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Okay, we will call the village board work session for Tuesday March 17th to order at 5 o'clock.
First item of business here will be to appoint a village trustee to preside over this meeting.
So I'll take any make a motion to nominate trustee little to preside over the meeting.
Second.
We have a motion by Trustee Williams to nominate.
Trustee little to preside over this meeting in a second by the courts.
All in favor.
I.
Any against.
Any.
One, two, so we have a two to tie.
Okay, commotion fails.
Is there any other motion to point a trustee to preside over this meeting?
I'd like to make a motion to appoint Jim Simpson.
Motion by the staffing.
You can have.
There are second to a point.
Trustee Simpson to preside over this meeting.
Yes, I'll second.
I can buy this in.
All in favor.
I.
Okay.
So we got a two to tie there to.
You vote.
Are you abstaining?
Are you voting?
On Simpson's.
Sure.
Yes.
All right.
We got a three to.
Yeah.
So, Trustee.
Little.
Since then.
It's happening in high favor.
Trustees.
Williams and courts against.
Trustee Simpson.
I'll let you take over.
Thank you, Bill.
And Kelly to do the note roll call.
Announcements.
Don't believe there's any.
So discussion item 4.1 discussion regarding perspective,
names and naming process for the river's turn.
And quite.
Three parts.
First, I'd like to introduce Reese.
She's there.
She's welcome back to Reese.
So.
There's two things that are happening at rivers turn phase three.
Park, which is a lot of words.
So the first one is ideally we like to come up with a better name for it than.
Development that's rivers turn phase three.
We already have a rivers turn park.
In the village.
That's there an innovation drive.
So staff worked.
We kind of brainstormed some ideas and the three were the ones that we settled on or up on the screen.
Last night, our.
Public services committee met.
They approve this process.
So the idea is we will have these three names, take them forward to the public.
Let the public vote.
I'm using engaged to forest to give feedback on what they'd like the park name.
So this does follow our guidelines that we use for.
We have parks that we need to name.
The policy was included in the packet.
And so.
Several of those key areas are is it something that's a.
Need a feature in the area.
So we do have a high quality sedge metals that are in the upper high river corridor there.
Which is why we came up with sedge metal park.
Another name would have been river bend park because there is river bends nearby there.
The river bends quite a bit through the village.
And then the third one is stone crop ground.
So stone crop is a name of a road that runs right in front of the park.
So it does an identifier and then we picked grounds just as it was a different way than saying a park.
So.
Again, the public services committee supported this going out for a survey and we're here.
Just trying to get a general.
Approval for me all to go forward and do this.
Ultimately, when the final vote comes in, we're going to get him off the screen.
We'll let it'll come back for official action by the board at that time to officially name the park.
Whichever these three should rise up.
Okay.
So it looks like what you're looking for is a recommendation to move forward with the names.
Just curious if the committee had a.
A favorite that they wanted to put forward.
Sedge metal, I think was overall overarching one.
They weren't super keen on the.
Grounds part, right? So it could be stone crop park and then river bend park.
They were like there's other river would bend in town.
So they thought that might get confusing a little bit, but there's it's a river would not river bend.
So I don't, but other than that, I don't know another river bend.
So, but overall they're supportive of the idea.
Sure.
Going forward, I wonder if we could change that right away to stone crop park.
And the reason that stone crop was brought up is because that there's a very long road that goes all the way around it.
And I think that would be easy for residents to identify by that name.
Like, okay, that's probably over there by stone crop road, if they know that.
So I was just wondering if we could change grounds to park on that one.
I hear two at the time agreement with that.
Do we have a consensus?
Okay.
Is that enough or did you want to? I guess it's that should be sufficient for our needs, I think.
Okay.
So I think we'll move on to 4.2 discussion on park concepts and recommendations for river turns phase three park.
Judd and Greg and Reese.
So we want to offer our fee for designs for the river turn phase three park.
We've got we had a we received eight proposals.
We staff went through and kind of picked the top three.
Went by the criteria of like made sure that they're 40% inclusive play.
So which means like the ramps for like handicap wheelchair accessible playground equipment and then all their accessories to, you know, use your hands.
Things like that, swing sets that can have two people on an adult and child.
So we kind of ranked them that way and the top three were a Gerber leader products was option one.
Every company could do two options if they wanted to.
The lee recreation had option one and two were all voted in the top three.
So we would now if you guys.
Approve us of us going forward will send us out for two week period along with the naming and residents will be able to vote on the concepts.
And then once the concept comes back here and we'll take that final vote and whatever one wins.
That's the park that playground that will use in the construction of that park, which will go out for bid starting March 27.
So the labor to install this will be in that.
Package.
We had them.
All our budget for this playground was 100,000, which included installation and mulch.
And the playground equipment. So they all were right around that 100,000 mark for everything.
Thank you. Any comments.
I guess the one question that I have is I like all the concepts.
I just wonder when you put it out the vote, are you going to have a potential like comments in case somebody has ideas yet or.
Ask that point.
Yeah, besides color, there's much we can change with, you know, if we add things that's going to cost more.
And then I don't know if there's much we can really change. We don't.
We didn't ask for alternative equipment or options.
Did you mention we were talking about this last night in the meeting that there will be eventually a basketball courts there and tennis courts there.
And a and a pavilion.
It's just that's not included in this particular.
Yeah.
We just want to offer the RFP proposal for just the playground equipment.
Stand alone.
And that's not inclusive like of seat seating right benches for.
We'll include bunches during the whole project. So there'll be picnic tables underneath the shelter.
Maybe similar shelter to that one. I'll hear it's 20 by 20.
And then we'll add some other benches along the playground.
I would just add this is kind of how we do the playground portion of parks, right? So we've looked at the whole concept of the park, which does have an open area space.
There'll be a lot of trees planted in this park when we it's finalized.
And then there'll be that multi used basketball tennis court option that will be there, right? So that's the whole park. This is just the playground portion.
And I think we started this.
Seven years ago, getting feedback from residents on the park itself that goes in like the equipment that goes in for the play area.
Just to get resident feedback. So they, the park they've got.
You know, say kind of in what happens with the playground part itself.
So that's what this part is is a one section of the whole park that will be developed this year.
This playground part is just to get that feedback from residents. We've gotten the feedback overall on the park concept when we did the park and connect last year.
So this part is now in that park and connect. We didn't have the play equipment in there. We just had an area set aside that the playground would be at.
And so they generally, this was the concept that they liked for the whole park.
Now we're looking at the insert part, which is just this part. So it's a separate connection part to it.
I think I will wish you luck here. Just moving forward or do you need anything from us?
I don't think you guys are good. We'll move forward. We'll start the voting and we're going to hand out some letters to the residents nearby that park and make sure that they have a vote.
Thank you guys.
Item 4.3 discussion regarding the 2025 police department professional standards report.
Chief Olson.
It's all shared. It's all shared.
There we go. I think they keep waiting to see when the dog shows up or video starts playing.
It's the usual accusations I face from my peers. So.
All right. Good evening.
It's that time of year again. We just finished our 20 to 25 numbers or UCR numbers, a uniform crime reporting. So next meeting, I'll be back with our annual report and give you more of a snapshot of the total picture of the department where it sits.
But for those who are newer and hear this previously, every year I do what I've now come to call our professional standards report.
So there's risk in everything we do in any, any part of the village, there's risk associated with it. But for the PD, really, we look at several things.
We look at use of force complaints or use of force as a period for law enforcement. We look at pursuits.
We will look at citizen complaints internal investigations and also added some things to hear about the canine usage, just so you can see where we're using Cairo.
And then when data pilot was approved a little bit over a year ago, I told you I would add it to this report. So I have some data as it goes to that as well. So some of this is, you may have seen some of this before.
There was a been here for a few years, but I still wanted to leave it in share with everybody so that you can see the numbers that are here.
Again, this to us is just the ongoing continuous effort to increase our transparency effort.
I can't believe I started year eight last week is the chief here. So this is something I've constantly been trying to push is what we do is it is as they say what it is. This is what happens.
Sometimes it's not always pretty, but this honest open in front about it.
You know, we will learn from our mistakes. We will hold ourselves accountable for misconduct. You'll see those numbers that show up in here. None of this will be personnel related matters. It's just simply data that you get to see from the department.
Again, we're open with our community. We welcome them in people have questions. We're always willing to engage as best we can. So we'll start out with a little bit about Cairo. I didn't bring him along tonight.
I think he's off today. So we'll let him enjoy his off day, but officer Debbie and Cairo have been had a busy year. A lot of training that goes into a canine program. And that's good because it protects the village from risk.
He has to go to 16 hours a month of what they call maintenance training. So he'll get retrained and continuously trained on like tracking apprehension, article searches, area searches and all those things that we've used him for during his shifts.
But he gets 16 hours of training of that a month. On top of that, he does training on duty. So when he takes them to the high school, if he does a demo or last year when he did a demo for the board, that's all training hours for him.
So we will continue to use him. We did a couple of really good things. He shows up at the athletic complex one. It's just a good for people to see him out around or any officer out about for that matter.
But he gets to the kids get to meet him as you've all seen. He's pretty friendly unless he's really amped up and working on something. Then he's changes a little bit, but it's not a situation where people come up and pet him at that point.
Anyway, he's working. He went into the high school talk at a couple of high school classes. They invited Adam and Cairo in. So they had a really good exchange with him.
He was at our winter wonderland this in January, but he was able to stop and interact with the attendees at that event as well. We did something for the chamber last year as well.
So he got to do a demo for them, which is kind of outdoor just on the side of north and south. So we did a demo there as well.
The difference that I kind of laughed because his first picture on the top right was the first day he came back into the department. And if you can see his tongue is out, if it was a video, you'd see he was panting like crazy. He was really stressed.
And now he just kind of comes in and wanders around and greets everybody and it's just different. It's just amazing to see how much he's calmed down.
He hasn't jumped up on the table in a while because his first shift, he was upset that nobody was paying attention to him. So he literally jumped up onto our conference table and laid down the middle of it.
Like, I'm here. You guys should be paying attention to me. But he's doing really, really good things.
Even to a point where one of the officers commented, he used him at in service last time because they have to learn how to be familiar with the dog.
If you're arresting somebody and the dog is there, if the dog makes an apprehension or handcuffing somebody, there is a arc to this because the dog doesn't differentiate uniforms from just quality.
So we have to understand how to work with the dog. And one of the officers made specific mention how they feel safer when the dog is on duty because they've seen the dog work.
They know what the dog's capable of. They know that he will help them.
We do use him, obviously, quite a bit for building searches. The middle one, you can't see because of the zoom thing, but it says it's a sniffing.
So, basically, he goes out and gets summoned for a traffic stop or he's been into houses and things like that.
Or the last one is the area search. So he gets used quite a bit comparatively where we're located. He gets used quite a bit.
But he does a really, really good job. And to see him work and have seen it firsthand is really pretty impressive. He has a very good nose. He's got a very strong apprehension ability.
And to see how he reacts is pretty impressive.
We are still leading and we should be where he's requested.
That's kind of what this data shows. But he can see he's requested by a lot. He's been out helping the state patrol.
Fitchburg is probably the biggest outlier because there's a time component.
You only have so much time from the request to get the dog there to sniff a car, for example, a traffic stop.
You can't unhole unduly delay a release of somebody just for waiting for a dog.
So, Fitchburg was something specific. I don't remember the exact incident, but it wouldn't be like a traffic stop.
He wouldn't get there in time. It would be time out before he possibly had the chance to get there.
Maple Bluff as well. And some of these were pursuits that happened in the area. Somebody bailed out of the car and they tried to track him with the dog.
So, you can see we use them a fair amount in multiple different ways.
So, that's a little bit about Cairo from last year. As far as use of force goes.
And I was just talking to Lieutenant and the captain today. I said, okay, we put this a program in play in 2019 when I started.
We got to trim the data sets now because we have a bunch of data that's good years in a row.
And it starts to get a little bit heavy. So, we're in the green numbers on the far right.
As you can see, we had 20 use of force incidents last year.
Now, when you start to look at it and you're like, it looks like more than 20 up there.
There might be multiple use of force applications that encompass one incident.
So, one event would, or one incident would be me taking, us taking somebody in a custody.
But if we try to compliance hold, that didn't work. So, we had to try and escort hold.
That didn't work. And then we went to a decentralization that could get tabed three different ways for one incident.
So, it looked a little bit skewed. But what it does is it captures everything you try that attempts to maintain control or effect the law of the arrest.
And again, these are really low use of force that you see here. Like escort, I see Brad, right?
You see escort holds, you see compliance hold. Those are literally going hands on and blanketing somebody's elbow and maybe taking control of their wrist and directing them to a certain location.
Decentralization is taking somebody to the ground, direction to the ground.
You know, handcuffing and restraint could be just to detain somebody on the scene that was chaotic.
People are arguing, fighting and you separate. You could have something of that nature.
Stabilization is literally just holding somebody in place.
So, none of this is really how you use a force. I'll show you a video in a moment here.
You've some have seen it before, but it really walks through a couple different use of force applications.
Just so you can understand most of this is very, very low level of force.
It's been my theory long. If I track the low levels of force, we try to intercede before something escalates where somebody doesn't know how to use low levels of force to achieve the mission.
We try to always build from that point.
The justification is really why they used force. The officer and the supervisor oversees it.
So, the officer, if they have an incident that requires a use of force, they report it.
The sergeant will then get assigned to investigate it.
So, they'll review the body want cameras of everybody involved, the squad cameras, as well as talk to individuals that are involved.
You'd see it's everything from preventing escape to defending themselves to making lawful arrests.
It's of kind of a wide variety. Nothing up here that I see is statistically significant that makes me go, oh my gosh, something's really out of place.
These are really low numbers. You're talking about 20 use of force. Now, give you the total number of assignments here in a couple minutes.
Nothing is really statistically significant that makes me go, wow, something's really crazy. We're doing something really, really bad, which is what I want to see.
There's always an outlier year. If you look at like 2024 super outlier year, right? That's really, really low numbers.
So, I look at those as well and go, okay, do you have like young officers, for example, sometimes they're afraid to go hands on people.
They're afraid to control situations when you need to control situations. So, to me, while it looks like an outlier, it's also something to pay attention to to make sure that they're being safe in their jobs.
So, the demographics is something else I'll look at just about who we're using force against.
They're pretty self explanatory for what they are. There's nothing on the line that I would see. Wow, that's really crazy. How can we have this or we have that?
It's just really another way to look at data and make sure that we're using FIP type of training that we provide our staff and that we're doing things on the up and up in the right way.
The other one we look at is show of force. So, show of force, you'll see a couple different ways.
Excuse me, you'll have ECD or TASERD and it's not a deployment. It literally comes out of its holster and somebody sees it, okay?
Or if you have your pistol out of the holster or the rifle out of the squad car or the less lethal shotgun out of the squad car, you deployed it.
You may or may not have pointed it at somebody. We counted as a show of force.
A couple of reasons. If somebody sees that, they're apt to call us and say, what's going on over there? The officer had a rifle in their hands, right?
We're being transparent. We want people to understand what's going on and that they're still safe.
But in the same way, when you see the pursuit numbers shortly, it'll make a little bit of sense why there's deadly force show of force.
Because at the end of a pursuit, if somebody's still on a vehicle, you would do a high-risk vehicle contact and that requires the show of deadly force.
So, it's not a shot fired or anything like that. It's literally just having a gun in your hand or the rifle out of the car constitutes a show of force.
The good thing, all of our use of force, we review everything. It gets reviewed by a use of force expert, which is our defense of tactics instructors, supervisors for the most part.
We do have a couple officers that can review it as well, but we have the supervisor reviewed because I'm not going to appear to peer to it.
It goes up the chain, up to the captain, and if it's something out of line, he comes to me with it. If not, Chris can approve it based upon the force option, continue and making sure we did the right thing.
And then we brief them out as a command staff every three months or so. We get them all together and just going to go through them.
Okay, so I'm going to show you a video. It says taser, taser, taser. Prior to deployment of a taser, you'll hear that. You'll hear one of the officers say it.
This is a vehicle contact on Highway 51. The person was later arrested and had some fentanyl on him in the vehicle, but at the point the officers are trying to investigate, you'll see the response.
You'll see the officer take control of our arm, try to take control of our arm, try to, try to hank on somebody. You see the active resistance.
You're trying to overcome active resistance where you'll see the taser deployment. You'll see they'll actually roll down into the ditch and then you'll hear the second taser deployment.
The hands of the pocket are a really bad place for people to let hands be. You can see them try to move through them.
Stop resisting.
Don't look. Don't look. Don't look. I'm not. I'm not.
71.42. Stop that. Emergency traffic on channel one.
State, if you're in the air.
There's a point.
I can't get paid for it. Take humanitarian day one.
Stop.
You can kind of hear taser, taser, taser. The volume is really not loud enough and that's fine, but you see it start out with going hands on.
Somebody's trying to put their hands in their pocket. We don't know what's in there. They haven't got to the first part yet.
It is extremely dangerous not knowing what's either in their pocket in their waistband. Are they going to just simply throw a bag of dope?
Are they going to retrieve a knife? Rash knuckles? Oh, gone. You don't know.
Trying to maintain gain control. The officers do a really good job trying to work together to do it.
You see Officer Cassisola grabbed his radio and said he's resisting to try to get some more help to come to the scene.
And as he's so you saw everything from going hands on to escrow holes to compliance holes, a decentralization when they fell to the ground and control directing to the ground to maintain and try to gain control.
And then you saw overcoming reactive resistance with the taser deployment.
Now with what you see sometimes is like in that situation where a taser that darts on it won't penetrate heavy winter clothing.
It's a Wisconsin. It's a winter thing. It happens. So in that case, the first taser deployment didn't work.
One probe entered. One probe came out. It was in the jacket when they went down the hill.
Deploy the tasers their second time. They got enough of a connection that they were able to retain the person take them into custody and take them to jail.
So you can see a lot of what we talk about. It starts with low levels of force. That case particularly escalated.
Just as a comparison in 2025, we took 11,349 assignments. So that's almost 1000 assignments per patrol officer through the course of the year.
Up 1154 assignments from 2024. Throughout that entire time, we had 20 total uses of force. So in other words, 0.17622% of the time was force used at an assignment.
Now that doesn't even account account for every encounter because there's other encounters you could have.
You could have a traffic stop with five people in the car that would over inflate the number and I didn't want to make it seem like we're trying to bury something.
So it's just based off the number of assignments and the use of force incidents with the assignments 2025.
I went through with our use of force people. We updated our personal or policy again.
I do it every two years. The state says I have to do it every three. I try to do it every Tuesday head of the curve state law mandates.
It's on our website and it is so the school also becomes an interesting point.
We have a SRO there. So we kind of monitor that. There was one use of force incident at the school. It was really nothing alarming.
It was just out of control and somebody was restrained.
So the Haley Little George being our SRO, she gets quite a multitude of training for both the school district from Nazaro or the National Association of School Resource Officers on how to deescalate things.
So she's very well versed and trained in how to work with people in crisis and things of that nature.
We look at, like I mentioned before, we'll look at citizen complaint data. And again, nothing statistically significant.
2023, we had 10, which is just kind of an odd year. You can see it's like the high outlier now. I should do the low outlier use of force in 2024 2023 with 10 citizen complaints.
