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February 2, 2012 Meeting Minutes
Mercer Town Board of Supervisors – February 2nd 2012 – Minutes
Chairman Jim Kichak called the meeting of the Mercer Town Board of Supervisors to order on Thursday the 2nd of February 2012 at 6:30 pm in the Haines Civic Building.
Roll Call: Jim Kichak, Jim Lambert, Jeff Stenberg, Bonnie Banaszak, Charles Schroepfer, Christan Brandt, and Opal Roberts. Absent: Atty Schellgell
Motion made by Banaszak, seconded by Schroepfer, to approve the minutes from the January 19th board meeting with the corrections under New Business a) delete “considering” and replace with “reviewing”; delete “purchase of the Mercer Senior Center by the”; and after Iron County Aging Unit add “finances”. Under Banaszak report add “along Highway 51.” at end of first sentence; and change “needs” to “requested” in third sentence, and to approve the January 24th 2012 Board Meeting. Carried.
Open comment: Deanna Pierpont said she did not understand why the library made changes to the contribution schedule. She stated that Gary Theisen has worked hard for the town. He had $50,000 in donations that would be coming to the town and now this jeopardizes the CDBG grant he wrote. He had been working with these people for three years to get a large amount of money. She asked the board to look into this matter. Kichak agreed with Pierpont and said he does not know where this came from. Lambert asked for clarification on this. The Clerk explained that the fundraising brochure stated that donations of $25,000 and over may be considered for naming rights. Pierpont said the Building Committee thinks differently. She said the Building Committee has been working diligently for the library board and the town since this whole thing started, and to have this man have to write a letter saying he has to resign because the Library Board didn’t let him know what was going on. Lambert asked how many people were on the building committee. Marge Pemble, Library Board President, said it started out with about 25 and now we are lucky if we have seven or eight that attend a meeting. She also stated that Theisen was notified after the library board made the decision on naming rights amounts. He had sent her an email about getting together for a talk and she told him to set a time when it was convenient for him but she heard nothing further from him until his letter of resignation. Stenberg asked if the $25,000 was turned down. The Clerk said that at the time this decision was made by the library board the board did not know the amount of the donation under consideration. The board only knew about the possibility of the one donation, not the second. Pemble had talked to the one donor and they had decided to donate $5,000 for this year and asked if accumulated donations over several years would meet the naming criteria and she said “yes”. Banaszak said she was working on the second $25,000 donation and when she told them about the $40,000 naming requirement they backed out. Lambert said a separate meeting with the Library Board, the Building Committee and the Town Board needs to be set up. This will be done when Gary Theisen is available to attend.
Patrick Daley, who lives at 1918W County Road J, had a complaint about snowmobiles not yielding to people walking on Beaver Road. Daley said they ignore the speed limit signs and the Stop signs by his driveway. Kichak said he will contact the Sheriff’s office and see if they can send down the recreation officer to check on this problem.
Bill Brundage stated that the same problem occurs on Lakeshore Drive near the Park.
Brundage had a comment on the Loon Day parking scenario. For years the Loon Day parking has been used by the non-profit organizations as a fund raiser. Recently the revenue was cut due to every property owner within a half mile radius of downtown Mercer deciding to rent their property out for parking. The non-profits probably have an exempting permit that allows them to do business within the city. In order to make it a level play field he would like the board to consider; a) requiring a Conditional use permit to charge for parking; and b) and to have a business license. He also thanked the board for their contribution to the Snowmobile Club.
New Business: a) Discuss/Approve Employee Handbook.
This handbook was drafted at the meeting held on January 24th.
Motion made by Stenberg, seconded by Schroepfer, to adopt the Employee Handbook as presented. Carried.
b) Discuss/Approve amendments to the Road Crew job description.
The proposed changes were listed in the minutes of the January 24th meeting.
Motion made by Banaszak, seconded by Lambert, to approve the amendments to the Road Crew job description. Carried.
c) Discuss/Approve budget amendments for wages.
Motion made by Lambert, seconded by Stenberg, to approve the amendments to the 2012 budget to move $11,175.00 from Garage Operations to Garage Wages; to move $1,925.00 from Clerk Office Expenses to Clerk Salary; to move $675.00 from Treasurer Expense to Treasurer Salary; and to move $358.00 from Grant Secretary Expense to Grant Secretary Wages. Carried.
Old Business: none
Legal
Officer Reports: Clerk’s Report - Roberts presented the receipts list, and vouchers.
Motion made by Lambert, seconded by Schroepfer, to approve the vouchers and issue the checks. Carried.
Communications: The Mercer Health and Wellness Program is sponsoring a Heart Healthy Brunch on February 18th from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. at the Community Center. Letter from Independent Cleanup Service about providing cleanup services to the town. They will accept electronics, appliances, scrap metal and batteries. The board would like further information from the company. The Board of Commissioners of Public Lands is now posting an interest rate of 2.75%.
Treasurer’s Report – Brandt presented the Treasurer’s report. Balance forward was $136,443.09. Receipts were $1,121,125.61, disbursements were $141,349.30, with an ending General Fund balance of $116,219.40. Total of all funds is $3,605,959.77.
Motion made by Stenberg, seconded by Banaszak, to approve the Treasurer’s report. Carried.
Board Reports: Chair/Garage reports – the push blade on the grader is falling apart and he obtained a quote for $3,900 for a 12’ blade, with a rubber blade on the bottom, in Wausau. It would have to be picked up. The board agreed to the purchase of the blade. The crew are scraping roads and pushing back snow banks. The crew has been working in town on the standing water problems. Moose Lake was graded. The salt shed has been inspected by the state.
