Draft

 

 

Rutland Town Board Meeting

August 2, 2011 – 6:30 p.m.

                               

Chairman Dale Beske called the meeting to order; present:  Board members Beske, Walker, Sperle, Clerk George, Treasurer Sime and Constable Hillestad.  Absent:  Supervisor Lunde.                                                                                                                    

  1. Appearance by Dane Co. Sheriff Dept. representative.  No one was present from the Sheriff’s Dept. and no report was received.
  2. Constable Report. Constable Hillestad reported that he had one call regarding a service truck parked on Hill road resulting in a dangerous situation.
  3. Racetrack reports.  Discussion and necessary action on future events.  Change practice time on August 3rd from 4-8 p.m. to Noon to 8:00 p.m. with cancellation of July 27th practice. Grueneberg reported that the schedule for the practice August 3rd will remain as originally scheduled but that the practice scheduled from 4pm to 8pm on August 17th will be changed to noon to 8:00 p.m.  The Board approved this change.  The July event report was received by the Board.
  4. As a result of the redistricting following the 2010 census, the Dane Co. Supervisory Districts have been changed.  Rutland will now be in District 37, beginning in April 2012.  Bob Salov will be the new representative for the Town.  Mr. Salov appeared to introduce himself to the Board.
  5. Discussion and necessary action on Application for Operator’s License from Joe Eugster.  No action taken because no completed application had been received.
  6. Planning Commission report.

1)  Preliminary inquiry from Liz & Eric Bachhuber regarding possible rezoning of property they may be purchasing at 632 Center Rd. plus additional four acres from adjoining property owner.  The Bachhuber’s explained their plans to purchase the Sarah Shapiro Hurley property plus an additional 4 acres from Wade Cattell that adjoin the land at the back (east) of the Shapiro Hurley property.  They would like to close the purchase at the end of the month.  The Bachhuber’s were advised that they should have confirmation in writing that they are not purchasing a split on the four acres to be purchased from Cattell.  They were also advised that  Dane Co. has agreed that they could rezone the two properties to into one parcel zoned RH-3 after they have purchased all the parcels (the Shapiro Hurley property consists of two parcels) to bring the parcels into zoning compliance. This zoning would allow the property to have 10 animal units and could be reconfigured to insure plenty of room at the back of the property for rear set back in the event of expansion of the barn. Recent changes to the law have removed the  PACE Ag conversion fee but the Farmland Preservation fee imposed by Dane Co. is still in place.  The consensus of the Planning Commission was that no site visit would be required.  The Bachhuber’s will file for rezoning after they have completed their purchases as that will be quicker and easier than them being agents for two property owners.  No Board action necessary.

 

2)  Preliminary inquiry from Mike and Brenda Shields regarding separation of Ag land from homesite at 793 Hildreth Rd.  The Shields have their 41-acre parcel (including their home) up for sale.  They have been approached by an adjoining land owner to purchase the Ag land only.  In order to do this, several steps would be necessary. 

The home is built on a postage stamp rezoning that does not contain the driveway so rezoning of the home and driveway area would be required in order to sell the Ag land only. 

The driveway is only 24 feet wide so it does not meet the requirement of 66’ wide frontage on to a town road.  A variance for the grandfathered driveway would be required first.  Chairman Beske advised the Shields that the Dane Co. Zoning Administrator Roger Lane had indicated that if they could file the application immediately, the Shields could get on the agenda for the August 9th meeting to request a variance for the driveway.  The Shields indicated that they will file the application with Dane Co. and let the Town know how that comes out.

In the absence of obtaining a variance for the driveway, the Shields would have to explore the possibility of obtaining an additional 40+ feet from landowner(s) adjacent to the driveway.

Previous minutes indicate that there is a deed restriction on the A-1 Ex. portion of the Shields property.  This will be verified with the County. (Note: subsequent to the Planning Commission meeting, it was verified that there is an existing recorded deed restriction prohibiting residential development of both the A-1 Ex. and RH-1 portions of the property (two parcels)).  .   No Town Board action necessary.

