Order the Tuesday, June 2nd,
2026 meeting of the City of
Port Washington Common Council.
If you'd all rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.
The Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
and to the republic for which it stands,
one nation under God,
indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
And just a quick comment,
the mayor is out of town and excused.
And I will be presiding and voting tonight.
With that, we'll move into public comments and appearances.
Individuals wishing to speak during public comments will be
limited to a maximum of three minutes per speaker.
The common council has this discretion.
May limit the total time for public comments
to a maximum of 30 minutes for each public comment period.
We have public comments.
And name and address, please.
It could you please sign the clipboard as well.
Thank you. Done.
Tracy Finch, Port Washington, Wisconsin.
Members of the council and the mayor when he listens to this recording.
I am here because our community is being treated as expendable.
And I refuse to let that go unchallenged.
Vantage plans to run the diesel fired emergency generators 45 days every year
four at a time blasting toxic exhaust
into the same air our children, seniors, families breathe.
They keep repeating. It's only an hour.
But that's not how the human body works.
Pollution hits in violent spikes and those spikes land on real people
with real lungs, medical conditions, and vulnerabilities.
These emissions aren't abstract. They worsen asthma.
They trigger heart problems. They inflame respiratory illness.
They settle into the lungs of kids at Thomas Jefferson Middle School.
They drift into the homes of newborns.
They hit the bodies of people already fighting to stay healthy.
And all of this is avoidable. Other cities have demanded cleaner systems,
battery storage, natural gas turbines, fuel cells, hybrid microgrids.
These technologies exist right now. Vantage could choose them tomorrow.
The only reason they haven't is because no one in leadership has required it.
I am asking you, the majority of you, directly
to step up into leadership vacuum. If the mayor won't stand up,
or someone stand here, and defend the health of this community,
then you must. You have the authority to insist on cleaner alternatives.
You have the responsibility to protect the people who elected you.
And you have the chance tonight to show that Port Washington's health
is worth more than a corporation convenience.
Port Washington is not disposable. Our health is not negotiable.
Our families are not collateral damage. And the cost of doing nothing will
measured in the longs of people you swore to protect.
It costs we cannot afford.
Thank you. Other public comments, appearances?
Okay. We'll move on to the consent agenda.
I'm looking for.
And looking for all those in favor?
All right. Opposed? Thank you.
So, Mayor's business, we have two appointments, which is different than what
we were previously sent. We have, for Board of Public Works,
we have Cam Polly being reappointed to the Board of Public Works.
And then for Park and Recreation, we have Patrick Tierney being appointed as a new
member of the community, as instead of as an
older as he was in the past. So, look here.
I'll make a motion to approve those appointments.
I'll make a motion to approve.
Second. All those in favor?
Aye. Thank you.
All right. Mayor's updates, I don't have anything at this point.
So, we'll move on. Gerald and Dennis, you're up for the
Harbor Commission Charter presentation.
Good evening. Gerald, growing from the Port Washington Harbor Commission to present the
2026 charter. Before getting into that, there's some background that you may or may not
know about, but I found some of it kind of interesting.
The Harbor Commission was established with the Wisconsin Statute 30.47 and 38.
And the Municipal Chapters 8 to 19.
And the next sentence that I'm going to read kind of sums up everything we do.
The Board of Harbor Commissioners shall make such plans as it themes necessary
for the improvement of the Harbor over which it has jurisdiction.
The Board shall not carry out any such plans until approved by the Common Council.
The Board of Harbor Commissioners shall have exclusive control over the commercial aspects
of the day-to-day operations of the Harbor and its facilities.
The Board shall fix fees and charges for the use of the Harbor facilities,
except such fees shall be subject to the approval by the Council. So, in effect, we're an advisory
organization. Our mission is to provide oversight for the Merida operation
by developing policies and plans that guide the vision and provide fiduciary support.
The Harbor Commission is scheduled to meet on the fourth Monday of each month at 7 o'clock here.
The Harbor Commission was created by a resolution of the Common Council
and as such, it's held that there will be seven members.
Appointments to the Harbor Commission shall be made by the May or subject to confirmation
by a majority vote of all of the Common Council. No person shall be appointed unless they are
a qualified elector of the city and have been a resident of the city for at least three years.
The term of each of the members is three years.
The Mayor makes the appointments and they are approved by the Council.
