TOWN OF
MINUTES OF THE
REGULAR BOARD MEETING
Chairman
Collyard called the Regular Town Board Meeting to order at
Roll call
vote was taken: all Board members were present.
Motion( Webb/Porter)
to approve the January Agenda. Motion
carried. The agenda is as follows:
NOTICE
TOWN OF
REGULAR BOARD MEETING
AGENDA
Call the Regular Board Meeting to
order at
Pledge Allegiance to the Flag
Roll Call to establish a
quorum/Verification of Public Notice/Motion to approve the January Agenda
Approve minutes of the Last Regular
Board Meeting and Motion to dispense with reading of the minutes.
Treasurer’s Report
Report
on Discussion with State Bank of Drummond
Refund
of Taxes for David Hoberg
Voucher’s Approval
Clerk Correspondence
Change
of
Judge John P Anderson, updates on
Court House and other issues
Citizen’s Request for Action:
Discussion
with the new Janitor about the bid specs
Department Head Reports:
Highway
Request
by
Discussion
on Transfer Site Compactor
Cemetery
Fire
and Ambulance Department
Approval
of application by Irene Wells to the Ambulance Department
Request
by
Approval
of new Fire Protection Agreement between the USDA and Barnes Fire
Department
Constable
Committee and Commission Reports:
Land Use Planning Commission
Zoning:
1)
Zoning: Special Use permit request by
Teresa Rauwolf to allow a 1979 mobile home to be used for storage until it is
sold at
2)
Zoning: Variance request by Pat &
Kara Foat to exceed the 50% expansion rule for a non-conforming commercial
building addition.
Discussion on a Brush Reduction
Program by Marty Kasinksas of the
Public Comment Session – 5 minute
limit for those not on the Agenda
Issues Timeline Update
All Department Heads are encouraged
to be at the Regular Board Meetings
All Department Heads and Committee
Heads are to submit a written report to the clerk
by Friday evening prior to the Board
Meeting.
The Town Board reserves
the right to solicit information from
Department heads and
Committee heads only, without opening the floor to discussion.
Any persons requiring
special needs for handicap services please contact the Clerk-Treasurer
Elaine J. Brustad Barnes Town Clerk-Treasurer
Dated this 14th
day of January, 2009
Collyard
asked for a motion to approve the minutes of the Last Regular Board Meeting and
a motion to dispense with reading of the minutes.
Motion( Porter/Webb)
to approve the minutes of the last regular town board meeting and to dispense
with the reading of those minutes.
Motion carried.
Treasurer’s Report
|
Checking
Balance from last meeting |
|
$51,439.42 |
|||
|
Receipts |
|
|
|
|
$30,836.51 |
|
Check #'s
23335-23437 |
|
|
($48,929.99) |
||
|
December
Direct tax payments ck #s 317-319 |
|
($4,352.42) |
|||
|
Service
Charge December |
|
|
($32.29) |
||
|
Interest
Earned December |
|
|
$14.48 |
||
|
|
CHECKING
BALANCE |
|
|
$28,975.71 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Money
Market Gen'l Fund Balance from Last Meeting |
$510,503.97 |
||||
|
Deposits
Taxes |
|
|
|
$481,661.70 |
|
|
Refund of
Overpayments Ck #'s 1088-1098 |
|
($1,079.99) |
|||
|
Transfer
from Parade fund |
|
|
$1,842.60 |
||
|
Interest
earned December |
YTD
Interest $23576.15 |
$985.75 |
|||
|
|
Sub-Total
Money Market Gen'l Funds |
$993,914.03 |
|||
|
Highway
Dept. Sinking Fund |
|
|
$1,072.92 |
||
|
BES
Sinking Fund |
|
|
|
$28,677.05 |
|
|
Park
Savings |
|
Dep
$175.10 |
$14,436.31 |
||
|
Ski Trail
Savings |
|
|
|
$1,144.21 |
|
|
Parade-Event-Calendar
Fund |
To MM Genl
Fund $1842.60 |
$0.00 |
|||
|
Town Hall
Maint & Repair Fund |
|
|
$19,298.20 |
||
|
ACT 102
Fund |
|
|
|
$3,957.39 |
|
|
Total
all Money Market Funds |
|
|
$1,062,500.11 |
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TOTAL |
|
$1,091,475.82 |
||
Motion( Meinke/McGee
) to approve the Treasurer’s report as read.