 

3)  Discussion and possible action on request from Magnum Communications to reconsider Town Action on radio tower application in light of new information received and submitted.  Chairman Beske advised those present that this meeting was not being held to reconsider the Town action on the Zoning Petition and CUP application, but rather to decide if we even want to reconsider the previous action.  Both the applicant and the County ZLR committee had requested that the matter be reopened for reconsideration and Beske felt that this should be a Planning Commission and Board decision.   Beske  asked applicant Dave Magnum to summarize the new information the applicant had submitted.

Magnum advised that, in his opinion, the biggest concern had been the lighting of the proposed tower.  After the Town had taken action denying both the rezoning petition and the Conditional Use Permit application, he had explored different lighting options and found an option from Hughey & Phillips (Urbana OH) that would reduce visibility of the lights to those on the ground by about 75% at a -10 degree angle. Magnum indicated that this option had been tested in downtown Chicago on the John Handcock building. The other new information being submitted was possible interest in co-location on the tower by T-Mobil, AT&T, and Litewire to improve cellular coverage in the area. 

The two issues were discussed one at a time. 

Beske noted that there would be multiple lights on the tower at different heights , and with the new option, the bottom light would still be visible from 680’ away.  This would most likely amount to the same amount of visibility from most of the nearby residences.

A number of residents commented on the issues.  Those included Bob Krenz, Henry Royer, Gail Simpson, Jessica Polakowski, Jim  McMillan, Bob Postel, Peter Vanderveer, Bruce Anderson, Chris Zeltner, Andy Laundrie, Dave Mueller (Litewire), Darl Ridgely, Rich Zentner, Mary Celley, Angela Rey.  Information shared by the residents included objection to a 488’ tower, technology is changing pretty fast so the objection is to commercial use in rural setting, the number of services currently available in the Town residences is adequate, suggestion made to check with the engineer from the company offering the new option regarding use in rural area as opposed to urban area, Frontier is working on possible new DSL for area.  A resident reported that the “new” lighting option is not actually a new option.  Dave Mueller, from Litewire in Evansville, noted that their service is limited to line of sight, and that they would check into possible relocation only if a number of residents indicated their interest in obtaining their services. 

Beske noted that the Board has received a number of emails from Town residents objecting to reconsideration as well as a number of emails from persons located outside of the Town in favor of the radio tower and of reconsideration of the town action.

Chairman Beske advised that the decision to be made is whether or not this new information changes the reasons for denial as stated on the Town’s Amended Town Action Report.  Magnum’s response (dated 7/12/11) to the reasons for denial as stated on the Amended Town Action Report was read.

Magnum reported that he had talked to Town Assessor Greg Gardiner regarding possible reduction in property values.  Gardiner conveyed that he could not confirm possible future levels of assessment because his current contract with the Town of Rutland does not extend to 2012 (Note: current contract runs to December 2011).

Magnum stated that they had received many approvals from many agencies.  Maureen Rowe (DNR employee and Town resident) clarified that the DNR and F&WL had not approved the project, but simply taken a position of not objecting to the project.

Sue Wollin presented a number of viewscape photos of the cell towers located in the Town.

Chairman Beske called for action by the Planning Commission on a recommendation regarding whether or not the Town Action Report should be opened for reconsideration.  Sime moved, seconded by Porter to recommend the Board deny reopening the Town Action Report for reconsideration; motion carried 5-0.

 

  1. Consent Agenda:

·         Minutes of the July 6th Board meeting and the July 26th BoR meeting.

·         Treasurer’s Report.  The Treasurer reported that she is looking at the possibility of using different dog license application forms that will be more efficient to use.  Currently she is using forms supplied by Dane Co. that require a great deal of rewriting.

·         Vouchers and Checks.

