Village Board

Village of Withee Phone: 715-229-4319 Fax: 715-229-4451 511 Division * P.O. Box A * Withee, Wisconsin 54498 The Village of Withee Board met on January 3, 2023, at Owen City Hall at 6 p.m. for a Special Board meeting with the City of Owen. ROLL CALL President Lindgren called the meeting to order. Roll call was answered by Trustees Lindgren, Shelton, Gehrke, Kalepp, and Frankewicz. Clerk Niemi recorded the minutes. Also in attendance were Village of Withee public works employee, David Laabs; City of Owen Clerk, Tracy Rau; City of Owen DPW, Chad Smith; City of Owen council: Bob Wilczek, Charles Milliren, Joan Jalling, Ken Martine, John Mauel, and Dr. Pam Jaffke; Police Chief Patrick Fehlman, Cindy Cardinal, and Nicole Rogers were also in attendance. MUTUAL AID Alderperson Wilczek wanted to extend condolences to the family and to the Village on the passing of the Village of Withee DPW Troy Hatlestad. The City of Owen is extending mutual aid of their departments for either the short-term or long term in any facet needed. Wilczek said that Owen is giving their full support to anything we might need. Because of Owen DPW Chad Smith’s experience running the system at Stetsonville he is able to run Withee’s water plant. Wilczek said Owen employees will notate any time working for Withee and will bill for that time at a later date. Wilczek wanted to bring everyone together and if there are more meetings to be needed in the future, they will be scheduled. Village of Withee President Lindgren thanked Owen for all their help. Lindgren mentioned that Withee would want to pay their wage for hours worked at Withee. Wilczek said he wasn’t worried about the charges right now. He wanted Withee’s focus to be on the family and Owen will help however they can. Lindgren mentioned the January 5th funeral visitation from 2pm to time of 5 pm service. There won’t be a burial that day but a celebration of life in the summer. Alderperson Jalling asked DPW Smith his views of long-term keeping both municipalities serviced. DPW Smith said with his Public Works employee Brandon Wilson to help with water plant alarms plus Wilson is getting water operator training in February which will give him hands on training and experiences with various systems. Smith said that if Withee needs help with water or snowplowing Owen will help figure it out. Lindgren mentioned that between him and David Laabs they hopefully would cover everything to try not and call too much. Smith mentioned his crew starts at 4 am for snow. If they get 3 inches of snow, they can get Owen cleared in 6 hours. Trustee Gehrke mentioned there isn’t much hauling in Withee, mainly pushing snow into piles. Wilczek said he and Travis Serocki would be available to help with down trees. Smith said the DNR has been notified. He submitted a report today, and they have already switched him as the operator in charge, so he will be able to submit for the months ahead. Lindgren expressed hope that Smith would help us train whomever gets hired. Owen public works employee, Brandon Wilson, is seeking certification which Smith said could take a year. Smith said Laabs and Wilson would be able to do the paperwork part of it if he can’t get there. Smith plans to teach Laabs sampling so if Smith can’t make it, the samples get done. Owen Clerk Rau asked Laabs how he felt. Laabs said he will help for now but does not want it to turn into full-time as he is retired. Lindgren expressed thanks for Laabs helping as much as he can. Laabs plans to do whatever has to be done and then go home, returning if the alarm goes off. Lindgren covered that when the water plant alarms, alarms are sent to him, Laabs, Smith, and Todd Weich and Dan Wundrow from the Rural Water Association. Jalling asked Withee Clerk Niemi if she had worked on a job posting. Niemi responded that we will work on it soon and discuss at our regular January 9th board meeting. Mayor Milliren wondered if we could get names from recent retirees from Rural Water Association. The circuit riders from Rural Water Association contacted a few people but didn’t find takers. Wilczek said that Withee doesn’t have to rush to find someone since Owen can offer mutual aid. Laabs said there were maps as far as sewer and water that would put you close to the actual spot. Laabs felt this might be a good time to combine some services between Owen and Withee. Wilczek thought maybe that could be future discussion. Smith is expecting a lot of attendees for the funeral so they will try to clean the snow away to increase width of the street. Meeting was adjourned at 6:17 pm. Ellen Niemi Village Clerk