EM approves $282,254 tax levy for 2016 budget
By LeAnn R. Ralph
ELK MOUND — The Elk Mound Village Board has approved a property tax levy of $282,254 for the 2016 budget.
The property tax levy will amount to $2,547 per $100,000 of assessed value, said Pat Hahn, village clerk-treasurer, at the Elk Mound Village Board’s November 18 meeting.
The tax levy for the 2016 budget represents a $12 increase per $100,000 of assessed value over the tax levy for this year’s budget, she said.
Last year, the tax levy per $100,000 of assessed property value was $2,535, Hahn noted.
The property tax levy of $282,254 is $10,000 more than the levy for the 2015 budget, she said.
The projected mill rate is .025479211 or about $2.55 per $1,000 of property value.
The Elk Mound Village Board has not yet approved a budget for 2016.
LRIP
Mark Levra, director of public works, reported that the Elk Mound will be receiving $14,861.92 in Local Road Improvement Program grant money from the state Department of Transportation for the north half of Garland Avenue.
The original amount of LRIP money was $13,021, he said.
The LRIP money is administered through the county, and generally speaking, municipalities in the county take turns receiving the LRIP money.
Since this is not “Elk Mound’s year” for LRIP money, Levra said he was surprised the village received a grant.
Colfax, Boyceville and Ridgeland also applied for LRIP money, but because of the size of the project, Ridgeland will receive $7,500 instead of $13,021, Levra said.
County officials decided to split the difference with the other municipalities for the money that will be not be going to Ridgeland, he said.
Because Ridgeland will be receiving a smaller LRIP grant, Elk Mound gained $1,841.
Levra also reported that the Dunn County highway department is quoting a price of $10,300 for the first 300 feet of Elk Mound Drive.
Other business
In other business, the Elk Mound Village Board:
• Learned that the Elk Mound police department had responded to 18 incidents in the village for the month of October and that the county had responded to 58 calls for service in Elk Mound. Village Trustee Brenda Carpenter said the number of calls to Dunn County was the result of cars parked on Princeton Drive that were all broken into on the same evening.
• Learned from Village Trustee Travis Wenzel, who is the village’s representative on the fire board, that the Elk Mound fire department has received a new thermal imaging camera.
• Set a meeting for the public works committee on December 9 at 6:15 p.m. to discuss the water and sewer budget for 2016.
• Approved several ordinance revisions based on committee recommendations to add crossbows to the hunting ordinance and to add air guns. The changes are necessary for the village’s ordinances to conform with state law.
• Approved an ordinance revision to add Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. to the noise ordinance as the time when noisy activities can be conducted on weekends, such as construction, demolition, building repair, and running chainsaws and leaf blowers. Carpenter wondered if the village will receive more complaints from noisy activities or more complaints about the restrictions on noisy activities. Snow removal equipment is not included in the noise ordinance timeframe for weekends.
• Approved paying $7,020 in engineering fees to CBS Squared for the the North Garland Avenue project, contingent upon the money for the project being included in the 2016 budget. Approving the engineering now will allow the village to advertise for bids for the project in January when contractors are lining up work for the following construction season, noted Terry Stamm, village trustee.
• Approved a letter written to the DNR by Mark Levra with a timeline for complying with the items identified by the DNR inspection. The deadline for submitting the letter to the DNR is December 18. Levra said he had already completed half of the items on the list.