And the Harbor Master serves as staff liaison to the Board of Harbor Commissioners.
Now, the strategic goals that we have this year and some of these we've been working on before.
Establish a Harbor Security Plan with Ozaki County Emergency Management and the Police
Department and the Fire Department. A design Merida's north building improvements
maintain our elite fleet status through marinas.com based on customer reviews.
Upgrade the Mermina software to include a complete point of sale system in the Merino
Office and the fuel pier. Install permeable pavers to the south of the Fish Cleaning Station
working with the DNR and other agencies.
And then try to work with tourism people in town to
maintain our commercial ports association status.
Finally, we send a customer satisfaction survey to Merina tenants.
The operational responsibilities are it follows. The Harbor Master creates the operational budget
and capital budget prepared monthly reports.
Harbor Master also is responsible for asset management including Merina equipment,
control building, north building, main marina and north slip docks, fuel equipment and fish cleaning
station. Harbor Master interviews and recommends employees for hire to the Harbor Commission.
There's some issues we run into such as supply chain issues, labor shortages, economic downturns
and securing grants to fund projects. We can counter that somewhat to closely monitor our
inventory. We have increased, I guess you have increased the starting wage to $16 an hour to
get suitable applicants so that the Merina will continue to run as a world class operation.
And excuse me, we want to have competitive rates to ensure customers return year after year.
We want to give customers the reason to come to Port Washington and again partnering with
with local businesses and events. We work with the DNR and other organizations to aid in securing
grants for upcoming projects. We measure our success by rankings, some reviews and the
maintaining of the clean Merina designation that we've had for how many years, Dennis?
It's going to be 15 years at the end of this cycle. And weren't we the first one? And we were
the first ones in the state of Wisconsin. Again, we want to make sure that we handle customers
complaints or concerns immediately. Stay within or below budget on capital and operational items
and adjust a 10 year capital plan on a yearly basis. And there's just a couple more notes here that
Harbor Commission agendas and packets are available on the city website. Annual reports are posted
on the Merina webpage and department reports are submitted monthly to the DPW and Common Council.
Do you have anything you wanted to add? No. That's all I have. Anybody have any questions?
Thank you, Gerald. Any questions for the?
Let's go really quick. The North building, what exactly was delayed until 2027, the design or
the improvements themselves? I believe we don't have the design yet. We wanted to start it
next year. It's been pushed on now to working with Rob to figure this thing out. It was about
financing, wasn't it? Oh, it's financing. We don't have bids. We don't have a design yet. It just
gets bigger. It's good to keep pushing and push it up. Yeah. Mark, we'll kick it off for you.
Okay. Well, thank you guys. Nice job down there.
Thank you. Thank you. President Benny. I have a question for him. Sir. Yes.
This is an enterprise correct in our financial budget, meaning that it's not taxpayer funded,
that this. That's correct. Service or amenity that we have for the city is it's self-supporting.
Yes. And does the city provide any supported all other than assistance and maybe hiring
people and things like that? But financially, it's what comes in is what you get to spend.
Is that true? And actually, we give the city gets $50,000 a year in lieu of taxes.
So this. Okay. Okay. And then totally off pace. We're renting a slip this time for the first
time this year. Is there a bike rack near the harbor? A bike rack? Yeah. Yes. Okay.
At where? Because staff did not seem to know where that was. It's at where the north building is.
Okay. Thank you, sir. Your answer. Does that fish on it? Yeah, it looks like a fish. It's a circle.
Thank you, sir. You wouldn't recognize it as a bike. Stand. That may be why. Thank you, sir.
You're welcome. Okay. Sorry about that. All right. Thank you, guys. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Move on to the 2025 city audit presentation. Is that you, Mark?
Thank you for having me here again this evening.
Brian Grunwald with Clifton Arsenal. And before I get started, I do want to thank Mark and
your team for the cooperation assistance that we receive throughout the audit process.
We ask for a lot of information. Mark is very detailed. We certainly appreciate that and all
the cooperation. He's very responsive throughout the process. And from my perspective, it goes very,
very smoothly. And in terms of the audit documents for tonight's discussion, you should have the
audited financial statements as well as a governance communication letter. But for purposes tonight's
discussion, I'm just going to go through a PowerPoint. It's very brief and high level.