Supervisors: Stenberg – none
Lambert – he called out the crew on Saturday to sand slippery roads. The Health & Wellness Program has 63 people enrolled in this exercise session.
Banaszak – she discussed the library parking lights with Blake Theisen and he wanted to know if the town wanted the bases for $990.00 each. He can also get a quote for the conduit and wiring. Schreopfer asked about the type of controls for the lights. Board agreed on the purchase of the bases and for Banaszak to get a quote on the wiring. Banaszak informed the board that Chris Niehaus (DNR) got an informal approval of a $120,000 grant for the Trude Lake bridge and Xcel Energy has agreed to contribute $30,000. The board had previously agreed to help fund the project. The town will probably have to contribute $100,000. Kichak has already asked the County Highway Department and there are no available funds to help with the town’s share. Kichak said he has a lead for funding in Ashland and will try to contact them on Monday. Kichak had also talked to John Nelson (Co Hwy Dept) about the glitch with the Bike path grant and Nelson talked to the state and got the required wording in the grant submitted.
Dianne Keefe reported she issued a check to Musson Brothers out of the Sanitary District line item. The other check was strictly for a paper trail from the EPA account. There is a new CDBG representative. The semi-annual CDBG report has been submitted. Tom Krizenesky, WI-DOT Project Manager, has been replaced.
Schroepfer – the Lions Club would like to have the snow cleaned up in the park for their event on February 18th. The snowmobile club has asked if the road crew can leave a bit more snow on Cedar Lake Circle when they plow.
Public Comment: none
For Consideration and Approval: Liquor/Bartender:
Motion made by Stenberg, seconded by Banaszak, to approve an Operator’s License for Judith Houle. Carried.
Motion made by Stenberg, seconded by Schroepfer to approve a Class “B” license (to sell beer for consumption on and off premises) for Arrowhead Resort, James Lambert agent. Lambert abstained. Carried.
Cemetery: none.
Vouchers:
Payroll: #00003 Assoc. Bank $2,471.04; #02013 WI-DOR $1,328.91; #29559 J Hammond $1,192.62; #29560 C Hertel $1,062.91; #29561 K Brunell $1,202.15; #29562 J Hahn $1,023.12; #29563 G Reynolds $118.90; #29564 M Dierbeck $719.66; #29565 J Huffmaster $192.19; #29566 S Huffmaster $70.93; #29567 G Lawrence $635.51; #29568 D Keefe $199.86; #29569 O Roberts $1,689.27; #29570 C Brandt $622.92; #29571 J Kichak $248.92; #29572 B Banaszak $326.88; #29573 C Schroepfer $217.96; #29574 A Kussard $486.30; #29575 J Hufffmaster $497.06; #29476 T Schmidt $1,762.99
Town: #00121 WI-DOR $10.00; #00601 WI Retirement $3,016.18; #29554 Delta Dental $85.10; #29558 WPS Health Ins $6,019.06; #29587 F Schellgell $537.00; #29591 J Hammond $309.58; #29593 Marshfield Clinic $72.03; #29599 P Carlson $1,500.00; #29604 Williams Electric $218.00; #29605 Xcel Energy $32.97
Office: #29580 CenturyLink $306.00; #29590 Iron Co Register of Deeds $30.00; #29595 McConn $226.62; #29596 Mercer Chamber $1,250.00; #29597 Mercer Girl Scouts $50.00
Garage: #29577 Aramark $60.34; #29578 AT&T Mobility $68.46; #29579 Central WI Body $74.85; #29580 CenturyLink $127.58; #29582 Chief Oil $2,634.26; #29585 Fabco Equip $80.50; #29586 Fastenal $19.79; #29589 Hilgy’s LP $1,692.90; #29598 Monroe Truck $179.16; #29601 Power Plan $1,755.02; #29602 Truck Country $21.40; #29603 Veolia $60.53;
Fire Dept: #29555 Lincoln Benefit $1,500.00; #29557 VFIS $725.00; #29580 CenturyLink 61.06; #29588 H Joustra $506.45; #29603 Veolia $68.68
Other: #29556 Mid-State Truck $85,769.50; #01202 Assoc. Bank $6,208.51; #29581 C Skinner $696.00; #29583 C Hallyburton $20.00; $29584 D Gibbs $27.50; #29592 L Schlueter $43.83; #29594 M Vaughn $29594; #29600 P Smith $239.00
The next regular meeting of the Mercer Town Board of Supervisors will be held on Thursday the 16th of February 2012 at 6:30 pm in the Haines Civic Building.
Motion made by Lambert, seconded by Banaszak, to go into Closed Session per WI Stats. 19.85 (1)(c) to discuss employee issues at 7:11 pm. All yes.
The clerk was asked to leave the Closed Session.
Motion made by Lambert, seconded by Schroepfer, to return to open session at 7:57 pm. All yes.
Action on Closed Session: the Clerk is to set up a meeting between the board and employee Carl Hertel for Wednesday February 18th at 9:00 am. No other action taken on closed Session.
Motion made by Lambert, seconded by Stenberg, to adjourn the meeting at 8:01pm. Carried.
Archive:
May 15, 2012 Public Hearing Minutes
May 11, 2012 Meeting Minutes
May 3, 2012 Meeting Minutes
April 19, 2012 Meeting Minutes
April 9, 2012 2012 Annual Town Meeting minutes
April 5, 2012 Meeting Minutes
March 20, 2012 Meeting Minutes
March 1, 2012 Meeting Minutes
February 16, 2012 Meeting Minutes
February 2, 2012 Meeting Minutes