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October 11, 2006 MINUTES OF SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING
MINUTES OF SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING OF October 11, 2006 A special meeting of the Town Board was held in the town hall after due notice had been posted. Chair Pelletier called the meeting to order at 7:45 p.m. PRESENT: ALSO PRESENT: Chair John Pelletier Clerk Colleen Endisch Supervisor Larry Malsch Treasurer Shari Wisniewski : Supervisor Dolores Nowak Sergeant Eric Voss Supervisor Wayne Polzin Mechanic Tom Thiele Supervisor Bill Endisch 15 present There was a quorum present for doing business. Communications: Chair Pelletier reported he has received many letters, e-mails and telephone calls in support of dredging the ponds and no calls not to do. Many feel this should be done at any cost. Comments & Suggestion of citizens preset: Don Holst – 2504 N. Shore Drive – Mr. Holst stated he is urging the board to vote in favor of the dredging of the ponds. Mark Pienkos – Principal/Superintendent Fontana Jt. 8 School District – Mr. Pienkos introduced himself and said he is coming before the board tonight to ask for help. He is asking to invite a member of the board to participate as a board member on the finance committee for the Fontana School District. He said they meet four times a year and with the Town of Delavan having residences in the district the board feels representation from the town would be helpful. He said the school district is looking favorably at adding additional families to their district; they are in favor of development. Attorney Wassel asked if they perceive a change in boundaries and Mr. Pienkos responded no. Mr. Pienkos added these are very casual meeting, not high pressured with a lot of good dialogue. Mr. Pienkos left his materials with Chair Pelletier who will look over and be in contact with Mr. Pienkos. Mary Knipper 2320 Lake Shore Dr. – Ms. Knipper stated she wanted to thank the lake committee for getting to this point for the dredging of the ponds and for bringing the dialogue to the board at this special meeting. She is urging the board to vote favorably. Dan Lemanski 2511 N. Shore Dr. – Mr. Lemanski urged the board to vote favorably. Fran Schmidt – 2424 N. Shore Dr. - Mr. Schmidt stated he is in favor of this project and is glad to see it coming to a vote. Barb Sullivan – 2432 N. Shore Dr. – Ms. Sullivan remarked, please go ahead with the dredging. Old Business None New Business Discussion/possible action regarding acceptance of bids to dredge Mound Road Ponds and Brown’s Channel this fall. Chair Pelletier reported the Town received one bid for the Mound Rd and Brown’s Channel lake projects. He said he expected the bid to be high. The bid to complete Mound Rd (permitted by DNR) is $ 673,900. The bid to complete Brown’s channel (permit in process) is $ 259,130. It is estimated the amount for the additional engineering work is $ 21,000; with a total project cost of $ 954,030. Pelletier stated there are significant dollars already invested in this project and with the monies already allocated and borrowed to complete 3 projects: Mound Rd., Brown’s Channel and the Inlet, there is still a short fall of $ 139,168. This would also leave the board with the decision about what to do with the inlet project. Pelletier stated his guess that 1 million dollars would be the number to do the inlet. Chair Pelletier stated the Lake Committee voted on October 5, 2006 unanimously to recommend the board accept the current bids and move forward with these projects. Chair Pelletier reported there are three options to consider. Scrap all the projects, pay off the debt and let the State worry about the lake and its problems. Re-bid the project in hope that the project bids would come in lower; a lot of uncertainty with this option, the bids could come in higher. Accept the current bids and decide how to cover the shortfall of about $ 139,000. Pelletier stated this would do something positive for the lake. Attorney Wassel stated there is one thing that hasn’t been addressed regarding Mound Rd and Brown’s Channel; Liesch Environmental previously did an undertaking on assessing the possibility of special assessment for Brown’s Channel residents. Chair Pelletier added Brown’s Channel is different from Mound Rd.; there is no one who specially owns. Supervisor Polzin made a motion to approve going ahead with the dredging of the ponds of Mound Rd. for an amount not to exceed $ 700,000 with a second from Supervisor Malsch. Supervisor Malsch asked if all the permits were in place and Chair Pelletier respond they were.. A roll call vote was taken: Chair Pelletier – Yes; Supervisor Polzin – Yes; Supervisor Malsch – Yes; Supervisor Nowak – Yes; Supervisor Endisch – Yes. The motion carried unanimously. Chair Pelletier reported the Brown’s Channel project is still awaiting a DNR permit, which he expects to receive in October. Pelletier stated in a draft engineering report done by Liesch in August of 2004, the Brown’s Channel dredging was described as maintenance of a public way and not necessarily suitable