Edgar vault will serve as an evidence room
By Hannah Alden
The vault area of Edgar Village Hall will soon be turned into a space utilized by the Edgar Police Department.
During the October 9 Edgar Village Board meeting, trustees approved allowing for the police department to transform the vault, which was originally used by the bank housed in the building years ago, for an evidence room and storage area. The space is currently used to keep village records and historical items, which will be moved to different areas of village hall.
According to Officer Matthew Krembs, there will be two divided areas within the vault, one for stored property, such as if someone turns in a bike or keys, and one for evidence, which will be sectioned off with a cage-type fence around it.
Also during last week’s meeting, the board approved allowing the police department to fundraise. Krembs said their goal is to raise around $30,000 to be used to replace outdated Tasers and set up a uniform fund for new staff among
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other department needs. There are plans for officers to fundraise through ways like selling shirts, doing raffles and setting up a booth at next year’s Fireman’s Homecoming Festival. In other business:
n The board approved discontinuing the online option for those attending public village meetings. Since the Covid pandemic began, the village had been allowing individuals to attend board meetings virtually over the Zoom platform. Trustee Jon Streit, who brought the topic to the board, said that people should make it a priority to be in person. He was specifically concerned with the option to hold closed sessions over Zoom if a trustee was unable to be at the meeting.
“It’s really easy to say you’re alone and you’re not,” Streit said.
The Zoom option for attending meetings will no longer be offered, unless there is a special request approved by Village President Terry Lepak and Village Administrator Jennifer Lopez.
n During the public input portion of the meeting, comments made by Janet Fergot about stray cats in the village led to a short conversation on the matter. Fergot said she found six cats recently wandering the village and brought them to village hall, where she was told to take them to the Marathon County Humane Society. However, because Edgar does not contract with the humane society any longer, Fergot was told by staff there that she would have had to make an appointment to bring them back when the facility had room and there would be fees to pay.
“I feel that the humane society is a needed service for the village of Edgar,” Fergot said. “I understand there’s a cost involved. It costs a lot to run a humane society, but every service has a cost. If we do nothing, the problem is going to get worse.”
Lopez said Marathon County as a whole held the contract with the humane society until 2013 when it decided to leave it up to individual municipalities to continue. At that time, Edgar opted to stop utilizing the services. Lepak said the humane society would be charging the village $185 per cat it dropped off there. He added that up until this point, the board has not heard about any issues with stray cats.
n The village’s 2024 budget hearing will be held on November 13 at 8 p.m. During last week’s meeting, Lopez shared a portion of the draft budget presentation, including a possible $3,377 increase to the tax levy based on net new construction. Other revenue increases include the addition of state shared revenue of $65,124, a projected $1,300 increase in court fines due to the village joining a municipal court system with Rothschild and Marathon and an estimated $900 increase from cell tower leases.
On the expenses side of things, the village is expecting increased costs for election workers due to the presidential election later next year, insurance coverage estimated to go up by 10 percent, equipment fuel and Edgar’s fire agreement, among other items.
