To order tonight is Tuesday, June 26th, 2026.
This is the City of Port Washington Common Council Meeting.
All older persons are present.
Please join with me for the Pledge of Allegiance.
I pledge 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.
All right, that takes us into the meeting.
Our first agenda item this evening is public comments.
Just a reminder to the community, you have up to three minutes
and we will be capping it at 30 minutes for public comments.
Are there any public comments or appearances?
I'm Dean Weger at 3708 East Norport Drive
in the town of Port.
Obviously, the City knew about Vantage's plan
to request a permit to turn existing wells on the data
center site into high-capacity wells, at least as far back
as November.
We've all now seen the letter that Vantage received
from the DNR authorizing the use of four of those wells
without modification.
But I have questions for the City and for Vantage.
But in my experience, Vantage doesn't answer questions
or give information, so I come to the City Council meeting
to air my concerns about your new corporate citizen.
Why was this plan to use the wells not disclosed
to the public, especially to those in the town of Port
and other surrounding rural areas that depend on wells
for their water?
Where was all the transparency that you, the mayor,
and Vantage talked about?
Some of those City Council meetings last winter
were held in the banquet hall at the hotel
with hundreds of people, including Vantage representatives.
Why was this topic not discussed?
The DNR letter indicates one of the wells
will be sealed in 2026, and then another in 2027.
How will we know when this has happened?
What about the other wells?
Will they be used indefinitely?
I've seen nothing that gives a firm date
when the other wells will be sealed.
Why not?
Who's going to monitor the well usage?
These wells are not over 70 gallons per minute,
so it seems they may not be required
to have a meter measuring their usage.
Who's going to monitor the usage?
Who's going to monitor the wastewater?
Where's the wastewater going?
What will be in it?
Will it endanger the aquifer?
Has Vantage hired a hydrologist?
Can they tell us where the water's coming from?
How deep, which direction it goes?
Who else is depending on that same water?
It's the empty promises of transparency
and these big surprises that happen
that lead to the rumor mills
and a complete lack of distrust
in anything concerning Vantage and the data center.
We all just wonder when the next surprise will come.
Remember the agreed work hours
that suddenly turned into 24-hour construction?
Remember a few months ago when we were complaining
about the 24-hour work and how it was impacting our lives?
We were told Vantage was going to reach out
to people individually and listen to our concerns.
To my knowledge, that has never happened.
If you go to the Lighthouse Campus website,
you'll find a Let's Connect page
with four Vantage people and their email addresses.
There's even a community inquiries person.
Guess what happens when you write
to any of those email addresses?
Well, you have to guess because I sure don't know.
No response ever came when I wrote.
But on that same webpage,
you will see the verbiage that says Vantage is committed
to participating in the Port Washington community
and being a good, corporate citizen.
I'd appreciate it if someone from the city
could tell Vantage what that might mean.
Thank you for listening to me.
Thank you.
Other public comments or appearances?
Mm-hmm.
This is not a data question.
Sir, please just say to your name is Phil Warner.
Thank you.
I just moved into town here a little while ago.
I met 207 West Washington and I purchased
a two-bay garage at 418 Oakland Avenue.
I came here and asked to have the water turned on to it.
They said they would have somebody contact me.
That was five weeks ago.
I haven't heard a word from a soul.
That's one part.
The other is, is I can't believe I'm here about garbage cans.
But I cannot get garbage cans there.
It is zoned residential, the garage is.
I use it for tinkering and I can't get garbage cans.
I'd like to, I haven't looked at my tax bill yet,
but I'm pretty sure the breakdown,
I'm probably paying for garbage pickup.
I don't understand.
I was told that if I didn't have a tax bill,
then I was told that if I didn't live there,
I couldn't have garbage cans.
Do they think that I'm not going to generate any garbage there?
We can't respond, but we've got your name and address.
And then Roger, if you wouldn't mind grabbing his phone number,
then we can at least close the loop on the water,
turn on peace.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Other public comments or appearances?
Yeah.
Kim Tydrick, 4, 4, 6, 5, Wilder's Way,
town of Port Washington, which makes me an outside agitator,
apparently.
A couple of things, first of all,
everything Dean said, double it.
We have been lied to about basically everything from the get-go.
None of you have listened to us.
Most of you can't even bother looking at us when we speak.
So yeah, there's a very strong lack of trust.
Another issue I have is very recently there was an article put out
and the mayor said that no one came and no one cared and no one put
there was no pushback.
And so this got pushed through very, very quickly because no one was here.
Well, I beg to differ because we were here.
We were here multiple times before this went to anywhere.
We were at the town meetings.
Some days we went to town meetings and came directly here.
So flat out lying in articles, not a good look,
but expected after the way this has all gone recently.
What I most importantly want to say is that this,
as far as the impact on the neighbors,
has been far worse than we were even expecting at this point.
We were worried about the things that would happen when the vantage data center
was up and running.
And when Oracle and OpenAI came in and were doing their crazy stuff,
what is worse is I've lived in my home for 22 years now
and I can't open my windows and doors.
