The Town of Ford met recently the night of September 16, 2020 at the Senior Center across from theVillage Hall, in Gilman. Meeting at a square table composed of two long rectangular ones bunched together and across the room from a makeshift wood-framed multi-booth plastic sneezeguard for voters, the pre-meeting was low key, before things got serious toward the quarter hour.

“Ok, I’ll call the meeting to order,” Chairman Bob Baker said to those gathered at the square table in the Senior Center at 7:13 p.m. Present and accounted for on September 16 were the Chairman, Clerk Sharon Baker, Treasurer Kim Mayner, Supervisors Larry Hartzell and Leonard Nichols, and two town patrolmen (road workers), Dan Schmitt and Tim Larson. “We’re a town so big we need two grader operators,” the explanation was made by one present.

After the orange cheese curds were passed and the meeting called to order it was reported that the Town of Ford up by Gilman was in trouble with the Wisconsin DNR. After dutifully doing some re-ditching work as asked by the state agency up on 558th/Trucker’s Lane in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, a check by the state agency had revealed that four trees had been uprooted in the process of securing a necessary roadside drainage canal. Uprooted trees are a big ‘no thank you’ for the state’s environmental watchdog. A review of the site located 3.7 miles from Highway 64 traveling eastbound on 558th Avenue (also called Truckers Lane) shows a concave ditch with intermittent bare hillsides on either side for over a mile. Photos of the site were shared at the meeting, with uprooted trees showing the issue. Locally it’s more of a nuisance issue, though not discounted.

“That hillside washes out each time it rains,” one member said of the spot in question, with town Chairman Baker suggesting that if the state agency wanted to complain, they should do their own roadwork, not call on the township to do it.

“If the DNR wants to criticize ditch work, they shouldn’t ask townships to do their roads,” Baker said at the Wednesday, September 16 meeting in a common refrain of local governments toward distant bureaucrats. The road in question is a gravel lane extending onward from blacktop into the forest. Supervisor Leonard Nichols had his own take on the issue.

“We still have to answer to Forestry,” Nichols said of the various bureaucratic apparatus the township deals with. Meanwhile Clerk Baker with 22 years of local government experience will be leaving her post soon, with some loose ends to tie up first.

“I’m telling you with this election you better dot your i’s and cross your t’s,” Baker said of the upcoming November Presidential contest. Baker also wanted to hire another election worker and thought that offering $10 an hour instead of $8 for election workers was necessary given other townships offers. That wasn’t all, though.

She told the other town board members and road crew present September 16. “You’ll be getting a new clerk. Whether you like it or not.” Baker said she had found someone that she would be training into the post, someone who was reportedly better with computers. Before the new clerk’s training could happen though, the Town of Ford needed to figure out its budget for next year, and Baker asked the town supervisors and chairman what they wanted so that it could be prepared. She also asked to know who wouldn’t be running in the spring election, so she could post a notice in the paper.

“No one knows what’s happening in the Town of Ford,” Baker shared, with a supervisor offering that this was what the notices were for.

“Yeah, well that’s not how it works,” the other supervisor said. The village of Gilman and surrounding area is currently without a resident official newspaper and served by the Medford Star-News 22 miles distant in the county capital. From there it was into a discussion of the money market and Grader CD balances of the township, as well as general finances.

Sharing the Treasurer’s Report, it was stated by Mayner that the August money market account balance was $61,964.87 after $46.65 interest was tallied, while the township Grader CD had fully matured that night and came out to $52,009.06 after $299.57 interest was tallied. The consideration was made that another CD wouldn’t come out much different than a money market account would at maturity with the interest offered and that a money market account could have funds withdrawn if needed as opposed to being locked in like a CD. Supervisor Hartzell made a motion to drop the CD renewal option and go with the money market account, the motion being seconded by Nichols. An increase in the town’s valuation from $21 million to $24 million was reported having followed some land sales, while the reported difficulty of keeping staff at the recently expanded Western Taylor County Public Library in Gilman was also remarked upon. The new library addition on the village hall was all but complete, but keeping directors was difficult as it was reported that one initially enthusiastic director had stayed for just a month-and-a half before he had left for a full-time job. Before long it was time to adjourn.

“I’ll make a motion to adjourn,” Nichols said.

“And I’ll second it,” Hartzell followed. The next town board meeting for Ford is scheduled on October 21, following the annual budget meeting that precedes it at 6:00 p.m.

The Town of Ford near Gilman ran into trouble with the state DNR after recent ditch work the township performed for it on a forest road continuing from Trucker’s Lane into the Chequamagon-NicoletNational Forest saw four trees get uprooted in pursuit of a drainage canal, with one such tree shown in this photo at the recent town meeting.