VILLAGE OF LONE ROCK
LONE ROCK, WISCONSIN
OFFICE OF CLERK
Minutes of The Lone Rock Village Board Meeting
Tuesday, March 13, 2018, at 7:00 P.M.,
Village Office Conference Room, 314 E Forest St, Lone Rock, WI.
Trustees: Harry Pulvermacher, Marvin Joles III, Tom Whalen, Jr. Marshall, Corey Ewers, Richard Brander. Board President Dan Quinn
Call to Order – The meeting was called to order by Village President Dan Quinn at 7:00 PM., with a quorum present.
Roll Call – Roll call was taken with all board members present. Also in attendance were Marian Copus, Esther Marshall, Dan Wilson, Adam Reno, Ryan Price, Chris Conner, Christa Quinn, Tootie Pulvermacher, Mary Ann Evans, AJ Christianson, Dan McGuire, Samantha Mueller, Don Brander, Stacy Pilla, Pat Alt, James & Andrea Sullivan, and Karen Kampen. Theresa arrived later.
Motion by Jr Marshall, second by Corey Ewers to approve the Agenda.
Motion by Corey Ewers, second by Richard Brander to approve the minutes as reviewed. All yes, motion carried.
Bart Nies – Delta 3 Engineering – Determine Any Conflict of Interest – A letter from the Village’s Attorney for the Water Main Project was distributed for the Board’s review. Bart explained that because we were awarded CDBG money, we have to go through a process regarding conflict of interest. Corey Ewers is a grandson of Bob Ewers, who submitted a bid for the project. Bart provided a copy to each board member of the Conflict of Interest Statement from contractor Bob Ewers, which states that he has a grandson, Corey Ewers, on our Board. We also have to have a legal opinion from our Attorney for the project, Eileen Brownlee, submit a letter stating the situations where conflict of interest could be at issue. It doesn’t mean there is a conflict of interest, it means the potential exists. The attorney states the legality involved. In essence, what the attorney is saying is that there is no conflict of interest, in her opinion, because no local or state laws have been broken. Corey doesn’t own any part in the company, and he is not gaining any financial interest from the bids, if awarded to his relative. So now, the Board needs to discuss and decide if they feel there is a conflict of interest, and how you want to proceed. If there is, we have to record that, and the clerk has to send in the meeting minutes, regardless of what the board decides, and then the Clerk needs to post the minutes everyplace she posts the agendas. If the board feels there is no conflict of interest, at the very minimum, Corey will need to recuse himself from the portions of the meetings where contractual deals with a potential contractor he is related to, and needs to abstain from voting on that discussion. Bart asks that he even leave the room during that portion of the meeting, and be brought back into the meeting once that discussion and vote is complete. Jr. Marshall made a motion that there is no conflict of interest if the bid is awarded to the lowest bidder. Second by Tom Whalen, all board members voted yes, with the exception of Corey Ewers, who abstained. No noes, motion carried. The next portion of the meeting involves awarding the bid. Corey Ewers recused himself from the meeting, and left the room. The clerk asked when Corey will be asked to rejoin the meeting. If the bid is awarded to his relative, anytime there is a financial decision to be made involving the contractor on the project, he will need to recuse. Any other discussion on the contract, Corey may be included.