Got to be kind of an element of an outlier. We tend to hover in this three, four, and then we had a little bit of the middle of the pack.
This is right again, right after I started, we started tracking things pretty closely. 2025, we had a total of three citizen complaints.
You look at the demographics. One was from a white male, two were from white females. That was the only citizen complaints we had in 2025.
Oops. Okay.
Here we go, fighting with the mouth. Sorry. So we start looking at now, how do we, what's the disposition or what, what do we do to adjudicate the complaint?
We're going to investigate it. I said it before, we will learn from our mistakes, hold ourselves accountable from this conduct.
In 2025, one of the cases was unfounded. In other words, the complaint that was launched by the citizen really had no basis.
There was nothing, the officer did nothing wrong and their complaint didn't even meet like a statutory requirement was impossible almost to investigate.
And then in two of the cases, the officer was exonerated. In other words, after reviewing it, after looking at video camera, our body want cameras, squad cameras, sometimes cameras in our building.
The officer didn't do anything wrong. And that's sometimes difficult to convey to the public because they just feel like something wasn't right.
We will offer people to come in. You want to watch the body camera? We'll walk through it with you. We'll show you what they did, how they responded, why we're trained to do that.
Very few, if anybody will ever agree to do that. And that's fine. We still make the offer. Come on in. We'll sit down with you and walk through it.
But that's just where it was. We had nothing. Nothing was withdrawn. People can withdraw their complaint if they do, if they decide to.
Not sustained is something where it's really not provable. It's one person says one thing. The other person says something else. I can't prove it to a degree of certainty under chapter 62 of the statutes.
Policy failure. We've had one over the years. I think it was 2019 and that's not captured in here where our policy didn't cover something it needed to.
And that policy was updated, but that's not even captured on this data set.
If something's within policy or sustained, we also track that something can be within our policy. Again, maybe the policy is not where it should be.
Or the it's just not a violation of policy that.
But they're within policy and it seems really odd, but we can have things like that where you got some conflict.
And then sustained is person absolutely 100% the person was wrong and we deal with it from there.
It goes to an internal investigation. If we continue to move forward.
Internal investigations are administrative procedures or for violation of our code of conduct.
Our code of conduct is pretty specific, I guess to a thing. If you haven't seen it, it's on our website, but.
Instead of rules, we guide ourselves by values, which is a much better way for me to determine and administer.
Discipline, it's also an easier way for officers to act inside the professional environment.
So if you think of it in terms of rules, you can have workplace rules and we do have some.
But if you can have workplace, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not.
Well, at some point, police departments across the country have found themselves having so many rules, you couldn't do anything without violating a rule.
So we have redefined, we redefined in 2019 our expectations in terms of our six core values underneath all of our six core values.
There's guiding principles that basically you have to do this. You have to live up to this.
This leaves the officers a lot more discretion, which is good because we want them to be decision makers.
And we look at the totality of the circumstance when it comes to discipline.
So internal investigations often lead to discipline, if sustained, or they could lead to discipline.
Inside of internal investigations or internal affairs investigations, they come out to IAs, but inside of those, I look at certain things.
I have to look at chapter 62 of the statutes.
And I go through this with the police commission, they're well versed at, but I have to look at certain seven steps of just cause to be able to prove discipline.
So even if something is sustained in a citizen complaint, I may not be able to use discipline because it won't meet the just cause standard.
And if it doesn't, I can't do anything. But inside of that, there are factors we have in our code of conduct that link to their behavior.
In other words, what was the employee's motivation? Were they acting in self interest or were they acting the best of the community?
What's the degree of harm caused? Did their behavior cause such a degree of harm as to discredit the village or the village police department?
That gets to be a higher low experience. What's the employee's experience? If it's somebody really tenured and you did something like you should know better versus somebody who's maybe newer and made a good faith effort?
Was it an unintentional or intentional error? In other words, is there some intent behind their behavior? And what's their past record? And last but not least, is do they take responsibility for what happened?
When you when I look at all of those factors, we can come up to some kind of disciplinary finding.
By month, I'll look at these things just to see. And for some reason, I think I copy the wrong chart. I apologize, but there's nothing really specific in here as far as when if you look, they're scattered throughout the year.
Generally speaking, I always would have assumed that it would have been the summer months because you're going to be really busy.
You're maybe you're tired from working special events or something else and say something stupid to somebody that's misinterpreted or whatever the case might be.
But really, over the years, we've found nothing that shows any one time a year is worse or better than any other time of year.
So the left one is a little bit convoluted. And this is hard because you need to conduct book to see exactly what the allegation of behavior is.
And that's where you get into the guiding principles that 3.03 is grab one. So integrity 1.01.
The right page. I don't need my cheaters. So conduct of the members shall inspire and garner the confidence of the community we serve.
Right. So that would be an allegation somebody could face during an internal.
It's just an example of how these all work out and they can be multiples per investigation.
And then the dispositions that we might have. Well, in 2025, we did have a sustained.
Two of them that were sustained. And one of them was what we were sorry, three of them become department counseling. So.
There's a couple of different ways it can work. If a sergeant sees a behavior and stops it or sees or hears something and stops it.
They can just counsel the member on low level offenses. Right. I expect them to be supervisors. I expect them to be leaders.
They can handle the situation at the moment, which is what they should do because it stops the behavior.
If it goes into the formal process and it gets to me, well, we're going to go all the way through the gamut.
At which case I can order documented counseling where they would still do the counseling session, but they would write it up and go into personnel files type of thing.
And it all depends on what the allegation is and all of those types of things.
The last thing we talked about is vehicle pursuits. I think we had six of them last year. I remember, right? Sorry.
And again, what month is the worst? It's really just like there's two in one month or something. So there's nothing that shows any one month is better or worse.
The one thing you'll see is you'll look at inside of our policy and outside of our policies. Wow, you have four of them outside of policy.
This can be like a fragment or a portion of it is outside the policy.
The officer didn't pull over and stop right away after terminating the pursuit. Technically, that's outside of policy.
I've told the service if something doesn't meet to exactly what our policy says, it's outside of policy.
We'll go through it. We'll address it. We'll counsel or teach. We'll learn. We'll grow up.
But we're not going to sit and have somebody pull a video and say, but that doesn't meet your policy.
We'll address the matter. Okay, but it's so it's going to show up on here like it's potentially a little bit adverse.
We do a risk intervention meetings. I kind of started that with supervisors were at our supervisor in service meetings or our staff meetings.
We'll go through some of the events that have happened and just talk through them to make sure that we're all on the same page and how make sure we're not missing any patterns.
The sergeants reviewed cameras. So the worst thing you could do is pay all this money for in-car cameras and body-worn cameras and do nothing with it.
My previous department, we had terabytes and terabytes and terabytes of video that was never looked at for a long time.
They do it now, but when we came here, we got this resource.
We started looking at it and the sergeants have to review X amount of videos per month per one of their officers assigned to them.
And they look for things that are wrong or they look for things that are good.
And when they find them, they talk to the member about it and say, hey, this is something you should consider.
Maybe take a bit different angle. I'll show you some of the experiences that they have here in a minute.
But once we got that integrated system, it kind of helps a lot with that aspect as well.
The video reviews in 2025, you can see we did just short of 400 of them or standalone.
I'm sorry for total video review, and it comes from a couple different places.
First is just the blue one here is the sergeants monthly review.
So they'll have four or five people assigned to them.
They'll have to review. I don't remember what the captain has, how many videos they have.
And it's just a random selection. We give them a list, watch these videos.
It could be a body-worn camera. It could be a squad video.
It just depends on how the algorithm works that month.
Then they'll have body-worn camera reviews. They will have a pursuit.
Every pursuit that somebody's engaged with, they'll watch every car involve every camera.
They'll also watch the body camera, which plays inside the car.
You can see the officers got two hands on the wheel. Are they talking on the radio?
Are they holding the radio and trying to steer the car, which has to be kind of dangerous.
The cord always gets wrapped in the steering wheel.
And then lastly, use of force. So if three of us are to use of force, we're going to watch all three body-worn cameras.
We're going to watch all three squad cameras because it's amazing to see how you can almost see like a panoramic view of the event.
So could we do anything better? Could we learn from this in some way, shape, or form?
So when all sudden done, we got just under 400 in last year, which is a pretty good amount.
Again, three hundred total videos. We found 30 issues out of those 342 videos.
And that's about 8.7 percent of the time to be finding an issue from watching a video.
Here's what the issues were. These are real big issues that we're finding here, which is good that they're really kind of small issues, right?
They were not finding major things. A lot of them are what we call back-end kind of ordeals.
Like somebody didn't put the case number on the video when they tagged it.
It gets to be important because when we do open record searching, it just takes the people doing open records
a lot longer because they've got to go find the video and find the case number.
They got to classify it properly. It goes into record retention.
So if we classify something as a misdemeanor arrest, it triggers a certain over a felony arrest, which triggers a certain length of time
versus a warning card, for example, which is 121-day retention.
Sometimes stuff doesn't sync. You didn't sync your body-worn camera to the in-car system.
So they show up. It shows up. The best word I can think of is wonky.
Okay, so you'll have the body camera not synced with the squad camera, and it gets to be in an A-marish.
Again, classifying videos. The couple that were really a little bit more learning for officers was some positioning during vehicle context.
Like you don't walk between cars, caught a few of that kind of thing.
When somebody's still in the car, that can be really bad.
We saw an officer with their flashlight in what would be their primary hand or their strong side hand, which is bad if something escalates.
And then at one, they found one instance where an officer was leaning on a car during a traffic vehicle contact.
Again, it's not the best position to be at. It's a learning moment. None of this is discipline related.
This is just how do we learn, but how do we use the tools we have to teach you?
Every time we get a new hire, I will meet with their family just before we go swear them in and give them a half hour of time.
And it's the question always is, how are you going to keep filling the blank safe? What are you going to do?
I mean, that's a real concern. I remember my mom when I started at MPDE in 1990 nervous about that exact same thing.
And we tell them we're going to train them the best we can. These are the things we do.
And this is just one of the things we do to try to keep people safe.
You can't always be there watching every single second, but they don't know what video we're going to see.
So it also keeps people knowing that videos are reviewed and they're all well aware of it and I know they're watching this tonight.
So where do we go from here? We have our EIP program up, our early intervention program.
Again, we stick with training identification, supervisory oversight. It's still management review, kind of what we do, and then discipline review.
It can go into the discipline process or the internal investigation process.
But the EIP program is up and going, which is a good thing for members.
Early intervention is a really good thing. It's kind of a forward looking type of thing where you look at not so much looking for problems in people,
but helping to identify improvement areas for people. Maybe somebody has had three or four domestic investigations in a row.
We need to step in and say, you know what, maybe you shouldn't take this assignment. Maybe somebody else will take this assignment.
Maybe somebody had a really horrific event doing CPR and an infant.
That can be something that we need to trigger EIP a little bit and have them talk to either peer support, talk to our chaplain,
just make sure their mental health is okay. It's something that just try to keep people grounded and help them work together.
It's not punitive in any way, shape or form. Officers are internet crimes against children investigators. I think we have seven of them now.
They each get a mental health debrief session annually. The state pays for most of it.
We budget for the rest of the staff. I'll have an opportunity now this year to start that program as well.
They see things that not everybody should see, especially you start looking at some of the times I see if you've been to our work ceremony,
you know how many life saving awards we give out. That doesn't account the attempted life savings.
The situation of car crashes and the injuries you see and the things that nobody should really have to deal with.
We want to make sure we're taking care of people. That's really what EIP gets to.
The last thing just for your awareness is data pilot. If you recall data pilot is a way for us to download electronic devices with either consent or search warrant.
So we just can't grab anybody's phone and just download it. We still need their consent or an authorized search warrant to do so.
And when we do that, we've done it eight times during the last year. Okay, really what this does, if you recall, when I asked for permission to enter into the agreement,
is it allows us to act with urgency. In other words, if I take your child's phone, that's $1,100 device that we're holding.
And if I have to get it to somebody else to use a different program, you could take three, four, six months.
With consent or search warrant, we can get it back to within a week, generally speaking, as long as I have one of the experts there, I can plug the thing in and all how to use it.
So generally even quicker than a week, I just use a week as an example because generally we can do it within the next day, if somebody's working.
And if it's something real accident, we can have somebody come in and do it. So it really allows us to do it, do it the right way.
If you made six extractions, we plugged it in, downloaded the device.
And then if there's something that somebody has either been watching or sharing a video with friends, we can just record it right off the device.
We can screen record it. So it just allows us to capture evidence and get devices back to kids so that they can be connected to families.
It's not always kids. I just use that as an example. And sometimes it's just others that we have the device from.
So that's the data from 2025.
I'm happy to answer questions. Like I said, next meeting, I'll have the annual report. We're just finalized proof reading and things like that.
Thanks for the detailed report. Just interesting to see. And it's glad that our numbers are very low. So quick question.
In regards to pulling like video and kind of how we're doing that, is does the department utilize AI in any way to help, you know, target and like he words or he said there's an algorithm behind there.
I don't know how much you can speak to. Is that integrated in any of the supervising?
No, the captain basically tells them which number they're choosing. We provide them a list. It's a fancy algorithm, right? Like you're doing every fifth video.
It's kind of one of those deals. As far as AI goes, it's not really launched. It's something we're going to use, but not in the way it's not in a bad way. What it'll do is what we have to redact video for record requests.
Sometimes we have to request redact bases, voices and phrases, depending on Marcie's law and how that works.
So the new AI that'll come with video redaction will allow us to not miss it. So they'll capture and say, that's the voice. Boom. Every time that voice comes out, it blacks out.
Or it'll take a face like if there's a face of a child, a face of even into like the picture of a squad card computer screen. If it's got personal information on it, we've got to black that out. So that'll allow us to do that quicker.
One more question for you too. So on those, what was it, if extractions, what was like the average time period between like getting the device or getting it back? Are you tracking that as well?
We do track it. I don't have it exactly, but I can tell you it's within a couple of days. I don't know exactly the exact time, but it's generally within a day or two. If they were to take a device on a kind of Friday, the people who would do it are back Monday.
And as long as we have consent and people will give us the code to get into the phone, if not, then we have to get like a search warrant to make you give us the code to get in the phone.
Just as an example.
Any other questions?
I don't have a question, but I have a comment.
First of all, Chief, I want to thank you for your thorough report.
And I just feel that divorce is really fortunate to have such a professional staff and department. And I think that that comes from good leadership.
And I think you should give yourself a pat on the back. Thank you.
Thanks. It has really little to do with me, to be honest, like they've all grabbed on to understanding why we need to do these things and the staff.
Right. It's phenomenal. The officers do just a tremendous job in everything they do in the community.
And the sergeants are doing great work helping build their competence because we do have some young officers, but they're really eager to learn, which is I can work with eager to learn.
But thank you.
I would say thank you for being humble too, but you do need to give yourself some credit. You're setting the policies in place.
And it's nice to see some of those bar charts going down after a few years of being here.
So thank you very much. I do want to ask one question.
You have a sheet up there that was show of force and it had deadly force.
And what I'm curious about, say if somebody's, I know there's been a couple instances where Dane County sheriffs who have been in town and we were assisting.
And what I've heard, at least my guessations, what I've heard is that people had guns drawn like in preparation.
So is that a show of forces having the guns drawn like surrounding the house? I'm assuming so.
Yep. Yep.
If, for example, if we do, let's just use the example on that. I don't know how many we had last year. It was very low.
A search warrant on a residence. I mean, you're not going to take from a position to cover without a weapon in your head because you don't know what's going to come off that window.
Trust me, I've seen more than my fair share, but that would be considered a show of force.
When you look at six vehicle pursuits, if we apprehend, just let's say the average of probably two out of those six or somebody in the car when the car stops.
It would be a show of force because the policy or the training technique is to have weapons out because you don't know why somebody fled and what's coming out of the car.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Yep.
Anybody else?
Thank you, Chief.
One more.
Can we get the dog sometime to one of the meetings?
Oh, absolutely. Well, I'll talk to our administrator, find out when he's going to present next and I'll bring him in just before.
I take a little bit of abuse for when I bring the dog, be honest, just because he kind of steals the show and then, you know, he's the most popular one next door.
Okay.
Thank you. So moving on to updates.
Building administrator agenda update.
Yeah, a couple of updates here.
One, the Senate state Senate is holding their last session.
Currently, unfortunately, the bill that the force has proposed.
Senate bill 133 for potential expansion of boundary.
For tax income and district number nine, and extending that time period was not on that agenda. So at this point, because the legislation legislative session is ending technically that bill died the committee.
Second update here, the Chamber of Commerce is hosting their state of the chamber for its members. That is to be out on April 16 from a 30 to 10 30.
As part of that, the village.
Provides an update.
So does the village Windsor and the school, the school to six also provides an update of the state of their organizations.
So let me know if you are interested in attending that event. We are registering attendees right now from the village.
That's all I have.
Thank you bill financial update Carol.
And I guess we got enough.
I look services update handful of things for you first last year for your call.
We worked with the Madison area, municipal stormwater partnership.
We painted a mural in front of your elementary school.
We also have one down at the high school.
This year we're going to actually do one in front of Eagle Point.
So they've agreed to work with us on that.
So Stacy has been doing a great job with that working with the school district trying to coordinate working to an education component in the school.
And then help have the art teacher there work with us and developing some sort of art to go on the sidewalk that goes right in front of a storm drain.
Just to kind of highlight the kids and people were walking by like, you know.
What goes in here ends up into our lakes and rivers, right? So just to try to highlight the impact of what happens in stormwater.
We had 30 deer taken during our urban wildlife management program for this past season, 2526.
Greg and I are hoping to get out and fly the drone every time we've tried to.
The weather's not cooperated and our state's lined up for us to do it.
So hopefully one of these days they'll line up and we'll have a good account of the number of deer that are still in our area.
But we're pretty confident well over the number that should be desired in the area.
We did add e-waste and bulk items at the yard waste facility.
So we started to open every Saturday to allow that to happen.
Feedback we've heard has been great from residents. They really enjoy the opportunity.
We'll still do the annual twice a year e-waste events out there for the bigger sweep time frames.
But ideally this maybe gets residents in the habit of they got something they don't have to keep them stacked in their garage for months on down to waiting for that one to happen in April.
And the same with bulk pickup. You can still do bulk pickup with LRS or GFL or vendor that does that.
They do it once a month. The second week of the month on your prescribed garbage day you can coordinate with them in advance.
And if you have additional bigger items you can contract with them to do those.
But at least this gives you an opportunity to get rid of some of those bigger bulk items and we have that stuff shared.
And then kudos to my team yesterday. The blizzard doesn't happen but every 10 years and hopefully they get further apart than that.
But we started about 4 a.m. or low before 4 a.m. and we're wrapped up by 430 with all of our streets.
And they have a really good season group of guys. I know what to do. They just go out and get it done.
And I think it shows with how our roads looked that you could get around pretty quickly in the early afternoon.
So I just want to thank them for that.
Thank you very much.
Community development update Alex.
We had the first meeting in 2025 of the Small Business Grant Commission.
And into poorest we had two small businesses that were awarded grant funds.
Jim's pain repair over on Durkey Street and then the Sage of Pothakari in the shopping plaza of Main Street.