It's finally warm.
It's finally spring in Port Washington.
I can't open my windows and doors and enjoy it because as soon as I do,
the dirt comes in.
The noise.
Okay, we get Sundays off now,
but we all have PTSD from the beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep,
beep, beep, beep of the 24-hour construction.
You have no idea what you people have done to those of us
who live around that site.
And you have no idea what's coming.
And that's the scary part.
Have any of you taken any time to Google,
vantage, OpenAI, Oracle, and the results of what happens
when they come into your communities and build data centers?
The aquifers that disappeared during construction
that were never going to be used.
Gee, that sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it?
Please take some time and then step up and do your jobs
as common council members and stand up for the citizens
of this city.
It was a beautiful city, and what is going on now is going to drive
tourism away.
Sure, you'll have those construction guys here for a couple of years,
and then when they're gone, no one's going to want to come here.
Look at Oregon.
Look at Virginia.
You'll see.
Thank you.
Other public comments and appearances?
I'm Anna Mueller, 4488 Lilac Lane, Port of Town, Washington.
John McGivron visited Port on May 5th.
He was in town to promote a special release of his final
installment of Main Streets, which is a travel docuseries
highlighting Wisconsin cities and towns.
PBS last funding, so this is now defunct.
The last and final episode featured Port Washington.
It was filmed last July and September before the November groundbreaking.
It featured restaurants, lake fishing, historical locations and businesses.
He interviewed a business owner who gave up the corporate world
to start a small business here.
She was asked, so you're committed to Port Washington?
There's plenty to do and experience, even outdoors, right?
She responded, we are surrounded by some pretty awesome views
and yeah, biking and hiking, so we have a lot to offer here.
So it's kind of like a dream come true.
It ended with a panoramic view from the light station looking north,
while the host was speaking, rolling meadows, wildflowers, fresh water,
and with a community that bonds with nature,
it panned out to the endless rolling hills and pastures as far as the eye could see.
The uncomfortable silence was deafening.
We had the realization that we were not witnessing a promotional tourist film.
This was a eulogy at a funeral.
I did not talk to Mr. Givens, so I don't know how he felt about Port's transformation
from his last visit, but the parting shot of the horizon
and the dialogue was cut from the May 7th release.
You see, Mayor Ted, advantage?
You didn't just destroy 2,000 acres of land.
You sucked the life out of a community.
You broke their spirit and their pride.
You stole their reliable future.
These are the things that don't show up in surveys and measured by polling
and are not statistical evidence.
These are things that the intricate fabric of our lives
and the mesh work of a thriving community.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Ben, are you going to go?
Sure.
So I guess I don't need to say my name.
Yes, you do.
Ben Donakowski 4799 County Road, LL.
With all the blue blinking security cameras,
it's reasonable to expect a designated vantage representative
who can provide footage when people are subjected to unsafe driving incidents.
And to be clear, I'm not talking about the accidents that already occurred
requiring police presence.
I'm assuming that footage was made available as it should be.
I'm talking about the near-miss situations.
Someone cutting off or someone cutting a driver off
and forcing them to slam on the brakes
or a vehicle getting damaged with no accountability.
In those cases, residents should be able to contact a single representative
and say, I would like the footage from XYZ date and time.
Hold them to being a good neighbor.
And help with insurance claims or help identify employees needing an update
and driving etiquette by taking responsibility from the impacts of your operation.
For my second topic, I'm starting with a rhetorical question.
If I slept in your couch for five days a week,
showered there every day and ate a meal or two,
would you say I'm living with you?
Whatever fairytale sugar-coated explanation the city has in the pipeline
won't fool anyone.
People will be living on site despite the multiple assurances that this would never happen.
Resting, camping, couch crashing, whatever label you want to use.
If someone is eating, showering, and sleeping in the same place five out of seven days,
it's fair to say that they're living there.
Thank you.
Any other public comments?
My name is Lauren Kerns.
I live in West Bend.
I'm not going to give my address because I don't feel like it's a comfortable thing.
You must state your address.
Okay, five, eight, five, nine, county of roadway.
Thank you.
I was not planning on doing a couple of comments today,
but I am coming up here to speak about the property that is on the ATC line.
And to say how people from outside of Port Washington have been impacted.
And first, I want to address that.
I see a lot of the same things that this government body has been doing
that I've seen out in Trenton, Wisconsin,
where the government body often insults people who come up and make comments
and give their experiences and how often they'll be little.
I know that Ted is frowns upon, you know, KFOs.
I've heard him say it in interviews before.
And I have dealt with KFOs out of my area and fighting it.
And I've had my same government do the same thing.
And what has been happening with my community impacted by this data center
is far significantly worse than what has been happening with KFOs.
And I am used to manure smells, you know, that smell like diarrhea going into
my house and seeing how you guys in this community are facing some things
different, something similar where you can't go outside and enjoy the outdoors.
And I feel really awful and can only imagine what you guys are experiencing.
