Dorchester board discusses bowling alley safety concerns

Memorial Hall is on the up and up as it received a number of upgrades in June. The floor was waxed and a new basketball hoop and curtains were purchased and installed. Additionally, a company came in and installed new bowling alley equipment. With new equipment being installed, the board was tasked with revisiting a proposal for adding an employee to service the equipment.

Memorial Hall manager Jenny Hinker said she would like the board to look into providing an employee to work on the bowling alley equipment sooner rather than later.

“I would like to continue to look for someone to provide maintenance to the lanes once the season starts,” Hinker said in her letter to the board. “I know this gets put back on the back burner but it will soon become a pressing issue and we will need to get someone trained.”

Last winter, the board discussed the possibility of adding a part-time employee that would be willing to work on the bowling alley equipment as needed. The village wanted to be sure they had someone experienced enough and on the books so that they would be safely performing the job as well as covered under the village’s insurance if anything happened to them while on the job.

Currently, a few volunteers go back and fix the equipment if a machine needs maintenance but board members expressed their concern over the fact that someone could be injured while working and would not be covered if they are volunteers.

Deputy Clerk Christie Erikson said she got mixed communications on whether to pursue a “help wanted” ad in the Tribune-Phonograph or not.

Schwoch said the story has been that some individuals would like to hire someone and other individuals have said they don’t need anyone.

“That’s been the story all along,” Schwoch said. “[The volunteers] say we don’t need to hire anybody and [Hinker] thinks we do.”

Trustee Julie Goldschmidt clarified that the reason behind wanting to hire someone was to eliminate issues with liability in case something were to happen around the moving parts of the bowling alley machines. The board also discussed the fact that the workers should not be drinking alcohol and working around the machinery.

Schwoch said he thought the board voted to advertise the job listing the last time the board discussed the matter but Erikson said she was never given any specifics for what to put in the advertisement.

“That’s going to be a hard thing to find. Years ago there were bowling alleys in every town and now they are hard to find,” Schwoch said. “Your best bet might be to get [the current volunteers] to take a little compensation.”

The board decided to have a conversation with the volunteers that currently help out with the alley before attempting to hire a new person for the job.

Other business

Scot Balsavich of Cooper Engineering had multiple updates for the board on a variety of projects.

n The lift station has been a topic of discussion for about a year now. Balsavich said he had reached out to Haas Sons Inc. to get a time frame for which the fencing around the lift station would be completed. At the meeting on July 12, Balsavich said Haas Sons Inc. were supposed to come out and place the fencing within the week.

“That’s the contractor telling me this,” Balsavich said. “I’m not promising you this.”

Balsavich said the company would be dressing up the area around the lift station to make the landscaping look more presentable.

He also said there was a crane that was a part of the lift station that is not yet installed. He noted that the crane has arrived and is in Haas’ shop and will be delivered when the fencing is complete.

n Balsavich said a dam inspection was completed on July 12 by Cooper Engineering. The quote for the inspection was $2,000 and was passed at the June meeting.

n During the public comment portion of the meeting, a citizen asked about parking on Linden Street and wanted to know if there was an update on the matter. At the June 7, meeting, Chris Christopherson brought up parking on the street and asked that no parking signs be implemented. Officer Dan Walters said he would look into it but did not have an update for Christopherson or the board at the July 12 meeting.

Another complaint that was had by Christopherson at the June meeting received no update at the July meeting. Christopherson brought up concerns about sawdust coming from the sawmill. He said the mill had used pickle juice in the past to keep the dust down and it seemed to work pretty well.

n Officer Walters said the contract between Dorchester and Clark County for next year needs to be worked on. He also said Dorchester Days was busy and he wanted to examine the current parking regulations throughout the city. Along with the parking, Walters said he wanted to look at the truck route at a future ordinance meeting.

n Walters also said he is working on getting rid of the excess equipment in the police department office. He said there are computers, printers and ammo that are no longer usable and needed to be removed.

Trustee Daniella Schauer wanted assurance that before any of the computer equipment was sold, the information stored on the equipment was wiped so that wherever they ended up, the computers would not have Dorchester data on them. Walters said he would look into the best way to get rid of the computer equipment in a safe manner.

Walters said he wasn’t sure on the procedure for getting rid of old ammunition and said the ammunition that is in the department is not used by the sheriff’s office so it is no good to them. The board was unsure if they could sell the ammunition despite it being usable because they did not have an arms license through the state.

Walters said the ammunition could be destroyed but it was decided the board would do some research and come back with a formal proposal on what to do with the equipment, including the ammunition at a future meeting.

He also mentioned there was a firearm that he would be willing to purchase from the village to use as a backup service pistol. The board said if the firearm was to be used for work, they could potentially keep the weapon as village property. Walters said that might be an issue because Clark County wouldn’t purchase .40 caliber bullets for the gun so him purchasing it as a personal gun/ backup service pistol would mean he could purchase the bullets for the weapon.

n Resident John Pinter also spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting as he wanted some information on an alley near his property on Second Street. He said he just wanted an update on when the alley work would be completed.

“Scot has been communicating with Steen [Construction] and he’s hoping to get the punch list finished up on Fridays in July,” village president Kurt Schwoch said. “Hopefully by August it should be seeded down and look like a lawn again.”

n The village accepted a bid to pave North Second Street to Washington Avenue from American Asphalt in the amount of $81,400.14. The bid was the only one that the board received for the project.

n The board was provided with an update regarding stray dogs in the village. The plan of having Kelly Gunderson, a local resident who would be willing to take care of stray dogs if her schedule and kennel allowed her to, take care of stray dogs within the village has been a discussion point for close to a year. Now that the village has a police officer who can temporarily address dog complaints until Gunderson can deal with them, the board wanted to see some action taken on the stray dog issue.

Schauer said Gunderson could get Walters a chip reader to help him identify animals and their owners. She also said all area humane societies and kennels are seemingly full of animals so the village would need to find an alternative area to place stray dogs. Schwoch noted that the village’s kennel was not up to par and the village did not have the staff to man the kennel.

“In the case that everybody is full, we should technically have something in the village here that would meet the criteria [of a dog kennel],” Schauer said.

“Who is going to take care of them?” Trustee Clem Klimpke asked.

Schauer suggested that if the public works workers were working on the weekends, they could water and feed them once per day.

“They’ve done it before,” Schauer said.

Public works employee Rick Golz said during the winter, the kennel doesn’t work because it is unsheltered and subjected to the elements.

Schauer said that would be why the village should look into getting a better kennel facility to hold the dogs in.

Erikson noted that if the public works employees would be the ones feeding and watering dogs at the village kennel, the village would have to pay them time and a half.

“I don’t think it’s right to have our PDW guys have to come in and clean up after a dog. That’s just my opinion,” Erikson said.

Walters discussed potential spay and neuter clinics that could come to the village to try and reduce the stray population. He also said he could check into the statutes behind euthanizing the animals if it came to that.

He added that at the time of the meeting, he had five open stray dog complaints that he hadn’t gotten to yet because there were so many.

A motion was made to have Schauer and Walters meet with Gunderson to discuss her potentially taking care of the animals at the village kennel.