City Council

​ Minutes ​ Town of Vermont Board Meeting ​ Closed Session: Discussion and possible action regarding Patrolman Employee Agreement ​ 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. ​ ​ Town of Vermont Board Meeting March 11, 2024 Vermont Town Hall 4017 County Rd JJ, Black Earth WI 53515 ​ 7:00 P.M. ​ To Join the meeting by phone: +1 347-896-0991 PIN: 481 262 925# ​ In attendance: Karen, Kirk, Alex, Nick, Doug 1. Call to order and certification of notice posting Karen called the meeting to order at 7:00. Katie certified the meeting had been posted according to statute on the website and the door of town hall and emailed to subscribers. 2. Approval of agenda Kirk made a motion to approve the agenda. Motion carried 5-0 3. Approval of February minutes Kirk made a motion to approve the minutes. Motion carried 5-0 4. Chairman's report and acknowledgments none 5. Citizens’ Input Jim Pulvermacher, chair of town of Springfield and representing Dane County Towns Association gave an update on some upcoming proposed legislative changes 6. Treasurer’s report Property tax payments were still coming in during early February. Payment in Lieu of Taxes came in from the state and was sent out. Kirk made a motion to approve the treasurer's report. Motion carried 5-0 7. Clerk’s report The largest expense of note this month was the check to Mount Horeb Fire for our portion of the building loan and reserve payment. Other bills were generally routine. The poll workers are scheduled for April and ready to go and we have a time set for the public test of voting equipment and plans in place for poll worker training. Thanks to all who continue to help us with this important work. There were no new home building permits issued this month. Kirk made a motion to approve the clerks' report. Motion carried 5-0 8. Payment of bills Doug made a motion to move the bills down the agenda to item 26. Motion carried 5-0. 9. Patrolman Report, Mt. Horeb Fire Department, Black Earth Fire District and District 1 EMS Reports Jack will start mowing about a week early since there hasn’t been snow. 10. Zoning, Homesite and Driveway application for Nathan McGree and Dana Christel The driveway is pretty similar to where Nathan had proposed putting a home a couple of years ago, just slightly farther back. The shared driveway agreement is on file. Doug made a motion to approve the driveway application with the engineered plan. Motion carried 5-0. The driveway is contained within the parcel owned by NA Properties and Nathan McGree and Dana Christel. Karen made a motion to approve the spot rezone of 1 acre from FP-35 to RR1. Motion carried 5-0 Karen made a secondary motion, in the event that the county does not allow the rezone to RR-1 the chair may approve an amended rezone to RR-2. The planning commision did say they are comfortable with zoning RR-2 if the county objects to RR-1. Motion carried 5-0. Karen made a motion to approve the homesite. Motion carried 5-0 11. Zoning, Homesite and Driveway application for Marc Robertson Made a motion to approve the spot rezone from FP-35 to FP-B for the mill so that they can put in a toilet. All PDRs stay with the original property. Motion carried 5-0. Nick made a motion to rezone from FP-35 to RR-2 for the new homesite. The parcel as drawn is roughly 4.39 acres, which would need to be RR-4. Nick amended his motion to state RR-4 instead of RR-2. Motion carried 5-0. Doug made a motion to approve the homesite. The homesite won’t include the septic location, which is allowed. Motion carried 5-0. The planning commision approved the driveway application. The entryway is wide enough to split into two driveways if needed and will split within 20 feet. There will be a survey that has not yet been done and Karen isn’t comfortable approving the current plan before the survey without a driveway agreement between the two parcels. This will be revisited next month. 12. Consideration and possible approval of proposed expense for patrolman clothing Per the financial policy unbudgeted items come to the board. Kirk moved to approve $200 for clothing. Motion carried 5-0. This will be added as a line item in next year's budget. 13. Consideration and possible approval of proposed expense for garage grates The proposed new grates would be galvanized to resist the salt brine. Nick made a motion to approve $1500 to be spent on galvanized grates in the garage. Motion carried 5-0 14. Discussion and possible action regarding property located at 4732 State Road 78 Given that there is no one living in the home, the next step would be to involve an attorney and there is nothing the town really has jurisdiction over in the situation. The town will not take any action. 