I believe Windsor had AKA automotive and then Windsor breads awarded funds as well.
So that was exciting. And then we are onboarding our third party code enforcement.
I don't know, Randy, you want to just kind of give it update on where that's landing.
Sure. So we onboarded last week with a municipal code enforcement and they started doing.
They're monitoring throughout the community last Monday.
Started out with the saw. We're starting out with the soft educational opening, the things that they're noticing.
That are violations. They're doing door hangers as an educational piece.
To inform people because a lot of people don't know you can't park your trailer in the grass, right?
So they started out the ground running with door hangers and we're coordinating efforts right now with complaint any complaints that come in.
And it's been a pretty smooth transition so far.
And I don't have to drive all over the village.
That's a good question.
I missed that, Brandi. Did you say are you just doing the door hangers at the places that are that have the ordinance problems?
Not just a whole, not everybody. Right. Yeah. So as they're driving around, if they're noticing something, the first step is going to be doing a door hanger is kind of an educational piece.
And then they'll follow up the following week. And if it hasn't been taken care of, then we go into the action steps.
Thank you. Anything else, Alex?
Administration services update killing.
Dane County prints all of our ballots for elections. And this year, you probably have heard in the news.
They found a different printer that was able to get us our ballots a week.
Earlier, so we were able to get our ballots out last Tuesday versus today, which is the deadline.
So it gives there's a very short turnaround time from when the ballots are sent out to when the election actually is.
So this gives the voters an extra week to get their ballots sent back. That's about it.
Thank you.
The creation community enrichment update.
So we released our spring summer guide at the beginning of the month.
Overall, it went pretty smoothly. We did have a small glitch with our system that we worked with them to get corrected. It was incorrectly flagging some people as non residents.
So we worked with that process refunded anyone that was charged incorrectly.
Sam last week had meetings with the sanction groups for the baseball fields for this summer. So we're in the process of getting all of those scheduled.
Right now for tournaments. I think we have three weekends, maybe open from starting mid April, all the way through the end of October.
So it's two in August right now, which we're working with maybe a group to fill one of those weekend. So it would be the most tournaments that we've had thus far out there.
And then basketball and volleyball just wrapped up. There was a good season for that this year.
The Trisha had applied for a couple farmers market grants. We've received one of them. We're still waiting to hear back on the other one.
I know that we are actually almost filled for artists for the Dragon Art Fair. So she's starting to get pretty picky with the remaining spots that we have left over.
And then we're in the process of looking for a new onsite farmers market manager. So we have that posted and have some interviews this week and next week.
And hopefully should be filling that soon.
Thank you.
Communications update Stacey.
It's my first update.
So this is a new department for the village of force. So we are starting by working on a social media policy that's something I kind of drafted up.
And we'll see it. So we're working through that.
And then we're also putting together kind of a five year plan for the communications department and what that is going to look like going forward.
And then also we are hiring a communications coordinator and we have three applicants that we will be interviewing next week.
Thank you, Stacey. Maybe next time we'll get your name to.
So any other business that lawfully come before the committee.
Chairman.
Motion to adjourn.
Thank you, Jan. Second second. Second by Brad.
All those in favor please signify by saying aye.
Any opposed.
Motion carries at 604.
I'll say with tradition we'll have.
Three of the four minute let's say 608 try to be back.
Okay, we are calling the Tuesday March 17 regular village board meeting of the village of the forest to order.
So the first order business here is to appoint a village trustee to preside over this meeting.
Do I have any nominee?
I will make a motion to nominate Jim since then.
Okay.
We have.
We have a motion by.
Trustee Stephanie Gahan and the second by.
Trustee Allen to.
Appoint Trustee Simpson to preside over this meeting.
Kelly, can you get a roll call?
Trustee.
Trustee little.
Trustee Simpson.
All right.
Trustee Stephanie Gahan.
Hi.
Trustee Williams.
Is this just roll call or vote?
It is a roll call vote on appointing trustee.
Trustee Allen.
Trustee Cordes.
Motion carries.
I have one.
All right.
Trustee Simpson.
Thank you, Bill.
So I don't remember if you said the time.
I think it was 608 when we started the meeting.
Roll call.
I'm assuming you got roll call.
And I guess.
Recital the pledge.
I asked if there's any trustee here that happens to be a bit Irish.
Yeah, Alicia, you're the most green.
How about that?
Thank you for that.
And happy St. Patrick's Day.
So next announcements I see none.
Consent agenda looking for a motion to approve the consent agenda.
Motion to approve.
By Colleen, is there a second?
Second.
Motion and a second to approve the consent agenda.
I'm sorry.
I should have asked if anybody wanted to pull anything out, but.
Seeing none.
The motion is to approve.
Is everybody in favor?
Please signify by saying aye.
Aye.
Any opposed?
Motion passes six zero.
Item number six is presentations.
Sorry.
Yeah.
Presentations.
Presentation regarding the 2025 building permit report.
Brandi.
Yeah.
Great.
We'll just not prepared.
Okay.
Sorry about that.
Building permit report. So this is the.
Annual report from the final numbers of 2025.
Last, this was presented to the village board was the by annual.
In July of 2025.
So I'm just going to do a real highlight overview.
Of everything.
Feel free to ask questions.
Or reach out to me after the meeting.
If you would like some more information on anything that I'm providing tonight.
So the total estimated value that was added to the village in 2025 through new construction.
And what this is, is what is cost to build something.
Not what it's worth once it's completed.
Right.
So what we request on our building permits for the state.
Is what is an estimated cost.
To build the project. So this is not the actual.
Tax value with that's been added to the village. It's should be.
Will be definitely higher than this.
So the total for 2025 was just under.
$149 million that was brought into the village through.
New construction.
There was a total of 917 units housing units brought in.
Of the 917 housing units.
35 of those were single family homes.
44 units or.
Two 22 buildings were condo townhouse units.
There were 838 multi family units.
And then the component outside of the units.
Total is there were 27.
Commercial projects, whether that be new.
Remodels or additions onto existing commercial and that includes retail.
And industrial components within the village.
So like I said, high level.
Of the permits that were completed this year.
I'll go a little more into depth on that housing inventory.
Worship of it with a number of units that we approve through the housing inventory
report that I have coming up on the agenda.
In the packet, there was also.
A page that was included on the estimated value based on that construction that was
added to each tip.
So that was divided out values brought into tips so you could kind of see.
Exactly how those tips are developing.
And.
The last portion of that.
Packet.
Thank you for doing the mouse, by the way.
Is the available housing units per subdivision that we have out there right now?
The one thing I did want to point out and it is also tracked in the housing
inventory report that will be going over this evening.
Is the few amount of single family.
Lots that we actually have available in the village right now.
For future development for single family.
The amount of lots that are available are becoming very limited.
Many of our subdivisions are.
And have built out significantly over the last few years.
So just want to give you an idea on that.
So that's all I'm going to do for the building permit report right now.
I'm happy to answer questions.
Or if you want to talk offline.
Any questions.
I just had one little piece of context to that too.
So on the single family home side of things.
We have seen in Brandy, I'm sure you can kind of see it.
If you zoom in on some of the subdivisions that are there.
Movement on homestead edition, which is by Savannah Brooks.
So that's 60 single family lots.
We're starting to get building permits on those being pulled.
So we're expecting the developer to move through with those.
That's a positive movement.
As well as actually the same developer on Tierney crossing over by fleet farm has
something that's called the Bali condition.
There you go.
It's being highlighted there.
Those are getting ready for spring sales.
So those will start to move.
That's only 12, but certainly something.
And then really positive progress.
For those of you who are more familiar with heritage gardens,
which is a subdivision that has been had a number of approved.
There you go.
I had again approved lots that have sort of been sitting for a while.
We've got, I think a meeting later this month with a large scale
is going to be progressing on development of those this year too.
So that's a positive trend on the single family side of things.
Obviously, real estate development kind of runs in cycles.
So with some of that movement kind of going forward,
I think we may be running into a cycle that trans more single family.
So.
Can I ask Alex remind me heritage gardens.
Is that over here or is that over by river road?
Over here south of.
Thank you.
Anybody else?
Thank you, Brandy.
You're up again.
The presentation regarding the 2025.
The forest housing affordability report and housing fee report.
Okay.
So I'm going to start out with the housing fee report.
That one and go through relatively very, very quickly.
So say, statue requires now that our village is over 10,000 population that we do these reports.
Every year present the reports to the village board and then also will be providing these on our website for the community to review.
And they will be posted up there all year and every year.
So for the building permit fee report, basically, this is a report that consists of what we're currently charging for fee schedules for new development.
Improvements and things like that on properties within the village.
And what we collect funds for for building permits.
So included in this report is a portion of our fee schedule.
That fee schedule is something that is approved by the village board.
They're the fees that we set up for all of our applications from development all the way through building permitting.
And then also any impact fees.
Those are tracked through this process as well.
So that way the community knows what kind of money we're bringing in and how that money is being used as part of those impact fees go.
So really high overview on this one for building permit fees collected.
We actually collected $1.3 million worth of fees for building permits and applications.
For 2025, it seems like a crazy high amount, but the large building permit fees that came in and came along with headed a lot to do with large industrial use.
And also the multifamily use it's right because those permits, you know, they're done, you know, by unit or square footage or, you know, they're larger scale.
And because we had more of that type of bill and at this year than we did single family, this is why we're seeing an increase in that total fee that was collected.
Now, in those fees collected that those are those fees are also turned around to pay for building inspections and, you know, anything that comes along with erosion control, all of the that kind of stuff.
So we have the impact fees that need to be used so on and so forth. So it's, it's, it's money that comes in, but it also transitions out to cover the consultants and resources that we use out there.
Just to shout out, maybe Reese might already know this, but the total fees for the park improvement fees collected last year was $1.6 million, which is a pretty decent amount, you know, for an impact fee that's coming in, it helps to to pay to improve our parks throughout the community.
So with all of that said, the average building permit, once it's broken down between all of the types of permits that we had out there, the average permit for a lot of the new construction was $3,200 per permit.
So that's kind of where, you know, that's the average. Keep in mind that is not what the larger units are paying, right? You know, we're looking at multifamily permits. They're coming in at about 20,000 a piece per building for permit on that side of things.
So you can dive deeper into that report when you have a hard time falling asleep this evening.
Housing affordability report, I will jet through this one as well.
And if you have any questions for me, we can look at those when I'm open.
So one thing that, like I said, you notice is that the single family and the number of permits that we had this year, or I'm sorry, in 2025 was quite a bit less than what we've been averaging over the last few years.
And some of that is, you know, contributing to price of land interest rates, availability of lots, you know, within certain areas cost of building supplies, things like that, right?
But we also, in the real estate industry, you see the trends have been flowed, right? You're going to have really high and single family for a while.
But then you have to balance yourself out and allow units, you know, for people that can't afford a home or don't want to commit to owning a home or anything like that.
We're in the ebb and flow of coming off of, you know, almost 90 single family permits, right? But then we've got several hundred of the multi families coming in.
And so the system is kind of, you know, it balances itself out and it corrects itself over time.
And so the one thing to keep in mind is the biggest number that most of the time we're looking for when we're trying to direct development from residential to commercial is do we have a good balance?
Residential to multifamily, do we have a good balance, right? And in 2000, 2010, 2020, single family homes accounted for 61% of all the housing in the village.
And for many, many, many years, the judge can probably test this. That's kind of where the village has wanted to stay with the residential is at least 60% single family home, right?
So we've been able to stay in that. And then as of December 2025, single family homes represent 47%.
But two family homes represent 16%. So condo development has gone up. People purchasing and having, you know, being owner occupied and condos condo development. We've had more of it.
And the sales of that have increased here. So for the total of the two combined between single family home and the two family homes is 63%.
So we're still above that, you know, number that of 60% that we've been trying to kind of, you know, loosely stay around. So.
So that is that.
See here, trying to make this really quick because I know we have a lot.
Don't give up a lot. So one thing I do, we do have as we do have some goals set up, you know, that we always try to incorporate from our strategic plan and our comprehensive plan into.
You know, housing development and things of that sort. And so we are going to be working through a lot of those throughout 2025.
There's 573 available acres of land to bill residential property on right now and all of the village 573.
Point 12 to be precise.
And the village does have a comprehensive plan. You guys are all familiar with what that is in the future land use map.
In there, we do have not yet zoned for residential, but earmarked for residential as part of our future land use 1279 acres of land for residential development.
But all of that is unimproved. There's no roads, no infrastructure.
It's pretty much farmland right now.
Or commercial land or.
Some other type of development.
So I'm going to leave that with you. Like I said, all of the fees, what we've collected, what we charge, everything is included in these reports.
Those reports will be available online and I do plan on emailing them to everybody on the board.
And then I will also be providing it to planning and zoning commission.
So.
It's fast.
Thank you, Brandy.
Yes, and those are any questions.
Staying.
Alex told my thunder about heritage gardens, by the way, through me off.
Good news. Thank you, Brandy.
You can take a break now.
So 7.1 is resolution.
2026 022, a resolution directing the director of public services to resume.
Floridation of the villages public work system.
We have a staff presentation followed by public appearances. I'm assuming we got public appearances in this folder right here.
And then discussion and potential action.
Bill, were you starting the discussion?
So this is a continuation of the conversation or the discussion on.
On reintroducing fluoride additives into the villages water system.
This was an item requested by the village board.
Early late late last year.
At that time.
Board had asked for staff to provide a report on the cost to reintroduce fluoride.
And also provide some historical context in that report.
You'll see that that is linked in the memo provided in this packet as titled Jay Hardy, Stanford.
As a reminder to be able to fully reintroduce fluoride to the system.
There are deficiencies in wealth.
Well, number two and number six, which would have to be upgraded to properly.
Satisfied regulations and safety protections regarding separation of chemicals.
That estimate cost was anywhere between $205,000 to $245,000.
Kind of depending on design equipment and bid.
So at most recent meeting in January.
Staff was then directed to prepare the resolution.
For the those who are to vote on instructing staff to move forward with the process to reintroduce fluoride.
That document is before you.
And was included in the packet.
Since that time, and more additional discussion with DNR.
We did learn that DNR would allow for a.
Based an approach whereby the village could add.
Fluoride to the wells that previously have fluoride.
And be able to work on.
Construction to wells two and six.
As part of that process and introduced fluoride at a later time.
A couple of concerns that we have with that, although we received email confirmation from DNR.
Specifically the statue or the DNR regulation.
Requires for the system to have between 0.06 milligrams per liter.
And point zero eight.
Obviously, because of a dilution in the water system.
By doing phase approach.
We would not be able to meet that threshold until we have the full system.
Online. So that's one consideration.
I think the other consideration in this is in regards to timing.
Efficiency and effectiveness.
So whether we do a phase approach or whether we do the full approach.
We will need to submit to DNR plan review.
And go to that process.
We do have in addition to.
Physical construction for wells two and six.
There's some equipment that will need to be updated.
For a while, three and four, I believe.
So just all things for consideration.
The way that the resolution is ran, it gives the director of public services.
A discussion to take the steps.
If the board is wanting a specific direction in your motion,
we would recommend that you make that.
That's part of your motion.
In addition to the conversation in January,
I believe it was asked by the board for staff to look into.
Alternate options for.
For a free water or ability to provide that in our research.
The most common alternates were a reverse osmosis home system.
As stated in the memo system would cost anywhere between 500 to 2000 per unit
depending on the unit size and loads.
And then the second alternate is providing bottled water.
If those board were to go down this route and providing.
Some kind of program.
We asked to have questions about the parameters of the program and how to.
How we would implement such a program on a community wide basis.
Which is something that we didn't do when Florida was in the water previously.
So I'll leave it there.
I ask happy to answer any questions.
Chud's available.
Greg's available from the operational side.
Thank you bill.
You have a question for bill.
Or just curious on the differentiation between.
The face approach and then a full approach like on timeline.
If you could either one of you could speak if.
What that would look like.
So the full approach is probably early part of next year at the earliest that we would have the system.
The process to get approvals with the DNR can take some time and then the state of Wisconsin.
They have to approve the architectural engineering plans right.
Many times we're working with the public building has to go through the state approval process for that.
So those things take time.
We have worked with an architect on our architect that we can work with from beer Becker.
They began to kind of preliminary gather the information to help.
Expedite that process should the board decide we want to go forward to that.
So that might shorten the time a little bit.
But then once we get the approvals back from DNR in the state of Wisconsin,
then we have to go for bid and then get on a contractor schedule.
So that's why we're estimating.
Probably soon as to be released the next year.
The opposite with the phase approach is we could contract with a vendor to install the equipment and wells three and four.
And that cost would be higher than if you did it as one full project. Right.
So if you do put one bid out for all four wells at the same time, you're going to get.
A slightly better.
Cost because you're not having to mobilize twice with every construction project.
There's mobilization efforts that happen. So that cost would be a little bit higher by going with.
The phase approach with three and four and then coming back with wells two and six.
And the other thing that Bill talked about would be.
We're just not equitably providing for it throughout the village.
If you do with a phase approach right.
There are wells three and four which are in the acre subdivision area and.
Or by Liberty Park, they'll have majority fluoride and folks in the southern area won't have any.
So.
Whereas if we go with a full approach once we launch, everybody will have and we'll be at the optimized level.
You go to Lisa or you still have a floor.
You still have the floor.
No, I think you answered really with the follow up on.
Really just talking about the levels, right? So if we did the phased approach, we wouldn't even be at the.
The appropriate levels of fluoridation just to clarify.
It would be under, but the DNR had confirmed that they would.
Not hold us to the standard that they need to upfront.
Okay, knowing that we're working towards that, but we would not be at the optimal level that the DNR prescribes.
And just clarifying that we can still apply for the grants that were.
Previously talked about even if we move forward now.
Yeah, so the grant opens up, I believe annually, sometimes even more than once a year.
The grant is good for the equipment. So if we took a phase approach.
And that equipment was hypothetically installed this summer.
We would be able to apply for reimbursement of that equipment and saw in the fall.
Good, Brad.
Any other questions?
I guess I have one and Judd is for you.
You mentioned that you'd have to get somebody to install pumps on.
And well, three and four.
I guess I.
I wasn't expecting that because I thought there was pumps there already, or is it just like, let's back them to get them.
So the pumps that we had were failing.
So even last year, when we first removed fluoride, when we were going through this process, the pumps were failing, which is part of the process of why this topic came up.
Those pumps did start to fail, so we don't have those pumps any longer.
Nor do we have the tanks, right? So we need to reorder those and then have new connections made.
So where the floor goes into the water into that system, there's that apparatus is still there, but we still need to get piping tubing.
And make those connections happen.
And then make sure the ventilation in each of these well houses is working sufficiently because it is a very corrosive product and we have to have appropriate ventilation to make sure that it's safe in there.
Okay.
So what I'm hearing is wells three and four are relatively ready to take on pumps and pump or well two and six need additional work.
Right. There's actual construct, like full construction, then he's happened, like a different room is built for well two and well six. We have to reappropriate how that well house is set up to have a room that's designed for the fluoride itself, the separated area.
Okay. Thank you, John.
Any questions?
So we will move on to 7.1.2, which is public appearances.
And I just guess I'll maybe look at Kelly. I believe this is three minutes for each.
And because this is an agenda topic, we can ask one question.
Yep. And that's technically.
Or trusty, correct.