Sperle moved, Walker seconded, to approve the Consent agenda; motion carried 3-0.

  1. Correspondence and necessary action.

·         Dane Co. Towns Ass’n July update and Aug. 17th annual meeting notice.

·         MOU from Dane Co. regarding Relier service for SVRS (Statewide Voter Registration System).  This item will be addressed further at the September Board meeting.

  1. Discussion and necessary action on 2011 Road Work and budget update.  The budget update showed that there is still about $72,000 available in the budget for road reconstruction and repair.  Discussion noted that the Patrolmen will be cutting out the potholes on the north end of Oak Ridge Rd., patching them and then the areas repaired will be crack sealed. The South end of Oak Ridge that was reconstructed and had 2” base coat applied last year is still in good condition. The Patrolmen recommended several roads that would benefit from chip sealing.  Sperle moved, Walker seconded, to chip seal North Union Rd. (6100’) and the north end of Lake Kegonsa Rd. (4863’) at an approximate cost of $31,000-$32,000; motion carried 3-0.
  2. Discussion and necessary action on Town ward redistricting resolution and map.  Sperle moved, Walker seconded, to approve Resolution 2011-08-01 and the map for the required redistricting of wards in the Town of Rutland after the 2010 Census; motion carried 3-0.  The complete resolution, map and census blocks listing are on file at the Clerk’s office.
  3. Discussion and necessary action regarding Oregon Senior Ctr. Funding. Discussion held regarding the 7/16/11 email from Village Finance Committee asking for the Town’s reaction to three questions regarding funding of the Oregon Senior Center in 2012.  The consensus of the Board was that the Town would not be able to increase their contribution in 2012 and that if the contribution from one municipality decreased, the contribution for all municipalities should go down.  It is hoped that the Senior Center budget could be balanced by using efficiencies and cost savings.  It may also be beneficial to ask for donations from those Senior Center activity participants who can afford it.

 

  1. Adjourn to closed session pursuant to 19.85(1)(g), Wis. Stats to confer with legal counsel who is rendering oral or written advice concerning strategy to be adopted by the Board with respect to litigation in which it may become involved.  Sperle moved, Walker seconded, to adjourn to closed session (7:50 p.m.) pursuant to the above noted statute; a roll call voted was taken and the motion carried on a 3-0 vote.
  2. Reconvene into open session to take any action necessary on PC recommendation regarding reconsideration of Town action on Magnum tower application pursuant to 19.85(2), Wis. Stats.  The Board reconvened into open session at 8:35 p.m. 

The Board reconvened into open session.  Beske reported that the request to reopen the radio tower Town action had been discussed with the Town Attorney.  The Planning Commission felt there wasn’t sufficient information to reopen the petition. The draft of the Planning Commission minutes had been received.  The Board now needed to take action on the request to reopen the application.

 

Jeanette Walker moved to accept the commission’s recommendation to not reopen the application for the Magnum tower due to the fact  that the information presented does not substantially change the application;  Sperle seconded the motion; motion carried

3-0.

 

  1. Discussion and necessary action on 2012 Health Insurance issues.  Following discussion on the health insurance issue, the consensus of the Board was to not change the options for the employees’ health insurance coverage.  That currently is the Traditional Health Maintenance Organization paired with the Classic Standard Plan.  The matter will be placed on the agenda for the September meeting in case new information is forthcoming.
  2. Hwy 14/92 drainage maintenance agreement.  Beske reported that the Village of Brooklyn is willing to participate in a maintenance agreement but not at a 50% level.  Another consideration is that the Village of Brooklyn does own a jetting machine; that fact could be incorporated into the agreement.  DOT has indicated that they would like to let bids for the installation of the drainage pipe in February, 2012, but would need to have the maintenance agreement in place before the project is let out for bids.
  3. Adjournment of the August 2011 Board meeting was adjourned on motion and second by Sperle and Walker; motion carried 3-0.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Dawn George, Clerk