But if anyone has any questions about the audit process or the audit documents themselves,
certainly please feel free to ask. Here we go. In terms of the discussion tonight,
just a brief agenda in terms of what I'd like to walk through, I'm going to give you a very
high level overview of the audit reports. There's actually two of them that are included within
your audited financial statements and then also some required communications. I have very brief
comments in terms of financial highlights. And then the reference to industry insights and emerging
issues is really some regulatory standards that are that are going to be applicable for future
engagements. This first slide here just gives you a summary and overview of the two different
reports that are included within your financial statements. The auditor's report on the basic
financial statements begins on page one. It is considered to be an unmodified opinion.
Essentially means that I believe that your financial statements are complete and accurate in accordance
with professional standards. That's exactly what you should hope or expect to see as part of the
audit process. And then there's also a report on internal control. Again, the city is responsible
for how things are done on a daily monthly annual basis. They're responsible for things like how
you handle cash, how you process payroll, how you pay your bills. All that's considered as part
of that internal control environment and control structure. We don't issue an opinion on that,
but when we become aware of conditions which we refer to as findings, we are required to
communicate those. So you have seen this reference to segregation of duties in the past. I would say
very common for organizations of your size. You just need to understand that because of the size
of the finance department and staffing, we do have a comment relative to how duties are
segregated in terms of accounting and processing. Again, repeat comment, very common for organizations
of your size. I also do want to point out or highlight that in the past we have had additional
findings. There was one last year for 2024 that related to proposed adjustments that we made as
part of the audit process. Happy to communicate that those have been resolved and no further
findings related to that. Any thoughts or comment on that slide before I move forward?
Okay. This next slide here included within the governance communications. There's a
multi-page letter. It includes information that we're required to communicate as part of the
audit process. It's very standardized accounting language. The topics that are included in there
are very similar to what you've seen in the past. I just wanted to take a moment to point that out
again because it is information that we're required to communicate. From my perspective,
certainly nothing that I would consider to be unusual. No red flags are included in there.
In the slide here gives you a few references to some of the topics that are discussed in
there. Again, things like accounting policies, significant transactions, estimates. We always
talk about estimates as part of the audit process. So standard communication, again,
no red flags or no issues or concerns there.
Then I just wanted to jump ahead and financially, I always like to take a look at your fund balance.
That's really the most common metric for judging a municipality's financial condition. So I have
a few slides here relative to fund balance. This first one is just focusing on your general fund
and focusing on the history of what your balances have been. At the end of 2025,
you ended the year at just under $3.7 million of fund balance reserves. That's the sum of the
two different categories that you see on the slide here. Very comparable to how you ended the year
2024. The sum of all of your expenses exceeded all of your revenues by $2896. So just a slight
decrease in your overall reserves. And then you can see the reference to that. Okay, we'll jump
ahead. This next slide focuses in that unassigned category, which is where most of your dollars
were held. And from a benchmarking perspective, we always like to compare the amount of unassigned
fund balance reserves that you have in comparison to the actual expenditures that are flowing
through your budget. Again, for benchmarking purposes, the city does have a policy that's
referenced there with a red line like to be a minimum of 20%. That blue line shows your actual
experience. You can see you ended 2025 at 29.2%. The last several years being in a similar range
there. The message being is you're above your policy, above your minimum policy. And certainly,
I would consider that to be strong in terms of your overall fund balance reserves and condition.
And obviously, I know a lot of effort goes into the budget process. Obviously, encourage those
activities and initiatives to continue.
Then this next slide here, just giving you a snapshot of your special revenue funds. And again,
this just presents the balance that you have left in those reserves at the end of the year.
And comparing back to the prior year at the end of 2024, you can see the different funds listed
down the slide. Just referencing the total, you ended the year at just over $2 million in those
funds up from $1.9 million for the previous year. Again, just really wanted to give you a snapshot
of the balances left at the end of the year in those funds. And then if we jump ahead, this next
similar information gives you a snapshot of your balances in both the debt service fund,
as well as your capital projects funds. Do want to point out, when you look at the debt service
fund, you do note the increase in that balance at the end of the year for 2025, really due to
some police and fire impact fees and additional revenues coming in. And do want to remind you
that those balances are restricted for future principal interest payments.