Yep.
Okay.
So that's the ground rules going into this, and I can let you know I have, I believe, 10 people wishing to speak.
The first one is Chris McDonald, followed by Bernard Cox said I'm assuming Chris is online.
Chris, yeah, he is on. So.
Should be ready to go.
Can you hear me?
Yep.
So please, as you know, state your name and.
Missibility if you could.
You bet.
Good evening. My name is Chris McDonald. I live at 4,000 long fellow court.
And the village of Windsor. Sorry, I couldn't be there tonight.
I'm in North Carolina for work, but I'm not sorry that I'm missing the weather that you guys have.
I want to start by thanking the trustees who have over the past couple of months directed staff to prepare this resolution you see before you to reintroduce fluoride.
At the last meeting, I said that I understood restoring fluoride would take time.
And I still understand that no one really expects staff to snap their fingers and have this done tomorrow.
I do have one concern reading the memo and that's at the village may be moving toward time fluoride reimplementation to the single longest lead time milestone before the board really has enough information to provide clear direction on phasing.
The question the board should be asking is whether the village is going to prioritize the quickest responsible reinstatement or default to the slowest path before you have the information needed to make this call.
So tonight, trustees, I have four requests for you, please. First, I asked at the board to prove this resolution and make clear that the goal is to restore fluoridation as quickly as is responsibly possible.
Second, I asked that staff be directed to come back with a proposed project timeline comparing the available implementation paths.
That is phasing and then all at one shot. And then identifying major milestones approvals and expected sequencing for each.
Third, I asked that the village take this information and create a dedicated engage to forest page for this project with a timeline and publish milestones similar to one that you had for the QTS project.
And that the board or the village administrator provide monthly updates. So the board and public can track progress and understand what's coming next.
And lastly, I asked that the board direct staff to prepare a resolution authorizing application for any community water fluoridation grants that may become available.
So the village is ready to act when these grant windows open.
For example, if there's any leftover funds in this fiscal year, there may be another grant window that opens up in June. Let's not miss a third application window.
Given the history of this issue, I believe the village should be over communicating about the expected timeline and progress towards re-implementing fluoride.
Thank you all again for bringing this resolution back. I know that this has been a year long process.
And I think everybody on both sides of this issue would really just like to move forward. So thank you for bringing this resolution back and I look forward to you all as a board approving this tonight. So, thank you.
Is there any questions from trustees?
Seeing none, again, thank you, Chris. Next up is Bernard Coxhead followed by Rebecca Witherspoon.
Again, Bernard, I think you know the drill. Name and municipality, please.
Good evening. My name is Bernard Coxhead, and I'm a resident of the village of the forest, 809 Liberty Drive.
I'm here tonight to address the board's continued consideration of re-inducing fluoride fluoridation into our public water systems and the expenditure of taxpayer funds to do so.
At this moment, several critical facts cannot be ignored.
First, there's a pending litigation before the Dane County Circuit Court.
With a hearing scheduled April 9th, the case does not ask the court to decide the science of fluoridation.
It asks only whether it be reasonable and lawful for the village to proceed at this time under the current circumstances.
Second, I submit a public records request on February 18 followed by a formal follow-up on February 25th requesting the opportunity to expect records related to this issue, including actions taken and expenditures associated with in the removal of reintroduction of fluoridation.
As of today, I have not been provided access to those records, nor a date of inspection, nor a timeline for compliance.
Under Wisconsin law, those records must be made available as soon as practicable and without the lay.
Yet, here we are, weeks later, and no access to a war timeline.
As a result, I'm now being placed in position where I may be forced to file an additional motion before the court to compel compliance, simply to obtain records that should already be made available.
This is an unnecessary burden on both the court and the taxpayers of the village, and it should not be required.
Third, the federal government through EPA is actively conducting an updated scientific review of fluoride and drinking water, and it's ongoing federal litigation concerning its potential health impacts.
These issues are current, active, and unresolved.
Given these facts and the questions before the board is not whether fluoridation may be appropriate in general.
The question is reasonable, prudent, and fiscally responsible to move forward now before the court has ruled.
The requested records have been made available, and the federal review has been completed.
Proceeding under these circumstances exposes the village to the necessary legal risk, financial risk, and public concern.
This is not about preventing it forever.
It's about proposing action until the facts are fully known, and the legal process is complete.
Once funds are spent and systems are modified, those decisions cannot easily be undone.
So I respectfully ask the board, do not take further action until we reduce fluoridation.
Do not expand additional public funds and maintain a status quo until the court has ruled the records have been made fully disclosed, and the federal review process has concluded.
This is the most responsible and defensible course of action.
In my 12 seconds later, God forbid you ever have kidney disease.
I have it, even on the possibility that it could create more harm to you.
God forbid that you're drinking fluoridated water.
Thank you, Bernard.
Is there any questions or trustees?
So next is Rebecca Witherspoon followed by.
Nope.
I just asked if there's questions, so thank you, Bernard.
Next is Rebecca, followed by Don Clements.
My name is Rebecca Witherspoon.
I'm a divorce resident.
My address is on the forum.
The night's decision is not happening in a vacuum.
It is unfolding in the middle of active legal regulatory and personal health considerations that this board cannot responsibly ignore.
Right now, there is an ongoing legal action seeking a temporary restraining order to pause reintroduction of hydrochloricylistic acid into our water.
A hearing is already scheduled in early April.
At the same time, the EPA is actively fast tracking, trying to determine if and at what level municipal water fluoridation is even safe.
That's not hypothetical.
Those are both imminent.
So the question before you tonight is not simply about fluoride.
It is about timing, judgment, and whether this board is willing to move forward with a costly and consequential action while a court is actively considering whether it should be stopped.
And while the EPA is actively trying to determine if and at what level, municipal water fluoride is even safe.
Moving forward now creates the appearance, whether intended or not, of an end run around the legal and regulatory process.
In addition to that, I formally submitted a notice of foreseeable harm and a request for accommodation under the ADA.
The village has asked me to provide medical documentation, and I am in the process of obtaining that from my physician.
But I want to be very clear about what this means for you.
You have already been put on notice that there are residents who have documented health concerns that may be impacted by this decision.
That triggers a responsibility, not later, not after the fact, but now to proceed with caution, reintroducing a substance into the public water supply that I and others cannot avoid.
While my accommodation request is still being evaluated, race is serious, legal, and ethical concerns.
Water is not optional. There is no meaningful way to opt out.
That makes this fundamentally different from almost any other public policy decision you make.
So when you combine these three things, active litigation with a pending hearing, evolving, federal review of water fluoridation safety and a formal ADA-related health concern already before you,
the responsible course of action becomes very clear.
Pause, not permanently, not ideologically, but prudently.
Wait for the court to rule.
Wait for updated federal guidance.
Allow the accommodation process to be completed.
If after all of that, the science, the law, and the circumstances support moving forward, you can revisit the decision with far greater clarity and far less risk.
This is not just about whether you can move forward tonight.
It's not about politics and it's not about personalities.
It is about whether, given everything you know, whether you should.
I urge you to do the right thing and to vote no on this resolution.
Thank you.
Thank you, Rebecca. Is there questions from from trustees?
Thank you again, Rebecca.
Up next is Don followed by Mark Storch.
My name is Don Cummins.
I live in the village of the forest for 48 years.
I'm a taxpayer and a resident.
A year ago, this board voted to remove the fluoride.
It's very rare that within a year, they're going to that.
You should change your mind.
It just seems like it's being pushed by people who perhaps do not pay taxes here in the forest who are not residents of the forest.
And I appreciate you all listening to them.
And I think they have great ideas, but I don't think anybody should address this board who are very, very knowledgeable, very intelligent and tell them.
You should do one, two, three, and four.
This they're not residents. We are.
And I really believe strongly that you need to listen to your residents.
When this came about a year ago, the vote was four to three.
One of the people who voted to take the fluoride out is a doctor.
Does she draw?
I appreciated listening to a doctor.
She knows about health.
Nobody else here does.
And I think she did a great job. Thank you to she draw. I might not have thanked you before.
We all pay looking at the $245,000 that it could cost to do this.
Doesn't sound like a lot of money, but to us taxpayers.
Every year our taxes go up and people are complaining and doing this.
As to our taxes and it adds to the taxes of people who live here who are residents.
And it's just not fair that people who aren't residents and taxpayers can decide this for us.
Also, though, I believe it was addressed and I'm not going to address it again, but the ways that it has to be done seems to be a lot of work for our village people who are overwhelmed with work to do now.
And myself, if I have to get reverse osmosis, I can pay up to $2,000.
Listening to the program last year and the doctors and the foreign against.
I found out that arthritis is can be caused by fluoride or it makes it worse.
I have arthritis, severe arthritis. My fingers are so bent. I can hardly use them.
And I think as previous people have spoken, you need to really look at the health of the residents.
Also, I don't have a choice if there's fluoride put back in the water, but people have a choice to buy toothpaste and mouthwash, which is much.
Excuse me. I'm nervous.
Excuse me, Donna.
Time is expired.
Thank you. I'm sorry.
Thank you, Don. Trustees, is there any questions at all?
I don't have any questions, but I do like to say thank you so much for your words.
But for a point of clarification, I do have a doctorate. It is an educational leadership.
So I spend my time educating training and doing that. I have been a nurse for over 23 years.
So that does make me knowledgeable as well. So thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Don.
Up next is Mark, followed by Chris Kamer.
And I know the drill to Mark Stork, 616 Jefferson Street.
I would like to also thank you all for bringing this subject back up.
I am a resident. I pay taxes here, and I believe we need to have fluoride in our water.
I also believe that the points that Chris McDonald made this morning,
this evening, are very legitimate and are the things that you as trustees need to explore.
I was disappointed when I looked at the proposal from the village administration
because it lacks specificity as to costs or timeline.
And I appreciate you asking for that information that will be critical going forward.
I also was disappointed in some ways that this presentation from the village administration over time
seems to be biased towards not reintroducing fluoride.
They give a lot of reasons why not to or pose things in ways that seem to make it difficult.
That is not the purpose of this discussion.
Additionally, you're presented with two options of ways to handle individuals that would not like to have fluoride.
Those options were cost prohibitive and are not well spelled out as to how you administer them.
Obviously, if you were to go down that path, much, much more research and guidelines would need to be created by someone.
It would also like to point out that the two trustees who asked for those options to be provided
are the very ones who voted to remove fluoride when the decision came up.
And over the course of a year, because it's been a year, no one asked,
what can we do for people that would like fluoride in their water?
We've never had that discussion.
So given this, I strongly urge you tonight to vote to move forward to continue this journey
and to get more detailed information to bring back something that we had.
And no one had any issues with until it came up.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mark. Is there any questions or trustees?
I did have a question.
Thank you, Mark.
You said that one thing that the board did not do was to find out what we could do for people to get them fluoride.
Yes.
Since the fluoride has been taken out.
I don't think as a board, there's really a lot that we would need to do.
I personally think that toothpaste and mouthwash and are readily available at a low cost.
And for the people that you say that maybe can't afford it, many of those people have benefits that are provided for them for dental.
So I think that that was maybe the reason for that. And I just, that's what I want to point out.
I'd be curious if any of the rest of you felt that same way.
I'll, can I speak to it?
I think one area from working with Medicaid clients in the community that grossly like,
lacks in the state is actually dental.
And a lot of people who have dental services to the state have to go like not with an area like have to go find providers who are not even into forest.
Personal families I've helped to have to travel like to Milwaukee. So that's a very cost prohibitive for families who are already struggling financially.
So, and that's just from being out and talking to people as a community health worker.
So I don't know if anyone want to speak to that, but I would counter that argument.
I'm just cautionary because right now we're in public comment. So we need to form this in a form of a question, or we'll need to.
Table this, I shouldn't say table it, but take this up.
During and guess to she could I ask you to please note Mark's question and we will continue to discuss it once we get to the discussion.
You betcha, I have a question and I'm a rule follower. So I will pose it in the form of a question.
This discussion has been over a year and my question is twofold one.
Have you attended every meeting that we've had as it pertains to fluoride and or have you reviewed all the videos as it pertains to the fluoride discussion?
Yes, I have.
Okay, then my follow up question is, do you remember me saying in one or many of those meetings, we need to figure out what we're going to do for people who don't want fluoride in their water.
And or if we keep it, we need to figure out what we're going to do for people who do want fluoride.
No, I don't remember that.
Okay, I just wanted to point that out. I did say that because I always look at both sides of the wheel. So that was my question. Thank you.
And can I respond to Jen's question in that I currently have dental insurance and every time I go in, I can pay $40 extra to have fluoride at.
It's not free.
Thank you.
I don't see any further questions. So thank you, Mark.
So Chris Amers up next followed by Morgan Brooke.
Hi, I'm Chris Cameron, I'm a dentist from Madison, Wisconsin, and I'm back in front of the board. And so nice to be here.
Wow. I sometimes wonder why we were talking about fluoride, because fluoride in the water is going to give you a 25% reduction of cavity risk, whereas I brought a solution to the board to get 96% reduction of risk.
And guess what doesn't cost anything. The state will pay for it.
So I am one of those dentists and I'm in Madison. So for the underserved and the state aid people. So, so 96% reduction is what I'm talking about. And that's why I'm here again, the state pays for it.
You know, to topically put it on and everybody would agree that to topically put it on is way more effective than to drink it.
Got it. You know, and so the best thing about silver diamond fluoride, which is what I'm talking about, it's a topical application, the state pays for it.
All employer insurances pay for it.
And so that's a lot of people right there that can get that and it's a higher. It's more effective than having fluoride in the water.
So I'm here again. I just want to stop cavities. Okay, I'm a dentist. I want to stop cavities. Everyone agrees we should stop cavities, right?
Amen to that. And for the kids, it's way more effective for the kids. Let's use the topical fluoride, which is the SDF, and then they don't have to drink the fluoride water.
It's not even that effective anyway. And thinking how much you're going to have to pay for it to put it back in.
So I am concerned about that. I want the best for the kids and I want the best for your user finances as efficiently as possible.
So the environment protection agency is working on this. Okay.
And they're trying to create the gold standard for what's going on with these fluoride discussion.
And they're working on that right now and they're trying to fast track it. They know how important this is to everybody.
You cannot make a decision right now responsibly until you hear the results of what they have to say.
And all dentists should care about that. I mean, when it comes to childhood development and maternal and infant health, if there's a risk, we got to know about it.
And it sounds like that more and more evidence is coming in, there's potentially a risk.
I think everybody should care about that a lot.
So we got to wait until the Environmental Protection Agency finishes their review and it's in the process of happening now.
And they're fast tracking it because it's so important.
So before you spend more money, I urge the floor is to wait for this report. You got to wait. You cannot vote on this now.
And wouldn't it be foolish if you vote on it now and then the report comes out and you put it in and then you got to take it out again.
You got to wait for this report.
Excuse me. Your time is up.
Thank you very much. Any questions?
Yeah. Thank you, Chris. We do have one question and then the teacher then Brad.
My question is you are a dentist and you practice in Madison and you do provide services for individuals who may have no insurance or Medicaid, Medicare, different things of that nature.
Absolutely. Okay. So Madison is not in Milwaukee. Perfect. Thanks.
So yeah, state aid. If you're talking about like state aid, badger care, forward health, I do, I do take that.
And it's, and the comment was that it's hard to find someone that'll take it.
I take it. I'll find people. I've offered to force the solution. I will come into the schools with an army of trained people to deliver the medicine to the children's teeth that we really care about the children's teeth, which I think we do.
That's going to give you 96% reduction of risk of this whole sometimes it feels like this is a political discussion and it's not about the kids.
Let's make it about the kids. Let's give it. Let's get the kids the best care they can get.
And I will help bring it to you. And the state pays for it. Thank you, Chris. There was another question by Brad.
Chris, I appreciate you bringing that up. And I read the documents from that you provided us last time. It was very helpful to see the program.
I think there's a multi factor approach that we can take. However, so my question is you seem like you're paying attention to the EPA.
And would you agree that they have gutted many of their scientists and experts in the agencies right now that how trustworthy is their opinion at this point?
I don't know. It's kind of all we got. I mean, you know, it's like, do you trust the government? I mean, you know, there's people on both sides of there.
So I'm going to expect that they're going to do the best they can to the environmental protection. I mean, that's our government.
They're looking out for us. I hope that's true. I know that the ADA is very concerned that they have the right protocol and the right, you know, the science to make that decision.
So I hope that there'll be probably be discussions on both sides of it. But I think you got to wait for the decision because I wouldn't want you to waste your money on something that you if you want to spend money,
let's get into the schools. Let's give the kids the topical care that really works and not be fussing. And I'll just real quick, I'm a dentist.
I do care about the people that don't want fluoride in their water. That might get me, you know, like the I'll probably be the least popular dentist among dentists.
But I care about those people, especially when there's better ways of reducing decay risk.
And it is with what I've described. And then I'm really mentioning that. Thank you, Chris, for answering Brad's question. Thank you for the opportunity to speak.
I see no other questions. So up next is Morgan Brooke, followed by Joe dish.
It is green already. So you're good. Perfect. My name is Morgan Brooke. I reside at 920 Liberty Drive. I also pay my taxes.
I'm a mom, a community member, a dental hygienist with 14 years of clinical experience.
I'm here once again to express my strong support for the reintroduction of community water fluoridation.
I want to be very clear the scientific and dental communities are united in their mission to improve public health.
In dentistry, our goal is prevention. Just as Dr. Cameron said, I just have a different view compared to him.
We strive to help individuals live free from tooth decay, free from dental pain and with the ability to eat and speak properly.
Oral health is not cosmetic. It is essential to overall health and quality of life.
Community water fluoridation is one of the most effective preventative measures available.
It is safe evidence based and designed to benefit everyone in a community.
It does not rely on access to care, compliance or income level. It reaches all residents equally.
As dental professionals, we are the ones diagnosing and treating cavities every single day.
We see firsthand the impact of both prevention and the lack of it. That perspective matters.
From a financial standpoint, water fluoridation is also the most effective investment in public oral health.
For comparison, a single topical fluoride treatment at my office costs $58.
So the estimated $250,000 costs to update our wells and reintroduce fluoridation equates to approximately 4,300 fluoride treatments topically.
That would not even cover half of the deforest population and that would be a one-time application.
Water fluoridation by contrast provides continuous long-term protection for the entire community.
It is also important to understand that fluoride works in two complementary ways.
When ingested at optimal levels through drinking water,
fluoride becomes incorporated into developing teeth, strengthening them from within.
Topical fluorides such as treatments or toothpaste strengthens the outer enamel and helps protect against daily exposure to sugars and acids.
Both forms are important and they work best together.
Community water fluoridation is not a new or experimental practice.
It has been extensively studied and consistently shown to be safe effective and one of the most impactful public health measures available for preventing dental disease.
As both a clinician and a member of this community, I strongly encourage you to support the reintroduction of water fluoridation.
In terms of silver diamamine, I encourage you to look at pictures of children who have had that applied.
If there is active decay in that child's mouth, their teeth will turn black in those areas.
I've actually taken a class by Dr. Cameron, which he had talked about that showed many pictures and told us how to benefit from using silver diamamine.
I do not want the kids in this community to suffer anymore.
I see this every single day. These are my patients.