And I am experiencing probably far less extent because I also have dust
that is just being blown up everywhere from all the concrete trucks going on the roads.
And it's just a dusty mess out by me too.
Again, I am also on the ATC line.
So I have the heartbreaking reality that I might have to watch my forest be cut down
for your data center.
All this greenwashing stuff that you guys are trying to pull with saying that
Vantage is going to plant native plants.
What about my native plants?
What about my already established native community that I'm going to have to watch get cut down?
What has been happening here has been without any regard to other communities.
And I hope you guys are thinking about what lawsuits might end up coming for you.
If you do not fix this, if you do not start asking the other communities what you can do to fix it.
Thank you.
Other public comments or appearances?
Okay, we're going to move into the meeting.
The next agenda item is the consent agenda.
I'm looking for the approval of the previous meeting's minutes and the monthly invoice reports.
So moved.
There's a motion and a second.
Any questions or concerns on that motion?
All right.
Seeing none.
All in favor signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
All right.
The motion carries.
Then under mayor's business before any of our speakers leave.
If you email us so we can send you how we've advocated for the alternative lines and brought forward the other communities in that conversation with us to avoid going through your area.
And we've advocated at the highest levels for that.
So we will send you those documents that you can have those.
The other pieces is there's an appointment for members to boards, commissions and committees.
Dan Becker, former aldermen and lifetime resident of Port Washington is who I'm recommending for the police and fire commission.
Dan is willing to serve on that.
And he resigned from his zoning appeals board job that he had here for a little bit.
Is there anyone willing to make a motion to accept that nomination?
So moved.
Motion.
Is there a second?
Moved and seconded.
Any questions or concerns on that motion?
All right.
Seeing none.
All in favor signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
All right.
The motion carries.
And I went out of order here.
But this past week, Betty Showalter, Betty Hill, who she was born as, celebrated her 100th birthday.
Betty is the daughter of the founder of the Port Washington State Bank.
And her and her husband Ron had run that state bank for a long time.
And the business continues and the bank continues in the family's name being now run by son Steve and the grandson, James Showalter.
So this past Sunday was Betty Showalter Day in Port Washington.
I just want to make sure the community knew that.
Ron and Betty Showalter for entertainment since the 70s watched every single council meeting.
So they would go home, have dinner, and then make a Manhattan suite and watch the council meetings.
They watched those council meetings until about three, four years ago.
So just a happy birthday to Betty and a congratulations to her for meeting that centurion mark.
Okay.
That's all I've got for tonight.
That's going to take us into staff reports.
Melissa.
Thank you, Mayor.
The department head reports are on the Facebook and on the website.
I encourage everyone to check those out.
There's a lot of things going on in the city.
The pool is open.
We had nice weather for opening day.
So check that out this summer.
A couple of updates of things coming up in the future.
The capital improvement plan and process will be going to public works in July.
So if you're interested in the long term planning of the city, feel free to attend that meeting.
Then also the July 15 will be having the BCC training.
That's the board's commission committee.
So just a reminder that those will be doing the training on that in the morning or the evening.
And then later on the agenda, we do have two grant application on the agenda.
These are just grant applications.
The project costs and whatnot will be discussed at GGF.
The following meeting.
So seven seven will be talking about Valley Creek.
A little bit more of the details.
So if you're interested in that, check out that packet online or come to the meeting.
And then I will be getting that to the common council after the GGF meeting.
So that's all I have.
Thank you.
Any questions or concerns for Melissa?
I just want to point out, I always appreciate the depth that the full staff puts in here.
And I just in Rob's report to from public works, he pointed out the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation working with the National, the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coastal National Marine Sanctuary.
And they'll be in Port Washington this summer to survey visitors, etc.
I think that we overlooked the fact that we've got that marine sanctuary outside.
It's the same thing as a federal park.
And then the other piece that I was really excited to see was the new staircase leading down into the pool.
I really, really appreciated that.
And then the last one that I have is the anniversary of Dennis Churney, our harbor master.
He started after retiring in 1997 as our harbor master.
And when I was a Mr. Beaster seat in the sixth ward, I voted for his appointment.
And I just can't believe he's still out there doing it.
Yeah, his promise was, I'll do this for one year so you guys can get your act together and hire somebody.
So here we are, you know, close to 30 years later, and he's still doing it.
And I just appreciate his ownership and congratulate him on that commitment to the city of Port Washington.
And then one final request, Melissa, could you work with Vantage on that misinformation about the wells so that we can get a report and put that on to Facebook and put some facts out there from the city instead of individuals?
That would be great.
Okay, that brings us into council committees under general government and finance committee.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Oh, yeah, traffic safety charter presentation.
Roger.
You almost got lucked out.
You almost lucked out.
So as you do this, just a reminder to the community that the charters, each board commission committee has to present a charter to the council lined up with our strategic plan to ensure that their actions over the course of the year just keep us moving forward.
Under the direction that we had established.
Yeah.
So I'll run through our charter here pretty quick and Paul is our chairman.
Whatever he said.
