Edgar still searches for police chief

Part-time officer resigns her job

The search continues for a new Edgar police chief, with the village board having met several times in closed session regarding the matter over the past few months.

Former police chief Tyler Geske, who left his post to take on the top spot at the Marathon Police Department, turned in his resignation in May. Since then, Edgar has been relying on help from the Marathon County Sheriff’s Department to fill the absence.

The application period for the job closed in early July and village trustees reviewed candidates during a closed session at their July 10 meeting. Interviews with selected applicants were set for the following week. Since then, there have been two special meetings, held in closed session on July 31 and August 9, “for the purpose of performing interviews for the chief of police position and discussion on performance of department administration” and “for the purpose of reviewing/ discussing candidates for the chief of police position.”

During last week’s regular board meeting, trustees again met in closed session to discuss the job’s candidates as well as personnel staffing assignments of the department. Earlier during the August 14 meeting, Marathon County Sheriff’s Department Lieutenant Samuel Wellhoefer, who has been helping in Edgar in the interim, announced the resignation of Edgar offi cer Alicia Lang, effective August 7. In her resignation letter, Lang stated that she had accepted a full-time position at another police department. The staffing changes have left just one officer on Edgar’s roster, Ramsay Plautz.

According to Village Administrator Jennifer Lopez, the village has not yet extended anyone the police chief job offer. She said the intention is to fill Lang’s vacancy, but the village will likely wait until a new chief is on board to handle that hiring process.

In other business:

During the public comment portion of last week’s meeting, Trustee Jon Streit expressed frustration regarding the village “spending taxpayer money on private property,” calling the incident “morally, ethically and financially irresponsible.” The comments stem from an issue discovered during the renovation of the village hall parking lot, according to Lopez. Representatives from American Asphalt doing the work pointed out a large bump in the parking lot that extended into the neighboring property’s driveway. They suggested cutting out the asphalt to correct the lump at a cost of $1,025. It was estimated that the portion of the area needing to be corrected in the neighboring property would cost $500 of that total. Without removing the misshapen asphalt, they told officials they would be unable to shape the parking lot correctly.

“Because of the timing of the project, it was not possible to set up a special assessment and the decision was made to remove the asphalt to the fence line and correct the hump in the parking lot,” Lopez wrote in an email.

According to Lopez, village employees provided input that the bump was “hard on the village snowplow equipment.” Ultimately, officials made the decision to correct the entire lump at the village’s expense rather than have a drop-off from the driveway to the parking lot. Streit advised to only correct the village’s portion of the troubled area.

The budgeting process for 2024 will begin soon. While discussing if the process should be similar to years past, officials talked about getting citizens to understand why some village projects have been delayed.

Lopez said there has been some local discourse recently with individuals inquiring why road construction projects this year are being done when the planned Thomas Hill lift station and wastewater treatment plant upgrades have been put on hold. Originally, officials had hoped that Thomas Hill Road and Birch Street, along with two sections of sanitary sewer upgrades on Highway H, would be completed this summer. Due to requirements of the village’s United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) funding for the projects, Edgar was required to obtain a Build America, Buy America waiver that pushed back the construction timelines.

Due to the delays, the village opted to instead get other smaller projects done instead of missing out on potential aid money this year.

“There was some controversy on whether the sidewalk in front of the village hall or the parking lot for village hall had to be done,” Lopez said. “All things that probably on the outside are logical to question.”

Lopez said the plans for the Thomas Hill project are written and ready to go, but the village is waiting on USDA’s approval to send it out for advertisement. Officials are now estimating the work will begin next spring, with the goal to work as much as possible with the Edgar School District’s schedule. Trustee Randy Werner said that hopefully citizens can understand the last few years have wreaked havoc on municipal plans. “Everyone’s got to understand that hopefully everything is going to fall in place, but there are still going to be a lot of delays on everything that we’re doing,” Werner said.