Elk Mound police department faced with increasing number of calls
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
ELK MOUND — Over the past 20 years, the Elk Mound Police Department has been receiving an ever-increasing number of calls.
When Randy Bartelt was the police chief, there were 701 calls per year, and last year, the Elk Mound Police Department had 1,106 total calls, said Chad Weinberger, Elk Mound Police Chief, at the Elk Mound Village Board’s January 15 meeting.
Bartelt retired as the police chief in Elk Mound in 2012.
Police Chief Weinberger has told the village board many times over the past several years that the police department in Elk Mound must hire more police officers, and that as the Settlers Ridge apartment complex continues to grow, so will the number of calls for service.
When the plan for Settlers Ridge is completed, the population of the village is expected to triple.
The police department deals with quite a few violations of the village’s junk ordinance and issues pertaining to dog licenses, Police Chief Weinberger said, attributing those problems to the rental properties in the village and the frequent turn-over in residents who are not familiar with the village’s ordinances.
The Elk Mound Police Department had 63 calls for service in December, the police chief noted.
Burglary
One village board member asked about the burglary outside of town where two dogs had been stolen from the house.
The suspect was placed into custody in Elk Mound, Police Chief Weinberger said.
According to a Facebook post by the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department on January 5, sheriff’s deputies had responded to the scene of a home invasion that morning in the state Highway 40 Elk Mound/Colfax area.
The suspect had removed the doorbell camera and then took two dogs from the home.
The Facebook post was made at 10:25 a.m., and one person was taken into custody at 10:39 a.m.
The suspect took the dogs and their toys, and then the dogs were running around the Village of Elk Mound and had to be “corralled,” the police chief said, noting that addressing mental health issues is of the utmost importance.
The dogs were scared and did not know what was going on or where they were, the police chief said.
Many issues
Throughout the year, the Elk Mound Police Department deals with a variety of issues, such as animal complaints, alarms (medical pendants and fire alarms, for example), EMS assists, ordinance issues (such as snow on the sidewalk or long grass), records checks, many different traffic issues, drug cases, sexual assault cases and juvenile issues, Police Chief Weinberger said.
One Elk Mound middle school student was stealing pills from his mother’s prescription and then selling them for $5 each at school, he said.
The day of the village board meeting, because of the severely cold weather, the Elk Mound Police Department received a call from a citizen concerned about dog outside in the cold, the police chief said.
As it turned out, the dog was located outside of the village limits, so Police Chief Weinberger directed the person to call the agency with the proper jurisdiction.
The Elk Mound Police Department spent a significant amount of time investigating a sexual assault, but late last year, the victim decided not to go forward with the case, Police Chief Weinberger said.
In the past year, there was also one suicide in the village, he said, noting that the police department has to investigate a suicide as if it were a homicide until it can be proven that it was not a homicide.
There was also a truck versus a train crash. The driver of the truck survived and then pleaded not guilty to not stopping within a certain distance of the train tracks, the police chief said.
The video from the train has been released, and it will be Exhibit A if the case goes to court, he said.
Evidence
Since the Elk Mound Police Department deals with a wide variety of cases, the evidence room is running out of room, Police Chief Weinberger said.
The police department must keep evidence, such as drugs and items stolen during burglaries, for a certain amount of the time while the case is pending and then for a certain period of time after the case has been resolved, he said.
Village employees at the village hall, where the police department is located, have said that the smell of marijuana and methamphetamine stored as evidence at the police department has been affecting their working conditions, Police Chief Weinberger said.
There is a proposal to build a 13 foot by 18 foot secure storage room in cold storage at the Department of Public Works building, said Mark Levra, director of public works.
The issues of constructing another evidence storage room and hiring more personnel for the police department will be separate items on another agenda and also will have to be discussed by the public safety committee and the property and finance committee, said Terry Stamm, village president.
Referendum
Karin Wolf, village clerk-treasurer, reported that Elk Mound resident Tom Gilbert was working on gathering signatures for a referendum question pertaining to the addition of fluoride to the village’s water supply.
Gilbert had requested public document records containing information about fluoride, and Levra said he had provided the documents.
Gilbert is concerned that fluoride in the drinking water at high levels can cause neurological deficiencies, Levra said.
If a referendum were to pass, there would have to be four public meetings, including one with the Department of Health and one with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Levra said, noting that it is Gilbert’s legal right to ask for a referendum.
There appears to be no value for the teeth of adults, but fluoride in the water has been demonstrated to help children’s teeth, he said.
Levra, who said he did not initiate the addition of fluoride to Elk Mound’s drinking water, said he must test the water daily for fluoride and that a sample must be sent monthly to the Wisconsin Department of Health for testing to make sure that Elk Mound’s meter is dispensing the correct amount of fluoride within .03.
Municipalities are allowed to add up to 4 parts per million of fluoride. Elk Mound adds .7 parts per million, and the optimal amount of fluoride is between .7 and .9 parts per million, Levra said.
Elk Mound is “nowhere near 4 parts per million,” he said.
Pat Hahn, village trustee, asked how many signatures Gilbert needed for his petition to add the referendum question.
The number of signatures needed is 15 percent of the last general election in November of 2022, so in this case, Gilbert is required to gather 51 valid signatures, Wolf said.
The deadline for returning the petition to Wolf was January 23, and Wolf’s deadline to turn the petition into Andrew Mercil, Dunn County clerk, was January 24.
Meetings
Stamm reported that Elk Mound’s attorney, Jason Brasch with the law office of Bakke Norman, would be attending the village board meeting February 5 at 6 p.m. to talk about the issue of one or two meetings per month and changing the compensation of village trustees during their term in office.
The village board also will be meeting in closed session that evening to discuss the lease on the cellular tower in the village park, he said.
Other business
In other business, the Elk Mound Village Board:
• Sent the issue of the village park rental policy to the property and finance committee for discussion and a recommendation to the village board. Cynthia Abraham, village trustee and the chair of the property and finance committee, said the committee would be meeting before the next village board meeting and would bring a recommendation to the village board.
• Approved hiring two part-time Limited Term Employment (LTE) police officers through December 31, 2024: Ethan Kjellberg and David Vodenlich. The village board approves hiring the LTE officers each year. Kjellberg works full-time with the Barron Police Department, and Vodenlich is employed by the Boyceville Police Department, Police Chief Weinberger said. Both of them are dedicated and well-qualified police officers, he said.