So start with our mission statement.
The traffic safety committee reviews all proposed ordinances relating to parking speed limits and traffic controls and recommends public improvements which promote and enhance safety for all modes of transportation.
So you said to want to make sure that we're also covering pedestrians, bikes.
All the electronic mobility items that are out there now, along with cars.
We meet every other month.
10 a.m. fourth Monday of the month.
The committee consists of three aldermen, the police chief and the city engineer.
We will do one.
Some of the goals we're working on.
We've been working quite a while on as goal one was to design the implement,
improve pedestrian bicycle safety at the intersection of the inner urban trail and county L L.
We've had complaints about that.
Bicyclists are not paying attention.
So we're working with the county to improve that crossing.
And now also goal two is traffic safety improvements to the intersection of sunset road and county highway L L.
That's another thing we're trying to get pedestrians and bicyclists to.
Be safer.
Three is a port moves as we were talking about before with the bicycle plan.
And we're also working with the state on ADA ramps.
At South Spring 3 Grand Avenue and North Wisconsin street.
So we've had a full agenda.
This year and we're still working on that with the bike trail.
So we've had a lot on our plate, but a lot of it, we have to get.
Commendations.
We have to get cooperation from the county in the state.
So we keep at it.
Roger does a good job of it.
Any questions?
No, I just I wanted to share that I appreciate your currently looking at the E bike.
The ordinance and the different pieces.
There are most of our neighboring communities who have bike trails that run through town and young people who are riding the different classes of E bikes.
I appreciate that.
I think that's a safety piece we need to get ahead of.
So thank you for that.
Other questions or comments?
Any other members of the committee want to say anything?
Okay.
Well done, gentlemen.
Thank you.
That then takes us into agenda item number seven a general government and finance committee.
I would like to thank you for the recommendation and possible action on approval of an alcohol license for class C wine for Bon Bon Bell LLC Meghan.
Castes the agent at 211 North Franklin Street and a class A beer liquor cider for Adina Lakeside LLC.
Daniel Cohn is the agent at 223 North Franklin Street.
The issue is the common counsel is being asked to approve an original C wine and class A alcohol license and annual cabaret license for the establishment listed and approval for their agents.
The recommendation is to approve the applications required and to approve.
Let me start this over the city clerk has reviewed and approved the applications and required supporting documents.
All required fees have been paid and the background record checks completed and approved by acting police chiefs are necky.
Susan.
So both of these license requests come to you.
There's the two separate ones.
The Bon Bon Bell is the same business.
Same agent operating at the same location with their bridal salon.
It's a restructuring of their corporation.
So they reapplied with that new corporate structure.
Other than that, nothing else has changed.
And for the Adina Lakeside, that will be the new owner, what was dream harvest market.
So being a new corporation, they had to file for a new alcohol license to be able to do the cider as well.
As far as that goes, what I was told was that sale and the change will be happening over the course of these few weeks here throughout June and they'll be ready for July to begin the licensing year.
And we met previously for general government finance and both were approved at that meeting.
This one.
Any questions or concerns or is there someone willing to make a motion?
I will move to approve.
There's a motion to approve.
And a second.
Any questions or concerns on the motion?
All right.
Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
That brings us into the next agenda item, which is for dollar general.
The issue is should the common council approve the request for Dolgan Corps, LLC for the appointment of a successor agent.
The staff recommends the city.
The city clerk has reviewed the request background check has been approved and approval is recommended as presented.
Susan.
As with other retail establishments here, primarily class A, we'll see from time to time that there's a management shift at these locations.
And we have done this before for dollar general.
This is just a change of agent manager on site.
The background check was approved and this was also considered at general government finance committee rep for this meeting.
There as well.
Any questions or concerns?
The comments?
All in favor signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
All in favor signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
That brings us into boards, commissions and committees.
Consideration and possible action on a national fish and wildlife foundation and SWF sustain our Great Lakes SOGO grant application for a regenerative stormwater conveyance RSC system in the Valley Creek watershed.
The issue is should the city of Port Washington submit a sustain our Great Lakes grant application through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for the design and construction of a regenerative stormwater conveyance system in the Valley Creek watershed.
And the staff recommend submitting a $365,000 grant application plus a local match of $365,000 from TID 5 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation under their sustain our Great Lakes SOGL program for the design and construction of regenerative stormwater conveyance system in the Valley Creek watershed.
The SOGL program for the design and construction of regenerative stormwater conveyance systems in the Valley Creek watershed at the storm sewer outfall near the intersection of Lakeview Avenue and Walter Street.
Roger.
Very evident an engineer wrote this description.
All yours, buddy.
You know, teacher said that they needed 100 words.
Yeah, I'm all she's or scouts over there searching words for us.
So, as Melissa mentioned in her updates, this is we need approval to submit this grant application that this is part of Valley Creek, which is, which has been presented here numerous times and Board of Public Works approved some
grants to counsel that that we submit this application in it.
