Committee of the Whole

MEETING MINUTES Village of Palmyra Committee of the Whole Meeting Monday May 20, 2024 6:00 pm Village Hall 100 W. Taft St. Palmyra, WI. The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. by Weiss. Roll call: Ball, Gorsegner, Kinjerski, Petruska, Smith, Troiola, Weiss – present. Also present: Mike Fischer, Several Lower Spring Lake property owners, Austin Watkinson-DNR, Colton Hutchinson Jefferson County Land & Water Conservation Dept. Pledge of Allegiance Communications: President Weiss mentioned that the Village received over $4,000 in insurance dividend from the League Insurance Company, May 25th Party in Park- 4 pm till dusk, then fireworks, May 27th Memorial Day Events, June 8th E-waste event, June 5th 1-7 pm Standard Process open house for their new distribution center open house. Committee Reports: Building Permits: April report in the board packets New Business: 1. Entire Committee of the Whole A. Troiola/Petruska motion to approve the following meeting minutes: May 6, 2024 Village Board, May 6, 2024 Recreation & Personnel Committee meeting and May 13, 2024 Public Works Committee meeting, with a correction to the May 6th Board meeting, item F changing $210 to $2100 for washer/dryer. All ayes-motion carried. B. Gorsegner/Troiola motion to approve the Plan Commission’s recommendation for on a land division request from St. Matthew Lutheran Church to split parcel 171-0516-2242- 088 at 313 W. Main St. into 2 parcels. All ayes-motion carried. C. Troiola/Petruska motion to approve the request from St. Matthew Lutheran Church to re-zone a portion of parcel 171-0516-2242-088, 313 W. Main Street from B1-1 Central Business to R1-5 Traditional Single Family Residential. The Plan Commission approved this on May 15th at their meeting. All ayes-motion carried. D. Discussion/possible action on a request for a drawdown of Lower Spring Lake. Handouts to the Board from the Lake District and Mike Fischer. President Weiss had asked Carol Dixon to find lakes with frequent drawdowns but never got anything back. Arthur Watkinson from the DNR, says a lot of lakes do it every winter but not on as large of a scale, can’t compare to other lakes because they may do it for different reasons. 30- 40% of the lake wasn’t sampled for Eurasian milfoil due to the east end of the lake being unnavigable. Arthur addresses the concern for fish going over the dam. He said that would take a pretty intensive study to figure this out. From water quality prospective a drawdown would be a positive, there is a couple of other negative concerns: algae bloom, this is obviously a local decision, DNR can’t support the drawdown either way because they would be liable, but it has clear benefits. Weiss said some folks offered her a boat ride so she could see specific places. Weiss said in just 2-3 weeks’ time there was considerably more weed growth, even though there has been no weed harvesting. We’ve spent a lot of money on the dam, Weiss would like to see if there could be a committee of different folks to get together and investigate this. She doesn’t want it to become a muck pond lets make sure it’s a viable thing going into the future. Deb Barterlario 323 Willow St. spoke. -10 yrs. here, she is the district’s treasurer, does budgeting, etc. she joined a committee to discuss how we could work together and exchange knowledge. She sent out emails to the Village Board, but didn’t really get a good response, she is disappointed. How does the board know how to vote on an issue if you don’t talk to the residents. She wants to educate them on what the lake owners do every year. $32,000 budget almost $6000 goes to chemicals and paying for weed harvesting. She feels there is some animosity, and she wants to work together. We could naturally treat 63 acres for free by doing the draw down or use chemicals on less than 6 acres that may/may not be effective. Let’s figure this out together. Dana Schultz 166 Geranium – Said that the Board asked them to supply them with information and they did so now she wants to hear from the Board before they vote. She spent a good amount of time answering the board’s questions and met with Mike Fischer from the Lions Club. Gave us good data and she is curious to know where the board’s thoughts are at, please respond back to them before they vote. Trustee Petruska asked Arthur about using Procella Core. Arthur said that he didn’t want to investigate it, he said he might change his mind. Dana thinks it is worth a try, the plan is to test one section of the lake to see how Procella Core works. Petruska- thought it would already have been tested, why not tested yet? Petruska also asked what about hydro raking? Carol Dixon 416 Zinnia- says Procella Core is 2-3 times the cost of what they are using now, it might last 2-3 yrs. It could be used on finger bay maybe. A drawdown will affect 63 acres. 