Not a single one of them have asked me to not advocate for them here.
Thank you.
Thank you, Morgan.
Is there any questions?
Thank you again.
Joe is Joe here.
Thank you.
And after Joe is Brenda Stuemeyer.
Hey, my name is Joe dish.
I am a 25 year homeowner at two, one, three South Main Street here in the forest.
Sorry, then.
Joe, could you pull it a little bit closer?
Sorry.
Repeat.
Joe dish to one, three South Main Street.
Bottom line for me is people should have the right to decide what goes into their bodies.
Florid is a perfect example.
There is evidence that certain forms of fluoride, especially used topically have dental benefits.
But there is also a growing body of evidence connecting fluoride with a variety of health problems.
Thyroid, endocrine issues, kidney liver, brain development, bone health.
So.
Sorry, I lost my train of thought.
But that's basically all.
Thank you.
Thank you, Joe.
Is there your questions?
Thank you, Joe.
Up next is Brenda followed by Sheila how.
Brenda Stuemeyer 1278 Dodie street green Bay.
Thank you for the opportunities to speak.
When new evidence challenges long standing practices, it's natural to feel resistance, but public health has always evolved this way.
By updating decisions when better science becomes available.
Most of you know me as the Wisconsin mom who brought up, brought a federal case against the EPA on fluoride's neurotoxicity.
After seven years of litigation, the court concluded water fluoridation at 0.7 milligrams per liter presents an unreasonable risk to injury and health.
Standards for lead poisoning, PFAS contamination, arsenic and asbestos were all ultimately said through litigation.
When the science became impossible to ignore, that is exactly where we are at now with fluoride.
The real issue is not whether fluoride levels are monitored.
It's total exposure and dose.
People drink different amounts of water. Children swallow toothpaste fluoride accumulates in bone over a lifetime and is released during pregnancy, exposing the developing fetus at a critical stage.
The total fed infants get 70 times more fluoride than breastfed infants.
This is not abstract. It's about real people.
A few meetings ago, I raised concerns about fluoride and bone health.
Since then, a member of your leadership stepped down over a hip issue.
I'm not saying fluoride caused it, but science shows the pelvis is particularly sensitive to fluoride.
That alone should make us pause.
Dr. Chris Cameron has attended numerous meetings offering a safer, direct way to support dental health through pop-up clinics without exposing the entire village to a chemical link to neurodevelopmental and skeletal harm.
There is credible evidence linking fluoride at 0.7 milligrams per liter with reduced IQ and increased bone fragility.
The National Toxicology Program identified multiple studies at this level.
Now you're being asked to spend over 200,000 at fluoride back into the water while water rates are rising and critical infrastructure still needs funding.
Based on the science and the federal court decision, national fluoride standards are likely to be lowered, potentially 2.2 milligrams per liter within the next few years.
If that happens, this money will have been spent and wasted.
So the question is not just is fluoride safe.
Is it responsible to spend this kind of money now when more urgent needs go unmet and a safer lowered standard is likely on its way?
When credible evidence of harm, regulatory uncertainty and significant costs all align, the responsible decision is to wait, prioritize safety, fiscal responsibility, and the well-being of your community.
Don't let a small but vocal group of misinformed voices push this forward.
Please check out fluoridelawsu.com slash science for my archive of primary research.
Thank you.
Thank you, Brenda. Is there any questions?
Thank you.
Sheila.
And you are the last one on this topic.
I'm Sheila, how I live in the village for the last 15 years.
And here we go again.
This is a total waste of time and money to revisit this issue.
We already made a decision. We sat here through all of the presentations, which a lot of you maybe haven't seen yet.
The new board members, I suggest you really watch everything before you make this decision.
There is the new information coming out.
So I just want you to know, once again, I do not consent to being medicated by the hydrophores, silic acid that you're calling fluoride in our water.
It is by product of the fertilizer industry.
It eats away the concrete in the wells.
And around the well pumps in the concrete, they have to wear hazmat suits.
When they administer it to our water supply, it is not safe to handle.
It's not healthy. The science is there. It builds up in our systems.
You've heard all this.
So there are warnings on our tubes of toothpaste. Are you going to put warnings all around town?
Little signs letting people know not to drink too much water because you're already brushing your teeth because there's no way to really regulate how much fluoride we're getting.
When it's in our water, it's coming in through our skin.
So that's it.
Please hold off on this decision. There's a lot of really good points made in regards to holding off waiting.
There's a lot of people in town who do not like fluoride.
Thank you.
Thank you, Sheila.
Yes, there are questions.
Thank you.
We are on the next item, which is discussion and possible action.
Any trustees want to open the discussion or make a motion.
I'll open the discussion.
There are a couple of areas of concern that I have and a lack of consistency in how we handle issues in our village.
First, I would like to say that our residents should have the loudest voice.
Individuals outside of our community while their information is needed and we like it.
I think that they shouldn't have the biggest sounding board.
But the discrepancy that I see in this topic and other topics is, you know, we heard and I hate to bring this up, but with the data center, we heard that we should pause wait for the research.
See what's going on, make sure that we're moving forward judiciously and prudently.
And yet with this topic, I'm hearing steam roll ahead, move implemented as fast as possible.
And that's dangerous. That's a dangerous thing. And it makes us seem capricious.
Or, you know, when we want something, we bully and we push forward.
But when we need to pause, why can't we just pause? I'm not saying don't do it.
I'm saying we have the EPA expediting research.
We have individuals that have requested information and haven't yet gotten all that they need.
There's a lot of different factors that's going on right now.
And while I may not be a doctor, I didn't want to be one. I got enough of my family.
But I have been a nurse for 23 years and I've seen what happens to people who get things that they shouldn't have in their system.
When you have health issues, you are at great risk.
But more importantly, I'm a scholar and I love research.
No information is stagnant. We are constantly learning and growing and putting forth.
And I keep hearing the word best practice.
The best practice is to continue to learn and grow and implement information as it comes along.
And while we may have done this in the past, what is going on now?
And we should pause and look at that information, look at that data to make sure that we are ultimately doing what's best for our community.
There is a neighboring community. What are they doing with their water supply?
Do they have fluoride in their water? Are they talking to their constituents?
Because their constituents are definitely over here talking about what we should be doing.
That's one point. And so not to sit on a soap box too long.
But as an educator, as a scholar and as a researcher, I would suggest that we pause.
The other thing that I hear loud and clear is that we want everybody to have it and for it to be equitable.
Well, if we move for it right now, it won't be equitable.
And all of our residents won't be getting it. So once again, we're not doing what we should be doing.
If we want this for our residents, then all of our residents should get it.
And we shouldn't piecemeal it together. We shouldn't move forward just because somebody went outside and talked to DNR.
And now we can skirt around things. I love my residents.
And if one gets it, they all should get it. Or now we're looking like we're not functioning as a unit.
So there's a lot of issues that I still vote no. I will always vote no because I have been forced to get shots that I don't want just to provide for my family.
I don't want anybody in this village forced to take a foreign substance against their will.
And we've had tons of studies over the years where science has been put on people without their knowledge and with their knowledge and has done irreparable damage, not just to that person, but to the community and generational trauma is real.
Thank you.
Other trustees.
I guess I go back to the question brought up by Mark as far as.
Did we follow up? I know I mentioned it a few times and I was personally hoping it would come up at.
I was hoping that after we didn't remove fluoride that we could have talked about ways that we could have helped our residents and it was never put on the agenda.
So I regret that that did not happen.
Early.
A lot of the people we've heard from tonight have indicated that they've been 40, 20, 12 year, whatever residents of the village.
Not on my a game tonight. I should have caught it earlier. I don't know if I'm allowed to go backwards and ask questions, but my question is for people who have lived in this village for a number of years.
My question is, what did you do prior to the fluoride being taken out?
Can I ask?
I think we're supposed to keep it to the board. I mean, I can answer that.
That's that's fine, but that's my question.
If you've lived here for 20 years and fluoride was in the system, what did you do prior to a year or so ago when fluoride was taken out of the system?
That's I guess I've been here for 20 years and I can tell you I do not drink the water.
I have a filter system that I use and I spend my own money Amazon ordering my filters.
So I do not drink the water. So I don't have a stake in it one way or the other because I don't drink the water.
The reason I vote the way that I do is because I've had many constituents say they do not want it.
And even if it was one constituent that said they did not want it, no means no, period.
Thank you, Colleen. Your colleagues still have the floor.
I want to answer. I can answer.
You want to answer?
Okay.
Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Jan.
So I've been in the village for most of my 60 years.
And some of that time there was no fluoride in the water when I was a child.
Some of that time I did live in Vienna and I was on well water.
And I do want to say that when I had my children, they were on well water.
And now I'm starting to wonder with all the tests and all the research that's gone on and information that we're getting is that why they have such IQs.
I don't know.
And now I feel that I have learned so much because so much information has been put in front of us for the last year and a half or whatever it's been that even though I didn't do anything before, I personally do not want fluoride in my body anymore.
So I have been drinking bottled water up until the time we took it out.
And now I will go to a system if we happen to put it back in.
Okay.
I think a lot of his people just becoming aware, especially the last few years of what fluoride can actually do to your body, especially as a woman.
I actually was not aware of that. And at the time that this was an original discussion, I did check with three new mothers and asked, did your obstetricians, are your pediatricians, anybody asking you questions about whether or not you consumed fluoride
while pregnant or whether your babies are, whether you're breastfeeding or not.
And they all said no, it was never brought up.
So I was just curious.
I mean, you know, it's been in the system for a while and people are allowed to make their choices and just wondering what people did prior to.
Thank you, Colleen.
Brad.
I want to make a motion to approve resolution 2026 dash 022 directing the director of public service to resume fluoridation in a phased approach.
Second.
Motion by Brad, seconded by Alicia.
Continued discussion.
I guess, can I ask for some clarification? So this phased approach or what is the resolution in front of us? Does it talk about timelines?
The resolution does not have a timeline or specificity about phase approach. So if you want to make that a part of your motion, you should do so.
Otherwise, I'll just add, we will give the motion, the resolution passes and you're directing me to put fluoride back in.
I don't like to let things linger. I will work as quickly as I can to get that implemented back in.
So, like I said, we already started that conversation with our architects. So these things can move as quickly as we can get them through the system, but it does take time.
Okay.
Sounds like we're good with the way the motion was written.
And I asked for a roll call vote.
Did you get a second? I said you should. Okay.
Ready for a roll call.
Trustee Simpson.
No.
Trustee Stefan Hagenholm. No.
Trustee Williams.
Trustee Allen.
No.
Trustee chords.
Yes.
Trustee little.
Motion ties three, three.
It means motion fails.
I think we move on or do we.
Thank you.
Seven point two is a resolution 2026 023.
A resolution adopting a cooperative plan between the town of Westport.
City of Madison and Middleton and the village of the forest and Wanna Key.
Bill Chang, you're going to start with staff presentation.
So as you know, the town of Westport has been has submitted.
There are petition to incorporate into a village as part of that process.
They reached out to the number of communities or municipalities that order.
The town of Westport in effort to come to an agreement.
Where the future boundaries will be in order to gain support for to minimize opposition to their petition as part of that process.
And so over the last half year, we've been negotiating potentially a cooperative plan would look like.
That the final draft that cooperative plan is included in your packet.
As it relates to specifically the village of the forest and the town of Westport.
The village, there will be approximately 160 acres that will transfer from.
Westport to the forest upon them incorporating as a village.
This 168 acres was identified in the village's comprehensive plan,
future land use area as residential.
So if you know where River Road is and where that intersects with highway 19,
it's to the northwest of that quadrant, just west of River Road.
In addition to that, the village board did request for community separation.
And so they did list provided exhibit of approximately 250 acres of community separation,
which most of that land is currently encumbered by conservation or non development easements.
But at this point, the plan did go to public hearing.
There were, I believe, three or four comments submitted primarily regarding relations and properties within a water key area and not impacting the divorce portion of their agreement.
Am I forgetting anything?
So this plan is going to the number of parties that are currently involved in the cooperative plan,
that being a town of Westport city of Madison city of Middleton.
Those want a key.
And then, of course, village into forest.
If approved by all the jurisdictions, it would then the plan would then be submitted to the department of administration.
And I believe there's some time frame in here whereby objectors could could petition for a referendum.
Following submittal of the plan, Westport would move forward in their petition for incorporation and upon a successful petition for incorporation.
This plan, if approved, would take effect.
So I'll leave it there.
A lot of information, a lot of maps.
Happy to answer any questions.
Thank you, Bill. And I want to know if there is nobody here for public appearances. So we are on to discussion and potential or possible action.
Anybody want to open the floor or make a motion.
I'd make a motion to approve resolution 2026 023 second.
Motion by Colleen, seconded by Jan. Any discussion?
I guess I do have a bit of discussion.
I wanted to mention you mentioned how the village requested the community separation.
And I also wanted to know that that's been in plans for a long time.
I know that was part of the discussion and included in the future urban development area.
I think it's been nice to see that continuing it now will be pretty much locked in by these agreements. So.
Again, that's great.
And I want to thank you, Bill, for sharing some of the comments. I think I had four and a couple of more included in the plan, mostly visual.
And I do want to just bring up the couple other comments because I don't know if I ever brought it up in a public forum.
And I was hoping to preclude solar farms as happening in the preservation area.
I was told we were not allowed to do that because of utility.
I'll be statutes. I don't know.
Yeah, if you want to elaborate.
Yeah, it's there are a lot of issues where.
There's a lot of local opposition to certain types of developments. It started with power plants back in the.
I mean, 1960s, then what happens is that the state legislature or in some cases,
the federal government step in and preempt local control over certain types of things.
Solar farms and wind farms have been added to that list of things where local control really is gone.
It's up to the PSC to determine where they where they get to go.
Thank you. And the other thing I wanted to note, I was concerned for the.
Improvement of River Road and how that would be funded and different things and.
The wording was added at least and hard to that, then proved I would be allowed.
I guess it's still a question how it would be funded if it ever came to be improved.
I don't ability want to speak to that.
Yeah, so we, we, we discussed this at length about potentially what the impacts of bringing in the whole road.
The whole right away versus kind of half the road.
And the reasoning behind bringing the.
The fall right away from.
There's a, there's about 500 feet from the right, the roundabout before it includes the fall right away.
And the reason being is because of future development and having.
Access control for that historically in the village.
We require that the developer provide road improvements as part of their development.
And so we didn't see a reason why that would change here in the case that there is development on the west side of.
River Road.
And so we determined and concluded that having that access instead of having to go back to what would be a future village to get that access.
Provided there's more ability to, to control how that road looks like, how that gets shaped in the future.
So the, the plan shows it to the center line of the road or to the right away now.
I believe the plan shows it to the right of the complete right away and bring that up.
I guess I thought it was a center line before.
It's a very encompassing plan, isn't it?
Yeah, I apologize for, that's all tracking you.
No, but I apologize for not bringing this up to you ahead of time.
As we, you look for it, it sounds like it was taken into Cal early start of so.
For the same length.
The shooter does have it up on the screen. It looks like it goes to the road right away.
Yeah, so it's the entire west of the portion of River Road north of Dean County text personal.
066 x last 0 8 0 9.
Yes, 0 1 4. Yes, 8 2 9 5.
Which is that house.
The first house immediately north of them are on the boat.
So they're north is the entire right away in their south includes no right away.
Okay.
So I guess in the future, if for one that gets improved, that would be a discussion with Westport.
Oh, see here.
So the question becomes this portion of highway in itself, whether that's within DLT jurisdiction or not.
And whether that's going to be a village or town expense.
And how much of that is within DLT right away DLT responsibility at the time that infrastructure is improved.
We know that if it's if it's.
Figured by development and DLT would likely want that to be a development cost.
But if it's a DLT project, you know, there's there's different funding mechanisms for that.
So anything more of this would be either village costs or village would defer to the developer for improvement of that road.
So that would be offsite improvements associated with any kind of development, whether it be in this area here currently in Westport to come to the forest or, you know, improvements over here on this side.
And how that connection to river road looks like.
Thank you for bringing that up under discussion bill.
So any other questions or we do have the motion on the table.
Okay, so.
I will call the question and all those in favor of the motion please signify by saying aye.
Aye.
Opposed.
Motion passes six zero.
Thank you.
New business is 8.1 discussion and possible action regarding the process of filling the vacancy of the office of the village board president.
Bill Chang and Kelly is going to lead the staff presentation.
So, as the memo states, obviously, well, first of all, it's back up here and we did receive that resignation from Jane on effective March 5 from the village board president seat.
The event of a vacancy of village board seat.
The village board can either point.
Let go.
Let it go to special election or leave it vacant until the next election next election being the general election and November.
So I think that's the first decision that I think this board needs to make is whether you want to appoint whether it be a member of the board, which is what board has historically done in the past when there was a vacancy previously.
You can, you can decide what that plan process looks like or who that pool of candidate could be.
If you want to start a special election, we do need to bring a resolution to that effect.
So, there's a timing aspect of that in that I believe asked the 62 to 72 days.
From the resolution that we need to hold that election.
So there's, depending on what you want to do to fill the vacancy, we can provide additional information and have that discussion.
Do I ask that if there's any extended time in filling the vacancy that we decide on an appointment for in term village board president.
There is continuing responsibilities that we need to be able to implement to be to keep the village running.
And so that's, that's one thing that I do ask.
If you were to make an appointment this evening, I would suggest that the board make nominations.
Provide those nominations that.
An opportunity to speak on whether they would accept or decline.
And then from there, you know, there'll be a motion and a second on a particular member.
And voting there if appointment is the way that you desire to go this evening.
So again, in statute, there's no specific way to a point that decision is yours.
Thank you, Bill.
Kelly, was there anything more you wanted to add?
Okay.
Any questions or staff before we move on to the public appearances.
Okay.
So we do have a few people wishing to speak.
First up.
Is.
I believe this is Chris McDonald. Sorry, I'm losing your name on the form.
And then after Chris is happy.
Lori.
So Chris, are you there or.
Working on unmuting him.
Yep.
It looks like you're available now, Chris.
So again, this is.
A three minute and follow up questions.
Yeah.
Good evening.
My name is Chris McDonald.
I live with 4000 long fellow court and the village of Windsor.
And I just wanted to maybe make a couple of points that I'm sure the board will talk about.
But I think at the beginning of the meeting or maybe in the work session,
Kelly had mentioned that ballots for the election have already been mailed out this year.
So people are actively voting in the current election to choose their representation.
And we know that this board will likely look different.
After the April 7th election.
And I think it would be prudent for this village board not to make a permanent selection.
At this meeting, well, people are actively voting.
But wait and let a future board in 2026.
You know, pick their leadership moving forward and.
And around about way, let the community pick who they want making that decision.
So just a thought that if you guys do decide, it sounds like staff is.
Hot to get somebody in there that can sign paperwork and set up agendas.
Maybe consider appointing somebody as an acting president until the April 21st agenda.
Let voters have their say on who they want making this choice on the board.
And then make the ultimate decision when a new board is seated on the 21st.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chris.
Is there any questions from the board?
Oh, thank you, can Chris.
Next up is Abby Lori, followed by Don Clements.
Oops, sorry.
We have a question for your Chris if you're still there.
Hello.
Yes.
I have a question for you that I didn't get a chance to ask earlier.