Award Construction Bid – The Construction Bid for the Water Main Project Bart distributed a Recommendation of Award Letter to the board. It states that we received seven (7) bids for the Phase I Water Improvement project. All the bids were competitive. Bart distributed bid packets to the board members. Bart’s company reviews all of the bids received for completeness and accuracy in formulating their bid. There was one contractor that had made an error in their numbers, which had no difference on who the lowest bidder was. Bart put together a spreadsheet on criteria contractors used in formulating their bids. It breaks out every item each used in formulating their numbers. The contractor that is the lowest bidder is Bob Ewers Construction from Lone Rock. Based off the construction budget amount I gave you last year of about 1.37 million, his bid of about $977,000 is about 37% lower than the cost estimate Bart had estimated. This is a phenomenal number for the construction of this project. With this bid, the project cost will be about 1.18 million. We will still be able to max out our $500,000 in CDBG grant, and the $500,000 Safe Drinking Water Grant. We will look at approx. a $320k loan the Village will need to contribute instead of $500,000 for the project as a result of this construction bid. It may be even lower than that by the time the project is complete, because of contingency built into the project cost. In terms of the annual loan payment, this bid saves the village about $18,000 to $20,000 per year in annual loan costs. Great news, you have a great contractor, I’ve worked with him many times over the years. We need to award the bid contingent on the Local Road Improvement funds agreement from the DOT for E. Commercial St., which is another $22,000 for the street work on Commercial St. We cannot officially award the contract without the WI DOT Municipal Agreement for the LRIP Program.
Motion by Jr. Marshall to award the bid for the Water Main Improvement Project to Bob Ewers Contracting, contingent on receipt of the WI DOT Municipal Agreement for the LRIP Program. Harry Pulvermacher second, all yes, no noes, motion carried.
Richard Brander asked if the entire amount of the $300,000 loan has to come from the water rates. Bart said no, we entered into a General Obligation Bond, which means we can use any available funds as needed to satisfy the loan.
Corey Ewers returned to the meeting.
Fair Housing Proclamation – Bart said we need to post a Fair Housing Poster and our Fair Housing Proclamation along with our Fair Housing Ordinance (Ordinance #101 dated 2/13/1981) where we have our posters, take a picture of it, and send to Bart. What the Proclamation says is that the VLR is going to initiate, respect and obey the Fair Housing Laws of the State of WI and our Ordinance, and we will proclaim the week of April 2 through April 6 as Fair Housing Week in the Village. Motion by Richard Brander, second by Marvin Joles III to pass the Fair Housing Proclamation. All yes, no noes, motion carried.
Ordinance 2018-01 – Creation of Ethics Code – Attorney Eileen Brownlee wrote the ordinance for us. Harry Pulvermacher made a motion to adopt Ordinance 2018-01, Creation of Ethics Code, second by Richard Brander. All yes, no noes, motion carried. The Ordinance was posted in three places prior to this meeting, and is included and posted again with these minutes.
Bug Tussel Wireless – Samantha Mueller -- Nothing right now.
Larry Jelinek Business Interest –Larry is having a conflict with the railroad about whose rail cars to rent, very interested in putting his business in, but has to get the railroad issues worked out first.
Compost - Burn Site – Town of Spring Green – Adam said the dates are April 18 and April 21st will be clean-up days. It is located on Olson Road. Let Dan Wilson know. Noon to 6 on the 18th, 8:am to 10 am on 21st, A list will be posted of what can be brought in. No electrical items, no tires, no lightbulbs. Furniture is ok. The electrical, tires, lightbulbs, etc. have to be taken to Town & Country Sanitation to dispose.
Are we going to do a drive-through? We wouldn’t do that until after the cleanup, so people have a chance to get it done. Put on agenda next month.
Liquor Licensing – Operator’s Permit for Betty J. Sykora, Manager at Dollar General – Motion by Jr. Marshall to approve the Operator’s Permit for Betty J. Sykora. Corey Ewers second, all yes, no noes, motion carried.
Building Permits – None to report.
Reminder – Spring Election Tuesday, April 3, 2018, 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM at Village Office
Library – Tootie reported that the new hours are Mon/Wed/Fri 11 am to 5:30 PM, Tues 11 am to 7PM, and the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month will be 9am to 12PM. We had 602 patrons last month, 138 PC sign-ins, and issued three new library cards. Stacy is still doing story hours. Took homework off, as kids don’t want to do that after being in school all day. We have a new calendar out with everything that is going on at the Library. One is posted at the Village Office. We will have the Richland Center Hospital Safe Sitter course for 6th to 8th grade kids; Lone Rock author Gary Illinen will be at the Community Hall Sat 24th at 2, Jing will make jewelry with the kids again; every Thursday at 10:30 we have Pre-School for children ages 3-5. Smaller children may also come along with their parents. Aging and Disability to explain things for people. Karen has handouts for people to fill out for any information they would like to have.