2-4D was only seasonal and only lasted 1 yr. DNR said they can’t use that any longer. Due to a river running through the lake it is hard to keep the chemicals in the lake. Arthur says that desirable plants could be impacted by Procella Core. Eurasian milfoil will never be totally eradicated, it is part of the eco system. It’s more of a navigational nuisance. Hydro raking disrupts the sediment, there would need to be a dredging permit, it is expensive. Dana says she feels the board doesn’t take them seriously, what is the problem. Alissa Simmons-how does dredging compare to hydro dredging. It is at least double the price. Nigel Yarwood 337 Willow St.: he worked in the UK and said they had to use the dredge method. Arthur says you need a place to get rid of the dredgings. Mike Fischer 502 Northwest St.- all we are hearing is how to get rid of the weeds, there is no consideration for the eco system-frogs, turtles, clams, mussels die out during a drawdown. Fischer went on to read statistics of weeds before and after the 2019/2020 drawdown, most weeds went up, not all. Fischer went on to discuss the handout from the Jefferson County Fisheries info. sheet, it gives fish populations and sizes from 2003 to 2019. Fischer says people come to this lake to go fishing that’s why they come. Fischer says that the fish population has gone down, too many variables to draw downs. It doesn’t get cold enough. Why doesn’t the DNR let there be a full poisoning of the lake asks? To dredge it needs to be below zero for 2 weeks. We lowered the lake for 13 people to be able to dredge, Fischer feels. He gave examples of lakes that ARE chemically treating: Little Muskego-200 of their 470 acres, Lake Lorraine, Whitewater Lake. That is the answer not the draw down. Mike says the aquatic community can’t handle it. Lions Club started stocking fish. DNR has not stocked for many years, Arthur says due to cost. Fischer says that a fish has to stay in a lake for 7-8 yrs. to grow to size and if there is a drawdown every year it wrecks the fish. Darlene Molosky, 301 Willow St.- said that dredging would cost $4500 to do just their lot but with no drawdown it would be $25,000. She says it is a safety concern, there is too much muck that people can get stuck. So human life vs frog life. Arthur – addresses Mike Fischer’s comments about other lakes, and explains why for all of them. Arthurs says that only the lake can only go down 4 inches per day for a drawdown so turtles and frogs can hibernate to help reduce the death and this is all written into those permits. Chemicals are not 100% the answer due to water flow. Jim Dixon 416 Zinnia Ave-he talks to people fishing near the end of his pier and they say weeds are the biggest problem. They can’t cut under 3 ft. water depth and the edge of the lake is less than 3 ft, drawdown would be more efficient to weed harvesting. He looked at the values of homes on Blue Spring Lake compared to Lower Spring Lake, if we could boost taxes to pay for this but no one wants to hear that. Dixon said that this winter is supposed to be a La Nina winter so it should be colder this winter. Weiss asks if there is any data for 2023 Arthur says there was no staff to do 2023 statistics. Carol points out the data of the milfoil after the drawdown. Joe Molosky 301 Willow-they all care about the fishing and fish population; they have said they would make a donation to help stock the lake so that has always been in their conversations. Safety in this muck is that a person can get stuck in it. Molosky wants to hear from the board members they have presented the information they asked for. Kayaks can be used but in finger bay they can’t get their pontoon boats out. Scott Nieders 315 Willow- he’s lived here for a little under a yr. but based on history of drawdowns from an outsider perspective, if we are going to have confrontational attitude then nothing will be solved. It would beneficial if we could just all work together. Trustee Ball said that he bases his decision on the 1700 constituents he represents. 90% of the calls he got didn’t want the drawdown and the other 10% do not care. He went to 2 blocks in his neighborhood, and no one changed their mind. Dana Schultz said that could be because they don’t have the data so how can they make a good decision and where are these people? Fischer says, how about a referendum? Dana said that the lake district offered to help pay for fish stocking and Mike turned them down. Weiss asks about an Ad Hoc committee to meet and come up with a solution. Tammie Smith, Tom Ball volunteered from the board and Mike Fischer and some lake folks. Tammie asked who in the audience fishes and asked about the size of fish they have caught. No action taken. The committee can meet and come back within a month to talk again. 