The car wash agreement has had an amendment. Meeting Monday, Feb. 16, the council voted to approve option 1 of a car wash agreement amendment with Stanley Truck Sales. The amendment approved with motion by Wards 1 and 8 alderperson Mark Fitzsimmons and seconded by Wards 1 and 8 alderperson Ben Wald stipulates substantial completion of the car wash by Jan. 1, 2029.
Also from Monday council are bimonthly department reports, including the clerk’s office, police chief, fire chief, water, wastewater, and streets, grounds, and cemetery reports.

Clerk’s Office
Starting with the clerk’s office, Stanley City Administrator/Clerk-Treasurer Nicole Pilgrim shared mostly routine work, including payroll, bank reconciliation, accounts, utility bill and property tax receipting, audit prep, spring election prep work for poll workers, and fielding of customer concerns. Also included in Pilgrim’s report were wastewater position and campground host interviews and offers as well as 86 door hangers put on, 20 shut offs “in progress,” a final audit the week of February 9, and property tax settlements. A library construction meeting had been held along with working with the water and sewer departments regarding audit needs, and an internet and phone outage for most of Thursday, Feb. 12.
Closing out Pilgrim’s report were operator licenses for Joshua J. Joerger and Steven L. Wilbur.

Police
Starting out the police chief’s report, Stanley Police Chief Lance Weiland shared that he had posted a full-time employment vacancy, following the move by Officer Melissa McDonough to part time. The posting had resulted in three applicants.
“At the deadline I ended up with three total applicants,” Weiland shared. “Of the applicants, one was not qualified and another was eliminated from contention after an initial preliminary background check. The third applicant was qualified and is currently working at the Augusta Police Department. Sgt. Kuechenmeister and I interviewed the candidate (Christian Cortes-Cartagena) last week and I will subsequently be extending a conditional offer of full-time employment to him.” Cortes-Cartagena has experience as a jailer at the Eau Claire County Jail as a civilian employee prior to entering and subsequently graduating from Chippewa Valley Technical College -Eau Claire.
“The employment offer to Christian will be contingent on my background investigation as well as successful completion of the medical and other required testing,” Weiland wrote.
That wasn’t all for the police chief’s report. Weiland also shared that the department’s Handcuff Hunger campaign had resulted in 25 Thanksgiving and 24 Christmas meals being distributed to families in the Stanley-Boyd area.
“This past holiday season, Officer Holty’s hard work and commitment as it related to Handcuff Hunger Holiday meal giveaway resulted in 25 Thanksgiving meals and 24 Christmas meals being distributed to deserving families throughout Stanley-Boyd,” Weiland wrote. “In addition, on January 20, 2026, Officer Holty and I were able to humbly deliver 1,245 pounds of items to our local food pantry because of the success of the 2025 Holiday Drive. With Officer Holty an integral part of coordinating, delivering, and fundraising for the event since its inception, the department had been able to donate 11,800 pounds of food, hygiene and personal items, and other non-perishable products to the food pantry, as well as delivering 261 Thanksgiving and Christmas meals within Stanley-Boyd.
Closing out the police chief’s report were training updates and new Taser details.
“I attended the Wisconsin Police Leadership Foundation winter training conference earlier this week in Wisconsin Dells,” Weiland wrote. Focused management aspects as well as new trends and legislation affecting law enforcement, the training hosted multiple agencies from throughout the country that had been involved in mass casualty incidents, both lessons and aftermath.
Also in training related updates was upcoming annual active response training in Chippewa County, to be held March 10-12 at Bloomer High School. “This training is scenario-based and allows law enforcement to train for situations involving an active threat,” Weiland wrote “This will be the fourth year of the training, which rotates to a new school district each year and is put on by firearms instructors from various departments throughout the county.”
Last but not least for the police update were Tasers, which had been ordered and received, going into service soon.
“The new Tasers that I had previously ordered are in and will go into service soon,” Weiland wrote. “All staff will also receive their updated training in weeks to come.”

Fire
Included with the short fire report, Stanley Fire Chief Ron Patten reported one structure fire and six EMS calls since the last council meeting, along with normal office work, monthly and weekly truck and equipment checks done, and monthly training.

Water
Included in the water report by water operator Ben Blair were several items including DNR reporting, door hangers, water shutoffs, and rebuilding of chemical pumps at both plants. Also included for work done the past two weeks were normal plant operations and Bacti samples/testing.
As for work planned, Blair shared several items, including normal plant operations, routine maintenance, bromate and flouride testing, additional ozone tank cleaning, and compressor replacement on well 3.
Blair will attend scheduled WRWA training in March and April as well.

Wastewater
Included in the wastewater department report, Wastewater operator Jake Lukes reported normal plant operations since last report, including “TSS, PH, BOD, DO, and Po4 testing on industries influent and effluent.” Lukes reported continuing optimization to meet phosphorous limits of 0.075, as well as pressing of sludge on the belt press and hauling it to landfill. the compressor in basement is hooked up and running, with a proficiency test made for TSS to certify the lab. A DMR report had been completed for submittal to the DNR, while Crane Engineering had finished installing pumps in the basement and interviews held for sewer operator.
That wasn’t all.
“Caterpillar tested generators for load testing and did inspections,” Lukes wrote.
As for work planned at the wastewater plant, Lukes shared “daily plant operations, sludge pumping and hauling, continued working on maintenance, and mowing of the reed beds.”

Streets, Grounds, and Cemetery
Shared for highlights from public works, Streets and Grounds Foreman Joe Schmitt said the commercial snowblower had been tore down, due to component parts overdue for replacement.
“Tore down commercial snowblower,” he wrote. “Components were way overdue for replacement. Tracking new parts down from Wausau equipment, having other parts fabricated by local vendors.”
Schmitt also shared that the department had been covering down in the water department since one of the two employees had quit.
“STREET DEPARTMENT HAS BEEN COVERING DOWN IN THE WATER DEPARTMENT SINCE LAST WATER DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEE QUITTING,” Schmitt wrote following Quinton Howell’s departure. “MAKING SURE THE CENTRAL WATER PLANT IS TAKEN CARE OF AND GETTING EVERYTHING DONE THAT’S NEEDED.” Schmitt shared as well that the Northwest Plant had been cleaned and that Korenuk had installed a heater in the chemical room at the plant.
“Ordered a new outside light for Well house number 5,” Schmitt wrote. “Hasn’t worked for over a year.” Streets and Grounds was also assisting the sewer department when needed due to an employee shortage there.”
As for more routine work, Elk feed had been ordered, the department watering and feeding the herd each day. Also in department updates was snow removal, putting sand on city streets, an annual salt/sand inspection, and holding of the monthly recycling event, as well as maintenance.
“Washed plow trucks, grease and weekly maintenance,” Schmitt wrote. “Loaded and hauled scrap.”
As for work planned, items included snow plowing, street sanding, taking down Christmas lights, a side shields upgrade on the big snowblower, and planned preparation of city buildings for upcoming rentals.
“Prep city buildings for upcoming rentals,” Schmitt wrote for work planned.
Closing out highlights from streets and grounds, Schmitt shared that interviews had been conducted for the campground host at Chapman Park Campground and that the department was working with Xcel on scheduling a day to stand up the light pole south of the highway. The department was also working with Ideal Electric on replacing the eight lights under the Highway bridge and had just ordered new ones to install when they came in.
Monthly safety training was planned as well in the department.