EM village board approves 2nd Eagle Scout project for Lions Club ball park
By LeAnn R. Ralph
ELK MOUND — The Elk Mound Village Board has approved a second Eagle Scout project for the Lions Club ball park.
Bowdrie Noller spoke to the Elk Mound Village Board at the February 3 meeting about his proposal to install a new electronic scoreboard with a time clock at Field No. 1 at the Lions Club Park.
The village board approved an Eagle Scout project for Andrew Benson in March of 2014 for Field No. 1 for improvements to the backstop.
Benson’s project was completed last summer.
Bowdrie, the son of Dave and Brandi Noller of Elk Mound and Joy Stanek of Eau Claire, is a sophomore at Elk Mound High School.
Brandi Noller is employed at H&H Plumbing in Colfax.
The new scoreboard will be five feet by four feet, Bowdrie told the village board.
The cost of the new scoreboard will be about $6,500, which is approximately $2,000 less than the cost Bowdrie had initially researched.
As soon as the village board approves the scoreboard, Bowdrie said he will be able to begin fundraising for the project.
The Elk Mound’s Lions Club Park ball field is used by a large number of Little League players and also is used by Elk Mound High School teams.
Bowdrie, who fifteen-and-a-half, will need to have the project completed within two years, before he turns 18 and “times out” of Boy Scouts.
The Elk Mound High School sophomore says he hopes to have enough funds raised within a year to move forward with his project.
Fundraising, he said, will include approaching local businesses to ask if they would be willing to contribute to the scoreboard project.
The back side of the scoreboard will face county Highway H, and there will be room on the back for the names of three or four sponsors, he said.
The Elk Mound Village Board unanimously approved Bowdrie Noller’s proposal for raising funds and installing a new scoreboard within two years at the Lions Club Ball Park Field No. 1.
Andy Peterson, village president, along with village trustees Tom Gilbert, Brenda Carpenter, Tony Schrantz, and Terry Stamm voted in favor of the motion.
Village trustees Chad Mousel and Travis Wenzel were absent from the meeting.
Other business
In other business, the Elk Mound Village Board:
• Learned that the Bremer Bank branch in Elk Mound is closing. Pat Hahn, village clerk-treasurer, said she had arranged to do a remote deposit of checks using a check scanner and that she can take cash to the Bremer Bank branch in Colfax or in Eau Claire.
• Learned that Elk Mound Police Chief Travis Hakes had received a complaint about village employees snowplowing too early in the morning. The police chief said he had researched the village’s ordinances but that there was nothing pertaining to the times when village employees are allowed to plow snow. Gilbert pointed out that other people complain if the streets are not cleared of snow by 7 a.m.
• Approved a bartender operator’s license for Erin Kinney for The Pourhouse.
• Approved purchasing fire hose and nozzle for the public works department in an amount not to exceed $915. The fire hose used by the public works department now is 20 years old and was donated to the village by the Elk Mound fire department. The hose and nozzle is used for a variety of purposes, such as flooding the ice skating rink and cleaning, said Mark Levra, director of public works. The cost for the purchase includes $325 for the nozzle and $170 for the freight. Several village board members questioned the price of $325 for a nozzle, but Levra said new nozzles purchased by the fire department cost around $1,000.