Town of Richmond

Board of Supervisors Meeting

May 16, 2023

Minutes

Chairman Jeff Karbash called the meeting to order at 7:00pm. Present: Karbash, Supervisors

Susan Miller, Dave Overbeek, Steven Wade, Tom Kraus. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. Motion to approve the Agenda by Overbeek, Second by Kraus, passed unanimously.

Motion to approve the April Meeting minutes by Miller, Second by Kraus, passed unanimously.

Treasurer’s Report – Clerk Hayes explains a document attached to the Treasurer ’s Report he prepared showing ALL activity and transactions in the ARPA fund since its inception.

Deputy Treasurer Sheets explains a document attached to the Treasurer ’s Report she prepared showing how the report is prepared and the process for accounting for all funds in the various accounts held by financial institutions for the Township.

Karbash asks what the current interest rate is on a CD and Sheets advises 4.45%.

Motion by Overbeek to approve the Treasurer ’s report, Second by Kraus, passed unanimously. Board Reports

Karbash – On Agenda

Overbeek – Thanked Town resident Mike Bergman for alerting Township to truck traffic illegally travelling on State Road 89 during its shutdown resulting in the Sheriff ’s dept. to issue citations and enforce the Road Closed status.

Miller – Received a call from a gentleman inquiring about a Township owned property if the

Township would sell it for $15,000 or $16,000. Miller advised the Township would review any offer received. The person did not follow up with Miller.

Wade – He and Roadman Wally McManaway have been reviewing and planning for additional signage for the County Roads prior to the July effective date for the County roads being opened for ATV/UTV traffic.

Kraus – Reports that a Town resident contacted him regarding a $500.00 invoice received from the Township. The resident called 911 to report a tree limb had fallen on power lines in the road right of way at his residence. He was billed $500.00 for this call.

Sheriff’s Report

the number of calls for Whitewater Township for April and May were 240, for Richmond Township were 219. These represent at or near the average calls received for the timeframe. There were no burglaries reported, a couple of minor thefts. Sheriff’s dept. has been monitoring State Road 89 and issuing citations for those violating the Road Closed signage.

Roadman Reports

McManaway reports he and Supervisor Wade have been planning for signage for ATV/UTV use on County Roads. County has designated hours of operation that will require the use of placards on the signage.

Whitewater School District

Caroline Pate Hefty reports that the school district has just received the results of an employee satisfaction survey done by an outside firm. Results included a 68% response rate from the 315 employees. 73% of those responding were teachers which comprise the majority of the employees. Target results were a 70% agree or strongly agree response. Some of the responses were;

– 72% felt they had a healthy work/life balance

– 87% felt they had professional development opportunity

– 90% felt that the performance expectations from supervisor were reasonable

– 91% felt they had sufficient support from their supervisor

– As Superintendent she had a 91% approval rating

Whitewater Fire & EMS Service

Assistant Chief Ryan reports that full time staffing began February 26, 2023 with 4 full time employees on staff 24/7. Beginning June 1st, 2023 they will have on staff a full time fire inspector. In addition, there are two dozen employees “on call” wearing pagers in the event of a fire as 4 employees are not enough to staff a fire. January thru May they averaged 2:20 minutes to get out the door following a call. Prior to 2023 it took between 4:00 and 5:00 minutes to get out the door. He believes these stats confirm their efforts to staff full time is resulting in improved response times.

They are working on a plan to re-arrange the facilities so that the sleeping dormitory is closer to equipment to further improve response time.

Per a handout provided, the Department responds to emergency calls 5 times per day. 90% of those calls are for EMS and 10% are for fire. For Richmond Township, in the first 136 days of this year 2023, there were 21 incidents. Average “Travel Time” to get to the call after leaving the station is 11 minutes 50 seconds. This is the highest or longest time reported for all of their covered response areas reported. The 21 incidents in Richmond Township represent 3% of all of their calls year to date.

Their department employees have completed 428 hours of training this year. They plan to have fully trained paramedics on duty by August of this year.

Supervisor Overbeek inquires if the Richmond Township fees for retainer will be $122,305. He explains that we need to have a hard number for budgeting for next year. Ryan explains that the City of Whitewater Finance Director resigned just recently, and while he has nothing to do with the City’s budgeting, he will inquire and let us know.

Discussion followed to determine what the final number may be with Overbeek expressing that whatever it is we need to have a final number for budgeting.

