Wheeler to consider sand company donation in January

By LeAnn R. Ralph

WHEELER — The Wheeler Village Board has agreed that the $100,000 donation from Wisconsin Industrial Sand should be on the agenda for the January meeting.

James Carter, village president, wondered at the December 11 Wheeler Village Board meeting if some of the money should be placed in a Certificate of Deposit.

If half of the money is placed in a CD or some other safe form of investment, the village would still have $50,000 available in reserve if needed, he said.

At the August meeting, the village’s financial advisor, Sean Lentz of Ehlers and Associates, recommended that the village borrow money to bring the general fund balance back up to $200,000 to eliminate annual cash flow borrowing.

The Wheeler Village Board subsequently approved borrowing $100,000 for an interim loan for short-term funding and approved applying for a $100,000 state trust fund loan.

At the September meeting, the Wheeler Village Board approved an agreement with Wisconsin Industrial Sand/Fairmount Minerals to pay the village a one-time fee of $100,000 to cover the period from October 1, 2012, through September 30, 2017.

Fairmount Minerals had previously been paying a per-ton tipping fee for the sand loading facility in Wheeler several times per year.

In 2011, Fairmount Minerals/Wisconsin Industrial Sand paid the Village of Wheeler in the neighborhood of $25,000.

If neither the village nor Fairmount Minerals gives written notice by the end of the five-year period, the fee will remain $100,000 for the subsequent five years and will be payable again on October 10, 2017, according to the agreement.

If the village and Fairmount agree the fee should be adjusted, the parties will attempt to negotiate a revised fee. If the village and Fairmount are unable to agree on the revised fee, a panel of arbitrators will decide.

The village and Fairmount will each select an arbitrator, and the two arbitrators will select a third member.

According to the agreement with Wheeler, Fairmount also will provide 40 hours of community service to the village for each year of the term of the agreement, for a total of 200 hours.