And this is just for my own point of reference, just so that I fully understand.
You in your speaking, you've made a lot of assertions as to what we should.
Do and how we should proceed here into forest.
Yet you live in Windsor.
So I have a two vote question one.
Just your vocal ability in how vocal you are in our community.
I just I'm trying to understand that.
And then I also want to know how vocal and this just for my own information,
how vocal you are at your Windsor board meetings.
Do you attend all of those and speak so.
Powerful and consistently with all of their meetings as well.
Yeah, I appreciate the compliment about how powerful I talk to she.
I do attend the Windsor board meetings often when there's an agenda item.
That impacts me and I let them know what I think about items.
The reason I come to the divorce board meeting is and I've said this in the past.
Is because you make decisions that impact my family and their decisions that I don't
agree with my kids go to school in the school district.
So even though I can't vote for you and I probably wouldn't.
You make decisions that impact my kids and I will continue to advocate for people
that make good decisions and I will continue to lobby as long as I can come to the
board and make those decisions and advocate for things that I believe in.
Have a wonderful evening.
Thank you Chris.
Abby here up next.
Hi, my name is Abby Lowry.
I live in the village of the forest taxpayer here.
So I want to take you back to 2016.
I was actually like in your shoes on the village board.
The police chief at that time was investigated and found to have known about
and allowed harassment within the police department had made a racist video
ridiculing black men at a restaurant and had shared confidential video evidence
involving a victim with unauthorized individuals.
I remember that some of my colleagues on the village board at the time immediately
recognized the hurt damage caused by the police chief and wanted him removed from
office or sorry a remove from that position while other fellow trustees did not
seem very concerned and wanted him to continue as police chief.
With a 4-2 vote, a village board filed a complaint against the police chief.
Later a seventh agreement was reached and he resigned.
The only member of the village board from 2018 who is still on the board today is
calling little.
She was one of the other trustees that joined me in voting in favor of filing a
complaint against the police chief.
She had no tolerance for harassment.
She still doesn't.
One last lesson I learned from that time period is that elected officials have a
responsibility to not only make good decisions for the benefit of the community
but also prevent bad decisions from being made.
Why am I sharing this?
Because Colleen Little and Jim Simpson are the only trustees as far as the
memo says have expressed interest in being appointed to the vacant village
president position.
Just a few months ago, several village residents, myself included, had
been appointed to the police to harassment, instigated or encouraged by two
former trustees.
One is a former trustee because the voters approved a recall petition and
successfully voted him out of office.
The other trustee resigned soon after because I think she knew voters no longer had
tolerance for her poor behavior and were already setting plans in motion to
recall her as well.
During the time of that recall election, I asked Jim Simpson to renounce at least
one of those trustees or at least criticize their behavior to indicate he
stood firmly against harassment of community members.
He refused.
He said something along the lines of wanting to get along with all people.
When it comes to harassment and coming from someone in a position of power,
being silent or neutral is completely unacceptable.
It brings up doubts regarding his judgment, strength of character and
potential blind spots that would eventually potentially lead to bad
decision-making.
Thus, I ask that you request that you do two things.
One, postpone any vote to appoint a new village president until after the spring
election and any new trustees have taken their seats.
Ideally, I would prefer that there would be an election for village president,
but that's over a year away.
If you do decide to appoint a current trustee to fill the vacant village
president position, please vote for someone who has a history of standing
against harassment in order to ensure a full restoration of trust within this
community.
Thanks.
Thank you, Abby.
Is there a question?
I guess I will ask the question.
Abby, are you aware of my private conversations with the individual?
With who?
So, I don't recall what you were talking about, but I do know that I do want to
work with everyone.
I would not condone harassment, but I also don't necessarily think that it's in
anybody's interest to publicly denounce it, that I work with individuals on an
individual basis, and I would have talked to those individuals personally.
Are you aware of that?
That you talked to those individuals?
Yes.
No.
I guess it didn't.
I wish you would have told me at the time, because you just made that statement
about trying to get along with everybody.
And as somebody that experienced harassment this last summer, and I know I
definitely wasn't alone among several village residents, we could have used
that at the time, especially considering I know you're good friends with those
two former trustees, and for all I know continue to be, which is fine, you can do
whatever you want in your personal time, but if it affects decisions made in my
community, it affects me or my kids, then I really care.
And that's what I'm worried about.
And if you can say anything to reassure me or assure others, I'd love to hear right now.
Thank you.
We will discuss that in the discussion part of the meeting.
So next up is Don Clemens, followed by Mark Storch.
Don Clemens, the Forest resident.
First of all, I'm very sorry about what Chris McDonald said about Tashidra.
I think that was entirely uncalled for.
Uncalled for.
I am so sorry, Tashidra, you have been a wonderful, wonderful trustee.
Anytime I had questions, you answered them.
And I appreciate everything you've done.
And let me tell you, I would have voted for you and.
Not voted for anybody else because I thought you were the best.
Thank you, T.
My preference for village president between Colleen and Jim.
Both of them hardworking.
Both of them attend the meetings, do extra things would be Jim.
And the reason is Jim's been on our.
P and Z committee forever.
That's a very, very important committee to be on.
He's been the chairman of it.
He knows his.
Stuff before the meeting starts.
He's aware of what other village people say.
I've had many opportunities to speak to Jim.
He's always answered my questions.
Never.
Not always the way I want him to, but has given me.
Some answers that I needed.
And I don't always agree with him, but that's okay.
He's always willing to listen.
He's easy to contact.
He was chairman.
While he was chairman of P and Z, he was also chairman of the.
Public services committee.
So wearing two hats being chairman, I think.
Gives him more.
Ability to preside over this.
Committee, excuse me, board.
And I.
I know what.
Was said a few minutes ago about.
Somebody.
The police chief being dismissed at that time, Jim was not on the board and was not able to vote him off.
And Colleen did the right thing.
But we have to think about who was available to do this and he was dismissed.
And I just wanted to remind people that.
Jim wasn't there to do that, but I believe knowing him as well as I do.
That he would have also voted like Colleen.
Thank you.
Thank you, Don.
Is there any questions that don't.
Thank you.
Up next is Mark storage followed by.
Mark and Ron.
Mark here.
Up.
He's in the lab here.
Okay.
And you are up next and the last one to speak tonight.
Good evening.
My name is Ed Morgan.
And I am a resident of the forest.
I'm on great bridge drive.
My exact address is on the forum.
The staff have laid out four options for filling the board vacancy for the village president as follows.
Number one, the village board appoints a current member of the village board to serve out the remainder of president.
A Hill Wolfcrum's term until April 2027.
Number two, the village board appoints a deforest resident, not currently a member of the village board to serve out the remainder.
Of president K Hill Wolfcrum's term using an application process.
Number three, the village board can have a special election of deforest residents.
And number four, the position of board president can be left open or vacant until the next general election in November 2026 of this year.
I would like to suggest there's a fifth option that I believe is superior to the other four.
But before I explain this method, I want to state that it is clear to me that this decision should be made by the new board that will be elected by deforest residents on April 7th, which is only three weeks away as we all know,
and not made by this current board.
The main reason for this is that all six board members then will be serving through at least April 2027 and will be the ones working with the new board president for the next year at a minimum.
As Trustee Allen has formally resigned, that is not the case for the current board.
Now, on to my new option, the village board should consider both interested current board members and any interested deforest resident via an application and interview process.
All board members, including any who would apply for the position would still be allowed to vote to select their preferred candidate, including themselves if they wish, just as they would if the board were appointing only a current board member.
As the board president is normally elected by the deforest residents, as you all know, and not appointed by the board, it is fair that both current board members and any interested resident can apply, interview and or answer questions, just like they would have to, if either were to run in a regular election for the board president position.
Both other board members and the forest public deserve a more full board president selection process and to hear the detailed qualifications, policy positions, and plans that any and all board member, any and all candidates have.
I urge the board to discuss and consider this new option, which is an application and interview process for both interested current board members and interested deforest residents conducted by the board to be seated on April 7.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Thank you.
Any questions.
Seeing them. Thank you very much. Thank you.
I don't 8.1.3 discussion and possible action.
We want to willing to make a motion or start the discussion.
I just had a question just really for bill is, is that option in deed and option and application and interview process and historically is that something that's been done or why was that and I considered in them.
Again, the statute states that you can point someone. It does not specify that process.
So I can't speak to prior boards or why they went the way that they've gone.
I suspect that they appointed someone from a trusty position because of the experience and relative knowledge of what's currently happening at that time during the village board.
That that's only an assumption on my part.
But again, it's at liberty for this board to decide how you want to appoint, whether it's an interview process or you making that decision.
Ultimately, this board has to meet the appointment of whoever candidate it is.
I want to answer from the village historian.
I can tell you that.
In the last 36 years, there's only been one situation where the president resigned and in that situation, the board picked a trusty and I think it was because having that on the board, that person would have some idea of what's going on in the village.
So it's a process and be able to hit the ground running a lot better than somebody from the outside. There's never participated in the government.
Thank you.
Anybody else?
I guess I would like to say, I think it would be prudent that we elect someone from the board.
I think we're ready because someone stepping into this position without any prior experience would just be way too much.
And I know we have two trustees that have expressed interest and I think both of them would be very good candidates.
And I think this is a decision we need to get underway because we're not going to fill this position on April 7.
Do you think that the board will be in the new board, will they even be in by the second April meeting?
Yes, the trustee will be sworn into office and they start their term the Monday, the Tuesday of the board meeting.
The second of the month.
Yeah.
I still feel that we need to get this underway.
I also do want to say that for the residents that don't, I'm sure you probably don't know this because this was just something given to the village board.
That I'm going to support Jim and the reason being is because, and like I said, clean, you'd be a great candidate too.
But he has an extensive, extensive history of the committees that he has been on for what's it been 30 years, 20? I don't even know.
23.
It was a very, very long list. And I guess being the chair on the P and Z committee.
That is huge to the understanding of the really the daily business workings of the village board.
And so I think that he would be the best candidate for that.
I too would support Jim for a number of reasons.
The main one is whenever we need someone to step up in the chair position, when our meetings need to be conducted, he is right there doing it.
He chairs the meetings. He listens and I really appreciate how when he chairs, how he engages with the community.
People can speak. They feel heard and the meetings run.
They run smoothly. And I really like the way he listens.
Even when it doesn't go his way or he doesn't, it doesn't agree with. He still listens. And I think that a president should be like that. They should listen.
And I don't know that I've ever seen you get excited.
Like, I mean, we've had some really heated meetings and some heated debates and I have never seen you. It's like, Bueller, Bueller.
So I don't want to poke the bear. I'm just saying, you know, with the heated topics that we've had over the six years that I've been here, he's always kept an even kill.
He's always been straightforward. And to the point, I don't ever remember in my time of being here that you had any negative engagements with the community.
And I like that. I even appreciate how, you know, when Abby spoke and I appreciate Abby speaking and she brought up something that you didn't attack her.
You just provided information and, you know, effective communication goes both ways. It takes two people and I appreciate how you handled that situation too, because it's not easy getting attacked.
I was tonight and I welcome it, but it's not easy for some people. And so I really appreciate how you say the way you do.
Thank you, Brad. And then I am open to address your question, Abby. So I don't know if you want to leave or not. Go ahead, Brad.
Yeah, I just think I think a board will look most likely different than a month from now. So I would like to make this on an interim basis until then for the appointment and I would nominate.
Alicia Williams for this position.
I guess I can.
I'll sort of take over for chair, I'll say, but so I open it up for nominations and I think I heard Brad, you nominate Alicia Williams.
So Alicia, do you accept that nomination? Is the nomination for just the interim?
That's what he said. Yeah, I would accept the nomination.
I just wanted to second what Brad said and say that I would like to see a new board set before we make a decision on the permanent replacement.
However, it may be.
Thank you.
So it is open for nominations right now. I do want to, sorry.
I want to speak as a trustee and maybe stepping outside of the line via the chair too, but I wanted to address your comment.
Or your question they have me. So I think my experience that is most applicable. And I guess for the public, the no two, I did send a letter to the trustees explaining my experience because I wanted to be open and transparent and everything else you want to say that they know my background.
I do have quite a bit of a background, even before being on, well, maybe not quite a bit, but I've been a professional for a while.
I feel and I say to this in the letter that it's important that I go to part of my being a professional is I go to a lot of ethical training that's part of the registration that I have.
And on top of that, I even mentioned that I was the legal scout. So I mean, this has been ingrained in me way back when.
But I think the most applicable experience that I have was related to the president or that's being discussed tonight was when I was president of our church at Norway Grove.
And I can tell you when I went into that, the congregation was deeply divided.
And it was a very tough time because we were not making budgets and the bank wasn't going to give us any more money.
So it was a time where a year that we were pretty much going to close the door.
And we had a lot of heated meetings. So when you say where I learned that experience, you.
We talk about the heated meetings here. Try having a heating meeting at church. That's another level.
So that's where I maybe get my calm demeanor. And again, at work, try to go to a public informational meeting and fellow somebody.
Whatever. It's maybe not bad now, but I'm 15 years ago that you're going to build a roundabout and somebody's front yard. Those get heated to.
So I've learned through the interactions. I'll say again, mainly with church.
That is important to listen to every side. And I can tell you people attacked myself, attacked my family verbally.
And I am very, very happy. I'll say blessed that I had a good teacher at that time. He happened to be a past, what do you call it, Bishop of Iowa.
Some of you know, I don't know if I really want to mention his name on record, but he told me one of the most important things is a break bread with people.
So when those people attacked me, what I thought, okay, there's a lunch date I need to make. And that's what I'm hoping to do here.
And at that time at church, I don't know how I got in that position, but I felt called to do that.
And when Jane resigned, I felt maybe obligated to do this. But over these couple weeks, I'm feeling like it's more of a calling.
So that's all I have to say.
But know that I am ethical as far as bullying. I do not don't bullying at all. But again, I don't want to publicly attack somebody or even tell them that.
I think it's more of a personal thing. And like I said, break bread and talk to them.
So I hope if this goes away that I'm become president, it's to me a short term.
But I'm hoping to maybe turn things in a different direction than it's been the last couple of years.
But that's what I wanted to say. And I think that will be quite.
Nominations is up, I guess.
And maybe looking at you L because I don't know quite how this goes, I guess, then we need to talk about.
Having a motion to be in the interim, or is that just made then with the nomination?
Well, it was sort of a motion with the nomination, but I think that it probably makes sense to celebrate the issues for decide whether you're going to point somebody permanently or temporarily and then make a nominee for whatever position it is that you've just created.
Okay. Okay.
Colleen.
Can this candidate get equal time?
I think in this candidate get equal time.
These do.
And that how it works.
I don't particularly want to be village board president.
I don't particularly like standing out and be in the center of attention for anything. This is bad enough.
But I just want you all to know that I was born ethical.
I've had some kind of strange careers in my lifetime. A lot of those involve making decisions when I was all by myself with nobody looking over my shoulder and I can assure you of the highest degree of ethical and integrity and all that other good stuff.
So on my behalf.
Let's say that I'm also more than willing to talk to anybody that wants to.
I know there are a lot of people who think I have a really ugly resting face. I'm sorry. There's not much I can do about that.
But I am here and I am listening.
So I am not going to arm wrestle Jim for this position. That's.
And to the number of people who contacted me. I'm sorry, but.
It's okay.
Thank you, Colleen.
Is there any further discussion? I.
I would be okay to make a motion on the next.
Well, I think we.
Well, you have to make a sure question on the length of the term first.
Well, I worry because we have a nomination on the floor. So.
Yeah.
Hello, I would agree with that. I'll just say that my nomination was to do that and have the people who are nominated then have a chance to speak before we made a motion to move forward with my intentions and I, and I think you're absolutely right.
We should do a a motion on the length of the appointment before we do nominations on the person.
And just so you know, if you appoint somebody on an interim basis, they will continue as the interim person until you select another method of finding somebody permanent, whether that's a special election or permanent appointment somewhere down the road.
So if you want to make a motion that the appointment will be on an interim basis, maybe we can get that issue decided first.
Make a motion to.
Point somebody on an interim basis until the new board can be seated in April 2nd.
Yeah, so discussion on that motion.
I don't agree with that only because a special election is more cost, more work. This position is not going to be that long.
So the new board comes in in in April.
And what couple.
By May, we're doing it again. It's.
We should give if the community want the community should vote for the president.
That's what I believe. And this term is going to be up next year.
So I think for continuity, consistency and workload and tax dollars.
That the individual should just be appointed for the rest of the term.
That way the community has time to hear the candidates.
Go through the election process and make their decision that way to, to piecemeal this together and continue to have issues.
And I just think that we need to start moving forward and we need to start.
Moving forward, not capriciously, you know, so this appointment is over pretty soon.
And I think whoever, you know, if, if we can select someone who's on the board already, they know the items, the ticket items that we've been discussing for the last year and a half, two years.
So they can definitely hit the ground running and keep things moving forward.
The new board will still be able to weigh in on different things.
And it'll actually give them an opportunity to get their feet running, right?
Get their understanding of the position that they're coming in.
So I just think that we should just like we did when we had a recall.
We didn't do an interim and all the different things we elected someone to take that seat.
And I think that's what we should do again.
And I want to clarify, I wasn't suggesting we do a special election.
I don't want that either. I want, I want to do an interim basis.
And then when the new board is seated in April, they make a permanent appointment of somebody on the board for the rest of the term.
Okay. Thank you, Brad.
Alicia.
I agree as well. I think just from out talking to people so much that they want to be, you know, a part of the process about what goes on on the board.
And I think with everyone who's out voting right now who has ballots that we really should wait till the new board is seated.
Before we make a permanent.
I'll actually know the village president. So.
Appointment.
Thank you, Alicia. Jan, did you have something?
I agree with she just said and what Brad just said.
Okay.
I'd say the only thing that I would bring up is a concern is that the.
Village president also appoints people to the committee and I think we have a couple committee.
Appointments that need to be made relatively soon.
So that might be a bit of an odd situation.
Whoever would be serving as general would make those appointments.
Okay.
I see.
No other discussion. So I guess.
Kelly, can you do a roll call vote again?
And can we clarify what exactly are we voting on?
I understand the motion. It's that you will be appointing somebody on an interim basis and reconsidering the issue after the next one.
Thank you.
Trustee Stefan Hagenheim.
Oh, I'm sorry. My list got screwed up.
Trustee Williams.
Trustee Allen. No.
Trustee cords.
Trustee little.
And trustee Simpson.
No.
Motion ties. Motion failed.
So I think we'd be looking for another motion.
I'd like to make a motion that we make the term until the end of what being called as.
The term would have been.
Yeah, the appointment has to end at that date.
Right. So that that's what I would like to make a motion for that.
Second.
Yeah.
Could you add clarification? It looks like you're grabbing your.
What the motion is is to fill the vacancy at this point.
So that's the motion that I.
I see both people shaking hands, but that's what it was meant to be.
Continued discussion.
Seeing none.
Roll call.
Second was a.
Was to shoot.
Okay.
In order.
Yep.
I don't think you need to have a motion to make a temporary fail than it is.
I don't think you need another motion to make it permanent to you.
The third option is you do nothing.
Trustee Allen.
I.
Good.
Trustee chords.
No.
Trustee.
Trustee little.
No.
Trustee Simpson.
All right.
