City Council

Town of Vermont Board Meeting September 9, 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 Carlock , Doug Meier , Nick Balster , Alex McKenzie , Kirk Lynch 1. Call to Order and certification of notice posting Karen called the meeting to order at 7pm. Katie certified that the meeting had been posted according to statute on the door of town hall and the town website and emailed to subscribers. 2. Approval of agenda Nick moved to approve the agenda. Motion carried 5-0 3. Approval of August minutes Kirk moved to approve the August minutes. Motion carried 5-0 4. Citizens’ Input (public comment is limited to 5 mins per person) Mark Haukuos spoke about his issue regarding his land. 5. Treasurer’s report Heather presented the statement of financial position, as well as the final tax settlement and profit and loss report, so our cash balance looks pretty healthy right now. Cash balances right now are $487,265.96. Karen moved to approve the treasurer’s report. Motion carried 5-0 6. Clerk’s report The town wrote checks for several things related to replacement of a culvert and some ditch work. Additionally we paid our poll workers for the August election and all the costs associated with the town picnic. There were no permits for new construction this month. The August election was fully staffed and went smoothly and we anticipate having all the poll workers we need for November. Karen moved to approve the clerks' report. Motion carried 5-0 7. Payment of bills (postponed until after item 16) Doug moved that we pay the bills. Motion carried 5-0 8. Patrolman Report, Mt. Horeb Fire Department, Black Earth Fire District and District 1 EMS Reports District 1 is looking at numbers for combining with Arena but it would be at least a year before they would be willing to consolidate. The budget for District 1 should be comparable to last year. Black Earth is meeting Thursday and Kirk is going to attend for Doug. 9. Consideration and possible approval of Mount Horeb Fire Department budget Jenny Minter presented the budget request from Mount Horeb Fire and provided numbers on the call volume for 2023 for fire and EMS. Karen made a motion to approve the fire department budget. Motion carried 5-0. 10. Consideration and possible approval of property assessment contract Kirk made a motion to approve the Equity Appraisal assessment contract for 2025-2027. 11. Consideration and possible approval of NR-I zoning overlay for Ridgetop Protection, following steps outlined at Public Listening Session held on June 12, 2024 at Vermont Town hall Dane county will send a mailing to all potentially impacted property owners. The town and county held a meeting about the proposed plan and the planning commission has also approved the plan. The mailing will go out prior to the meeting on October 22. The plan is consistent with the current Vermont land use plan. Moved to approve the NR-I zoning overlay for the town of Vermont. This does only apply to new building in ridgetop areas and it only applies to residential buildings, not ag, and any existing buildings can be rebuilt as they were in case of fire. ( action report petition #12103) 12. Review and discussion regarding possible amendments to Chapter 1 Town Government ordinance The town attorney recommended that we remove the section in Chapter 1 that deals with the specific agenda items. We also did check that our planning commission appointment schedule was correct, and we do have it correctly in the ordinance for April. We will bring a draft to the October meeting. 13. Consideration and possible approval of letters to property owners regarding turn-arounds on Town Roads There are several concerns with turnarounds: snowplowing, school buses and safety. The town needs at least an easement with landowners and a survey can be expensive. The town attorney advised the board that it is acceptable and non-discriminatory to prioritize the roads most in need of better turnarounds. While a special assessment district could technically be created to manage the costs, the cost of doing this could outweigh the costs of the turnarounds themselves. The board supports sending out a notice to all affected road properties and then also starting on the four most high priority. Haugen, Thumper, Broderick and Kremerl. Karen, Nick and Jack will work on the process. 14. Consideration and possible approval of Bohn road bridge replacement designs Karen shared the documents from Ray Polkinghorn regarding the Bohn Road bridge build costs. The proposed costs for the aluminum box culvert bridge is $215,260. The  cost sharing from the county is $104,930. We will put this in the budget for the coming year 115k for the 2025. 15. Draft 2025 Town of Budget budget preparation 115k for the 2025 for the Bohn Road Bridge Moe Road overlay The potential property purchase has expanded to $23500 16. Town of Vermont 2024 Picnic debrief The picnic went really well. People really enjoyed doing the desserts potluck style. The food worked well, and attendance was about 100. 17. Agenda items for October Budget Budget amendments Land purchase Ordinance amendments Dead end roads Master planning map 18. Adjournment Kirk moved to adjourn. Motion passed 5-0. Meeting adjourned at 9:01