He had looked over the billing and felt
the progress was going in the right direction. He also spoke of how things slow
down in November due to the cold. A pipe was run to the river and a test was
done on the big tank.
An Operator’s License was then discussed for a local
business. Trustee Brian Buck spoke in regards to the applicant. “It is my
theory people must exhibit responsible behavior with alcohol and other things.
They must be truthful on their application, but that was not the case on this
one. This was not filled out right. We would need to be able to trust them with
controlled substances in our town.” A motion was made by Buck to deny the application.
Trustee Delorse Radtke abstained on this item, claiming she had a conflict of
interest. Trustee Mike Sand also abstained from the item. There became a wait
game to see who would second this motion, with everyone looking at the new guy
at the table, Trustee Josh Bleskacek. Trustee Rick Stohr sat silent also. After
a long pause, Trustee Bleskecek did provide the second on the motion to deny. A
roll call vote was then accomplished with Trustee’s Buck, Bleskecek and Stohr
saying Aye. Trustee’s Radtke and Sand abstained.
A change order for the Wastewater Facility was then
discussed by the Board with help from Jamie Reitz again. $21,735 was needed to
take care of costs of four items. Additional fence was required by DNR, a water
line was needed to be moved from original location, some rock-wash stone was
added to the wet well and removal of water from the well location all added
expenses that were not projected. It was added that Tim Stockman stated “The
additional costs were minor on this size of a project, compared to others he
has done.”
Next on the agenda was the hiring of a new Police Officer
for the Village. Spring Valley resident Michael Schaffer has been hired by the
Village after being interviewed this past month in a Police Committee meeting.
Schaffer was the only applicant the committee met with. He will start his
duties in Elmwood on December 8, 2014. He has been a Part-Time Officer in the
Village of Spring Valley since 2011.
In Committee and Board Reports, Trustee Bleskecek
spoke on behalf of the Library Committee. There was a Tenth Anniversary held on
November 12, after the move into the old drug store building. Approximately
fifty people attended the event. Circulation was up 261 over a year ago this
month. Mr. Klink, local 4th grade school teacher has had his class
using the library on a regular basis. This Wed., there will be a Christmas at
the Library Program for K-6 grade. The library will be closed Christmas Eve and
Christmas Day, as well they will close at 2PM on New Year’s Eve Day. There were
no other meetings to report this month.
The payment of the Bills was completed and the
meeting adjourned at 7:23 PM.