Trustee Stefan-Hagenheim.
I.
Trustee Williams.
No.
Motion fails.
Three, three.
Is there any other options?
None that I can think of.
Do you ask a question?
So if there's not a village president appointed, there's nothing that can be done from the village's standpoint, right?
So nothing that can be entered.
Agreements can't be entered into anything like that.
Is that correct?
So the business of the village is ended at this point until one's elected.
Is that fair?
No, that's not quite.
It's not quite doomsday.
It'll be a little more awkward.
Well, I mean, you're just going to have to, when you approve a contract, authorize somebody to sign it on behalf of the village.
Who?
Connect an ordinance.
You're going to have to delegate somebody to sign that.
You're going to have to have somebody to prepare an agenda.
I assume that'll fault the bill.
And then you're either going to like what he puts together or you're not.
But that's what you'll have without a village president.
You could still function.
Just not efficiently.
Connect.
What was that comment, Bill, and then Alex.
So I have sent a successful motion.
Or action.
The village board that can take up the issue of appointment at any future meeting.
Okay.
Alex, any comment.
Just to clarify, Al, what you're talking about.
So it's that that's on the agenda tonight would have to be modified as part of any approval to authorize a different signer.
If the resolution doesn't have authorization for somebody other than the village president to sign, then it would require that.
Okay.
What I was noticing in a lot of resolutions that had a signature line that was blank.
So we would just make a action item that bill would sign for the village or we need to trust you the sign.
You can include in your motion authorization for anybody to sign.
Okay.
Colleen, do you have something to question.
Okay.
Well, somebody can tell me there's another motion that we made.
I think we're done tonight without topic.
No, we did not.
The one action you've taken tonight without a village president is the approval of the cooperative plans.
I guess I would suggest at some point you.
Suspend the rules and move back to that item to authorize bill or somebody else to sign it.
I'd like to make a motion to suspend the rules to revisit action item 7.2 so that we can authorize bill.
To sign this agreement to keep this item moving forward.
Second.
Motion.
Move to 7.2.
I don't see any discussion.
So we are back to 7.2 to.
Do you do that motion.
Specifically 7.2.3.
Yes, Bill.
There's a resolution also in my point 2.1 regarding this charge elimination.
I would I would suggest and I don't know if this is.
Right or not, but in regards to.
Any of the motions that you make here.
Involving a resolution if you are to authorize a person to.
Sign on all those that you approve this evening.
So that you're not having to do that.
You know, individually on each of the items.
I would like to make that motion.
Yeah, you're still in 7.2. I guess I want a house attention when I can get that.
No.
You've raised too many questions.
Yeah.
So.
It was we moved to 7.2.
So I believe that's where we are, but then Bill brought up the idea of.
Making a motion or.
Doing a motion, I'll say tonight to sort of cover all the signatures.
And tonight's agenda.
So I'm wondering where we would want to make that motion.
Yeah, I think you can have to do it individually because the blanket authorization for signatures is on the agenda.
So you can put that on the next agenda and.
Work from there.
And we take it up under 8.1.
That sort of under the agenda for that is.
Part of the authority of the president.
I think with each resolution or action that you take, if there's a signature required, the motion should include authorization for who can sign it.
Okay.
So we're going to right now we're at 7.2. So we're looking for.
Modification to that.
Motion or really that resolution.
I don't think you have to reopen the resolution. I think you could just move to authorize an alternative signature for that.
Okay.
So can somebody maybe look at that resolution? Was there two signature lines or was it just one.
That resolution that we're looking to authorize a signature. I'm just curious if it's building and the village president or if it was just one blank.
Seven seven point two.
If you make everything the village administrator and a clerk, you'll be safe.
Okay.
I'd like to make a motion to authorize the village administrator and clerk to be able to sign and give approval for this resolution.
Seven point item number 7.2 resolution.
Two, zero, two, six dash zero, two, three.
Second.
Any discussion.
Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion please signify by saying aye.
Aye.
Any opposed? Motion passes six, the zero.
I think we need to go to.
Five point two point one.
So is there a motion that take things out of order.
Go to that.
I like to make a motion to suspend the rules to revisit item five point two.
Thank you.
Is there a second?
Second.
Seconded by Colleen.
So motion on the floor is to send the rules to go to five point two point one.
All those in favor of the motion please signify by saying aye.
Aye.
Opposed? Motion passes.
We are now at five point two point one.
We're looking for.
Something.
Yep, sorry.
You have to submit a resolution as part of the report.
I think we've submitted that this doesn't sign that then I don't have is given the authorization right that's the resolution.
I think that this one you can also authorize the administrator to sign administrator and clerk to sign.
Okay.
I'd like to make a motion.
To allow the village clerk and village administrator to sign giving authorization for item five point two one resolution two zero two six dash two zero two one.
Second.
We'll shed by to she just seconded by a jam.
Any discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye.
Aye.
Opposed passes six zero.
We are back to item eight point two.
And.
If you would entertain me, I would like to take things out of order again and I'd be looking for a motion to move item number nine the public appearances up ahead of eight point two.
So move.
Second.
I'd like to see your seconded by Jan. If you go to public appearances items and I.
There was a few people. Thank you. Oh, sorry.
We need a motion is there and all those in favor of the motion please signify by saying aye.
Opposed.
We are now on item number nine, which is public appearances.
And.
We have a couple people wishing to speak.
There is a Lois Lee man followed by.
Yes, here.
Lewis.
Oh, I see left.
I'm Lois.
I live at two.
Twelve.
Harvard drive.
Almost 20 years.
I guess I thought that was pretty important because of other speakers who were.
Talking about being residents of the poorest.
So I am here because.
I.
Been here for 20 years.
I have a history of.
Some things that have happened around wildlife.
And you've all heard me talk about.
Coyotes and wildlife into forest.
Okay, so.
I don't know if all of you have heard about.
The dog bite.
In 2023.
Okay.
Okay.
It, as far as I know, it wasn't public.
Information and I didn't know why.
If we were trying to kind of hide it under the rug, so to speak and hope it would go away and it would never happen again.
So I, I don't want to rely on that to happen because coyotes do live among us.
They've lost much of their land, so to speak.
You can just look all around you and see that.
And.
Project coyote.
Has established this week as being coyote awareness week.
So I gave you a handout and I wanted to start off by saying why coyotes.
And it's on the very top of your handout that I gave you.
The coyotes have inherent value value, regardless of our perception of them.
But here are a few ways that we benefit from having them around.
And so these, these are mainly ecological benefits that they provide for us.
I'm not going to go into talking about each of them because I don't have the time.
But I did want to state that I found information because I do a lot of research too.
In 2022, there were 5,327 cases of Lyme disease in Wisconsin.
And it cost us 12.1 million dollars, medically speaking.
Okay, so I wanted to state that I'm also going to just skip to the next page.
This is coyotes in Chicago and look at the number 70.
So 70% of the coyotes out of 173.
Lois.
I'll go.
Excuse me.
I'm sorry.
Your time is to just finish my sentence.
Okay.
70% their diets were natural diets, not human food.
And this is in Chicago now and they're living among human beings.
Okay, they're living among us also.
So I'm going to just leave this information with you.
I hope you take a look at the last page because you can learn about what we can do.
So that we're not.
Lois, we need to, we need to move on to the next speaker.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Thank you, Lois.
Yeah.
So I think I see Lewis was here is going to see on the line.
I'm assuming not.
Um,
Ellen, sorry, I'm looking at you.
So this is new territory for me.
And say the 8.1.
We had two different motions that failed.
And there's somebody can, is it rescind their vote?
Is that correct?
Or am I using the wrong turn?
Once the vote is announced, the vote can't be changed.
A new motion can be made.
But the past votes can't be changed.
I thought if you were a negative bullet or a positive vote, you couldn't,
you could make a motion to reconsider. You can't just change your vote.
Okay, I don't quite know what that means.
Motion to reconsider would bring the item back.
It would open up the vote again.
And everybody would have to vote again.
So the, the motion that Brad put on the floor.
Who can reconsider just the negative votes or the positive votes to.
It's where we're voting the majority.
Yeah.
I think you're being a real consideration on those two votes.
A new motion can just be made. Can it not?
Yes.
When you're on that agenda.
Right now we're on a point to.
So you'd have to go back to that item in order to.
Make a motion to reconsider or make a new motion.
I'd personally like to go back to a point one.
I guess I would make that motion to go back to a point one.
Or I'd say it officially, but.
Second, if we can.
So there's a motion by myself.
Second by Jan to go big things out of order.
I'll say and go back to a point one.
That's all proper correct motion to suspend the rules and move back to that item.
It requires a two thirds vote. Okay.
So or people.
So all those in favor, please signify we're saying aye.
Aye.
Aye.
All those opposed.
No, no, no.
8.2.
Resolution 2026 024.
Resolution appointing Brandon Hines as financial director.
Bill chain.
Yes, thank you.
So as previously reported, I think in January.
You know, I've informed us that she intends to retire.
Hopefully within on the near future here.
And so we started at that time to put together a succession plan.
For the position.
We advertise a job posting for actually both a finance director and an assistant finance
director position.
Open attract the widest.
Group of candidates that we could.
With the intention to slot the candidate and their qualifications into one of those.
One or the other position.
So Brandon applied.
We, we interviewed, I think, six applicants.
And he has an extensive financial background.
His resume is included in the packet.
And then currently he serves as the city administrator and the city of Amrall, Wisconsin.
He's actually at a meeting this evening so he couldn't be with us.
Otherwise he would have been.
And so the plan moving.
If he is appointed this evening.
He would fill in as the finance director.
Carol has agreed that she would move to the assistant finance director role and be able to train.
Brandon.
Before she.
She separates from a village.
And then at that time we would then hire an assistant finance director.
To ensure that our session plan for the finance director position is is long term.
So I'll pause there and see if there's any questions from you.
We are looking forward.
We are recommending an appointment this evening.
Questions Brad.
Bill, you might have just said that, but did you say you would hire a new assistant once Carol officially retires.
That's that's correct. So as part of the 2026 budget, we budgeted at.
Please $75,000 or an accountant position, because that was a gap in our staffing.
With the shifting in the positions.
And the hiring range that we were at, we were able to consider the position at a director level and assistant level.
If you would like to add a little bit more.
We are looking forward to both being a count.
Are having that accounting background.
Any more discussion or it'd be looking for a motion.
I guess.
Motion to approve 20.
Yeah.
2026 dash.
second motion by Colleen second by Alicia I do ask I'll say bill or Allen if you
could tell us if we need to make including in the motion comments the
habit it was at the administrator and the clerk I have a feeling it's gonna come
up a number of times as we move through the agenda tonight I don't think there's
any urgency on having this resolution sign but if you want to authorize bill
to sign along with Cali that would be fine you know taken care of only near
the maker of motion do you want to do that or no I certainly would make
a motion to approve 2026 024 and allow our village administrator and our
village clerk to sign such resolution thank you Colleen second second thank
you any further discussion seeing none all those in favor of the motion please
signify by saying aye aye any opposed motion passes 6-0 item 8.3 resolution
2026 025 resolution amending the village of the forest 2025 operation
budget and a lapse fund and transfer Carol thank you so as you know we put
together our budget in October and it can be challenging to know what's gonna
happen in the next calendar year when we put that budget together so when the
calendar year has ended we always have to go back and look kind of at a section
level I won't call it department level but the level at which you approve the
budget is the level that we have to look at when we compare actuals to budget
after the fact and then if any particular section has gone over budget
it's sort of a requirement to go back and realign the budget to match or
closely with how the actual was spent so that's what we're doing here tonight
is we are doing a budget amendment to line the budget up or closely with how
actual spend actual how the dollars are actually spent so it's just kind of a
realignment we are not increasing or decreasing the budget as a whole just
moving things around to fit it in the in the sections where it needs to go one
of the things we do every year is any we have an agreement with the library and
any funds any budgeted dollars that are not spent during the year get
transferred over to fund 220 which is the library donation fund so you will see
in here a $23,000 transfer from the library operations it's moved down to
what we call other uses and it becomes a transfer over to fund 220 so that is
part of what you were agreeing to tonight is to get that money over to the donation
fund now the reason they had so much left over they don't usually have 23,000
left over but they had mentioned previously that one of their vendors
closed up and they weren't able to spend the dollars they had budgeted because
they couldn't get the materials they needed so part of the reason why that's
so high is because they have some spend that they're planning on doing in 2026 so
they will likely go so to speak over budget in 2026 at which point we will
pull money back out of 220 to cover whatever they overspend in the current
year so part of that is is just the transfer for the library purposes part of
it is just realigning the budget with where we need it to be the other thing
that is in this resolution that I'm looking for your approval on is we had
another good year from the revenue side of things we tend to keep budgeting
conservatively when it comes to interest and interest just continues to come in
high so that is one of the things we we have continued to benefit from because
rates are high so we do have some extra money coming in on the revenue side we
also continue to do well with our building permits which does tend to
cause some additional expenses but revenues are still coming in higher
than predicted so we do have some extra money at the end of the year and we have
historically asked for you to let us put some of those excess funds into fund
400 because we are trying to not borrow so much for equipment and try to build
up that fund so we can just pay for equipment outright which saves us on
interest in the long run so that is also part of the equation now I believe the
schedule the analysis that was in your packet is not the same as the one I
just handed you tonight we do have extra money
the the excess funds are over 800,000 but you're in we are not requesting a
transfer to fund 400 of 800,000 we're only requesting a transfer of 285,000 and
the reason for that is because the other sheet I handed out tonight is kind of
analysis of the of the equity balance and one of the things that goes into the
equity balance calculation is the change in accounts receivable so because our
receivable balance is so much higher at the end of 2025 than it was the previous
year it kind of ties up some of that money it makes it
unspendable so we're only requesting a transfer of 285,000 that's really the
change in our unassigned equity or fund balance at your end so that's the piece
that we feel is available so that is the final recommendation as part of this
resolution is to just allow that 285,000 to move over to fund 400 that will
keep our if we do that that will keep our unassigned fund balance at 19.9% of
the subsequent years operating budget which is within our policy we're trying
to stay between 15% and 25% so keeping it right around 20% is right in the
middle of the range that we're trying to to sustain so it still keeps us at a
good a good level with our unassigned fund balance. Thank you Carol. So we'll
be looking for a motion or a continued discussion. I guess I will make a
motion to approve resolution 2026 025 resolution amending the village of the
Forest 2025 operation budget for labs funds and transfers I'll say as written
and if need be sign the village president to village administrator and
clerk. So a second. I think I heard Tashoudra first. Any discussions? Seeing none
all those in favor please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion
carries 6-0. Item 8.4 resolution 2026 026 resolution
authorizing the village president and clerk to execute an amendment to the
Homestead Edition development agreement bill change. So this presentation will
be for the next three items having to do with the Homestead Edition for item 8.4
resolution 2026-26 so there is an existing development agreement with the
developer Homestead Edition is on the south east quadrant of highway 19 and
highway 51. This is originally plotted as part of Savannah Brooks subdivision and
had then been re-planted as the Homestead Edition. The subdivision includes 59
residential single-family residential lots and one commercial lot. What we are
proposing as part of the amendment to that development agreement is to
count all 59 lots as part of the calculation for impact fees there because
it had been planted and then re-planted the original development agreement for
Homestead only included 41 lots and so we wanted to talk with the developer
indication was that we should capture all the 59 lots within that exhibit but
that's what we're asking for approval here is an amendment to that development
agreement which is primarily exhibit B of that development agreement. So as we
are talking about park impact fees as part of the development agreement it
also requires that the village and developer create an escrow account and
then also have a park development agreement separate from the infrastructure
development agreement. Reason being is that the developer is interested in
building the park before any of the structures are put up historically
this developer has done so and so this was the solution to that and what the
escrow account would do is then capture any park improvement fees collected from
each of the residential homes at the time of permit or at the time of
closing that will go in escrow be kept in escrow once the developer constructs
the park then village would then release those escrow funds to the developer. A
park development agreement is exactly what it states it provides the parameters
for building that park so details on you know this type of structures the
layout insurance requirements contractor requirements that's all figured into
that that park development agreement. I'll pause there and answer any questions
that you may have on any three of those. We'll take it for first I guess.
Okay thank you Bill. We are in 8.4 so we are if there is any questions a
bill I think Bill you said you did the presentation for the number of things
but right now we're talking the resolution the 2026 026 so is there
discussions on that or a motion. Can I just add that procedural bit of
information on each of these next three items the resolutions were retitled
they'll effectively do the same thing but the resolutions themselves
authorize the village administrator to sign the contract so the only thing you
have to authorize in addition to that for him to sign the resolutions. Okay thank
you Al. We're looking for a motion and we'd like that motion to include the
village administrator to be able to sign the resolution. Is there anybody
willing to make a motion. I'll make a motion and can I do can I do 8.5 and 8.6
too. We have an open. For clarity we should take a
one at a time. Okay I try. Okay I make a motion for 8.4 to approve it and to
allow the village administrator to sign along with the village clerk. I'll
second motion by Jan second by Colleen any discussion being none all those in
favor please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed motion passes 6 0 item 8.5
resolution 2026 027 resolution authorizing the village of president and
clerk to execute an escrow agreement I believe Bill has done the
presentations or to making a motion and again we'd like the motion to
include Bill Chang to be able to sign the resolution. It's a
administrator. Yeah. Anybody willing to make a group 2026 027 including it allowing
the administrator to sign the resolution. Second. Motion by Colleen second about
Tishidra any discussion saying none all those in favor please signify by
saying aye. Aye. Any opposed motion passes 6 0 8.6 resolution 2026 028 resolution
authorizing the village president and clerk to execute a park development
agreement and staff presentation is done so action is going to be a little bit
different than the title of that but is there anybody willing to make a motion
and it looks like it will include the village administrator and clerk to sign
execute the park agreement if so chosen. I'd like to make a motion to approve
resolution to approve authorizing the village clerk and administrator to sign
authorization. Resolution 2026 028 is written correct Tishidra. Of course Jim.
Thank you Tishidra. There is second. Second. Seconded by Brad. All those any
discussion. All those in favor please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed
motion passes 6 0 resolution 8.7 resolution 2026 029 resolution accepting
the lowest qualified bid and awarding contracts for the village of the forest
public safety bathroom and decan contamination shower. Judd and Greg.
Yeah so this is we had four received four bids for replacement of three
victory windows on the offices to bathroom updates similar to like we did
at the PD last year and then updating the 2 decon showers with lighting wall
paneling and ceiling tiles and epoxy flooring so we had pretty good bids came
in at 62,900. We as a brother general contractors received the low bid and
that's one we would need the village administrator to sign for the for the
village president and the agreement. Thank you Greg. Just curious are these budgeted
through capital for the next two or is it budgeted through a no budget. These
are all through on 400.
After all. My recommendation would be that a motion for approval would include an
amendments change the resolve clause to remove the word village president and
village clerk and replace them with village administrator. Okay. Oh and I'm sorry and to
change the word R2 is. I think that was a given but thank you. So Allen recommended or
staff recommended a motion is there anybody willing to make that motion or
something else. I'd like to make that motion as stated. Thank you Tashidra.
Is there a second again. Thank you. Yeah. So Tashidra and then Brad. Any discussion?
Seeing none. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed. Motion passes 6-0.
