“I’ll make a motion that we approve the police agreement,” Sarah McQuillan said.

“I’ll second it,” Casey Dorn said.

Acting unanimously at the regular monthly meeting of the Boyd Village Board, the village trustees and president voted to renew the police agreement with Stanley, pending a similar ratification by the City of Stanley at its next Council meeting.

Set to run from May 1 through Dec. 31, the agreement calls for Boyd to pay $60,524.78 for the duration of the agreement, which would then renew on a yearly basis at its next review.

In return, the City of Stanley would provide a minimum of 30 hours per week of law enforcement services and protection in Boyd, with the scheduled 30 hours determined with input from the Village. The City retains the right to adjust scheduled hours under the agreement, but the Village must be made aware of any such changes.

The Chief of Police shall consider personnel requests suggestions made by the Village, but retain authority to make the final decision as to staffing manner in which services will be rendered.

In other news from the Monday meeting of the Boyd Village Board, Streets and Utilities head Tom Grunewald shared that nitrate numbers from the haulers using the wastewater treatment plant were high, but that testing from the seepage cells (where water re-enters the ecosystem) got different numbers than the well at the plant.

“The wastewater is better than most other plants he’s done,” Grunewald shared of the testing representative. Meanwhile, “the haulers come back very, very, very high.” Trustee McQuillan expressed concerns at high nitrate in the area of the wastewater plant based on people she knew, while Grunewald pointed out that the village water itself came from the northwest side, away from the plant. “The lab inspection went well,” he said of wastewater in general. Letting haulers use the plant was important.

“That’s our moneymaker,” Grunewald said. If taken away without replacement funding from the DNR or state to make up the shortfall, a small community like Boyd could struggle.

Next giving the board homework in the form of a report to look over on village utilities, Grunewald explained further.

“Rural Water did a study for us on where we could save money on water,” he said. There wasn’t much the village could do with wastewater, but water did present possibilities. The report is due to be discussed at next month’s board meeting.

And then there were the roads.

“I don’t know what they’re using,” Grunewald said of patch material for roads administered from outside that run through and by the village. Nonetheless, whatever it was, wasn’t faring well long term in fixing local potholes.

“We use cold mix,” Grunewald offered of the village’s own patching material. With the levy limit referendum passing by one vote earlier last year, the village of Boyd can expect to get work done on Center Street from the highway to the corner at Rose, along with a possibility of doing two blocks of Patten Street.

In the meantime, potholes continue to form, requiring careful driving as they’re patched, in case they form again. Nature, can be unpredictable.

“If the state would give some money to these communities that need it, they wouldn’t be so bad,” Grunewald said of road repairs and potholes. But if one thing could help fix the local area, it was seeking out direct contact with local representatives, before the state.

“They never once called me,” Geist said of a person near the village border with a parking issue who had called their representative, who in turn called the village. “So if I don’t know about the problem I can’t do anything about it, he said,” Being direct saved everyone time and potential frustration.

Boyd village board meetings are held at the village hall on the second Monday of the month at 7 p.m., with time scheduled to make known public concerns.