Brustad said the next month’s report will reflect the set up of the
three CD’s she opened at the
Report on Discussion with State Bank of Drummond
Brustad
reported her and Collyard met with Chris Iverson and Sam Frelichowski of the
State Bank of Drummond regarding their concern from us taking funds out of the
bank to open the account with the Hayward Credit Union. Ms Iverson stated both our accounts are
insured up to $250,000.00 because one is a demand deposit account and one is a
savings account. Additionally, the bank
has another $400,000.00 of coverage through a state program which would give us
up to $900,000.00 in coverage. She said
at any time if we’d like more they can collateralize our assets with no charge
to us to increase the coverage, if it would only be one or two months out of
the year. We would just have to call her
to discuss this. Collyard said they also
discussed the ability to direct deposit our payroll, and after tax time Elaine
will call them to get more information on how it is done.
Refund
of Taxes for David Hoberg
Brustad said
the parcel in question is a very small lot and the county mapping system has an
incorrect size for it. Because of that
the Assessor keeps re-assessing the lot at an incorrect amount. This has been going on for years. A new assessor will finally get it correct
then it will revert back to the erroneous amount the next year. Collyard said he would like to get together
with everyone and the board to finally get this resolved. We can’t keep paying his taxes for him.
Motion(Collyard/Meinke)
to approve the refund of taxes in the amount of $1,529.08 but to get a
Voucher’s Approval
Motion(Porter/McGee)
to approve the vouchers as presented.
Motion carried,
Clerk Correspondence
Brustad read
a letter from Jim Prickett, one of the Town’s Fire Inspector who responded to
why they did not notice the broken hot water vent pipe during their last
inspection of the hall:
“I was able
to follow up in regards to the Town Hall hot water heater stack venting
problem in the attic area.
First, in
regards to doing fire inspections in an attic or basement crawl space area:
As inspectors we typically would not enter an attic or basement area
crawl space with access being a scuttle hole. We would however
inspect there if we suspect a code violation or problem in
that area, or the property owner requests specifically it to be part of the
fire inspection.
If an
attic or basement area is accessed by stairs and/or a doorway and allows
the inspector to stand reasonably up right without crawling, we would then
automatically inspect that area.
I talked to
Ed and Mike from Arch Heating. They originally found the broken exhaust
stack pipe in the Town Hall attic. Mike said he feels the pipe had
been broken for a considerable amount of
time. He said at some point the stack had been moved in the past
and indicated it was run horizontally across the floor of the attic for some
distance. It was buried under a considerable amount
of insulation. The break was on the horizontal run. Mike
indicated the insulation near the break in the vent stack was very
warm.
I do not
feel the insulation would have combusted and started a fire in the Town Hall
attic with the hot water heater being fired by LP.A wood or coal fired
appliance and it could have been a different story.
The carbon
monoxide emitted from the break in the stack is a concern however. I
could only guess how far reaching, it's intensity and the
spread of it was without testing for it at the time.
Might be interesting to know, if anyone can remember, who the contractor was at the time the hot water heater vent stack was moved and who did the attic insulation?”
Brustad said
she had received 5 Notices to Cut on property owned by Plum Creek in Sections 7
and 51 of 43N, R9w, Sections 21 of 44N,
R9w, and Sections 23 and 26 of 46N, R9W, and one parcel owned by Shelli Vergin
in Section 11, T44n, R9W.
She also
reported on receiving a copy of the Town of
Change
of
The Town
Board meeting will be changed to February 10th at
Judge John P Anderson, updates on
Court House and other issues
Judge
Anderson said his real reason for being here was to let everyone know he was a
campaign stop but also to talk a bit about his achievements in the last four
years. The jail program he has promoted
has reduced caseload numbers by 3% in 2008.
The county is now able to rent out space to generate income. So the jail programs have been working. Jails are very expensive to build and to
run. He said if we can keep the caseloads
from increasing at too large a rate we can continue to keep the costs down for
the people of Bayfield. They are also
working on a joint venture with
Citizen’s Request for Action:
Discussion
with the new Janitor about the bid specs
Collyard
asked if the Janitor, Shelly Stick was present.
She was not so the agenda item was not discussed.
Department Head Reports:
Highway
Since the
last meeting we have been plowing and sanding roads almost continually. The
hockey rink is in excellent shape, and the ski trail has plenty of snow on it.
