Council members voted unanimously in ….
Council members voted unanimously in favor of redoing the annexation ordinance to make it part of Ward 4, Aldermanic District #2 of the city. The change will next go to Taylor County for the county board to adjust their supervisory district boundaries and ultimately to the Wisconsin Department of Administration.
Road named
JoAnn Simek’s legacy of service to the community will live on with a road name in a residential subdivision being developed off of Pep’s Dr.
The city council last week had recommended naming the loop at the end of the road JoAnn’s Way. At Tuesday’s meeting, city coordinator Joe Harris asked that the street be named JoAnn’s Circle rather than Way. He said this would avoid confusion when the plat for the area is submitted to the state due to the state’s interpretation of what a “way” is. He said the state typically considers “Ways” to run north and south.
In the end, council members agreed and voted to designate the loop at the end of Pep’s Drive as JoAnn’s Circle with the entire area designated the Simek Addition.
In other business, council members:
_ Approved transferring $29,000 from the refuse and recycling savings to avoid having to increase the garbage and recycling fees next year. The rates will remain the same as for 2022.
_ Approved a formal easement for Stetsonville Oil to cross city property to access the bulk oil tanks adjacent to the city shop. The tanks have been in place for many years with access through an informal easement. This action will get the easement formally recorded.
_ Approved allocating 15% of hotel/ motel room tax collections to be kept by the city’s general fund with the other 85% to be used for grants for events by the room tax commission. State law allows the city to retain up to 30% of the taxes collected.
_ Approved the list of possible purchase items for the city’s remaining federal ARPA grant money. Council member Laura Holmes questioned if the county had been approached about assisting with the purchase of police radio equipment. Council member Mike Bub said he was going to be bringing it to the county’s executive committee meeting on Thursday. Harris noted that before any money is actually spent, each item on the list would come back to the city council.
_ Received an update on the Perkins St. project. Harris said graveling was expected to be completed this week with curb and gutter to be installed in the next two weeks. He also updated council members that the public works crew would be pouring the slab for the batting cage for the baseball field. The concrete was donated and the cage itself is being built by the baseball group.
_ Discussed the 4th of July fireworks display. Lemke noted this was the second year of a three-year contract with the fireworks company. Fireworks will again be on July 3 in 2023. Bub questioned what happened during this year’s show that there was a gap between the fireworks and the finale. Lemke said they are electronically ignited and suspected there was some sort of glitch that occurred. Bub also noted that the show had a large amount of low fireworks which he said were good if you were along the millpond, but could not be seen by many others in the park or elsewhere due to trees. He said he would prefer future shows to have higher fireworks. It was noted that fireworks that go higher in the air cost more.
