Rushford
Town Board Minutes
Wednesday,
December 7 2011
The
Town of Rushford Board meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm by Chairman
Thomas Egan followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Roll call was taken with Tom Egan, Jerry
Schoonover, Kathryn Lewis, and Peggy Hendricks present. Patrick Kafer was excused. Also present for all or part of the
meeting: 17 additional persons per
attendance record on file, although several others were present, but did not
sign in.
Statement of Public Notice: The Rushford Board
Meeting and notice of adoption of the No-Wake ordinance meeting was posted at
the Eureka and Waukau Post office, the town hall door and the town web page. Notices were mailed to Town Board members and
the Zoning Administrator. Public notice
of the budget hearing and the meeting of electors were posted and additionally published
in the Oshkosh Northwestern.
Sheriff’s Department
representative: Deputy McMillin
was present to hear concerns and answer questions. Tom Egan inquired about the break-in that
occurred on state hwy 116. Deputy McMillin gave tips on what to do if someone enters your
home or your property.
Guest speaker – Paul Reinhard from the Omro Post Office: Mr Reinhard was
present to answer any questions about the closure of Eureka and Waukau Post
office. It is tentatively planned to
close Waukau in the middle of January.
He advised Waukau residents to use Omro, WI instead of Waukau, WI for
there were quite a few problems when Eureka closed. Questions were asked; such as if notification
would be sent, zip codes, and duplicate street names with Rushford and
Omro. It was stated that the house
numbers will tell emergency crews where the property is located and all mail
from the County and the township, will be sent to Omro, WI and not to Waukau or
Eureka, WI. This will make it uniform in
all the software programs. New
structures will be Omro, WI and they will not have a choice of using Waukau or
Eureka. Discussion of placement of the
towns posting board was discussed. The
Community Center seemed like the best place for Waukau and there will be discussion
in the future for Eureka posting board.
Clerks Report & Minutes: Motion
by Schoonover, 2nd by Egan to approve the minutes as presented for
the November 2, 2011 town board meeting. Motion carried.
Treasurers Report was given by Kathryn
Lewis. The balance at the end of November
in the general account is $220,379.62. The Town tax account has $105.86. Motion by Schoonover, 2nd
by Egan to accept the treasurer’s report.
Motion carried.
Payment of invoices: Peggy Hendricks approved and submitted to the
board the bills for November in the amount of $28,851.88 for approval of
payment. Motion
by Schoonover, 2nd by Egan to pay December’s bills as submitted. Motion carried. There will be a special meeting of
the board before the end of the year to clear out the end of the year invoices
which we receive.
Public Input: Wendy Laverenz,
3094 Quarry Drive, Eureka stated that her property has Franklin Street in the
description and the road was changed to Quarry Drive.
Ellen
Newman asked the clerk if she any information was received from Dennis Wilke on the Conditional use permit for Arlo Pit. Nothing was received at this time. Mr Egan stated that he has been working on
the lights.
Her
concerns were the bonding for the roads, the setbacks, the berm, the name on
the reclamation plan, if the reclamation plan is valid with the wrong
owner/operator on, and why no planting has been done. She would like to see the bonding for the
town, she would like to know how close the pit is to the road and wants a berm
and trees planted. Tom Egan stated that
nothing has been done yet, for he was to bring in the name change first. He cannot do anything if this is not
done. The Conditional use permit was
renewed with the understanding these articles had to be bought into the clerk’s
office.
Wendy
Laverenz asked for a street light on the corner of
Quarry & Division. There is a very
sharp corner there and it is very dark. There
was one there years ago, but the neighbors wanted it taken out. It will be put on the agenda for next
month.
Jan
Clausen asked if the brush that was cut would be coming out of the ditches
before the snow came. Tom Egan said that
was the plan. The chipper was broke, but
is being repaired.
Russ
Lee asked if he could burn the wood which was left on his property. Mr Egan stated he could.
Sean
Edinger asked if anyone knew who had an orange duck skiff,
please contact him, for some things have been stolen up by the campgrounds.
Communications &
Correspondence:
·
Tom
Egan read an email received from a resident about snow being piled next to
their mailbox. Mr Egan had called Radtkes and they had not plowed snow, so it must have been
the neighbor. In the winter newsletter,
there is a section that explains about pushing snow out in the roadway.
·
Tom
Egan read the email from Andy Shie concerning Waukau
Assessors Plat
·
Tom
Egan read the the letter from Winnebago County Office
of Corporation Counsel on the foreclosure tax lien sale for parcel number
022-0702-02 on January 4, 2012.
·
Tom
Egan read the notice of complete application for proposed riprap and dredging
from the DNR for Jon Friedrich.
·
Tom
Egan read a letter from Lee & Associates, Engineering, Surveying and
Environmental Services concerning residual contamination beneath Archery Drive
– Mr Frederick Van Handels
property in Waukau.
·
Tom
Egan thanked Ellen Newman for the article on the Town hall which was in the
Omro Herald. He also thanked the Pompluns for decorating outside.
·
Peggy
Hendricks pointed out the Wisconsin Books which Representative Spanbauer bought for each member of the board.
·
Peggy
Hendricks read an email from Dominion Voting asking us if we wanted to get rid
of our old OS. The board felt we should
keep it since we are not over crowded.