So the nice thing about the Valley Creek is the project can easily be broken into bits and pieces where we can ask for grants for specific elements that fit the grant and then that kind of contributes to the whole project.
Which is the case here.
So, I guess really unless there's any other questions, I'll stop there.
Council, any questions?
Yes.
I do have a comment. We've been hearing a lot about the Valley Creek project, I think, for like three plus years.
I have yet to see a timeline, a final cost breakdown, and I kind of would have expected that by now.
It's my understanding we'll be hearing more about this at the July 7th finance meeting. Is that correct?
Correct.
And I'm perfectly okay with approving the grant application, but I need more information.
Yes, and this is not accepting the grant or anything like that. This is just approval to submit it.
Any other questions other than city time, Roger, that there's no cost of this, right? Do it apply for the grant?
No.
I just wanted to add, I share Alderman Postle's wonderings.
I'm struggling with the volume of city matches charged to tids that we want to try to close as fast as possible.
And I would just ask that before this comes back to council, again, that there is a complete vision statement
and visual of what this will be, what this will look like.
And I'm just not seeing it. And frankly, this is not something we've ever talked about in finance or strategic planning.
And it just feels like it's a tremendous amount of time, effort, and energy when we've got so many other things in port to do.
Not that I don't want to do this. I just, I've never seen a scoped out plan.
And I know that we can chase grants for shovel ready projects and such.
But I feel like we're allocating a lot of time, energy, effort and resources toward something that we're not quite sure where this is going to go and end.
And we've already seen significant improvement.
We've already seen significant improvement as a result of some of the head water retention strategies.
So I would just ask that that be done because I'll have a hard time signing a grant with these just continual matching funds,
not knowing what it's going to be.
I can't even know if we're tearing out forestry. What are we doing?
So I think I've been paying attention.
So again, like all the women pastel, I've got no problem with applying for the grants,
but when it comes to the matching funds and the final commitments for the city,
I'd really prefer that this is totally fleshed out for the community and ourselves.
Mr. Gassmer.
Yeah, I just want to say we do have plans that are around 60% level for the project right now.
So that is pretty readily available of pretty much what it will entail.
I mean, at 60%, there's still some tweaks around the edges, but the base idea, everything is there.
And I agree with the idea that we want to close the TIF as fast as possible,
but part of getting the grant money offsets money potentially that we don't have to spend from the TIF.
Yeah.
So yeah, the more grant money, the better.
Yeah, I 100% agree.
I've never seen a visual of kind of the end product.
Like you said, it's been scoped and this is what it might look like.
I think it's fair to all of us to see that.
I know Roger has that available.
And I'll just add, Mike, you know, I've seen the presentations of EPW.
What we haven't seen is the project management documents, which say, here's the timeline anticipated.
Here's the cost. Here's, you know, where we anticipate the funding coming from.
And I think that's what I know I'm looking for.
And then where does this fall in the priority of other spending that the city has to do and resource time availability and priority on projects.
That's the part we're missing right now.
Technical stuff, you know, the design agree.
We're at 60 going to 90% quickly.
I would say to from where it should fit priority wise.
This is one of the goals this project is to protect our water treatment plant,
where we have had flooding go through that plant, including a lot of mud going into the plant.
We've had recent flooding in recent years that has been within an inch or two of shutting down our water plant.
So this is very important to the city as a whole, I think.
And, you know, understanding from that perspective, I think, I will agree.
We haven't seen details scheduled yet.
I've been told 20, 27, 20, 28, those two years that starting on the north end moving south.
And, you know, this, you know, the goal is to alleviate the flooding problems downtown.
And this will do that, and it's not a cheaper, easy thing to achieve.
But, you know, again, I 100% agree.
I just, I get a little nervous with continued matching grants over and over and over again.
And I just, I just would like to see a scoped out vision statement and plan with a timeline.
So I know that it's in people's heads and it's in different spots, and I just think it's fair to the council to see that.
So again, I fully endorse this.
I just think it's fair to be to see it all.
Melissa?
Sure. So next week, Monday, public works finance and myself are meeting.
We want to do like a phase approach and then identify which sections of this project is going to be done.
And when you do the grants, we have to match the grants with what piece of the pie it's going towards.
So we need that full scoped out, like, up to, you know, 20 million.
And like, what phase and then what grants and then what part of the 10 five would be applicable here.
So our goal is to have this scoped out the financial end for.
Seven, seven.
GGF have discussion and then follow that up here so that you would get a full presentation of like what those phases look like.
And then we can make sure we're from stand tech or whomever we can get the information.
We know what it's actually going to truly cost or possibly cost the city.
Awesome.
Your finance director and administrator agree.
So is there someone willing then to take the staff recommendation recommendation and make a motion?
I move to approve the staff recommendation.
There's a motion. Is there a second?
Second.
All right, Mr. Neumeier, the seconded.
Any questions or concerns on the motion?
All in favor signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
All right, the motion carries.
That brings us into the next one, Roger, consideration and possible action on the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
National Coastal Resiliency Fund grant application for the Valley Creek corridor project.