And then if we move into the capital projects fund section, the first category there, the capital
and special projects, always important to consider timing when you think enough capital projects
funds. Think of the process of going through and doing things like issuing debt, for example,
when is that debt and that debt proceeds received versus the timing of when you spend
down those funds during 2025, you did issue 31.8 million of general obligation debt for the public
safety building. And the reason that you have the 17 million at the end of the year is just because
of the spend down and the unspent debt proceeds that you have received. And then also giving you a
snapshot of the tax incremental districts. Just want to point out that numbers in brackets,
those are deficits. So you can see that for 2024 and number number three. And then tid five,
just pointing out emphasizing that the dash there's really a zero. So just wanted to point that out.
So that's a very quick overview of your fund balance and your financial condition. There is
more information, more detailed information included in your governance communication letter.
Obviously, the financial statements also have a lot of detailed information. If you have any
questions on any of that, either now or to future date, I'd be happy to come back and answer any
questions. And then I just have a few slides here. The reference to GASB is governmental
accounting standards board because you are a municipality, you are required to follow those
standards. So just wanted to share some information with regards to upcoming standards that we'll be
working through for the city. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail on these. The message that I
want to leave you with is there's a few different standards. We will work with the city to make
sure that they're properly implemented when they are required to be implemented. And on each
one of the slides here, I listed the effective date in a real high level overview of what the
statement represents or what we need to do. There's more information on our website if anyone
cares to dig into more details on that. This first one here deals with financial reporting.
The primary impact for the city is there's going to be a couple changes in terms of the
presentation of your proprietary or enterprise funds and some additional information included
in some of the budgetary comparisons in the future that will be implemented for 2026.
We go to the next slide. Again, this one, GASB statement number 104, deals with capital assets.
Again, really just additional information that we're going to be required to include within
your financial statement footnotes. Again, also required to be implemented for the 2026 audit.
The primary impact here really relates to the subscription assets and how we present information
for those. And then this last one deals with subsequent events. By subsequent events,
we always consider activities that occur after the end of the audit period. So think of that as
January 1 after the audit up until the time of when we actually issue that audit. We're required
to consider those activities. There is a new standard that provides a little bit more clarification
on that. This one is not required to be implemented until 2027. Again, could result in some additional
footnotes disclosures within your financial statements. And that is all I had prepared for
you. But if you have any other questions about either the audit process or any of the audit
documents, I'd be happy to answer any questions. Are those GASB standards substantial, Brian,
your opinion or not, really? So as I've said in past years, the Government
of Accounting Standards Board has certainly been very active, which is why we continue to see
new standards out here. I will say in terms of the level of time and time commitment,
the most significant one is going to be that GASB 103 with financial reporting
because of the number of clients that we deal with. We work with templates and we have some,
we can leverage some of that to gain some efficiency on that. So not extremely time consuming
compared to some of the other ones that we've dealt with in prior years. 104 and 105,
I do not anticipate being a significant impact on the overall audit time.
The capital assets, though, that's all the capital assets within the city or?
Exactly. Yep. We have separate footnotes for like water and sewer, for example, versus the
government activities for the city. But yeah, it will encompass everything.
Okay. One small question you may or may not be able to answer this. So our TIFF 5 is set up
in a non-traditional way where we'll be paying as money comes in. So how is that going to appear
or how will that be accounted differently or will it be accounted differently? What should we be
looking for? Yeah, that's a really good question. And I will say this throughout the clients that
we work with, we do see a lot of unusual or negotiated terms as part of tax incremental
districts. We always review the project plan, which is the guiding document of the starting
point for the arrangement. We also look at significant developer agreements and whatnot.
So we have reviewed those. Mark and I have had multiple discussions on how things are going to
be done and the accounting treatment and whatnot. So again, as part of that process, we take a
lot of pride and diligence in making sure that when we come in and see the final accounting that
it's consistent with your agreement. So we've done that. We've done some testing on that in
terms of testing individual expenses and reimbursements. And it really tried to just step back and
understand the plan itself. Any other questions? This question is for Mark. With the new
requirements on the horizon, will this require you to have any adjustments or programming changes
to BS&A or are we good? No, these are, I believe, much more financial reporting issues and shouldn't
really impact our operations. Thank you, Brian. Thank you, Mark. Thank you. It's a lot of detail,
and I appreciate you digging through it. Sounds good. Thank you very much. And like I said,
if anyone has any future questions, please reach out. We'll move on to city administrator updates.
