Audit finds Roberts’ general fund healthy

Talk about it

Auditor Tom Courtas pronounced the Village of Roberts general fund “healthy” at Monday night’s Roberts Village Board meeting.

Courtas noted that the general fund did take a $144,000 hit from the board’s decision to forgive the Water and Sewer Utility deficit in 2011, but rationalized the action saying, ”you did what you had to do and fixed what was broken.”

He added that the recent rate increase to both utilities promises a brighter forecast in 2012. The board voted unanimously to accept the 2011 audit report.

In other business:

- Police Chief Dan Burgess reported that, as a result of going to six days on three days off work schedule, officers would still be paid their straight hourly wage in an effort to help them with personal budgeting. That will result in one pay period accounting for up to 90 hours, the next a more typical 80 hours and the next down to around 70 hours.

The board urged Burgess to pursue a written agreement with the officers’ union recognizing that hours worked in excess of eight on a shift, generated by the new schedule, would not be counted as overtime. It was also recommended that attorney Bill Radosevich review the agreement.

- Public Works Director John Bond reported that regularly scheduled fine screen repairs at the treatment plant revealed some damage. Repairs were made restoring full function to the facility.

- Considering items presented to it by the Plan Committee, the board approved Corner Clippers business plan of operation, Chris Holman’s request for a variance for a shed, Hackman Town & Country’s rezoning request, Pilot Travel Center’s requested rezoning and U.S. Mineral’s rezoning request. After some discussion the board tabled approval of the Certified Survey Map of the land beneath Frontier’s cell tower asking Angi Goodwin, village engineer, to research the history of other localities with regard to cell towers. The board also approved a fireworks permit for Phantom Fireworks for the Roberts Good Neighbor Days Celebration in June.

- The board accepted the resignation of Kris Lubich, who has provided janitorial services for village public buildings for more than 15 years. The plan is to solicit applicants for the position.

- In one of the longer discussions of the evening, the board debated the merits of striping Division Street from Highway 12 to the tracks with either a single yellow dotted line or a double solid line. Goodwin weighed in saying she would “always error on the side of safety.

She recommended that the hill be striped with a double yellow line to avoid any misunderstanding about passing on that stretch of the street.

- Bond reported the cost to paint works out to five cents a foot so creating the double solid yellow line would cost more. He also noted that plans to stripe certain sections of Division, Pine and Main streets might overlap with plans included in the pending Safe Routes to School grant. Village President Willard Moeri noted that this grant includes plans for potential “bump outs” as a way to “calm” traffic around school areas. He suggested such additions can create problems for plowing and asked that the board reserve the right to veto bump outs pending further discussion. The Safe Routes to School grant also suggests creating striped pedestrian and bicycle right of ways within the areas of school traffic. The board directed Bond to secure estimates on all of the stripping options and report back at the next meeting.

- Frank Phillips made a presentation to the board regarding options to fulfill the 2017 federally mandated sign assessment program. He suggested two potential approaches; 1.) To completely replace all existing road signs with prismatic sheeted versions that have a life expectancy of 10-12 years or 2.) Initiate a measurement program of all existing signage to establish every sign’s compliance to the mandated standards and then institute a systematic schedule of measuring each sign’s compliance replacing only the signs failing to meet the standard. The board confirmed they have no money in the current budget and agreed to revisit the issue this fall.

- Trustee Katy Kapaun presented the Library Board report, including an update on the continuing investigation into the faulty door issue that resulted in a Workmen’s Compensation claim. She stated most recently the Library Board sent a letter directly to the president of Red Wing Construction, who installed the door, encouraging him to be more forthcoming in the discussion. Otherwise the library may have no other recourse than to pursue a legal remedy. Moeri urged the library to bring this investigation to a conclusion sooner rather than later reminding them that, “the further we get away from the initial one-year warranty, the harder it will be to resolve and likely more expensive.”

Tags: local government, communities, wisconsin, roberts