Short meeting otherwise standard under Haas

Listed on the Council agenda for the January 4 meeting was a relative short list. Item one, Call the meeting to order. Item two, recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Item three: take roll call. Item Four: Approve of the agenda as presented…Item 12, Call for adjournment. Approximate time in total to from start to finish? Just fourteen-and-a-half minutes. Yay for recess!

“I’m going to call this meeting to order,” Stanley mayor Al Haas said over speakerphone as the Stanley Common Council met in a part on-site, part virtually attended meeting in terms of the Council members for Monday January 4. Upon roll call, First Ward aldermen Rick Hodowanic and Mark Fitzsimmons were present in the chamber, together with Second Ward alderman Kent Barby, Third Ward alderman Jacob Huff, and Fourth thru Eighth Ward alderwomen Laurie Foster and Holly Kitchell. Mayor Al Haas and Second Ward Alderman Kevin Hendrickson attended remotely, giving input.

First up in Council business was the consent agenda. With motion by Barby seconded by Foster the consent items were approved. Listed among them was approval of the previous December 21, 2020 Council minutes, review of the bi-monthly reports from each of the five city departments (Water, Wastewater, Public Works, Police and Fire) along with the clerk; approval of an operator license for Brian W. McMurray and the resignation of Edward A. Russell as a part-time police officer. Last but not least, there was the Community cetner update, contained in a series of email and memo correspondence, provided in partial summary for the record: Per a Cedar Corporation memo, contractor Market and Johnson made application for Payment No. 1 totaling $200,630.18 for work completed from November 1 through November 30. “The project is progressing well and is on schedule,” the Cedar Corp memo by Corey Scheidler states in part.” The underground utilities have been installed and the foundations have been completed. The project will remain idle, while the precast concrete wall panels are being fabricated. The panels are scheduled to be on-site in March. At that time the construction will commence on the building and remaining site work,” Scheidler wrote the Council in his memo dated December 11, 2020. Also included was the news that a sewer lateral was 20 feet away from where it was mapped at in City-provided plans.

“While installing the underground utilities, the contractor damaged the lateral to the existing restroom building,” Scheidler states in his memo. “This lateral was shown on the plans based on the information provided by the City, however, the later was located about 20’ away,” he said, going on.

“The contractor has excavated and began repair on the lateral, however, it was discovered that the existing line was not connected. This required additional excavation and repairs. We are working with the contractor to establish the cost of the repairs,” he said, thanking the City for the opportunity to work with it. The Contractor’s Payment Application had more details. With a total of $118,533 in change order costs subtracted from the initial contract price of $1,480,384 to arrive at $1,361,851, and five percent of the initial payment being held in retainage, the net amount that Market and Johnson applied to receive from the City of Stanley was $200,630.18. Come March, the construction will re-commence. Returning to the council agenda for January 4, it was banking time!

“We have a few accounts at Marine,” Mayor Haas said as the decision was made to make Forward Financial the City’s official banker. With Associated Bank electing to optimize itself out of the area, city workers could make deposits at Forward Financial as just blocks from City Hall, rather than a 25-minute drive to Chippewa Falls, the last per MapQuest. Banker choices have depositor consequences, it would seem. Moving from banks to bonus payments, the Council approved a 2020 contract with Water Operator Dean Schneider including a $4,000 bonus payment, the contract being negotiated in 2019. With motion by Fitzsimmons seconded by Huff, the contract payment was approved. “One-time,” Barby clarified of the payment prior to the vote tally.

Moving from water operations to land sales, the Council approved the Developer’s Agreement with Stanley Truck Sales for a property sale as recommended by the Committee of the Whole. Upon roll call vote, Barby cast the sole ‘no’ vote. Perhaps an unintended consequence of the recent upheaval at the Clerk’s Office, a closed session meeting prior to the regular council meeting was not properly noticed prior to January 4. Wisconsin Open Meetings law is tabulated in Chapter 19 of the state statutes, for those wishing to review these things. Yours truly had to re-check things just to be sure. At the same time and following upon the Developer’s Agreement with Stanley Truck Sales, the Council used Resolution 2020-015 to approve the replacement of outgoing Clerk Donelle Spaulding with Nicole Thiel, adjournment quickly following. At just fourteen minutes and thirty seconds long, the short January 4 regular council meeting was relatively standard in the Al Haas administration.

In the on-site absence of Mayor Al Haas, Council President Kent Barby took the gavel post, while Haas phoned in to run the meeting from an off-site location, Kevin Hendrickson also phoning in. Not shown but still present at the Stanley Fire Hall Monday was city alderman Jacob Huff. Staff photo.