Should the city of Port Washington submit a grant application to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for National Coastal Resiliency Fund grant for construction of Valley Creek improvements.
The staff recommends submitting a grant application totaling approximately $5 million.
With a $5 million local match supported by $2.4 million from the vantage grant to LNRP and $2.6 million coming from TID 5 financing to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for National Coastal Resiliency Fund grant for construction of phase one of the Valley Creek improvement project.
Roger.
All right, so similar to the previous item, so this is another grant that the slight difference in this one is we had similar pre application and we were invited to submit for the full application, which means it's likely to be awarded.
Not guaranteed, but we like our chances.
And again, I guess half the match is already there from a previous donation from Vantage and we're looking at TID 5 for the remaining portion of the match.
And this should get us towards being able to start construction.
Any questions?
There's someone willing to make a motion, then?
Sure, so moved.
Thank you.
Is there a second?
Second.
All right, moved and seconded.
Any questions or concerns on the motion?
Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
All right, motion carries.
It brings us into 8C consideration and possible action on a utility service agreement with the village of Sockfield.
The issue is should the Common Council approve an agreement with the village of Sockfield to cooperatively exchange properties in our respective sewer services area and the staff recommends approval of the agreement.
Roger, before you begin, I just want to thank the entire team that worked on this with Sockfield.
This is not our normal tradition, and I just really appreciate the fact that Sockfield and Port Washington are collaborating so closely over the course of the last five, six years for this type of work to help both of our communities.
So thank you for whatever diligence you did on this, and it's the floor is yours.
You're welcome.
So essentially what the mayor said is the reason behind us is so that both communities are growing and city on the west and Sockfield on the east and we're going to bump into each other.
So we just want to want to say, hey, there's areas that they're logically served by each community in those areas that either serves.
Either community could serve.
So basically we wanted to come up with an agreement that, hey, if there's a developer for whatever reason prefers to be in one community or the other.
And then here we said basically driven by economics because that's what the developer will.
Based our decision on.
That that we have a mechanism to allow sewer service areas to change without getting into long dronald battles and sending cash either direction.
I believe Sockfield is also taking us up tonight.
I think your meeting is tonight.
It may be next week.
And we're also in a situation because we need to do a sewer service area update for we have pending development to north was beyond already what's going there.
We have probably even more.
Pressure or requests on the west side kind of.
Adjacent to Sockfield that people want to want to develop and come into the city.
And right now those are not in our service area sewer pack.
Basically told us with our last amendment that hey, you need an update.
You need to do a full update.
If we don't have this agreement or if neighboring communities choose to object to.
Our proposed plan.
That slows the whole works down.
So that's that's another driving factor behind this agreement so that for both communities we can be as efficient as government can be with development.
Any questions for Roger?
Roger.
I don't have a map that I can overlay the two next to each other, but it appears there's still some gaps.
In the southwest side.
Is that true or it's hard to tell because they can't.
The maps are different scales.
Yeah.
But it but it seems like on the southwest side of the city.
You know, southeast side of Sockfield.
There might be some gaps or.
Yeah.
Kind of from East Sock Road.
Going.
North.
Basically all the way up to 43 as it goes north on the city, but that's kind of we're all.
Pretty much a budding or the intention is that we're that we're a budding.
So.
And as far as property, southeast Sock.
There might there might be open areas and part of it is is is the map for port shows the.
New areas, not the existing.
District and that's maybe where I'm.
You know, seeing gaps because it our existing area may cover some of those areas type of thing.
Is that the case?
I mean, do we have a map of the existing.
District.
You could throw up quick.
I apologize.
I meant to get to you earlier today on this.
I forgot.
Okay.
I got.
So if you.
If you look at Sockfield's map.
They're pretty much showing parts existing.
That's the city limits.
Yep.
But that's not the sewer district is it.
We can take it afterward.
I just want to make sure I understand if there are.
There's a lot of.
Gap areas because, you know, I mean, southwest side of the city.
There's a lot of.
Areas there are in town of grafting or the town of Sockville and or the town of port to.
I mean, Roger, just so you're not sitting there, spent like.
If it's okay, I mean, for for tonight's purposes, that's that's the village in the city right there.
And then would we be able to get that full map because like as Alderman Benning is saying, like.
The north woods court area and proms property is not included on the maps that we have.
All right.
Yeah.
So I guess the intent is to approve the agreement.
But so I'll get a pair of the maps.
All right.
Thank you everybody.
And then just take that up a separate.
Yes.
We can see all of it.
Okay.
That's it.
Okay.
All right.
Any other questions on the agreement?
Is there someone willing to make a motion?
I'll move to approve.
Motion by Alderman Benning.
Seconded by Miss Miller.
Any questions or concerns on the motion?
All right.
Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
All right.
Motion carries.
That brings us to the next agenda item under new business consideration and possible action on an intergovernmental cooperation agreement with the Ozaki
with Ozaki County for municipal road and street services and the vantage project.