I think my voice is going to drown everybody the sleep room soon so I'll try to speed it up.
Resolution 2026-0-3-1 resolution accepting the lowest qualified bid and awarding contracts for
the village of the forest hereaparks shelter roof installation to include fascia trim.
Greg anything else? No you got to do 8.8. I skipped it too quick.
I'm really trying to speed it up. Resolution 2026-0-3-0 resolution accepting
lowest qualified bid awarding the contract for the village of the forest public safety
building fire department apparatus apoxy floor improvement. Thank you for putting me on track.
Greg. Yeah so basically the apparatus floor at the fire department will be getting apoxy
flooring similar to the PD's apparatus bay. Similar product help prolong the concrete life
and prevent water from entering the sub-base and cracking the floor further.
And we'll have to have the same motion as L provided in the last resolution.
Thank you. Sorry L what L says. Yeah would you like to recommend something?
I would I would recommend an approval motion to include an amendment to the result
caused to change the words village president and village clerk. Our two village administrator
is into authorized village administrator to sign the resolution of the local president.
I'd like to make that motion as stated. Thank you Tashidra.
Second. I heard Alicia. Thank you. All any discussion? All those in favor please signify
by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Passes 6-0. Now a 0.9 resolution 20-26-0-3-1 resolution accepting
lowest qualified bid awarding contracts for the village of the forest yahara park shelter roof
installation and to include fascia trim. Yep so another project here at the hara park shelter
is replacing the shingled roof with a metal roof. We had four bids for installation
dam construction services for 34,000 which includes the 1,000 dollars for the fascia.
It will include snow guards fascia and some gutters. We allocated 45,000 for this and since
Al's making us money tonight. This one's a little more complicated. My recommendation would be
that an approval motion include an amendment to the result caused to replace the words the
village president and village clerk are with the village administrator is and to replace the
second sentence with said contract shall be for a total contract price of not more than 34,000
and also authorizing the village administrator to sign the resolution of the president.
I would make that motion as lengthy stated. Second. Thank you Tashidra was the first and Jan was
the second on that motion. Any discussion? All those in favor please signify by saying aye.
Any opposed? Motion passes six zero eight point ten resolution 2026 032 resolution
authorizing the village president to execute a request for release of funds and certification
Alex. So I'm happy to go through a little bit of a description here but I'm actually going to
move this to a future meeting given the uncertainty around the village president.
This is a HUD federal thing and I was trying to look quickly through some of the federal
statutes to see what the certifying officer has to be and I think I'd rather not go back and forth
with the federal government right now so I'm going to say if we can let's wait on it. Okay so I think
we will move forward and it automatically enables to another meeting.
So item 811 resolution 2026 033 resolution authorizing village president and clerk to execute
second amendment to the funding agreement with the community development authority of the
village of Forest Alex again. So just to go through a little bit of background this is a funding
agreement that was executed in 2024 between the village and the CDA for the redevelopment
project at the corner of Maine and Highway V. There are a couple clauses in here as we continue to
kind of progress through that project and apply for tax credits. We'll have to eventually have
an LLC that develops a taxable LLC that develops the project which we'll have an investor member
in that essentially acquiring purchasing the tax credits from the CDA. So we were trying to
align some of the clauses in this agreement to allow for that and allow for the successful
development of the project in the future and then there was also a deadline in this agreement
to make repayment if we didn't secure a construction loan from the village we being CDA sorry two
ways here. By the end of this month that would have required repayment of the pre-development
loan of 250,000 by June. The intent there was if we're not going to move forward with the project
that the CDA would be repaying those funds we're still obviously moving forward we just haven't
executed it on the construction loan yet so this pushes out that deadline.
Okay thank you Alex. Ellen anything?
I would recommend on this one that the approval motion include amendments to both the title and
the resolve clause to substitute village administrator for the words of village president and village
clerk and in the resolve clause to change the following word R to is.
And then authorize bill design too and then authorize the administrator design as well.
My assistant's just pointed out that we also have to authorize the administrator to sign the
resolution.
Thank you too. Anybody willing to make that motion?
Okay I'll make the motion as stated. Second both.
Thank you Tashidra seconded by Brad in the discussion. All those in favor please signify
by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 6-0 8.12 resolution 2026-034 resolution
approving and adopting an affordable housing program. Alex this has been a long time in the
works and I'm personally very happy that this is before you all today to take a peek at.
As many of you know we've kind of been going back and forth on some of the provisions here
ran through legal to kind of get this cleaned up and a couple of draft template agreements for
how we can implement this without keeping on coming back to the board for approval of those
agreements moving forward. Al earned his money on that one too. So the thought would be here.
There's again the two categories. One would be more large scale development again with
the priority towards owner occupied or home ownership, affordable home ownership and then the four
programs secured towards residents, prospective buyers, home purchasers, aging in place.
Certainly happy to go over any of the details of the program again for anybody who wants a little
bit more clarification but assuming that this is viewed favorably tonight, next steps for our
team would be to set up sort of a plan to get this out into the community, let everybody understand
what's available to them and hopefully targeting a May launch of some of the home ownership programs,
home improvement programs and really kind of building an application system on the back end so that
we could do intake effectively and a plan for administering this because it will be a low to
administer but I think we have a good good handle on it working with our administrative assistance
assistant in the community development department. We got a plan in place so happy to answer any
questions. Thank you, Alex. Yeah, I learned anything you want to add with that. With this one you
only need to authorize the administrator to sign the resolution. Okay. I'd make a motion
to approve resolution 2026-034 authorizing the village administrator to sign the document.
Thank you. Two draws or a second? Second. Second by Colleen. We yeah, discussion.
It's not really discussion. I just want to say thank you for bringing this forward
and all the hard work you have done. This has definitely been on the docket for a while
and just Dane County and around like the housing crisis right now and people not being able to
find places to live, individuals working into forest and not being able to live into forest.
So I really appreciate this being on the docket and us being able to move forward and offer things
to our community members that want to be here and live here. So thank you so much for this.
And thank you, Tashidra. I just we ran through a lot of things real fast but I think this one is
one that we really need to highlight. This is to me an amazing opportunity. I think it's
pretty awesome that we're able to use a TIFF in this way and we talk about how we want the
TIFFs to give back to our community and this is huge. So I look forward to this being in place
and I hope you and Stacy that's gone is we really hype this up because this is really awesome.
So again, thank you. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion,
please signify by saying aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 6-0. We are on to item number 10,
discussion and possible action regarding the acquisition of public lands for park land
and public service facilities. The village board may convene and close session as authorized
Wisconsin statutes 1985, parent 1, parent e for the purpose of deliberating or negotiation,
the purchasing of public properties and investing in public funds or conducting other specified
business public businesses whenever competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session.
The village board may reconvene an open session and further discuss or take action on the subject
matter discussed in closed session. Bill Chang, I'm assuming we at least got to start a bit of a
presentation. Yeah, we'll provide a presentation on this and that if the board wants to discuss
particular terms of negotiation, I would then recommend that the board move into closed session.
So I believe a couple of meetings back, we had introduced this proposal to acquire a
possibility 36 acres of property that currently is a farmland within the village of the forest
boundary. The farm is along the intersection of Gray Road and North Town Road as property has
been on the market, I believe since fall of last year for 2.19 million dollars.
And the reason we really started looking at this was kind of two parts. One, kind of on the curtails
of the court plan that was just established, we knew that we need to look for more active park
recreation space. So what that means is a larger track of land that would be able to
fit active recreation such as fields, courts, et cetera, playgrounds, which as the court
states, we are lacking here in the village of the forest, especially in this area of the village.
The second part of looking at this property is that we were looking
for a landing spot for our public services facility, something that we are in the pre-planning stages.
If you remember back a couple of meetings ago, we had the university student, university
alliance students take a look at what kind of space needs we would require for our facility.
The facility across the street here is about 25 years old.
While it can be probably utilized for other purposes, it's severely lacking in space.
And I can let Greg and Judd talk more about what they need to efficiently,
factily operate a public services department. In addition to that, we do have facilities,
public services facilities kind of spread out throughout the community. And so to be able to
consolidate the month to one property would be a benefit to the team here.
So, you know, in summary, we did make an offer at the direction of the village
board at the last meeting that we talked about this. We did receive a counter offer,
and we're prepared to talk about that in a closed session. Happy to answer any questions about
services, park and rec in open session. Also, in regards to process and timing,
we can definitely answer that in open session. However, discussion and questions about the terms,
financial terms should be in closed session.
So, looking at the financial part of it,
the property was listed at 2.19 million. We offer the property at 1.8 million. Our counter offer
was we received at 1.95. The funding for this project, since it was divided, would come from
park impact fees, which we've collected from residential development that we've had both
on a single family side and on the multifamily side. And then the remainder of that should come
from our capital improvement fund. What we would recommend would be a fund balance that we would
take out from there so that we don't have to borrow. In consideration of some of that financing,
is that currently we've we had reserved a parcel in tip number six for the future public facilities
building that's on North side of town here right next to our shampoo site. And if we were to move
on the proposed location, we would be able to sell this site to a developer which would bring
not only sales proceeds to the tax increment district, but also tax increment created.
And we expect that to be the neighborhood of 100 to $120,000 annually. So,
obviously, the sooner that you have development there, the sooner you start collecting on that
revenue. Now, because this parcel is in the tax increment district, the revenues do have
to stay in the tax increment district. It cannot be utilized to pay for the other property,
or as part of that funding solution. However, what that does do is that increases the increment
into number six, thereby allowing for that tax increment district potentially to close earlier.
And therefore, returning the taxes to the respective jurisdictions. Currently,
that tax equipment district has passed that expenditure date. So, beyond the construction
loan that we have pending for the CDA, because that's in tip six, too. There's no, there's any
other expected spend in that district. Thank you, Bill. Questions, anybody?
Yes, I do have one question. Jan, you were going to go ahead.
I was just going to ask about, say, the need, and I guess I'm looking at judge and Greg and maybe
even Reese, and that also the future need, but also the, and all the site has current buildings,
I'm guessing we can utilize those. And two, I guess that's my question.
Sure. So, I can just talk a little bit about the public services side, and then they can
touch on the building because the buildings there, Greg and I were able to go on it.
Two are the buildings, but first of all, from public services standpoint, we've got this
building as Bill touched on that's 25 years old. It's filled. You'll notice there's always
three pickup trucks parked outside, four cars, that's, well, there's three pickups in one red car
that's parked out there. So, they're not undercover, right, which diminishes their value over time a
little bit. Not a lot, but nonetheless, we just, if they're not readily available in the morning
after the blizzard the other day, they, we have to clear them and do that stuff. We prefer to have
all of our equipment undercover the best we can for the longevity of the vehicle and for how it works.
And even inside the building, they're stacked and they're pretty quick. If you've not been in
our public services building, I'd find anybody to come, we'll give you a tour anytime you want
to see our buildings. So, that building is pretty filled. We often have to take a vehicle from
this building to go out to Shanku to get the jet vac truck or the leaf vac truck or other plow
equipment. We have big patrol trucks that are staged out there. So, we've got volatile buildings
we have to use. We also store things at the yard waste site. So, there's a building there that has
equipment stored in it. So, we oftentimes have to do a shuffle with equipment.
So, ideally, we would like to be built under one big campus or the public services team. And that
would also include potential storage for other departments in the village, whether the PD needs
things. Parks and Rec is always in a quandary where they're storing things, right? They've got a lot
of balls that they have to keep that are inflated, that are in basketballs, footballs,
maybe more specific. And so, there's things that we just need to have that they store at the public
services building, right? So, there's an officer that's filled with those and then the basement
here. And so, it's arduous for them to get up and down. So, we would have all these kinds of
things incorporated. We've been able to take tours of a variety of different buildings.
Stoden has one. The Salt County Highway Department has another that we've seen
where it makes for an efficient operation. If you've been into it, again, I encourage you to come
to see our mechanic shop. It's pretty tight quarters in there. For Tim to do work on vehicles, it's a
lot of, again, moving things around. And where do we store things and how do we keep them there? So,
this would allow us to consolidate everything, including the yard waste site. You also look at
our village out overall if you'll can zoom out. This location gives us central access not only to
the northern part, but also to the southern part. It makes it an easier trip for us to get over
to the western side because we can go right down Gray Road to Lake Road to the innovation
up into those parts as well. So, currently, if we are with the blizzard,
which we're deploying salt out on the roads and people are down in the southern part of the
village, you've got to come back north to the Salt Shed to refill because the Salt Shed is out
in Shanku. So, having the yard waste site, people in the south have an opportunity to bring their
yard waste site more to a central location, as well as then people in the northern area have a
more central location to come. So, it just kind of centralizes all of our operations.
Let's ascend to one area. For the time being, the buildings that are there are really
strong buildings. There would be some mild improvements we'd want to make. So, there's a
newer building on the property that has a dirt floor that we want to put a concrete floor in.
The barns, the old tobacco sheds have some cracked floors, but there's certainly areas we could
look to store some of our equipment for the time being. We would just need to work on some security
measures there to keep those places operational for us. I think the barn, though, has some unique
opportunities for us from a perspective potential to do programming in because it's a really nice
building ties in with kind of our old heritage of being in the farming community. So, I think
there's opportunities there and then we could also use those buildings for as the park is developed
or equipment there that's needed for maintaining parks, right? Onmores, those kinds of things. So,
I think it brings us into one centralized campus. Like I said, that serves all of our residents
through our broad area that we're in. I'll just add too. So, as part of our
conference about our recreation plan, I think right now it's identified for many parts to be
in that area, but really there is a need for a community park to kind of serve that southern
portion of the community. And I know there's some future plans for behind or over in the Fleet
Pardon area, but this would be a good location. And as we kind of continue to grow some of our
events, having a larger community park might be an area for us to be able to grow to. So,
I know Judd mentioned as well the opportunity for us to have some additional programming space.
Like we have the Fireman's Park community room being able to maybe have a room that would be
large enough in this area for us to be able to do some programming would be huge. And as Judd
said, we are kind of scattered all over with special events stuff. I mean, Tricia's running.
We have like three different buildings that we're running and trying to get stuff from
going to the basement. So, you know, being able to consolidate our stuff I think would be a huge
time save for our staff and their staff as well who also often have to go into addicts or dark
spaces and corners to either hide our stuff or get our stuff out for the time. So.
Yeah, I just also want to add if you've never been to our public services storage building
on Shanku. I'll bring you up there and show you that too. That's extremely full as well.
We actually have trucks sitting outside and our leafback truck all sorts of stuff outside.
Obviously, the secured fenced in area but it does take a long time to start these vehicles in the
wintertime when their diesel only got a lot of set and run for, you know, a long time and they
got to be plugged in which is not very easy on them. A couple other things that we've been talking
about is larger training conference areas in our public services department building.
Right now we don't have enough space to have any trainings to have, say, if it's just all
village staff, this room is not big enough. We're crammed in here. So having a big space
at our public, new public services building would be great, like 120 people conference room.
It can serve multiple different meetings, trainings, you know, community events or
holding location. All sorts of different things. And kind of to go off the corp thing,
you know, by 2034 we're supposed to have meet to meet standards 39 additional acres of parkland
and that's once we reach around 13,000 in population. So by adding this, we'll get us close to half
of that by 2034, just come in quick. And I don't know, we're in the village, we're going to find
only 30 more acres. So just to throw that out.
We're already at 13,000 in population there. So looking at Cali's thing and said 11,000.
I want to talk a little bit about timing because I know that a new facility and financing for it
is scary, right? So it's, you know, we are again in the pre planning stages,
looking at space needs, confirming space needs, not only in the parks and public services,
but also, you know, elections. We've been talking about a third poller location. We don't have a
location yet. But as far as timing for this, we are looking to time it with when a number of
our tax increment districts close. So that's in that 20, 29, 20, 30 timeframe.
What that does is it allocates those tax increment district dollars back to the various jurisdictions.
And so it would have a minimum impact on taxpayers so that we don't have to go out and make such
large barrels on that service for this facility. And so there's got to be more discussion to come,
especially around how we structure the financing, whether when these tax increment districts and
whether any of them are going to be extended like we did for tax increment district number three for
the affordable housing. There's planning efforts that will need to be had in regards to part planning
services and all that. So this is truly an initial step to
you as in every development to secure the land rights at this time.
Thank you, Bill. Any other discussion outside of closed?
I guess I would make a motion to go in the close. Is there anybody in the second that?
Second that. Motion by me. Second by Tishidra. Kelly Rokol.
Trustee Kords. All right. Trustee Little.
Trustee Simpson. All right. Trustee Steffenhagen-Hahn.
Hi. Trustee Williams. Trustee Allen.
Hi. Motion carries 6-0.
Thank you all. It was pretty amazing that you stayed here the whole day, but
hope you learned something I know I did.
You ready?
Welcome back. We did our discussion about the negotiation. There might be some
continued discussion because there is a few options that move forward or not with this.
It brought up discussion of different uses of other buildings and other locations.
So is there a continued discussion or a motion?
Yep. Go ahead, Greg. I'll make a motion to approve resolution 2026-035.
We're going to find the purchase agreements for the purchase of properties at 6897 and 6889
Northtown Road. It's a motion by Brad. Is there a second? Second.
Seconded by Colleen. They're open to discussion and Allen, I'm asking,
did we need to make any of those modifications? Save for the village.
Clerk and admin on this one. Okay. So discussion.
So I'll amend it to include the signature by the administrator.
Thank you, Brad. Colleen, do you second? I'll second. Thank you. Discussion?
She's on, Allen.
Okay.
So with no continued discussion, I guess I would ask for a roll call vote, Kelly.
Trustee Little.
Hi.
Trustee Simpson.
Hi.
Trustee Stephanie Hagenham.
No.
Trustee Williams.
Hi.
Trustee Allen.
Hi.
Trustee Quartz.
Motion carries 5-1.
Thank you.
I need to get my glasses on.
We are down to 13 communications.
Check registry.
That's in the packet.
Comments to a Kerala bill if you have any.
Many commission boards report. I'm assuming there's nothing
much to report. I'll let anybody stop me if they want.
President's report, I will just mention that there's an appointment to the forest.
When's there a fire in EMS district board?
I think we can move forward with that because it's.
Allen, it's supposed to be presented by the president, but I'm assuming because it's a
trustee board who can still be done, is that correct?
Okay.
Thank you.
So we have a recommended, I think it's.
Rad for that committee, is that correct?
Yes, I can't.
Trustees would be interested in, Brad responded that he would be
evil and willing to serve on the fire board.
Okay.
Thank you.
That is the recommendation.
Is there anybody willing to make that motion?
Make a motion that trustee courts be pointed to the departs when they're fire board.
Second.
Thank you, Colleen. And I heard Jan is the number two.
Any discussion from.
Seeing none.
All those in favor by signify by saying aye.
Aye.
Any motion passes six zero.
Any other business.
Yes, Kelly, can I have you remind us when our next board meeting is because I think it gets
moved because of the election.
Is that correct?
Yes, that is correct.
The next village board meeting will be Thursday, April 9.
Thank you.
Number 17.
I'd like to make motion to adjourn.
Second and third.
Yeah.
Bye.
The unanimous consent.
We are adjourned at 10.01.
All right.
We'll move into the.
Yeah.
Doesn't know.
You.
To the.