Setting the price

City sets preliminary special assessments for Perkins St. rebuild

Work on a Perkins St. rebuild in the city of Medford is slated to begin sometime in mid-May. In anticipation of that work, aldermen at Tuesday’s Medford City Council meeting approved the preliminary special assessments for the project with an estimated total of cost to area property owners of $176,652.

The city plans to rebuild the section of Perkins St. from near the intersection with Hwy 13 and continuing west to about Fourth St. The total project length is 1,300 feet and will include surface work, utilities and replacement of the curb and gutter, and driveway aprons which are special assessed to the adjoining property owners based on their road frontage. The project also includes replacement of sidewalk on the street, under city policy the property owners are not charged for sidewalk replacement.

The estimated assessment for properties along the road range from a low of $6,385 up to $10,968 and most being around $7,500. These estimates represent the upper limit on what the city will charge. The actual assessment is based on the final project costs including time and materials and actual size of the driveway aprons.

No city residents attended a public hearing on the project that was held on at the beginning of the council meeting and no objections to it were filed with the city.

Reorganization

It took two ballots and some campaigning, but in the end aldermen voted 5-3 for Mike Bub to serve as council president replacing Greg Knight who previously held the position.

The city council held its annual reorganization meeting on Tuesday where they elected council leaders, membership to the planning commission and representation on the city revolving loan fund committee. In addition, aldermen were asked to ratify the mayoral appointments to the city standing committees, appoint of city officials and designation of local depositories and official city newspaper.

Both Bub and Knight were nominated for the council president position. The main responsibility of this position is to serve in place of the mayor and preside at meetings when the mayor is unable to be there.

While the nominations are done by voice, the election of the leadership is done by secret ballot. On the first round of ballots, the vote was tied at 4-4.

Mayor Mike Wellner, who survived a challenge by Mike Bub in the April general election, said he had checked with city attorney Courtney Graff in case a tie vote was made. He said that while he had the power to cast the tie breaking vote, he preferred to take the route of having each of the nominees give a short speech about why they feel they should be selected and then have aldermen re-vote.

Bub went first citing his active involvement on city projects such as the pool committee and being on finance and personnel.

“I think some change is good, obviously,” Bub said saying he would like to take a more active role in city council and do what is best for the city.

Knight said he would like to continue with stability and continuity in an effort to minimize controversy and disruption. “With what we are dealing with in the future, I hope to be a force for compromise and common sense,” Knight said.

Following the comments, aldermen again cast secret ballots with the result five for Bub and three for Knight.

In addition to turnover in the council president position, there was a change in the city’s representation on the planning commission. By statute, the planning commission is chaired by the mayor and has one alderman who is selected by council to serve as its representative. Alderman Clem Johnson has served as the city’s representative to the planning commission for a number of years.

A wrinkle this year, is that newly-elected aldermen Tim Hansen had also served on the planning commission in the past as a citizen member. Former alderman Peggy Kraschnewski — who Hansen replaced on city council — was appointed to fill Hansen’s citizen position on the planning commission. In the secret ballot vote, Hansen was selected to the planning commission on a 5-3 vote.

Wellner noted that because the appointments go into effect starting May 1, both Hansen and Johnson would be on the planning commission for next Monday’s scheduled meeting rather than having Kraschnewski come on for the public hearing and rezoning requests on that agenda.

The final elected council position was for the city representation on the revolving loan fund committee. Both Bub and Knight had been nominated, but Knight declined the nomination noting the committee is set to be dissolved.

The city’s revolving loan fund program had its funding taken back by the state as a result of federal rule changes. City coordinator John Fales noted that while the city could not issue any new loans, he anticipated the committee needing to meet at least one more time to review and approve the program funds that will be returned to the state.

The standing committee appointments were reviewed with some shuffling due to the retirement of longtime alderman Kraschnewski and the election of Hansen. In practical usage, the city has relied on having committee of the whole meetings rather than standing committee meetings. Even the number of committee of the whole meetings has drastically dropped in recent years with many things being discussed and decided at the departmental staff meetings and never making it to the council level. The committee appointments were unanimously approved.

In other reorganization action, aldermen:

_ Approved Schmiege, Graff and Koch law firm to serve as the city attorney.

_ Approved naming The Star News as the official city newspaper.

_ Approved AbbyBank, Associated Bank, DMB Community Bank, Forward Bank, Nicolet National Bank, Prevail Bank, Taylor Credit Union as local depositories as well as TD Bank USA of San Diego, Calif.

In other business, aldermen:

_ Approved hiring Huotari Construction to build the industrial yard cake storage facility for the city wastewater treatment facility at a cost of $652,000 compared to Staab Construction’s bid of $806,000. Alderman Laura Holmes questioned why there was such a gap in the bid prices. Fales said both companies had been given the same specifications for the work. The council had previously tabled action on awarding this contract because of the potential for separating it from the overall wastewater treatment project and being able to use a lower-cost wage scale. After discussion with the state, which is funding a significant amount of the overall project, it was determined that the project could not be separated and they should proceed.

_ Approved bartender licenses for Tyler Hoefs and Erin Kraemer. The licenses are good through June 30, 2021.

_ Received an update from Fales that due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, the city is currently not accepting any special event permits and referring any questions to the county public health department. Fales also noted that the city has not been contacted by the Farmers Market group to hold a downtown market this year. Fales said if a request came in, the city would seek guidance from the county health department about what could be allowed. In related action, Fales also reported that they have held off on opening any park facilities and held off on holding the recreation commission meeting. Arbor Day activities were also canceled for this year.