EM achieves “A” on Compliance Maintenance Annual Report
by Cara Dempski
ELK MOUND — Elk Mound has once again achieved an “A” rating on the Compliance Maintenance Annual Report (CMAR) for the village’s wastewater treatment facility.
Mark Levra, director of public works, reported at the June 15 meeting that while the system’s ammonia levels are somewhat higher than the approved “gold standard” range, the village system still rated a B for its monthly average.
The CMAR will be provided to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources as a self-report on the wastewater treatment facility.
As a whole, the wastewater treatment facilities only exceeded the limits for ammonia for one month in 2015. Levra stated during the meeting that “even though that is still a 90% average, it did move us down to that B level.” Overall, Levra stated his satisfaction with the community scoring another A rating, and plans to have the DNR come in soon to assist him in determining ways to better manage the ammonia output in the future.
Public Works Committee Chairman, Terry Stamm, stated that the report is a valuable tool in helping the community stay within its system requirements and plan for future growth. “It’s really just a way to keep track of ourselves and help the DNR keep track of us at the same time,” said Stamm. The board unanimously voted to accept this report to be sent to the DNR.
Levra also reported on the June 10 storm that caused damage to private and public property in the village. Levra and Stamm assisted in cleaning up the road up to the park on top of Mound Hill, which had five fallen trees blocking access to the top. The duo also worked to clean up the walking paths on the hill to make them safe for public use again.
Levra reported that several people called on Saturday, June 11, to offer the village assistance in helping clean up downed trees and branches. He stated that “I mostly directed them to neighborhoods that needed help, because people were mostly on their own for clean-up.” He followed up by stating that the village was opting to not hire a tree service this year for storm clean-up, and was impressed with how well people handled the process of picking up after the storm without the village’s assistance.
In terms of streets and sidewalks, Stamm reported that paving on Elk Mound Drive is now complete, and that it would be shouldered in the next 7 – 14 days. Levra also presented a brief report on the replacement of sidewalks along University Street, stating that the residents there would be assessed the cost of these repairs and replacements on their property taxes over the next five years.
In other news from the board’s meeting, several class B and C retail and off-sale liquor licenses were approved for Moundsview Store, the Junction, and the Pourhouse. Likewise, individual operator licenses were approved for staff members at these locations, despite some concern over one person serving an underage consumer at the Pourhouse and one person having multiple concerning criminal charges listed on the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access Program.
Police Chief Travis Hakes explained that “Dunn County does often do random checks for alcohol and tobacco sales for local businesses.” He further stated that his background checks for all the people listed for individual licensure, while having some red flags for one person, didn’t turn up much more concerning information. He also noted that the person who served an underage consumer at the Pourhouse was “not a problem child, so it’s not like she’s been in and out of jail or anything.”
A kennel license tabled from the previous board meeting was approved unanimously. Also on the agenda was action on an Extraterritorial Certified Survey Map Application submitted by Loren Hanson of Elk Mound. This was tabled due to having already been denied by Dunn County and concerns regarding the accuracy of maps for the Town of Elk Mound.
