Boyceville Village Board approves site for new library and moving forward with pickleball courts at Pafko
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By Renee Bettendorf
BOYCEVILLE- With four members present at the Boyceville Village board meeting held on Monday evening the board approved the old feed mill site to be redeveloped into the new library, approved going forward with pickleball courts at Andy Pafko Park and decided to sign a non-disclosure agreement with Ohly.
Boyceville Public Library Board Member Joe Pieters attended the meeting and asked the board to approve the vacant lot where the feed mill used to be for the possible construction of a new library. He said the library board is applying for a grant to fund the project but in order to complete the grant application process, they need to have the land for the building.
“We’ve had contact with MSA about writing the grant. We need to have the land before they can give us the contract,” said Pieters.
The old feed mill site was one of three sites researched for the project. After some discussion about parking, impacts on Pickle Fest and the orientation of the new building, the board approved the old feed mill site to be redeveloped into a new library if the grant is awarded.
Board Trustee, Jonathan Farrell pointed out that an advantage of the feed mill site is that a library would be more visible there as opposed to the other two sites that were investigated. He made a motion to allow a library to possibly be built on the site and the board approved it unanimously.
Boyceville School District Administrator, Nick Kaiser presented to the board a plan to convert the existing tennis courts at Andy Pafko Park into four pickleball courts. He said the school district would fund the project through the community education fund. After completion of the project the pickleball courts would become the village’s responsibility to maintain.
Board President Luke Montgomery related that he had stopped by Wakanda Park in Menomonie one recent weekday morning and found their pickleball courts to be fully in use. The board agreed that the courts would be a nice addition to the village and approved going forward with the project.
“We’ve had a lot of interest in this and those tennis courts are not in good shape at all,” Montgomery said of the pickleball project.
The board also approved to enter into a non-disclosure agreement with Ohly. Montgomery said the village’s lawyer had looked the agreement over and had approved of it. The agreement states that the board needs to refer to Ohly as ‘the company’ during open board meetings. The board also can not enter into public record anything an Ohly representative says at a meeting unless they give that to the board in writing.
“They don’t want information to get out there that their competitors could use,” said Montgomery.
The board has had many discussions about Ohly over the past few months in regards to the work being done on the villages’ wastewater treatment system. Since Ohly uses the village’s wastewater treatment facility extensively, they are a factor in how and when the facility should be expanded. Since Ohly is a topic of discussion at board meetings, they are reported on in the local newspaper.
“Ever since those numbers hit the paper, they have completely shut their mouths to us about their plans,” said Montgomerey. “I had to reassure them that we have freedom of the press”.
Director of Public Works Craig Dotseth said he didn’t feel anything discussed by the board was proprietary in nature. Farrell wondered if Ohly is just taking proactive measures to prevent any possible proprietary information from becoming public.
Reports
In his report to the board, Dotseth told the board that his department rebuilt, painted and reinstalled the merry-go-round at Andy Pafko Park. The refurbished piece of playground equipment was painted Allis Chalmers orange and has been a big hit with area youngsters.
“The merry-go round looks amazing,” said Montgomery.
Dotseth also told the board that a small trailer that was not big enough for the villages’ mowing equipment to be hauled upon was taken to a local auction house as were several old street signs. He noted that the street signs were currently at $35 a piece, a fair amount more than what the village used to get for them at the local scrap yard.
The department also spent some time clearing a mysterious slime from wastewater lift station number three. He said the substance clung to their shovels and did not mix with water at all, he suspected someone dumped it on the village.
“We don’t know what it was and it was really weird,” he said of the substance.
“Sounds like a 1980’s horror flick,” joked Montgomery.
When asked if they had any questions for Dotseth, the board complimented him saying the village is looking good.
“Thank you, everything is looking great in town,” said Board Trustee, Sonya Zebro.
In her report to the board Village Clerk/Treasurer, Brittany Halvorson reported that the village’s recycling came in at 29 more tons than last year. She double checked the numbers and the increase may be due to better recycling practices in the village.
She also said that the campground is scheduled to open the Thursday before Memorial Day and that the airport credit card reader has been up and running for two weeks. She continues to work on the lead inventory postcards, which is a project that has to be completed by October. She urged everyone to get the word out for village residents to turn in their lead inventory cards.
The request to the state to open up a section of highway 170 between Duffy St. and West St. to ATV traffic is being considered by the state. Halvorson said the request is pending on several follow up items and paperwork that she is working on. Halvorson also reported that May 28th will be Middle School Service Day at Andy Pafko Park. At the event they plan to stain the bleachers and paint the trash cans.
At the conclusion of her report the board thanked Halvorson and her staff for their service in honor of National Clerks’ Week.
Police Chief’s Report
Police Chief Greg Lamkin presented his report to the board which stated that the department has had 578 calls for service so far this year compared to 334 at this time last year. There were 51 traffic stops, 37 ordinance complaints, 4 accidents, 124 business checks/area and vacation watches and 89 citations issued in the month of April.
He also noted that nearly ten pounds of unwanted medications were turned in for destruction last month during the drug take back event and that the department is running a bit under budget.
Also in his report Chief Lamkin went over some significant cases for the month of April. There were two cases where drivers were cited for operating without a license. One for a second offense and another for a third offense.
After investigating a littering complaint that was brought up at a board meeting in April he was able to identify a suspect and cite him for one count of littering and give him a warning to clean up his mess. The owner failed to comply so Dotseth and Chief Lamkin cleaned up the mess. The litterer was then cited for an additional 11 counts.
During a traffic stop the driver provided false identification. Chief Lamkin arrested him for a traffic offense and obstructing an officer. The jail staff fingerprinted the suspect but released him before getting positive identification. The next morning, he arrested the suspect again after learning his identity. The suspect was charged with felony bail jumping.
Officer David Vodenlich responded to the high school for a report of a possible sexual assault. He investigated and determined it was consensual contact and both juveniles were cited with obscenity/lewd and lascivious behavior.
In other business the Boyceville Village Board:
• Learned from the Village Engineer, Eric Barclay that Sykora Lane is scheduled to be topographically mapped soon.
• Heard from Library Director, Kallie Anderson that circulation is back to pre-covid levels, the book club has expanded in membership and story hour numbers remain strong.
• Scheduled the next committee of the whole meeting for May 28.
