Town of Richmond

Board of Supervisors Meeting

Wednesday February 22, 2023

Minutes

Chairman Jeff Karbash called the meeting to order at 7:00pm. Present: Karbash, Supervisors Steven Wade, Tom Kraus. Absent: Supervisors Susan Miller, Dave Overbeek. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.

Motion to approve the Agenda by Kraus, Second by Wade, passed unanimously. Motion to approve the Minutes by Kraus, second by Wade, passed unanimously.

Motion to approve the Treasurer’s report by Kraus, second by Wade, passed unanimously.

Board Reports

Karbash – On Agenda

Advises Supervisor Miller is absent due to inclement weather but has been researching County ordinances relative to short term rentals and will provide us with an update when she has completed her research.

Miller has invited the Delavan/Darien School District representative to come to our meetings again.

She has advised we should include Road Bids for the March agenda. Wade – On Agenda

Kraus – On Agenda

Sheriff’s Liaison – There were three burglaries that occurred around the 29th and 30th of January near Wisconsin Parkway. These were summer homes that were at the time vacant.

In addition, near R&D Townline Road on the North side of Darien Township some suspicious footprints in the snow near some homes. There were no items taken or crimes committed.

Karbash explains that in January someone entered their home but no one was seen after investigating and nothing was taken.

Public Comment – Mike Bergman explains that just down the road from the hall, someone had an accident and walked into a house without knocking and asked to use the phone. He obtained a driveway alarm for the person so that if a car pulls into the driveway an alarm sensor sounds advising they have a visitor.

Operator’s Licenses – Bram Richter, sponsored by Badger Bob’s; Motion to approve by Kraus, second by Wade, passed unanimously.

Land Management – Mr. Lawrence Jacob explains to the board that he submitted two payments for two conditional use permits, but that these payments were for the same property and as such were connected to accomplish the same end use. Each payment was for $400.00 and he felt that having to pay a fee for each was excessive. One of the applications was denied and he listened to the neighbor’s and community concerns and made some revisions to accommodate these concerns even though he was legally allowed to due what he was trying to do. He then had to take both of these requests to the county and pay an additional $550 each to the County. He then stated he was trying to accomplish all of this in one meeting with the Town Board but the board asked to do it in two meetings. For these reasons he is asking the Board to consider reimbursing one of the $400 fees.

Chairman Karbash responded by asking Clerk Hayes to describe the reimbursement of fees policy of other jurisdictions. Clerk Hayes describes that his research on this topic revealed that;

• Walworth County will reimburse 66% of a conditional use fee if the applicant withdraws their application PRIOR to the public hearing notice being posted in the newspaper. After the notice is posted for public hearing, they do not reimburse any amount.
• Darien Township stated they do not reimburse application fees in any instance.
• Delavan Township stated they do not reimburse application fees in any instance.

Karbash advises he has discussed this topic with Supervisor Miller, Chair of the Planning Committee and she and he feel that if we reimburse these fees, we set a precedent that reimbursement is a practice and at that point we call into question why we even have a fee in the first place. Karbash says he is in the camp of the County Policy on this issue, that if a public hearing has taken place, there is no reimbursement.

Supervisor Kraus opinions to the board that he can’t remember this type of request previously and asks the other board members if they can remember a previous request of this type.

Mr. Jacob clarifies to the Board that he’s not asking for a reimbursement because one of the permits was denied, but rather because it was one property, the same property that he was requesting the two permits for.

Karbash makes a motion to follow along the County policy and deny the request for reimbursement of one of the conditional use fees, second by Kraus, passed unanimously.

Whitewater Fire & EMS – tabled by Karbash due to absence of representatives due to inclement weather.

ATV/UTV Ordinance – Wade advises the board that he has included in the board packet a copy of the County ordinance that will become effective July 1st, 2023. In discussions with Roadman McManaway we are still uncertain what action surrounding municipalities will take. Wade recommends to the Board that we table this discussion and any action until such time as we are able to see what adjacent Townships will do. Coordinating our signage activity with neighboring Townships may save us some money on the quantity of signs we need to acquire and post.

Board agrees to table this topic.

Complaints – N6309 County Road P

Karbash drove by the property yesterday (February 21st) and the house looks nice and although there were some other equipment near the barn in back, the complaint we received was not

signed and at this time feels there is no need to take any further action. Supervisor Wade also states that the complaint was anonymous making it difficult to follow up on or respond to. Supervisor Kraus states that the Board had a complaint similar in the past and expended significant money in an attempt to enforce a clean-up effort that the County didn’t offer support for, so he advises caution on trying to take any enforcement activity. Kraus offers to stop by the property and advise the owner that the board has had an anonymous complaint and that the owner may want to consider cleaning up the property.

Karbash advises the board will not pursue this any further in view of the board’s viewing of the property and the anonymous nature of the complaint.

Payment of Bills – Motion to pay the bills by Kraus, second by Wade, passed unanimously. Question to the Board from Mike Bergman asking about the status of a law suit against the

Township. Clerk Hayes advises that we are working with counsel to resolve the matter. A public

records request was made for a record that we do not possess or customarily produce. Counsel has advised us to produce the record from our voting machine, which clerk Hayes with direction from the maker of the machine and provided to our counsel and they’re working to resolve the matter.

Motion to adjourn by Wade, second by Kraus, passed unanimously. Respectfully submitted,

Brian Hayes

Town Clerk