I just have two things. One, we are going to be down a building inspector in July. So if anyone
knows anyone, we are hiring tell your friends to hard market. And then the other one is we have
some new staff. So you'll see new staff around the city seasonals. They really make it a great place
in the summer to keep things flowing, especially like with the harbor and the pool. If you do need
pool passes, I will recommend you those online. We're going to be down to staff here at the city
hall the next two weeks, and it'll be a faster process if you go online. And I think that is all
I have. Thank you. Any questions? All right. We'll move on to consideration and possible action
for approval of the updated paramedic intercept agreement with blood products appendix.
And the issue is should the city approve the updated paramedic intercept agreement with blood
products appendix? And staff recommends approval of the updated paramedic intercept agreement with
blood products appendix. Mark. Thank you, guys. This item was brought to the general government
and finance committee earlier today. It is a small modification to the agreement that was approved.
I think about in January. So we thought that with the addition of the appendix, it
merited another process review by general government finance and subject to approval by the council.
If you have any specific questions about the agreement, Joe is here to take them.
Any questions for Mark or Joe?
I'll make a motion to approve staff's recommendation.
Okay. Motion is second. Any discussion on the motion?
If not, all those in favor? All right. Those opposed? Thank you.
All right.
Now we'll move on to resolution 2026-07 approval of a bicycle and pedestrian plan.
The issue is should the common council approve resolution 2026-07 approval of bicycle
and pedestrian plan? And staff recommends approval of the resolution 2026-07. Rob.
All right. So it's my pleasure to quickly go through our our bicycle and pedestrian plan.
This has been something staff and our steering committee and the community as a whole been
working on for nearly two years with tool design whom the city hired to complete this project after
the city received a Wisconsin Department of Transportation grant to complete this work.
So I'll quickly go through our agenda, which is project purpose, vision and goals, public
engagement, plan recommendations, next step and plan adoption, which is what we're doing tonight.
Okay. So real quickly again, the project purpose, real kind of, you know, to the point,
we want to replace our 1996 bike plan that was severely outdated. And so it was good to
take a fresh look at what the city is doing in the areas of walking, biking and rolling.
It provides us guidance during project design. So we already have a complete streets policy,
but this is a little more detailed so that, you know, we were getting bogged down in some of our
design projects on, you know, sidewalk locations, things like that. And so we wanted wanted to have
kind of a vision forward for what what walking and biking would look like in the future. So
we'll implement we'll use this plan as guidance as we take on new projects. This will help us
support grant opportunities. An example of that is the grant application that was approved at
last month for the interurban trail. And as I just alluded to, this aligns with other planning
documents, such as the downtown plan, our complete streets resolution, our comprehensive outdoor
recreation plan and our subdivision code. And the bottom line, which I put at the bottom here,
is that, you know, as far as purpose goes, you know, I feel strongly that no one should ever
and no one in the city should ever feel like the only way to get from point A to point B
anywhere in the city is by car. So anyone who wants to walk or bike anywhere in the city,
they should feel like that is an option for them. Okay, so public engagement. I think this is one
of the best public engagement endeavors we've taken on. We didn't we didn't have a public
information meeting at City Hall. We went out to the people where they were. So we were out at
up early park at the beer garden. We went to library at at the schools. We went down to the farmers
market. And so we and we placed a yard sign scattered throughout the city asking for people to go
online and and provide us with feedback on where they where they felt, you know, that we
might have either gaps in our bike and pedestrian network or where they didn't feel safe. And so
that gave them an opportunity to provide that that feedback. And we we received feedback from
my I think 350 people. And so I thought that was, you know, excellent. Relatively a lot more
input that than we get for other projects. So the vision. So our steering committee came up with
the vision statement said that Port Washington is a place where residents and visitors of all ages,
abilities and backgrounds choose to walk, bike or roll because it's safe, convenient, accessible,
and enjoyable. And our goals. And we listed these when I submitted the grant application.
Safety, of course, as goal number one. Two, obviously walking and biking improves our health and
has zero carbon footprint on our environment. So good for ourselves, good for the earth.
Network connectivity. Again, we want to be able to anywhere a person wants to go in the city
Port Washington, they should feel that they are they're connected to. So we don't want gaps in
sidewalks. We don't want streets that you can't cross. So that is all that has all been done.