The compactor was down for a period of five
days over New Years. One of the hydraulic switching coils was bad. Also a key
switch had malfunctioned. The Waste Management technician and I had difficulty
in trouble shooting the problem because a wiring schematic was not available from
the manufacturer due to the age of the machine. Due to the volume of traffic at
the transfer site, and also the odds of the compactor always breaking down on a
holiday weekend, the Town should consider adding another newer compactor to our
transfer site. The actual repair was
about $2,400.00. Collyard said he was
waiting for some additional information from Waste Management on a lease
program. We could lease a newer one or
purchase a brand new one for $18,542.50.
Collyard suggested putting this on the timeline for future review.
Request
by
Diane
Aichele, the new
Motion(Webb/Porter)
to approve the use of the garage or ambulance bay area for a class. Motion carried.
Cemetery
Bud Pease
reported no activity since the last meeting.
Fire
and Ambulance Department
Since the
last Town board meeting the ambulance has had eight calls
1 –
We had to
replace three batteries in the ambulance as they were original issue and were
not holding a charge anymore.
New
Both new
The Fire
Department had:
1 – Stand-by
for
We had two
guys go down and conduct the pre-paint inspection. There were a few minor changes but nothing
major. Truck has gone to paint and will
be ready for delivery in about three weeks.
We will need
to get a card account established with Cenex in Brule for fuel for the new truck
as the truck takes the new Diesel Fuel and talking it over with Jerry we can
not justify changing any of our tanks over at this time for one truck but the
time will come when we will have to.
Approval
of application by Irene Wells to the Ambulance Department
Motion (Webb/McGee)
to approve the application by Irene Wells to the ambulance department. Motion carried.
Request
by
Tom stated
it was needed so he would be able to order some items over the internet, also
make reservations for classes and such without having to bother Elaine to use
hers.
Motion (Webb/Meinke)
to approve the request for a credit card by
all responded with a yes. Motion carried.
Approval
of new Fire Protection Agreement between the USDA and Barnes Fire Department
Renz stated
the agreement was changed mainly paying more if they needed Barnes’ help.
Motion ( Meinke/Porter)
to approve the new Fire Protection Agreement between the USDA and the Barnes
Fire Department. Motion carried.
Constable
2 alarms from sheriff, 2 ATV
complaints, ice fishermen crossing private property, 1 check welfare of senior resident., 1 deer
hit on hwy 27, 10 property checks on out of town residents,1 assist motorist hwy y, 3 animal complaints.
Committee and Commission Reports:
None
reported.
Land Use Planning Commission
Dave Pease
reported for the commission on their recommendations:
Rauwolf
application they recommended approval for one year only
For the Foat
application at the Cabin Store the Plan Commission recommended approval because
the building was there before County zoning went into effect.
Zoning:
3)
Zoning: Special Use permit request by
Teresa Rauwolf to allow a 1979 mobile home to be used for storage until it is
sold at
Motion (Webb/Meinke)
to approve the request by Teresa Rauwolf to keep the mobile home for storage
until it is sold for one year only. Motion carried.
4)
Zoning: Variance request by Pat &
Kara Foat to exceed the 50% expansion rule for a non-conforming commercial
building addition.
5)
Motion (McGee/Porter)
to approve the variance request by Pat and Kara Foat to exceed the 50%
expansion rule for a non-conforming commercial building addition because it is grandfathered
in.
Webb abstained. Motion carried.
Discussion on a Brush Reduction
Program by Marty Kasinksas of the
Marty
Kasinksas represents the Bureau of Forestry, working out of the Barnes Ranger Station. He is a contracted employee working off a Fire
wise grant project. He would like to get
together with the Fire Chief and anyone else at the Town to work on projects to
provide fuels reduction in densely populated areas. He would also be able to provide education to
residents on what they can do around their homes to reduce brush. There are grants available through the state
for fire prevention and he would be happy to assist in getting a grant for the
town. Brustad asked him to talk about
his idea for a brush reduction program at the Transfer Site. Kasinksas said he would be able to set up a
chipper at the Transfer site in conjunction with our Spring Clean-up program to
maybe have people bring in their brush also at that time. It will make houses much safer in the area by
reducing fuels around their houses.
Public Comment Session – 5 minute
limit for those not on the Agenda
Jon Harkness
updated the Board on the progress of the overlay amendment request.
Steven Neff
stated he was present at the Board meeting in order to advance himself in rank
with the Boy Scouts.
Issues Timeline Update
All work in
progress. Need to add the Transfer site
new compactor onto the timeline.
Motion(Webb/Porter)
to adjourn the
Respectfully
Submitted,
Elaine J.
Brustad,
Clerk-Treasurer
Dated this
5th day of February, 2009