for a special assessment. Pelletier added there is a definite private and public benefit doing this project for the 2nd tributary to the lake. He feels the riparian owners along Brown’s Channel will receive a very valuable and specific benefit from the dredging of this channel. Attorney Wassel stated there are a number of different options regarding the cost of the dredging of Brown’s Channel. He said he could prepare a preliminary resolution regarding the town’s intent to pursue a special assessment for this month board meeting; a public hearing could be scheduled which would allow the residents to come in and view the engineering reports and the decision regarding what part of the total cost of the project would be theirs. Liesch Environmental responded he thinks they should work with the Assessor on determining how the property value would increase based on the improvement to their parcel. Attorney Wassel stated he disagreed; we would be double charging these people; special assessing them and then increasing their property values. He added we are looking for what part is a private vs. public benefit – a certain percentile of total project cost by the number of owners should determine the price to assess. The board will then need to determine on what basis lineal foot or parcel. Supervisor Polzin stated he has been receiving comments from many taxpayer; most the ones who already have paid for a dredging; who feel the town shouldn’t be paying for the entire Brown’s Channel project, but that the riparian owners should be paying for part of it. They think it isn’t fair that others around the lake View Crest, Ravenswood, and the Highlands shouldn’t be picking up the cost for the Brown’s Channel residents. Polzin added that one of the biggest property owners on the lake is Lake Lawn, who do nothing for the lake but receive all the benefits. He feels the City of Delavan should be contributing. Polzin added there are rumors out there that the businesses in Elkhorn are dumping pollutants into Jackson Creek, which is filtering into Delavan Lake. Polzin said the Town didn’t spend 3.4 million dollar to cleanup the lake to have the cities of Elkhorn and Delavan polluting it. Chair Pelletier stated that Dan Kilkenney volunteered at the Lake Committee Meeting to take back to the Delavan City Council that the City of Delavan does owe the Town something, which could aid in paying for the $ 139,000 shortfall. Pelletier stated another funding option would be to approach Shodeen. Pelletier said he is looking for input from the board regarding this as he feels that accepting such support could subject the Town and the board to public criticism that it was selling out it’s control over and independence from the developer. Pelletier said he will do what the board wants. Supervisor Malsch stated he wouldn’t support asking for funds from Shodeen. All board members agreed that no monies should be asked of from Shodeen and that the shortfall should be paid for out of surplus, with the understanding that there would be a potential on recovering some from the City of Delavan and special assessment. Chair Pelletier made a motion to fund the Brown’s Channel project for an amount not to exceed $265,000 using surplus for any shortfall, with the understanding of trying to recoup some expense from the City of Delavan and a special assessment for riparian property owners. A roll call vote was taken; Chair Pelletier – Yes; Supervisor Polzin – Yes; Supervisor Nowak – Yes; Supervisor Malsch – Yes ; and Supervisor Endisch – Yes. The vote passed unanimously. Liesch Environment said the Village of Fontana has a landfill they are trying to cap and they might be interested in buying material from the town to use as fill. They are continuing looking for sources to deposit the spoils. Supervisor Malsch asked who the contractor was for the dredging project and Chair Pelletier responded Phenco out of Neenah, WI. Supervisor Nowak made a motion to accept the bids with Phenco, Neenah WI for $ 673,900 – Mound Rd and $ 259,130 – Brown’s Channel. Supervisor Polzin seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously. Chair Pelletier stated the Board will go into closed session downstairs. Motion to go into closed session under Sec. 19.85 (1) (g) to confer with legal counsel re: Mound Rd. Chair Pelletier made a motion to go into closed session with a second from Supervisor Malsch and motion carried unanimously. 1)Discussion/possible action regarding subject noticed. a)Agenda item – discussion/possible action for and engineering study for management of Delavan Lake for an amount not exceed $ 10,000. Motion to go out of executive closed session. Supervisor Polzin made a motion to go out of executive closed session with a second from Supervisor Malsch and the motion carried unanimously. ADJOURNMENT Chair Pelletier made a motion to adjourn the meeting with a second from Supervisor Nowak and the motion carried unanimously. Chair Pelletier adjourned the meeting at 7:45 p.m. ATTEST: APPROVED ______________________________ ______________________________ Colleen Endisch, Town Clerk John Pelletier, Town Chair