Curtiss seeks $10K rent hike for fire hall
Curtiss officials will be asking the Owen-Withee-Curtiss Fire District to pay an additional $10,000 per year in fire hall rent, plus heat and electric, at a district board meeting later this month.
The village board voted at a special meeting Tuesday to propose a new usage agreement for the fire hall, which includes a list of responsibilities for both the village and the district.
The agreement specifies that the district will be responsible for paying the heat and electric bills at the hall, costs which are currently covered by the village. In 2020, those costs totalled about $7,800, according to village records.
In addition, the board will be asking the district to pay an equivalent of $26,000 in annual rent for the building. This represents a $10,000 increase over the $16,000 the district had been deducting from the village’s annual fire protection fee.
Trustee Jon Unruh came up with the amount based on the annual depreciation cost of the building, which totals just over $39,000 per year. He believes the district should be covering at least two-thirds of the depreciation cost based on the fact the district members are currently the only ones using the building.
The proposed usage agreement leaves open the possibility that village officials may use a portion of the building in the future, either for the clerk’s office or for a local police department. If that were to happen, the village would take on a portion of the utilities based on how much of the building it uses.
Right now, the village pays about $10,000 per year for utilities and insurance on the building, plus a $55,000 loan payment. Unruh has pointed out that this represents half the tax dollars collected every year from residents.
Village president Betty Rettig agreed that something needs to change.
“We can’t afford to keep this up,” she said. “We’re draining the village.”
The proposal will be presented to the district board at its next meeting July 29.
Other business
The following actions were taken either at a special meeting on Tuesday or at the regular monthly meeting on July 6.
_ The board voted to hire new trustee Ken Hoeper to do snowplowing, road grading and other jobs involving heavy truck operation. He will be paid $15 per hour for that type of work, but any other work he does will be done for free.
_ The board voted to sent a certified letter to Gerard Draxler, owner of the local mobile home park, with a deferred payment agreement on past-due water bills. He currently owes over $6,000, and the village is asking him to pay $1,000 per month to catch up.
_ Resident Robin Weideman told the board that he was forced to dig out his own culvert at 1328 Meridian St. after a water leak was fixed there more than a year ago. He said his culvert was not the cause of the problem, and he would like to know if he could be reimbursed for the cost of fixing his culvert. Swarr said he would talk to Jakel Plumbing, the contractor that did the work, about the issue.
_ Swarr informed the board that he passed the Wisconsin DNR exam to become a certified water utility operator.
_ Engineer Mike Voss of MSA Professional Services told the board that he and Swarr are still working on a revised wastewater agreement between the village and Abbyland Foods. Unruh said the village wants to make sure the BOD limits included in the agreement are set at the right level so the village’s treatment facilities are protected from overflows.
_ The board approved a letter to residents reminding them to follow all ATV laws when operating them on village streets. Village president Betty Rettig said she has seen some kids who are clearly under the legal age of 16 riding around on ATVs, and she’s worried about their safety.
“I don’t want to see one of those kids get hurt,” she said.
_ Trustee Hoeper said the board should look at turning the village’s old ballfield into a soccer field for kids to use. He said the addition of four new apartments is going to bring in a lot of new families, and he thinks the village should supply them with recreational activities.
“We already mow those fields,” he said. “Why not give them something to occupy their time?”
Hoeper also suggested opening up the park pavilion a little more so that people can use it on a regular basis. To guard against vandalism and other problems, he said the village should put up security cameras and motion-activated lights.
Rettig said there should be money in the park fund to do what Hoeper is suggesting.
_ The board approved a new contract with Medford Cooperative for propane, at a cost of $1.339 per gallon.
_ The board approved an $8,415 offer from CTW Corporation to rehab well 4, and to replace an existing water level sensor with a transducer that will allow the well to be hooked up to the village’s SCADA system in the future.
_ The board approved a motion to have R& R Waste Systems do up to $40,000 worth of sewer line patching and grouting, in order to prevent groundwater from infiltrating the wastewater treatment system.