Karbash expresses that our residents would like to see a breakdown of how much the City of Whitewater pays, how much the Town of Whitewater pays, how much the Towns of Lima, Richmond, Cold Springs, and Koshkonong pays compared to the number of calls each of these covered municipalities have so we can convert these figures into a cost per call.

Ryan explains that while he is not responsible for the budgeting or billing, he knows that 75% of the billings are based on the quantity/frequency of calls, and 25% are based upon the equalized value of property in the municipality. Those are then added together to determine the billing.

A handout Ryan provides gives the breakdown of a total number of calls year to date at 674 calls for all municipalities served.

He gives the percentages that each of the municipalities pay of the Whitewater Fire & EMS Department Budget, which he advises is approximately $2.5 Million;

Town of Whitewater 11.2% = $280,000

City of Whitewater 71.9% = $1,797,500 / 502 calls ytd = $3,580.68 per call

Town of Cold Springs 4% = $100,000

Town of Koshkonong 1.8% = $45,000

Town of Lima 4.1% = $102,500

Town of Richmond 5.4% = $135,000 / 21 calls ytd = $6,428.57 per call

Resident Michael Bergman asks how much a call is billed? Ryan advises it depends on the nature of the call and the services that are provided. Ryan explains that an EMS medical call is billed at $1,000

For a fire call the bill is $250.00 per hour after the first hour.

Karbash asks if the fire dept currently has any debt load. Ryan says they have a small debt for the purchase of a power ladder but they are putting $375,000 per year in a fund to avoid debt. to be used for equipment purchase.

Karbash makes the point that he does not care for the equalized value being used for determining the billing. He emphasizes that the City of Whitewater has a response time of 5 minutes and is paying less per call whereas the Town of Richmond has a response time of 14 minutes and is paying double what the City of Whitewater is paying per call and this is not being taken into consideration regarding the billing. Karbash makes the point that our quality of service is less and this should be factored in on the billing rates.

Resident Wayne Redenius asks if there is a plan to build a new Fire Station and Ryan says there is currently no plan for that. The only plan is to re-locate the sleeping dorm nearer to the station which involves a reconfiguration of existing facilities.

Overbeek extends appreciation on behalf of the entire Board for attending and sharing statistics and listening to the Board’s concerns.

Fire and EMS billing within the Township

The board discusses the $500 bill received by the Township residence who contacted Supervisor Kraus. Karbash expresses his thought that the resident was trying to report a dangerous condition in the road right of way and that there really shouldn’t be a bill for that. He advises further that he doesn’t feel the resident was correct in calling 911, he should have contacted

the power company and while he doesn’t want to establish that we will waive these fees in every instance, he feels this is a circumstance that suggests the Township should pay this invoice. Ryan advises that the Contract with Whitewater Fire & EMS states the Township shall be charged for these calls. It then becomes up to Richmond Township to recover those expenses using whatever process the Township has in place.

Overbeek motion to absorb the $500 fee as a Township expense, second by Miller, passed unanimously.

Land Management

Badger Bob Conditional use permit – Karbash advises that this request did not meet the Township procedural timelines and therefore he recommends we table this item until next month’s meeting.

Motion by Overbeek to table this item, second by Kraus, passed unanimously.

Charter Spectrum Tunneling permit – Overbeek reports that the proposal is to install fiber optic cable on Walworth Woods road, Lake Lorraine road, portion of Territorial road, and a portion of Delaney road. Overbeek reads portions of the Richmond Township Tunneling Permit requiring restoration activities expected of the contracting company. He further explains that we ask for a cash bond to ensure they meet all of our restoration criteria. Overbeek suggests we require a

$15,000 bond from them and from that amount we will subtract our administrative and inspection fees from that bond until the project is complete and satisfactory.

Karbash makes a motion we approve the tunneling request with the requirement of a $15,000 cash bond, second by Miller, passed unanimously.

Appointment of Weed Commissioner

Overbeek motion to appoint Susan Miller, second by Kraus, passed 4 votes to 1 with Miller opposing.

Appointment of Recycling Commissioner

Clerk Hayes reports that he and the previous Recycling Coordinator Mrs. McManaway did the reporting together this year and in speaking with the Dept. of Natural Resource Representative

it was recommended that we draft the resolution to be non-person specific but position specific to enable continuity in login and access to the DNR reporting site. The resolution is drafted to appoint the Richmond Township Clerk vs. a named person.