3. Budget & Finance Committee: Chairperson Troiola A. Troiola/Petruska motion to approve the payment of bills totaling $33,884.57 on the bill list with extras presented tonight to Brightspeed, WI Supreme Court for continuing education for the Judge, Quad County team fees, Johnson Block Auditors, WE Energies, & AFLAC. Roll call vote: Ball, Gorsegner, Kinjerski, Petruska, Smith, Troiola, Weiss-aye. Motion carried. B. Discussion/possible action on quotes for seasonal maintenance quotes for the rooftop HVAC at the public safety building. Chief Pavlock stated that this is for annual maintenance on the units, we have been paying twice as much by not getting these maintained. 2 Quotes were presented. Troiola/Smith motion to approve the quote from David Anthony’s Heating & Cooling LLC in the amount of $1,536.40. Roll call vote: Ball, Gorsegner, Kinjerski, Petruska, Smith, Troiola, Weiss-aye. Motion carried. C. Troiola/Ball motion to approve the April 2024 Financial Statement, bank statement and cash account balances as presented. All ayes-motion carried. The Clerk went over the financial statement. D. Troiola/Smith motion to approve the Village taking out a ¼ page ad in the amount not to exceed $200 in Our Town Magazine for the Village of Palmyra Events. Roll call vote: Ball, Gorsegner, Kinjerski, Petruska, Smith, Troiola, Weiss-aye. Motion carried. E. Discussion/possible action on increasing the unbudgeted spending limit for purchases. Currently the handbook says that any unbudgeted item over $200 needs 2 estimates and this is a very low price for getting quotes these days. Chief Pavlock is requesting that the board consider bumping this up to $1000 knowing that everyone still needs to stay within our budgets. Petruska/Troiola motion to make the requested change to the handbook, taking the limit to $1,000. All ayes-motion carried. 4. Public Works Committee: Chairperson Petruska A. Petruska/Troiola motion to approve Resolution 2024-05, DNR Compliance Reporting. Scott Halbrucker reported that we received all A’s on the report. The other 2 graphs  show the average flow and BOD’s. Ever since they lined sewer pipes our usage values went down but the BOD’s went up because our sewage wasn’t watered down any longer. All ayes-motion carried. 5. Administration & Planning: Chairperson Gorsegner A. Troiola/Petruska motion to approve the application for an Operator’s license for Pamela Tubbs. All ayes-motion carried. B. Petruska/Smith motion to set the shoot date for fireworks in the Village on Dec. 14th 2024.All ayes-motion carried. 6. Recreation Committee: Chairperson Smith A. Discussion/possible action on a request from Land O’Lakes Baseball to use the Village’s hardball field and to modify it. Scott H met with him about the use of the diamond so there really is not any issue he has. No action taken. Scott Halbrucker met them in person and looked at the field and they have everything figured out. 7. Entire Committee of the Whole: A. Gorsegner/Kinjerski motion to into Closed Session with staff at 8:03 pm, pursuant to §19.85(1)(e), Deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public properties, the investing of public funds, or conducting other specified public business, whenever competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session. Specifically, the Village owned lands on Hwy H, parcel 171-0516-2722-005, 171-0516-2814-000, 171-0516-2811-000, 171-0516-2722-000 owned by the Village. Roll call vote: Ball, Gorsegner, Kinjerski, Petruska, Smith, Troiola, Weiss-aye. Motion carried. AND The Village Board will remain in Closed Session with staff, pursuant to §19.85(1)(e), Deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public properties, the investing of public funds, or conducting other specified public business, whenever competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session. Specifically, façade renovation loan for Mr. Gary Kahn. B. Petruska/Troiola motion to convene into open session at 8:14 pm for further discussion related to matters discussed in closed session. Roll call vote: Ball, Gorsegner, Kinjerski, Petruska, Smith, Troiola, Weiss-aye. Motion carried. Gorsegner/Troiola motion to adjourn at 8:15 pm. All ayes-motion carried. Respectfully submitted, Laurie Mueller, Village Clerk/Treasurer Minutes approved without corrections June 3, 2024