Police – Ryan has been working with the Sheriff’s Dept so he can continue running plates through them. Needs to be aware of any change in the municipal court dept.
Parks – Adam Reno & Jr. Marshall – Parking Lot for War Memorial – Jr. said if we could have some money available to put in a parking lot for people to use as they visit the Memorial. Would like it to be on the north side of the Memorial. Discussion on how many parking stalls. Dan Q said to put some type of curbs to keep cars off the grass. It will not involve removing any trees or anything like that, just widening the curb there
Adam said they are getting ready for the splash pad construction. The piping will be laid next week. Would like to start construction right after that. A fundraiser is coming, you can purchase ducks at $5 each, will race to Long Lake from the park. Harry Pulvermacher made a motion to approve the parking lot for the Memorial, second by Tom Whalen. All yes, motion carried.
Streets – Not much to report. It is all tied in with the grant project.
Water and Sewer – Same for water and sewer.
School Use Committee Report – Dan McGuire & Don Brander – Last week toured the elementary school building and every site in Lone Rock with a developer that could be developed. Don said he thinks we need to have another meeting. Since the first day the school was closed, first thing that comes up is a day care center. Suggested the village have a committee to see if we need to have one, and who would use it. Dan Mc Guire asked Jr. Marshall for some maps. He will get some next week. Richard said she wanted both maps and status of our industrial sites, and price range. Some idea of what’s available. John Kaul’s property is not for sale, but possibly could be. Wants to also know what we have for housing. Karen would get a digitized packet of information to have on hand. Dan McGuire said Arena has kind of backed off on what they want to do. They have a serious heating, roofing and structure problems. Would take $400k to reno, $40k per year payment for 10 yrs. Not sure they want to do that. Ours is in much better shape. Dan McGuire has a key to the building. now, and plans to have youth sports in there now for awhile. There is some asbestos in there. They said they took up the asbestos floor tile a few years ago, and I don’t know how they got away with that. Richard agreed and the land development person said we have one of the better ones she has seen. In much better condition. Dan McGuire said the Building & Grounds Committee will meet next week on the 19th (Monday.) Don Brander said his committee is in a holding pattern now.
Lone Rock Youth Sports Report – Dan McGuire – Boys’ 3rd and 4th grade teams fully formed now, trying to get girls’ teams formed as well. Wants to get 7th & 8th grade teams too. Dan wants to build a really good program now.
Court Report – AJ said he is trying to stay fair and impartial where his insurance business is concerned. He is looking at continuing on as judge.
Public Input – Tootie thanked everyone who came to the Cabin Fever Dance. They raised over $26,000 and will be sending 44 veterans to visit the Memorial. Brander asked how we promote the Community Center – is it on our website. Esther said nothing specific, She has on there to contact Karen Kampen if they are interested in renting it. Kampen said she created a brochure for the town hall where she used to live, and is willing to do that here, too. A lady provided information on having an ad in the directory. Discussion on the ads decided it is too expensive, as we do not charge much for it now, and don’t want to have to raise the rental price. The rental for the entire building is $150. For just the basement, $50.
Discussion on the school outlook said the projected deficit for five years from now will be 2.5 million dollars. Dan wants to have a Town Hall Discussion on this. Everything has to be on the table. Apparently, closing Lone Rock did not save any money. Discussion followed that it is useless to try to reach out to them, because they ignore us and break their promises.
Upcoming Meetings – Next Board Meeting April 10, 2018
Review Bills – The bills were distributed for initialed approvals.
Meeting Adjourned at 8:15 P.M.
Respectfully submitted,
Karen J. Kampen, Clerk
PS - (Note: the WISDOT document arrived after the meeting, on March 21st.and was forwarded to Bart.)