Motion by Karbash to appoint the Richmond Township Clerk as the Recycling Coordinator, second by Overbeek, passed unanimously.

Lake Lorraine Park Maintenance

Township resident and Lake Lorraine Park resident John Cochran explains that there is a need for some attention in various areas of the park. He opinions that Roadman McManaway isn’t able to spend a lot of time there and he feels that perhaps McManaway could use some help in the park. Areas he feels are in need of attention are as follows;

– sand needed near playground equipment

– playground equipment maintenance

– ground around the pavilion is beat up and requires some work

– ground around the small garage building is also beat up and requires work

– more trees being planted

Karbash thanks John on behalf of the Borad for all the work and attention he gives to the park. Karbash asks for clarification on what is needed around the pavilion.

Roadman McManaway advises that since steel roofs were installed the rain and snow comes sliding off the roof and has exasperated the problem.

Overbeek reports that Lurvey’s Wholesale tree farm has some trees that have slight scratches so he can’t sell them and he would discount those trees to the Township at a cost of $125.00 per tree. There would be an additional cost for digging and/or dirt removal.

Karbash motion to purchase 6 trees, second by Miller, passed unanimously. Tri-County Town Association Invite

Proposal from the Town of Troy to join Kenosha/Racine/Walworth Tri-County subgroup of the

Wisconsin Town’s Association for an additional dues.  Motion by Overbeek to decline the invitation, second by Wade, passed unanimously.

Roadwork Subsequent to Bids received

Following Board discussion and inputs from Roadman McManaway; Karbash Motion to authorize the following roadwork;

R&W Townline Road

– Wedging (110 Ton @ $185/ton)                               $20,350

– Single Chip Seal with Granite Chips                         $16,091

Harris Road

– Single Chip Seal with Granite Chips                         $11,007

R&D Townline Road

– Wedging (110 Ton @ $185/ton)                               $20,350

– Single Chip Seal with Granite Chips                         $37,239

Various Roads Throughout Township

Crack Filling Services                                                      $25,000

Total                                 $130,037

Second by Wade, passed unanimously. Town Hall Use (Request for Alcohol use)

Overbeek motion to approve alcohol use for Mario Pacheco, second by Wade, passed unanimously.

Overbeek motion to approve alcohol use for Turtle Lake Association, second by Miller, passed unanimously.

Electronic Recycling Proposal

Karbash explains that he received a proposal from a company to collect electronic equipment by placing a receptacle at the Town Hall.

Overbeek reports that the City of Delavan is currently trialing this and while the pick up of recyclables is regular, it requires an internal storage of the collection receptacle and it needs to be staffed to allow pick up. Overbeek opinions that our Township does not have the staffing for this nor do we have the internal storage facility.

Karbash motion to deny the proposal, second by Wade, passed unanimously. Geneva Lakes Environmental Proposed Ordinance

Karbash explains the proposal to police watercraft for invasive species going into and out of

lakes in Walworth County. He opinions that the term watercraft is too vague, he questions who would maintain portable washing stations, and although there is a mention of grants, how often would they be available and how much of the expense would they cover is unclear. Law enforcement – who? how would they be trained?, at what cost?. He also expressed concerns that the issuing agency would keep the revenue setting up a scenario that could motivate revenue generation. He also questioned if this would be a deterrent for our residents to use the lakes. Following Board discussions and concerns expressed;

Overbeek motion to oppose the ordinance as proposed as it would be cost prohibitive, lead to discriminatory denials, result in non-police officers enforcing, increase the Township costs with no grant guarantees, duplicate existing laws already governing invasive species, second by Karbash, passed unanimously.

Operator Licenses

Motion by Miller to approve Operator licenses for Halee Peters, Nole Hefty, Elizabeth Houwers, and Alexis Pinnow, second by Kraus, passed unanimously with Chairman Karbash recusing himself.

Complaints

Badger Bob’s – The Board was unable to act as a result of the complainant failure to appear with photos and/or more detail regarding the complaint.

Payment of Bills

Motion by Miller to pay the bills, second by Wade, passed unanimously. Motion to adjourn by Overbeek, second by Kraus, passed unanimously. Meeting adjourned.

Respectfully Submitted

Brian Hayes

Clerk