The agenda item is consideration possible action on this intergovernmental cooperation agreement for municipal road and street services between the city of Port Washington, Ozaki County, relating to the data center project.
The common counsel is being asked to prove an intergovernmental cooperation agreement between the city of Port Washington, Ozaki County.
The agreement allocates the authority and responsibility for repairing streets, city streets, town of Port Washington roads and county highways that are.
Or may be damaged by heavy construction traffic associated with vantage data center.
Lighthouse campus project with all repairs cost to be borne by the developer.
Who's taking this, Roger?
Sure.
I'll start.
So again, with their developers agreement with vantage in any road damage and essentially in the county that's caused by their construction or their hauling is
to be repaired and paid for by vantage.
We essentially found early on that their method of repair or their timeness of repair wasn't to the standard we wanted.
We didn't have the staff or materials to do it, but the county said, Hey, we're all over the county. We see what needs to be fixed.
We know how we like to fix it. Essentially, we'd like to do this.
And this establishes a means where the county can do the work. They can just build vantage without going through us and kind of streamline.
Basically, streamline repairs, get them done.
And then just to add to that, you know, this also keeps the money in the county for the highway department. And like Roger said, this is them doing our work.
To our specs, not having an outside company doing this. So this is sort of a win-win and then the county can build vantage and then the city isn't paying that and then being reimbursed.
It's just going straight to vantage and removes us from that. So an extra layer of protection.
And previous to any construction beginning you and others, engineering firms went out and took drone footage, pictures, depths of all of the roads.
Correct.
Yes.
That's a background of that. I think that's a misnomer in the community that, you know, we're going to be left with all this damage. So I appreciate that.
That's an important piece of this. Okay. Any questions?
I do have one. Yes.
I really like this agreement. Thank you very much. But it has a termination clause and I just want to clarify this termination is the agreement between the city and Ozaki County.
Does not relieve vantage of its responsibilities to pay for the road repair. Correct.
I'm not an attorney, but I'm going to say correct.
I'll answer that. I had actually answered this earlier. So this is just to protect both parties if the county can't do the work.
So say they have five people quit and we cannot do this. They need to give 60 days notice so that they that vantage can get somebody else on the line.
And vice versa. They're like, hey, we want to have our own contractors. There's that, you know, that discussion and that, you know, they're relying on the money or they already have it scoped out. So that's correct.
Okay. Thank you. I just didn't want people to misunderstand saying, well, vantage can walk away. No, they can't.
And you weren't the only one with that question. So thank you.
Thank you for that clarification. And remember that the developers agreement would supersede this one anyways.
So, right. So is there someone then willing to make a motion to accept it? Oh, Mr. Beaster.
I had the same question earlier. So thanks for clarifying that. But I just wanted to clarify.
County highways. Does that mean like KW and LL or does that include other county roads that would be.
So we can get into civil engineering jargon.
The county highways are KW, LL, basically to letter roads.
Other roads like like Mink Ranch or Highland Drive are town roads.
Maintained by the county. So technically those are town roads, but the disagreements still covers those roads also. And then, of course, we have our own city roads.
Any other questions? Mr. Plater.
I'll make a motion to approve the Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement.
There's a motion to approve. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Gasper.
Any questions or concerns on the motion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying aye.
Opposed? Motion carries. That takes it. Roger, it's your night, man. This is Roger show consideration, a possible action and approval of an easement to we energies for underground electric utility.
In Upper Lake Park, the question is, should the city approve an easement agreement for electric utilities in Upper Lake Park to we energies to improve electrical service?
The staff recommends approving the easement to we energies. Roger.
So we've had similar easements brought to council before that this is part of we energies.
Overall program in the city to make our electrical distribution system more robust.
Essentially, they're bearing a lot of lines in the park and then we're getting a nice new dedicated line to the wastewater plant.
So it's essentially all good for us. We made sure that where the easement was located was not where we were planning to come back to Bluff if we ever move forward with that project.
And as best as possible, not in any vicinity, any areas where John was planning improvements.
This is an important infrastructural improvement for the city of Port Washington. So I appreciate the work that went into this.
And I also appreciate where it is through the Bluff. It's not going to be. I mean, they're going under. So it's not going to be that disruptive to day to day operations.
Any other questions? Concerns or comments?
Someone willing to make a motion? I will move to approve.
I will move to approve. I will move to approve. I will move to approve. I will move to approve. I will move to approve.
Second. Second by Mr. Benning. Any questions or concerns on the motion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying aye.
Opposed? All right, that motion carries. Roger.
The next agenda item is consideration and possible action on resolution 2026-06 compliance maintenance annual report for the CMAR.
The issue is the DNR requires common counsel to pass a resolution stating that the body has reviewed the wastewater utilities compliance maintenance annual report by June 30th of each year.
The staff recommends approval of resolution 2026-06.
All right, so as you can see, this was prepared by Dan. One fortunately, they have another water main break today. So back to back issues with the water system.
So he's all dealing with that right now so they can are prepared to fix it tomorrow.
Anyways, the CMAR for, I think, Mary and Michael that haven't seen us before.