Discussion of Town Hall
maintenance/needs: The outlet outside
does not work for the trees. It will be
looked at and if need be, an electrician will be called. Peggy Hendricks read an email from the
Historical Society asking us if we would be interested in donating our old plat
books. The board wants to keep them at
the hall. Mr Egan stated when the hall
was built; it was built for room to keep all the old record books.
Discussion on Town
Maintenance:
Tom Egan went though the contract from Radtkes for snowplowing.
Jerry asked when the contract expires, if that is when we would go for
bids. This was a rate sheet for the
2011-2012 year. Tom stated that was so. Motion by Schoonover, 2nd
by Egan to sign the rate sheet for 2011-2012 snow removal from Radtkes.
Motion carried.
Ellen
Newman presented a short speech on Pearl Harbor day and the importance of
remembering these special occasions.
Brushing: Tom Egan stated that the project crew from the
correction department is almost done.
They are working with smaller crews and will be chipping and cutting
wood they missed.
Roads: Freunds has been out patching holes. If anyone sees a pot hole, they should call a
supervisor or the chairman. There will
be a lot of road work done next year as soon as weather permits.
New Business: Peggy Hendricks stated that she had a power
point presentation for the budget hearing and the meeting of electors, but the
projector would not work. It was working
tonight, so she showed the budget presentation.
Motion by Schoonover, 2nd by Egan to approve and
adopt the 2012 budget. Motion
carried.
Jerry
Schoonover asked when the town hall had to be paid off. Kathryn Lewis stated it was by
September. Jerry Schoonover asked if it
could maybe be paid off this year with the road money that was not used and use the money for the town hall for roads. This will be discussed at the Special meeting
at the end of December.
Peggy
Hendricks explained that she had a list from the Republican party of election
inspector nominations for the town. She
has to go through this list before contacting other qualified inspectors.
Motion by Schoonover, 2nd by Egan to appoint
election officers for 01/01/2012 to 12/31/2013 as presented by the list from
the clerk. Motion carried.
The
Town of Rushford will received $668.00 for per capita funding program
allocation.
Motion by Schoonover, 2nd by Egan to allocate our
funds to the City of Omro for the promotion of local business and industrial development
efforts. Motion carried.
Fred
Kasten explained that the Town has to decide if they want to opt in or opt out
of County Zoning. There will be 4
regional meetings to review proposed zoning maps. We now have Town zoning. We will have to rewrite our ordinances to
have them easy read and to be more specific.
If we went with County zoning, we would still maintain a zoning committee,
but the costs would be higher. Jerry
Schoonover stated he likes Town zoning.
He feels people like to come to the Town instead of the County for
changes. Tom Egan stated that they will
have all the rules and regulations and we would not have the personal contact
we have now. Motion
by Egan, 2nd by Schoonover to stay with Town Zoning. Patsy Pomplun stated she wished the
Town would be more consistent. Maybe
with the rewrite, it would be more consistent.
Fred Kasten also mentioned that complaints should be written, not just
mentioned to members of the committee or the board. Motion carried.
Old Business: Proposals for update/rewrite of Towns
Ordinances: Fred Kasten reported he has
4 bids ranging from $7000 - $21,000. We
are waiting to hear from a member of our zoning committee who is qualified to
undertake this project.
County Zoning Committee
Report – Fred Kasten
Fred
mentioned that the county is having 4 meetings on this and even if we have
opted out of County zoning, it still would be beneficial to attend.
Reports on Meetings that
have been attended:
County Report by Tom
Egan:
·
The
Budget was passed by the board.
·
There
is a new tower going up for frequency for the radios.
·
The
bridge in Eureka will start in June
·
There
is a new highway commissioner.
·
There
are new board members from retirements and passing away, and elections of
county board members will be this spring.
·
Parkview
is coming down.
Upcoming meetings and workshops:
Building Permit Report: Tom Egan reported there were 3 building
permits for the month of October.
Justin
Berans (Freund) 3240
Delhi Road, Omro 573-2306
Foundation
for home by Shotzke Concrete
$50,000 parcel 022
255901 November
19, 2011
Tom
Yost, 3512 Island Ave, Omro, WI 54963 460-1066
Insulation/wiring
improvement by self
$4,000 parcel # 022
0480 November
14, 2011
Peter
Steger, 2871 Cty Rd E, Berlin, WI 685-5325
60x80
stick shed with concrete floor by Sheik Construction
$25,000 parcel 022 0704 November 19,
2011
Fred
Kasten reported on Enterprise School.
The closing will be done before the end of the year. The concern is that it was surveyed in
1961. It was just re-surveyed. It is only off about a ft from the last
survey. There is about 30’ on the south
side that has been farmed by a neighbor. He would like the school to quick deed it to
him. Fred is against this, for a lot of
these parcels have done this without a description and it is no-mans land. A new CSM should be done and he does not feel the school should
pay for this. There will be additional
costs. The school property will have to
be rezoned, but that will be done at a later date. It does not have to be done for closing on
the property.
Mrs Fisher stated that the new speed limit signs
are up. Jan Clausen mentioned that she
thinks the speed limit signs on Eureka Lock Road are not right. There is not a 25 mph up by Craig’s and then
it should go to 45 mph. Tom Egan will
call the highway department. He will
also inquire on the “Senn” road sign that has been missing.
Motion by Schoonover, 2nd by Egan to adjourn at 9:25. Motion carried.
Respectfully
submitted by Peggy Hendricks, Clerk