15. Discussion and possible approval of the Dane County Bridge Inspection Contract Kirk made a motion to approve the Dane County Bridge inspection contract with the caveat that the clerk reach out to the county to see that Vermont Church Road is correctly listed. Motion carried 5-0. 16. Discussion and possible action regarding Mark Haukoos property located at County Road JJ  Mr Haukoos asserts that the area around his property is overdeveloped per the density study and as a result feels there are homes too close to his. The board states that the nature of building in a rural area is that other people may build on their property in ways that their neighbors would not chose. Mr. Haukoos feels the land use plan was unevenly applied. Doug reports that the county did say that the town does not have any remedy for this grievance. As the county is the zoning authority, they would be the only potential authority with redress. The town will take no action. 17. Decision regarding approach to statutorily required culvert inventory - internal or use Delmore consulting Kirk made a motion to approve the agreement between the Town of Vermont and Delmore Consulting for the completion of the culvert inventory. Motion carried 5-0. 18. Discussion and possible decision regarding small land expansion around Town Hall for Fuel tank and possible storage addition The town is interested in cleaning up the property line to deal with the encroachment issue with the neighboring property. Kirk has met with that neighbor, but the neighbor doesn’t seem interested in pursuing any sort of sale. Jack suggests just making an offer. Kirk will draft a letter and bring it to the board to review at the next meeting. 19. Consideration and possible action on postcard to property owners regarding tax impact specific to Town of Vermont with WH School District Operating Referendum Kirk made a motion to approve the sending of the postcard. Motion carried 5-0. Postcards will be mailed asap. 20. Discussion on Ordinance regarding ATV/UTV use on Town of Vermont roads Nick reviewed the data on the survey. There were 159 written comments to the open ended question. The top two negative response keywords were “safety” (38) and “noise” (19). The overall response rate was 24-30% of the town’s population. There are some indications that there were people who voted more than once, had no resident family members vote or voted both yes and no. There was also a data anomaly where 41 survey responses were blank. Given that the survey data is imperfect, the board must decide how they want to proceed. There are concerns about safety and liability as well as resident preferences. Kirk suggested that two ordinances be drafted, one allowing ATVs: one not allowing them. A binding referendum in November was also discussed. Kirk made a motion that he will draft an ordinance that will allow ATVs with a sunset and the board will vote on the ordinance at the next meeting. Motion carried 5-0. 21. Discussion and possible action re: replacement sign for Vermont Town Hall A new sign could be bolted to the existing posts. An aluminum sign would cost $800. Gary is willing to do the design. Nick made a motion to have Gary do the sign for $150 (amended to $200). Motion carried 5-0. 22. Discussion and possible action regarding Bohn Road Bridge and possible funding Doug asked some follow up questions about the bridge design being included or not included in the contract. The design that is included in the contract price is for a box culvert. The bridge does not seem to be in immediate need of replacement. Kirk made a motion to proceed and approve the bid from Ray Polkinghorn to do the construction in 2025. 23. Review of the Building Code Ordinance  The board has a delegation form assigning our building inspection duties to Tracy Johnson. Because the updated ordinance has to be included with that paperwork the board does not need to sign this tonight. 24. Ridgetop Protection Enforcement/Zoning Ordinance This might be a good topic at the annual meeting. 25. Planning for Annual Town Meeting Agenda - April 16th Ridgetop Protection Enforcement, possibly a taxes and levies explainer 26. Agenda items for April Doug made a motion to pay the bills. Motion carried 5-0 27. Adjournment Doug made a motion to adjourn. Motion carried 5-0 and meeting adjourned at 10:14 Posted: March 9, 2023 Katie Zelle, Clerk