Certainly my time here very intentionally. So
when we look at a highway for instance, highway 33 would be a great example. When we set out on
that back in the early 2000s, I wanted to make sure that so often you find in the community
that the that the highway that goes through the community and there's always a local highway
going through a community. Sometimes that serves as a real barrier between North side and South
side East side and West side. Didn't want that. So we created, you know, we created highway 33.
It looks the way it looks. It has the roundabout, you know, for a reason. That was otherwise going
to be a six lane intersection. And so we were able to really stress again connectivity around
the city. And I'm happy to say I think that anyone can get anywhere in the city that they want to.
So a mode shift from car to bike or walking again. We want people to have that option. We
don't want them to have to get in a car because that's the only that's the only way to get from
point A to point B. Economic development. Obviously, a number of people in our in our survey said,
you know, they want to feel they want better connections to downtown. And, you know, I know
several people who it is real important that they walk or bike to work. One person who works
here as a matter of fact. And so, you know, that's really important to some people. And so
this benefits economic development and equitable and accessible. And so,
for instance, a huge driver for me for when we reconstructed Franklin Street in 2008.
And when we eventually reconstruct Grand Avenue is making sure that it's handicap accessible. So
downtown, we used to have 7% cross slopes on the sidewalks. If you were in a wheelchair,
had any mobility issues, that was a real challenge for people. We flattened out those sidewalks and
hopefully people have noticed. But we do still have some sidewalk areas in the city where the
cross slope is not is not meet ADA requirements. And so, again, taking a look at these things,
making them a priority is one of our goals. All right. And then kind of jumping ahead. So we have
so we took inventory of our sidewalks, our bike network, and and our crosswalks and
essentially the places where people want to go. So the libraries, I'm sorry, the library,
the schools and the parks that's on the right hand side.
Sidewalks and bike networks. So in red, you know, this is a tiny map, but in red, you can see the
areas where we don't have sidewalk on both sides of the street here. And then it's noted down here
where it's only on one side of the street. And then around the entire city, you know,
we've identified gaps. So anytime we do have a road reconstruction, we look at where are their
gaps? Where's their lack of connectivity? And so we often propose improvements to the
pedestrian network when we reconstruct the street. Bicycle network,
it's pretty comprehensive. There's different tools and there's a toolbox in the plan. I know
you've all looked at it, but different methods of creating more connectivity on street biking.
So including a bike boulevard or a restricted lane. So different tools to identify safe biking
paths that will get you either to the schools again or the Inner Urban Trail, etc. And I do
want to mention, and again, I know this is really small, but I know when we talked about the
underpass for the railroad off of Spring Street and eliminating that crossing on Oakland Avenue,
that there wasn't a great awareness that that is something we have been looking at for a number
of years. There are a couple other areas and one that I'm sure you know well is one area of
improvement that we'd like to see is to get this walking and biking area in Upper Lake Park
off street. It's great for adults who are able to utilize it, but not as great for kids who are
trying to walk to the playground to have to walk inside that four or five foot wide pedestrian area.
And then we have a number of people, especially in the Lake Ridge subdivision.
If they want to walk to high school or the middle school, the only safe way is to go all the way
down Spring Street over to Grand Avenue and then back up the hill. So we're looking for a connection
here along more road. That's one of our long-term goals to get that connection.
Improved. So just a few of the highlights. Near-term network network. So we have short-term
goals, medium-term goals, long-term goals. So this just kind of hits on some of the near-term
accomplishments. We are low-hanging fruit that we think we can reach relatively quickly with
these bike boulevards and restricted lanes. And then as I just mentioned, so we've broken it down
in the short-term, medium-term and long-term. And again, I know on the right-hand side,
it's not really intended to be legible, but I'll read it anyway, because these are three of the more
important goals for short-term is one regularly report on the progress of the port of port moves
to standing committees and groups. And so I want to get in the habit of that with Board of Public
Works to bring, to highlight how in every project we do that we're going to integrate what we have
in this plan into our projects. And we do it on a regular basis, but we don't really kind of,
we don't really highlight it. So we will be doing that on a quarterly, it's our intention to do
that on a quarterly basis. We'll include items here on our 10-year CIP.
