Boyceville looks at financing utilities on Sykora Lane
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by Renee Bettendorf
BOYCEVILLE-At their meeting on Monday evening, the Boyceville Village Board discussed several items of note including the development of Sykora Lane, the new library building project and some incidents that happened at the airport bathrooms.
Sykora Lane, which is located near the post office and could be a new housing development if water, sewer and streets were installed, was one topic of discussion.
Board President, Luke Montgomery told the board that he took a close look at an estimate that was prepared by a financial firm for the village for Sykora Lane. The estimate is for two phases of development; the first phase would bring water, sewer and streets to five lots and the second phase would bring it to 12 more lots. The financial firm that the village works with has cleared the village for a loan for phase one but not for phase two.
“I didn’t see that being feasible,” Montgomery said of a two phase plan.
Montgomery specifically looked at the cost of hydrants, manholes and valves to learn what parts of the project would fall under water and sewer. According to his calculations, about $379,000 of the project would fall under water and sewer. Based on the villages’ water and sewer funds he thinks the village could cover that part of the project with funding on hand.
The village would still have to borrow about $704,000 for the project and that would include putting in the streets. If they were to take out such a loan, the village would still have about $694,000 of borrowing capacity left, according to Montgomery.
Village Trustee, Jo Dormanen asked if using water and sewer funds for the Sykora Lane project would have an impact on the water and sewer upgrades that the village is undertaking currently.
Eric Barclay, an engineer at MSA Professional Services, said that the village will get financing for the sewer revamp project through a loan from the DNR. That would be a separate loan that the village would pay back over 20 years with the water/sewer fund.
Montgomery would like to find out how the village can fund both the sewer revamp and running water and sewer out to Sykora Lane.
“We need to spark development,” he said.
Village Trustee, Megan Mittlestadt wondered if completing phase one would generate funding to complete phase two. Clerk Treasurer Brittany Halvorson said the problem with that plan is that the TID district could time out before the village could complete the development and sell the lots.
The board went on to discuss interim financing, mill rates, a possible referendum and timelines for both projects. In the end they decided to talk more with the village’s financial advisor. Barclay said he would take a look at the Sykora Lane plans which were drawn up in 2005 by another engineering firm and come up with an estimate on any updates.
Library Building Project
Village Trustee, Jonathan Farrell asked the board about how the new library building project should be managed. Should the Library Board be in charge of the project completely or should the Village Board have more of a say he asked.
Mittlestadt said that while the Village Board is ultimately responsible for the library, it does not have the capacity to manage such a large project. As a result, she thinks the Library Board should do the research and legwork for the project and bring back detailed reports to the Village Board for approval.
After quite a lot of discussion, the board agreed. They decided to ask the Library Director to come to Village Board meetings to update the board on how the project is going.
Airport Bathroom Incidents
Director of Public Works, Craig Dotseth was absent from the meeting so Montgomery read his report which informed the board that the public works crew cleaned the airport bathroom “multiple times of fecal matter, adult diapers and other debris”. The crew then posted the bathrooms as out of order, locked the building and removed the old dumpster enclosure.
“We’ve been having some issues with the airport bathroom for a few months now,” said Halvorson.
Halvorson went on to explain that there have been issues with a homeless person using the bathrooms for showering and living. The village has cleaned the bathroom many times, which is not safe due to the high level of uncleanliness left behind by the homeless person.
She said they made the decision to close the bathrooms and have installed a lock that requires a code to open. Pilots are provided the code so they have access to the bathrooms, but currently the general public can not use them.
Halvorson said that she and her staff are working on a plan for how to manage airport bathroom usage when the campground opens since those bathrooms are also used by campers. They probably will have one code for pilots, another for police and a third code that will change periodically for campers.
“Since it’s been closed it’s been just fine,” she said of the bathroom.
Montgomery said that he wanted to make it clear that the village does not want to discriminate against homeless people.
“We have tried to get this person help a number of times,” he said.
Police Chief Greg Lamkin agreed with Montgomery, saying that he has spoken with this individual several times and reached out to human services and the person’s family members on their behalf to no avail. The person prefers to live in their car.
Later in the meeting the board unanimously approved a new ordinance that bans sleeping or living in vehicles in the village.
Reports
The board heard from Airport Manager, Joel Timblin that the airport is now able to sell fuel again and that they are working on getting a credit card fuel payment system up and running. He also said that four people inquired about renting hangers recently but there were none available.
He had an inquiry recently about how to go about building a hangar at the Boyceville Airport and it looks like that individual will be moving forward with building a new hangar. Additionally Timblin reported that so far 11 hot air balloon pilots have sent in RSVPs for the Cucumber Festival this year. Last year there were six hot air balloon pilots at the festival.
In Lamkin’s report the board learned that the police department issued 17 citations and made nine arrests in March. They had 129 calls for service, one of which involved a pursuit. In the pursuit case, Lamkin conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle for expired registration and determined that the vehicle was stolen.
The driver then fled the scene and Lamkin followed but had to end the chase due to poor road conditions. The suspect was located a short time later and engaged in another vehicle pursuit which ended when the suspect crashed the stolen truck into a wooded area in St. Croix County.
The suspect was found to have provided false information, had removed the VIN number from the vehicle and was in possession of methamphetamine. The suspect was charged with seven felonies.
In other business, the Boyceville Village Board:
• Learned from Timblin that the airport will hold a social on June 18.
• Heard from Barclay that progress is being made on the wastewater treatment plant upgrades.
• Learned from Halvorson that 209 people voted in the village at the April 2 election, 30 fewer than last year’s spring election.
• Thanked Mittlestadt, who did not seek reelection this spring, for her service on the board.
• Went into closed session and approved a motion to submit an option to purchase a site for a new library.
