Town of York
Regular Monthly Board Meeting
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
The meeting was called to order at 8:00 P.M. Present were Chairman Dan Reeson, 1st Supervisor Tim Czerwonka, 2nd Supervisor Steve Hermanson, Treasurer Ann Carlson, Clerk Nancy Anderson, Patrolman Wade Jones, and citizens William Kuenzi, Jim Syse, Patty Syse, Debbie Fairbanks, Ray Spellman, and Helene Schultheiss. Verification of proper notice was given. Steve Hermanson move to approve the August, 2015 minutes, Tim Czerwonka 2nd the motion. Motion carried.
Treasurer’s Report– Ann noted that the Town received the second half of the tax collections settlement in the amount of $63,201.36.
Bills– Wayne, Nancy, and Dan presented current bills to be paid. Dan Reeson move to approve the bills, Steve Hermanson 2nd the motion. Motion carried.
Patrolman’s Report– Wayne stated that he is currently finishing up his brush cutting, grading and also using up the remainder of the cold patch. He estimates there is one day left for cleanup on Buckeye Road. Again there is a problem of road signs disappearing at the triangle on Yankee Hollow and Gould Hill Rd.
- Patrolman Evaluation– The Board is generally pleased with Wade’s care of Town roads but he needs to be more consistent about road checking. Steve reminded Wade to mow as far out as possible on each side and to always think of road maintenance as three areas; the road surface, the sides, and overhead. Both Wade and the Board agreed that good communication is necessary at all times.
Plan Commission– Helene Schultheiss- Helene appeared before the Plan Commission last Tuesday when they gave preliminary approval of a land division on the Schultheiss property. After the Board reviewed the map, Dan Reeson move to approve the land division, Steve Hermanson 2nd the motion. Motion carried.
Public Comments– None.
Old Business
- Recycling Mirror Hang Tags– The tags have been ordered and volunteers have been contacted for the October distribution.
- Approve and Sign Delinquent Special Assessments Contract– After the County Treasurer, Sherri Hawkins, appeared before the Board last month to explain the contract, the Board decided to go ahead and sign it. Steve Hermanson move to approve the special assessments contract, Tim Czerwonka 2nd the motion. Motion carried.
- Resolution and Referendum for Citizens United v. FEC– Debbie Fairbanks, the Syses, and Ray Spellman all attended the evening’s meeting in support of this measure. Nancy had spoken with the Green County Clerk’s office and was told that a referendum on the April, 2016 ballot would not result in any added expense to the Town. Steve Hermanson move to approve that a referendum appear on the April 5, 2016 ballot for Citizens United, Tim Czerwonka 2nd the motion. Motion carried. The resolution will be signed after the election if the Town citizens approve the measure.
- New Truck Frame Extension for Plow (add-on) -Sign Warranty-Steve Hermanson move to approve the new truck warranty for the frame extension, Dan Reeson 2nd the motion. Motion carried. The agreement warrants the structural integrity of the bolt on the front frame extension for the time that the Town of York owns and operates the truck and also warrants the paint on the bolt on the front frame extension for a period of five years.
- News Articles Due Today– All articles for our September annual newsletter were received on time. Carrie Czerwonka, our publishing “wizard” will compile the letter for us. Hopefully it will be in the mail before the end of the month.
- Discontinue Aluminum Can Recycling Temporarily– At the August meeting the Board decided to curtail the sale of aluminum cans since they currently aren’t worth very much at this time. Nancy discovered that Sally Nealis, a New Glarus elementary teacher, plans fund raisers for her students for field trips and also other organizations where some young people can’t afford to pay for activities and would certainly welcome any means of raising money for these young people. Tim Czerwonka move to approve that Sally Nealis be given the cans for fund raisers until further notice, Steve Hermanson 2nd the motion. Motion carried.
- Website Revamp-Todd Carlson, our webmaster, has a new updated website he is working on, which is currently under construction. The goal of the new site design/layout in Todd’s words “is to provide a cleaner look, less graphics, a menu structure that actually works and is easy to navigate”. Much work still needs to be done before it goes “live”.
New Business
- Preliminary Budget Planning– For our budget planning for 2016 the Town will have to add the following changes. The WTA Dues is being raised $130.00 from $492.00 to $621.00, and our new truck payments will add an additional $23,895.00 per year for the next six years.
- Review and Amend Recycling Ordinance– The Town website indicates that “no construction or remodeling materials” will be accepted at the recycling center. The actual ordinance needs to be amended to reflect that information and will be taken up by the Board at our October meeting.
