Apex Dental purchases former Marshfield Clinic in Elk Mound
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
ELK MOUND — Apex Dental has purchased the former Marshfield Clinic building in Elk Mound and has started operations there.
Apex Dental makes dentures, and the company is excited to be in Elk Mound, said Terry Stamm, village president, at the Elk Mound Village Board’s September 16 meeting.
Stamm said he was not sure how many people are employed by Apex Dental but that he has counted between 17 and 21 cars at the facility.
Apex Dental has done some remodeling on the building, and it would be of benefit for village board members and other officials, such as personnel from the fire department, to tour the building, he said.
The company wants to be part of the community and apparently still needs some employees, Stamm said.
Several village board members had questions about the Tax Increment Finance District that was initially formed to assist Marshfield Clinic with building the facility.
The Marshfield facility was built a little more than 15 years ago. Prior to the Marshfield Clinic proposal to build, Elk Mound did not have any TIF districts.
Some village board members recalled here was a provision about the ownership of the building tied up with the TIF district.
Levra said the ownership has officially changed to Apex Dental.
Pat Hahn, village trustee, said it was her understanding that everything was now in order with the TIF district.
Hahn served as the village’s clerk-treasurer at the time when the Tax Increment Finance District was formed.
According to Apex Dental Lab of Eau Claire’s website, the company has been providing dental restorations and service since 1930.
The company is described as a “full-service dental laboratory that offers high-quality fixed, removable and implant restorations.”
Nuisance trees
The Elk Mound Village Board has again tabled consideration of changing the ordinance on nuisance trees.
Stamm said that he, Levra and Police Chief Chad Weinberger had held a conversation about safety concerning dead trees in the village.
Levra and the police chief are listed as the village’s foresters.
At the August meeting, Levra told the village board all of the trees in Elk Mound that could be infected with the emerald ash borer have already been infected and that there is no longer any possibility of stopping the spread.
Stamm said he would like the ordinance concerning nuisance trees to be on the agenda for next month’s meeting.
In the meantime, Levra and the police chief can work on identifying other trees in the village that pose a safety concern, such as those that might take down power lines, fall across streets or collapse onto houses, he said.
The power supply is the power provider’s responsibility, Levra noted.
The village board should either amend the ordinance or enforce the existing ordinance, Police Chief Weinberger said.
It should be the property owner’s responsibility to call Xcel Energy if it looks as if there could be a problem with a tree and a power line, Stamm said.
There would be hundreds of trees that would need to be addressed if the existing ordinance is followed, the police chief said.
Every ash tree in the village is infected, and the prediction is that 99 percent of the ash trees in the state will be gone by 2026, Levra said.
Abatement now will not stop the spread of the emerald ash borer, so addressing the dead trees would have to be a safety issue, he said.
On a voice vote, the Elk Mound Village Board approved tabling the agenda item regarding the ordinance for abatement of tree disease, Section 6-4-5.
False alarms
During the public comments portion of meeting, Colin Feuster, Elk Mound fire chief, asked the village board to consider changing the ordinance regarding false alarms so that rather than each premise being charged for false alarms, each property owner would be charged.
During the discussion of the agenda item related to the fee schedule for police and fire false alarms, Police Chief Weinberger noted that currently, the first offense is a verbal warning, the second offense is a written warning, the third offense is a $100 fine and fourth and subsequent offenses are $200 each.
The police chief suggested adjusting the fee schedule so that the fines are higher, such as $250 or $500.
By the time a particular property owner has had a third offense in a calendar year, the problem with the alarm should have been figured out, the police chief said, noting that Elk Mound police and fire personnel are not responding to the school district for false alarms, which means that the school district has figured out how to avoid problems with false alarms.
If the false alarm ordinance remains as each address, one property owner could have seven false alarms in a year, each for different addresses, but only face a $100 fine, he said.
If the fine is only $100 for that many offenses, it would not be surprising if the property owner would consider it easier to pay the fine than to figure out why there are so many false alarms, Police Chief Weinberger said.
Meanwhile, if the property owner believes it is cheaper to pay the fine than to address the problem, police and fire personnel are still spending time responding to false alarms, he said.
The Elk Mound Village Board approved sending the issue of the fee schedule for false alarms for police and fire to the public safety committee for consideration.
Other business
In other business, the Elk Mound Village Board:
• Received a request, during public comments, from Tom Gilbert, village resident, to reconsider the practice of adding fluoride to village’s water system. Fluoride is a neurotoxin and poses more risk than gain, said Gilbert, who provided a packet of information for the village board to consider.
• Learned that the public works department had completed televising one-quarter of the village’s sewer mains, as is done every year, and had discovered a 55-foot section on Menomonie Street in which the seams and joints were allowing substantial amounts of groundwater into the system. Levra recommended a fix for the joints to solve the problem. With so much groundwater entering the wastewater treatment system, the village is treating a substantial amount of clean water, he said.
• Learned from Levra that the pilot project at the wastewater treatment plan has brought the phosphorus discharge down from 3.5 milligrams per liter to .2 mg/L.
• Learned that the property and finance committee had met prior to the village board meeting and that committee members had determined a particular dog in the village is a dangerous dog. The village clerk will write a letter to the dog owner, said Cynthia Abraham, village trustee and chair of the property and finance committee. Abraham is a veterinarian.
• Appointed Tim Benjamin, village trustee, to continue as the village’s representative on the Dunn County Economic Development Corporation. DCEDC has changed some of the organizational provisions for board member terms, Benjamin said. The appointment covers a term from January of 2024 to January of 2026.
• Tabled the agenda item related to adding Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) to the village’s ordinances and agreed to research ADU ordinances from other municipalities before the next village board meeting.
• Appointed Abraham and Joyce Price as alternate members for the Board of Review.