And then the third here is hosting pedestrian or bicycle encouragement events. So that's really
working with, mostly working with Main Street, working with the school district and the police
department to kind of encourage, encourage that walking and biking. So, oops, last slide.
And I just wanted to say that the steps we've taken so far, we took this to Board of Public Works,
which was approved at unanimously on May 12th. And then on May 27th, so just last week,
it was approved by the traffic safety committee. We'd like to adopt the plan by passing the resolution
tonight, and then get going on, again, CIP programming, grant funding, and regular reporting on progress
to BPW. So, and as I mentioned in the memo, anything that's included in this plan still goes through
the regular process of committee budgeting and those approvals. So this, again, just provides
guidance and informs our decision-making and is just another tool in our toolbox to
essentially improve active modes of transportation. And that's it. Questions for Rob?
I was, since all the other woman and Miller brought it up, do we have an inventory of our
the bike racks in town on public and public spaces? Is that something that we would do or have?
Inventory? No, I don't. I guess Rob, and information on where our bike racks are in town?
No, I just, I think they're all up here. Yeah, but no, yeah, we don't. I mean, that's something,
no, just curious, something that could be done. I had already emailed Rob about this and got
some good feedback from them as well, but from who? From you? Oh, okay.
About providing a yearly report to this body as well, just in case so we can, we can know about
this ongoing progress. I think that was the key distinction that I thought of when I was reading
this, is that it's driven from the downtown plans, and that the downtown plan is a bit more aspirational,
longer-visioning. I mean, I think, I mean, Mr. Harris would agree with that.
The more visionary, this is a bit more tangible and concrete that this is, these are things that
we would actively look to implement over the coming years and decades. So I think I want that
to be clear to this body is that these are good, these are ideas that are tangible and concrete
that we would want to accomplish. So yearly reports and, of course, quarterly reports that
BPW would be appreciated. So thanks, Rob. It's a very good document. Thank you.
And then all I had, Rob, I think it's great that we reviewed a traffic safety last week, and I'd
like to see some of those short and long-term goals. And from a traffic safety perspective,
we need to do them. Some of them are not as significant, some are more significant.
But for those of us with day jobs, could you guys provide a synopsis of what traffic safety
talked about in regards to the bike plan? It was more of, we're going to look at our charter and
the goals for the charter in alignment with some of the items in their type of thing.
So any other comments or questions? If not, I'll look for a motion on that.
I move to approve resolution 2026-7. I'll second that.
Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. And opposed? Thank you.
We'll move into our second public comment appearances session. Anybody have public comments?
And again, if you could share your name and address.
Tracy Finch, Port Washington, Wisconsin. Members of the council and for the mayor when he listens
to this recording. I'm also here because the people of Port Washington are being asked to tolerate
risks that no responsible city should ever allowed. First, let me be absolutely clear. There must
never be any living corridors, temporary housing or worker suburbs on or belonging to
vantage property. Not now, not later, not under any future phase. The trailers on site may be
labeled as offices, but the residents have seen what they look like. If they are truly not housing,
then the city and vantage should have no problem proving that. In writing with inspection,
with enforceable restrictions. Because once temporary housing appears, it becomes nearly
impossible to remove. And our communities deserve certainty, not loopholes. But this issue goes far
beyond trailers. Everyday residents are dealing with noises, stress, uncertainty, and the constant
disruption of this project. People are overwhelmed, people are anxious, are reaching their limits.
This is not hypothetical. It's happening right now in our neighborhood and our homes, our families.
And the message residents keep hearing is that if they need help, they should pay for it themselves.
That's not acceptable. This anxiety did not appear out of nowhere. It's a direct result
of the decisions made by city mayor Theodore Nitsky IV, town chairman Michael Didier,
and this administration and the majority of this council, decisions that gave
vantage, enormous freedom, minimal transparency when a city's actions create community-wide
stress, the city has a responsibility to provide support. So tonight, I'm asking you,
because the mayor is not here to answer for any of this, what steps will you take to ensure
no temporary housing ever appears on vantage property? What steps will you take to provide
mental health support to residents who are struggling? And how will you guarantee that
no one in this community is left to carry this burden alone? Port Washington deserves leadership
and tonight that responsibility falls on you. Thank you. Other public comments?
Seeing none, good for a motion to adjourn. All those in favor?
Aye. Thank you.
Rejourn.