- Green’s Prairie Annual Report-Bill Kuenzi gave his annual report to the Board.
GREEN’S PRAIRIE CEMETERY ASSOCIATION ANNUAL REPORT
TOWN OF YORK, GREEN COUNTY WISCONSIN
September 8, 2015
The Green’s Prairie Cemetery Association continues to be very active in its responsibility to care for the GPC under the auspices of the agreement with the Town of York as directed by Judge Beer’s ruling in Green County Circuit Court. The officers, directors and friends of GPC spent many volunteer hours preserving and enhancing this Heritage cemetery 2015-2015 fiscal year.
This unique piece of ground contains the remnants of the YORK PRAIRIE and the earliest history of the settlers in the Towns of York, Adams, Primrose and Perry. The interment plot stones located here preceded the establishment of church and most family cemeteries. We were very disheartened to find that vandals had damaged a few of the stones near to the fence along Postville Road on the weekend of Good Friday 2015. The Green County Police took the report, investigated, to no avail.
Some special activities at GPC included the annual burn, stone resetting, afternoon Memorial Day event, invasive and non-natural plant eradication and prairie plant restoration, field trips and seed collection.
A very large well trained burn crew successfully burned the cemetery in late April. We protected all the stones with metal shields and water. We left a refuge or unburned area for the critters to be able to move in advance of the fire if they chose to do so. We vary the location of that refuge each year so all the cemetery gets burned through this rotation.
Funds were provided by the Town of York, Prairie Bluff Chapter of The Prairie Enthusiasts, GPCA and other donors to pay for a contract with Pechmann Memorials for the resetting of specially chosen stones. Gerry Pechmann fulfilled the resetting of these stones following the burn when access is the best to the stones and does the least damage to the warm weather plants. *See the special addendum to this report prepared by David Green a Director of GPCA. Pechmann’s are reasonable, have great knowledge on care of old stones and repair of damaged stones. We would appreciate continuing this relationship.
Memorial Day 2015 was a beautiful day as the weather was very appealing to the more than 30 attendees of the event which remembered the 150th Anniversary of the conclusion of the Civil War or sometimes referred to as the War Between the States. Tours of the newly reset stones, special attention was paid to the newly emerging prairie plants especially the profuse number of young Compass plants. GPC has the largest number of natural occurring Compass plants in Green County and possibly all of Southern WI.
Doug Wagen, WEKZ newsman, interviewed Dave Green and included a portion of that interview on the news reports the next day. This PR was good for GPC and the Town of York.
I would be remiss not to recognize the exceptional and invaluable work and attention that is paid to GPC by Dave Green, Tom Mitchell and John Ochsner. Dave Green volunteers with the Dane County Parks Department near Mt. Vernon. This involvement increases his ability to propagate the prairie plants and reduce or control invasive and non-native species of plants. Tom Mitchell is volunteering on a full time basis with PBC projects such as tree and shrub removal, prairie burns and reseeding efforts. He hand mowed along the cemetery fence prior to our Memorial Day event. He was recently named WI DNR “Volunteer of the Year.” Tom leads student groups on field trip prairies plant education and seed collection activities. John Ochsner is in charge of the yearly burn at GPC. He directs and recruits to accomplish this task. John is regularly involved in all the PBC projects his schedule allows. John spends a good deal of time at Abraham’s Woods, wetter woodland savanna, a well know plot used by the UW-Madison. GPC, dry prairie, is used as well for it has many unique plants differing from Abraham’s Woods.
The GPCA will hold its annual meeting at 1 PM on Saturday, September 12, 2015 at the Gartzke Cabin on Hanna Road. Go north out of NG on County “O”, turn right on Primrose Center Rd., right on Nessa and right on Hanna to first place on the left. You are welcome to attend. James MacDonald fulfilled Carla Ufken’s remaining one year as a director. He is willing to serve a full three year term. James is very active in the seed collection of prairie plants. Recommendation of future events and projects will be discussed and recommended. Treasurer Dan Gartzke will present our updated financial report (attached). Marilyn Jaeger is the Secretary, while Paul Lokken and Dave Green are the other Directors. We have good thinking leaders and volunteers.
Respectfully submitted,
William E Kuenzi Jr.
President of GPCA
Adjournment– Steve Hermanson move to adjourn the meeting, Tim Czerwonka 2nd the motion. Motion carried. The meeting adjourned at 10:05 P.M.
Respectfully submitted,
Nancy Anderson, Clerk