Dorchester to resume citations

By Nathaniel Underwood

The Dorchester Village Board moved to purchase new tickets that can be used to help enforce village ordinances at their most recent meeting last Wednesday.

After looking over different possible designs for the tickets and how they may work with the Clark County Sheriff Department’s equipment, the board agreed on a more flexible option. They also approved an updated schedule of fees that will see some of the amounts updated to better match other area municipalities.

The new tickets can be utilized by the Clark County Sheriff Department officer to enforce village ordinances in a more streamlined fashion. The open-ended nature of the tickets will allow the officer to manually fill in information regarding the ordinance being violated, rather than choosing from a selection of options. This will give them the flexibility to utilize the tickets for whatever issues may arise.

“Officer Dan [Walters] said what was presented at the last meeting, he liked that,” board trustee Julie Goldschmidt said. “It was simple, not a lot on it, and Dan was on board with that.”

“One of the original [designs] had where you could just circle some [of the ordinances], but that became cumbersome,”

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village board president Kurt Schwoch said. “So they decided to just keep the schedule with them and just write it out.”

It was also noted that the village could hire an individual to help with the enforcing of ordinances via these new tickets.

“I think that parking is pretty much the main thing that’s going to be hanging us up here in the winter time with the snow plowing,” board trustee Eric Klemetson said at Wednesday’s meeting. “I think it could be an issue. I know last winter we got pretty lucky with the weather, but that might not happen again.”

“Whoever we would hire for that would have to know the ordinances inside and out before they start writing out tickets,” Goldschmidt said.

Village clerk Christie Erikson stated that the board was allowed to hire someone to enforce such ordinances and they did not need to be part of law enforcement. If it was escalated to a citation, she noted that at that point law enforcement and the court would have to become involved.

Along with the purchase of the new tickets, the board also approved an update to the village’s schedule of fees.

A few fees increased, with the explanation being that the village was looking to match their rates closer to those of other surrounding villages.

“We didn’t go drastic with anything,” Schwoch said. “We talked about what other villages are doing and compared.”

“For other villages about our size, we were significantly low on a number of them,” board trustee Keith Lageman added.

“Some of these, before we increased them, were only five dollars,” Schwoch said. “Some people would say, ‘forget it, charge me the five bucks. Why should I move my fire ring?’ or whatever. It was ridiculous for some of this stuff.”

“We also went off of Christie’s recommendations for some of these, like publication for the zoning stuff and bounced check fees, so those went up,” Goldschmidt said.

“It was also recommended that even after we pass the ordinances that we revisit this as a committee every year,” she added.

The updated schedule of fees was approved unanimously by the board.

Other business

■ ■ The board has been monitoring waste management overages and contamination charges levied for the trash and recycling at Memorial Hall over the last few months.

A new, larger dumpster was installed at the hall to help combat this, while other suggestions to lock the dumpster have been floated by the board. Until the potential fees from November are received, however, they were not sure how effective the move was to combat these types of charges, and thus no further action on that front was taken.

■ ■ Land rental fees for farmers utilizing village land were set at $150 and $120 per acre as part of five-year contracts to be drafted for the land rentals so that the farmers can better plan for the usage. The board also wanted a clause that, if someone was interested in buying the land from the village, they could sell it to the interested buyer.

■ ■ Starting in January of 2025, regular garbage and recycling pick up for the village will be on Mondays instead of Wednesdays.