I'm sorry, Mary Lou.
Anyways, it's a comprehensive evaluation of the wastewater treatment system. It's operation, it's ability to staff that we had the appropriate license people there.
The financial situation background of the treatment plant.
So anyways, Dan did all the number of crunching fill out all the forms.
Assuming that resolution passed tonight, it was submitted to DNR for approval. But the bottom line, we scored a 4.0 all A's across the board.
And if you want any more specific details and what we're doing and how we evaluate things, I'm more than happy to meet with you and then go through it.
Or I'm sure Dan would also, or I could spend 40 minutes now going through it.
Enough is microphone.
No, I think, I just wanted to state, I mean, when you review this report, the rich data and you see what we do in Port Washington and you see how well it's done.
And just the volume of different things that go through that plant, it's very impressive.
And I think it's an important piece for everybody to understand.
Ms. Miller?
That's what I wanted to say is congratulate all of you. That is great.
It feels like we're doing great work down there and I appreciate all of the effort that's put into it because I know there's been a lot of changes.
I don't know what previous reports look like, but I'm impressed by this one.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Mr. Beaster?
I appreciate it. I'm also bringing our attention to the PFAS thing, which I attended yesterday.
What's the opportunity to advocate for emerging things that could show up in water?
Is PFAS reporting, is that something that would normally be added to this or is that a different process?
I imagine right now it's not not included in our WPDS permit.
I expect it to be included in future permits.
DNR has prepared a general permit for wastewater plants statewide for PFAS.
So likely it's not going to show up in this report yet next year, but I would anticipate in the future that it'll be in there.
We have sampled for PFAS at the wastewater plant. We're concerned about it in the sludge because that we take that and spread that out in the land.
And our numbers, as they are right now, are I want to say it's 15 parts per trillion, which is below the DNR's action level of needing to do anything about it.
But it is, as you say, emerging contaminant.
And it will be an expensive one to deal with if we need to get that.
So we do want to stay in top of that and really monitor industries that make sure they take it over their product.
Thank you, Roger.
Thanks.
Any other questions?
Is there anyone willing to, Mr. Benning?
Roger, on the PFAS thing, you said sludge, is it anticipated, primarily sludge?
Do we take in from haulers that bring it in? And do we check it before we process it?
See, identify who might be bringing stuff that's contaminated.
Right now we haven't gone to that detail.
Actually, Dan, Dan is working on a project to improve our remote.
Dumping sites, so we can essentially, right now, our sampling up there doesn't work.
So it's one of the things that they want to prove.
And that is one of those things that we can check on.
But really, right now, we check the sludge in the tank.
That was our sampling point.
So, which is good news, then.
I mean, system-wide area-wide, we're good.
But there are haulers that I would say would be suspect for high amount of PFAS.
With that, I'll move to approve.
Is the motion to approve? Is there a second?
I'll second.
Moved and second.
Any questions or concerns on the compliance maintenance annual report?
Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying aye.
Opposed? Motion carries.
That brings us to the last agenda item.
Public comments and appearances.
Is there anyone willing to make public comments or appearances?
We're in current 5.859 County Road Y.
I wanted to let you guys know that you were contacted by some ATC people.
And you did not ever email them back.
And you were emailed in regards to something that you guys might understand a little bit better since instead of people's experiences.
And that's money.
Every single person, regardless of whether what you advocate for the ATC line, has to protect their property.
They all have to hire attorneys to do it and spend a lot of money on attorney fees.
No amount of car washes or any little bandage you want to put on it is going to fix the amount of time, energy, and money.
They are going to have to spend to protect their property.
That doesn't matter which line the ATC chooses.
That just means that if their line is not taken, then someone else's is.
And whoever's line is taken to chosen is just going to have to spend that much more money.
So I don't know if you guys are realizing how much impact you have money wise on other people.
But this is a big deal.
And a lot of this would have been avoided if you did an environmental impact assessment.
Thank you.
Okay.
Thank you for that.
Could our boy scout come up here?
You want to go up behind the Mr. Strom there and come all the way around here?
So what is your name?
My name is Jonathan Donovan.
Jonathan, I'm very 19.
And what pack are you in?
I'm in truth 8.5.
I'm a scout in also 8.6.8.
And here, step over here.
And what are you doing here tonight?
I'm here to work on my communications.
Awesome.
And this is how many years of scouting for you?
This is my seventh year including Cub Scouts.
That's fantastic.
So would you like to adjourn our meeting tonight?
Yes.
Okay.
So when you hear me say, when you hear them all say, are you bang that down and that closes our meeting?
Okay.
Thanks for being a scout and then investing in your community.
And if you go for your Eagle, I hope that you pick a cool project for the city of Port Washington.
Okay.
This is my truth.
All right.
So with that, is there a motion to adjourn?
So moved.
There's a motion and a second.
Are there any questions or concerns on that motion?
If anybody questions this one, it's a problem.
All right.
All in favor signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
This meeting is adjourned.
Go Pirates.