Village Board

MINUTES OF THE ALBANY VILLAGE BOARD June 12, 2023 The regular meeting of the Albany Village Board was called to order at 6:31 p.m. in the Albany Village Hall be President Kim Blumer. Members present were: Blumer, Roald Henderson, Bert Hefty, Tonya Stephan, Michelle Monson and Fred Johnson. Also present: Lonnie Gill, Robert Ritter, Jim Graves, Scott Vosters, Olivia Otte and Melissa Everson. The Pledge of Allegiance was shared. Proof of posting was verified. AGENDA: Motion by Hefty, seconded by Johnson, to approve the agenda as posted. Carried. MINUTES: Motion by Monson, seconded by Stephan, to approve the minutes of the April 10, 2023 meeting as printed. Carried. PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE: Nothing. PUBLIC APPEARANCES: None. JIM GRAVES REQUEST TO BE HEARD: Graves took a moment to thank EMTS/EMS and the Chief for taking care of him almost two years ago. He asks for patience as he goes through some of his items; he is concerned about pavement painting on Mill Street, does not understand the need for it. He was told it was due to the post office and the mail boxes, does not feel the village should have to get things done for the post office. Also, Mill Street mail is delivered from 11:30 until 11:45, maybe one or two cars on the road at that time, so he does not feel there is an issue. He would like to see more thought put into it going forward. Another item, burn barrels – he would like to know how long we are going to allow burning in the village, which he did address about two years ago. He would like to see about moving forward with trying to remove the burning in the village. Nipple explained that the yellow paint was put in place due to the parking issues during tubing season, where the parking becomes an issue with blocking driveways and mailboxes; the painting was done around the village in the areas where most of the tubing parking is an issue. The burning has been addressed at two public hearing and there were more people in attendance that supported the burning rather than opposed. Stephan expressed interest in bringing burn barrels back for discussion in the future. LIBRARY UPDATE: Henderson introduced Everson as the new director for the library since January 1, 2023. Everson reported that the library has a small staff of 7 part-time employees and they are currently getting ready for their summer library program. Laurie Roth is the children’s program specialist and has tweaked it to be specific to Albany; her plan is to have guest speakers from the Albany Community to be a part of the summer program. They are also building their relationship with the Albany Schools. The biggest event they had was the art exhibit where they had over 100 pieces of children’s art work presented and close to 60 people to come in during grand opening and through the week of display. The Community room is open to any organization/group of people to use free of charge, just go to the library desk and get scheduled – would also welcome village board to hold a meeting in the space. The library is also providing movie night, Legos and once monthly adult book club. Also doing more outreach to get the word out for the events and programs. July is 2nd anniversary of solar panels, which has been outperforming itself and the electricity bills are down over 60%. Henderson mentioned that Roxanne Kolasch is the school district representative as the previous representative has left the school district. Village Board June 12, 2023 Page 2 GREEN COUNTY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION: Otte presented a potential grant that Albany would be eligible for, which is a T-Mobile Hometown Grant. The deadline for the grant is June 30th, which has a quarterly deadline, so if we miss the June deadline, we could meet the September deadline. It is a nationwide grant, so more competitive, but she feels we could be a good competitor for this grant. The grant is open ended and she would like the board input, she would be the one writing the grant; we need to have a plan in place, something more specific and then get numbers for the budget which she would help with. She would also need letters of support, such as from the Village, Library, Chamber, etc. Stephan was wondering how we help downtown businesses with their ownership, the thought is that the businesses would write an application to the Village, have to show they will use the money for that and that they would be able to match funds. Business owners would need to come forward with a plan, we would have to look at limiting the amount to each qualifier. Monson also brought up the need we have in our parks with the playground equipment. Motion by Monson, seconded by Hefty, to move forward with the grant to do the façade improvements downtown. Carried. More discussion regarding the façade versus parks. Otte would draft a letter of support to go along with the grant application. Vosters suggested the board come up with a list of priorities to be done so Otte can look for more grants to help with any projects. PARK COMMISSION MEMBER: Motion by Blumer, seconded Monson, to add John Koopmans as a citizen park commission member. Carried. COMMITTEE/COMMISSION MEMBER LIST: Motion by Blumer, seconded by Nipple, to move Monson to Police, Fire & License. Carried. Motion by Blumer, seconded by Johnson, to move Stephan to Emergency Management Director. Carried. Motion by Blumer, seconded by Monson, to move Stephan second in line and Henderson to third line of succession. Carried. Motion by Blumer, seconded by Monson, to move Police, Fire & License meeting to the fourth Tuesday of the month. Carried. COMMUNITY SHREDDING EVENT: Brewer reported that the answers to the previous questions were that the Facebook poll showed there was an interest from the community and most looking for Fall. The company only does Saturday scheduling and there is a three-month timeline to get on their schedule. The cost is $300/hr for a minimum of three hours. Henderson feels this is not a good spending of money, Nipple said the thought behind this was to help get rid of the burning. There was a suggestion of possibly buying an industrial shredder to use as self-serve. Motion by Nipple, seconded by Blumer, to table this item. 2023-24 LICENSE RENEWALS: Motion by Henderson, seconded by Nipple, to approve all the Class “A” Beer, Class “A” Liquor, Class “B” Beer, Class “B” Liquor, Class “C” Wine, Cigarette, Coin Machines, Amusement Devices, Gambling Devices and Annual Dance permit licenses as presented. Carried. 2023-24 OPERATOR’S LICNESE RENEWALS: Motion by Stephan, seconded by, Monson to approve operator license renewals as presented. Carried. Village Board June 12, 2023 Page 3 LONNIE GILL TRAINING – WRWA OUTDOOR EXPO 2023: Motion by Blumer, seconded by Hefty, to send Gill to WRWA Outdoor Expo training at a cost of $85. Carried. WAGES: Motion by Blumer, seconded by Stephan, to raise Missy Pryce, Chief Ritter, Vincent Blom, part- time officers and starting wage of full-time officer as written. Carried. OPERATOR’S LICENSES: Motion by Monson, seconded by Stephan, to approve operator’s licenses for Scott Wahler, Teresa Wahler and Alexis Dewey. Carried. WATER AND MAIN STREET CROSSWALK SIGNAGE: Nipple reported that there are private funds coming from anonymous donors to purchase the crosswalk signs. 2022 CMAR: Motion by Nipple, seconded by Hefty, to approve the 2022 CMAR. Carried. US ARMY CORE OF ENGINEER NOAA STATION REQUEST: Motion by Nipple, seconded Monson, to upgrade the NOAA station at no cost to the village. Carried. JULY MEETING DATE: Motion by Nipple, seconded by Johnson, to forego the Streets & Utility meeting in July. Carried. APPROVAL OF CERTIFIED SURVEY MAP: W1478 DECATUR/ALBANY RD: Motion by Hefty, seconded by Monson, to approve the certified survey map. Carried. FENCE PLANS: Motion by Blumer, seconded by Stephan, to approve fence plans for John Koopmans and Duane Nettum. Carried. CHICKEN PERMITS: Motion by Hefty, seconded by Monson, to approve chicken permit for Luvina Rice; and to approve chicken permits for Ryan Sperle and Dan Broughton contingent on obtaining/providing their livestock premise registration number. Carried. APPROVAL OF BILLS: Motion by Monson, seconded by Stephan, to approve the bills. Carried. ANNOUNCEMENTS: Nothing. ADJOURNMENT: Motion by Monson, seconded by Hefty, to adjourn. MICHELLE C. BREWER, Clerk Village of Albany 8:07 p.m.