Peshtigo Town Residents Voice Concerns In Public Comment

With Chairperson Cindy Boyle attending the Town of Peshtigo (TOP) meeting on Tuesday, March 21 via zoom and not in person, Supervisor Kayla Furton was asked by Boyle to take charge of the meeting in her absence.

There were several residents that spoke in Public Comment, starting with Connie Hass who said, "Town Board meetings have gone from 24 to 66 meetings in the past two months, doubled the amount of committees and added 50 volunteers, a red zone $12,000 Recycling Center into the black at the Recycling Center, now with $8,000 under budget, the securement of countless grants totaling 2.2 million dollars, a first for the TOP Board and residents this Board represents, a tax rate reduction of .5% and 1% respectively, the lowest tax rate in any Township in Marinette County, the very first capital outlay in the Town of Peshtigo in 20 years, an amazing website allowing every resident full access, and last but not least, a commitment to the implementation of a permanent long term water solution at the expense of the responsible party within the investigation area".

Next to speak was Janice Wortner, “Jim and I have kept quiet in that we did not want to appear negative, however, who better to come forward than someone who has experienced this boards hidden agendas firsthand? And at the taxpayers’ expense! Town of Peshtigo, year to date you have paid $95,820 for your plow service, which does not include sand and salt. To put this into perspective year to date the Town of Grover has paid Road King Excavating $43,230, again no sand and salt – same storms and yes same miles – 90 to be exact. I know you believe you are being heard when you place your calls or submit your emails with your concerns, but this board is NOT listening to resident input, as a matter a fact, both John Kowalski and Cindy Boyle stated at last month’s town meeting they think things are going good for the first year”.

Wortner added, “So how did we get here? In 2021 with the increase in fuel, labor & parts we had gone to all the towns and asked to increase our fee, which all approved – except Peshtigo – as a matter a fact, Cindy Boyle took it upon herself to threaten to – here it is folks – sue us for breach of contract. Our contract then came up for renewal in 2022 and coincidentally – which I do not believe in coincidence – Tatum Schroeder is chosen for the Supervisor 2 seat, and now the specs for the plowing contract were rewritten by – you guessed it – Vern Cramer’s daughter Tatum Schroeder and the 6 plow trucks that were plowing this town in an efficient and timely manner became 1 grater and 2 plow trucks”.

“Yes, we did subject ourselves to the farce they call a Road Committee meeting where Jim Baur appointed to the Road Committee and John Kowalski, Roads Supervisor never did one ounce of leg work to pull Road King’s invoices to determine how many trucks were used – how many hours it took or how we plowed, for them to make an informed decision. The next month John Kowalski, Your Road Supervisor stated he would have Jim Baur address the issue as he is a better speaker. Jim Baur then stated it is the Road Committees recommendation to go with the lesser bid. When asked by Clarence Coble if that was the whole committee Jim Baur stated no. Cindy Boyle then stated this would be tabled until next month’s meeting. This is going on 3 months – I am pretty sure you figured out this board’s agenda all along – this is what they do folks – so Jimmer has determined at this point he would pull the Road King bid”.

Wortner added, “But wait – Jimmer had invited John Kowalski to meet at our shop to help with the problems he sees going on this year and to offer his 12 years experience.  This too fell on deaf ears. Lastly, per the snowplow contract, the town requires a bill for each service completed submitted to the Clerk’s office the Tuesday prior to the following Town Board Meeting in order to be paid at that meeting. This board holds their “special meetings” and issues payments at their discretion which is not in accordance with the contract. Do you not see this board is and will continue to answer to their own agendas? – not to residents – not to contracts – not to ethics. We are not interested in taking over the plowing – we are taxpayers as well as all of you and $95,820 for the service we received, and folks we did not have a hard winter, not to mention the additional monies now needed to repair the damage out there, we find this hard to accept. This would not be my version of “things are going good”. With that I would like to thank you for hearing our truth”.

Resident Brent Christensen then replied to Wortners comments, “While I thank you, I appreciate the dollar value that you believe Vern charged the TOP. The actual year to date if you take from October until just recently it is about $111,800. Road King for the same period from October 2021 through March 2022 cost the TOP $124,600, so when you look at the numbers Vern is charging $13,000 less than what Road King did. If you take the additional costs from April and May and say it is the same for Mr Cramer, then Cramers would actually save the Town about $13,000 over what Road King charged for the winter service for salt and snowplowing. Damage, everybody is damaging roads with snowplows, and graters are damaging the shoulders an peoples lawns, even the County. It is not a perfect system. A road grater is a huge machine that’s over 40 foot long and you are trying to scrape a 1/2" of snow or ice off of something that is super soft, the ground, the gravel, the dirt, even the asphalt or the concrete will be torn up with the heavy duty grater. Snowplows do a great job of moving light snow, they don't do a great job of moving ice”.

Gordon Wicklund then commented, I wasn't going to speak tonight until I started reading all the opinions in the paper that are simply opinions. I would rather deal with facts, but I will have a few opinions as well, but I want to deal with the facts! First of all the dump, it has never meant to be a profit center and it shouldn't be a profit center. Then I see in the paper that we made all these profits. You made a lot of profit because you raised the profits and who is paying for them, the taxpayers. They raise the profits, yah, they raise the prices.

A dump has never been a profit center, its a dump, thats what it is. First of all the supervisor decides she is going to drive back and forth 10 or 15 miles and charge the Town gas milage  back and forth and not only to the dump but into town to get stuff....Fact. She turns in the milage and it is way over. When I questioned that, the Chairperson said, no that wasn't that much money, but I happened to have a copy of an invoice in my hand and the Chair said oh no, we are going to do something about that, what they did i do not know. Thats a fact! Another fact, people should come to the meetings more often. Next, there were a couple of people absent from the dump one day and they needed more help, so what do they do, they hire the Chairman and Supervisors relatives to come in for $20 per hour for the dump. That had a little roll back too and the Chairperson said they were going to go to an employment agency after that, That's a fact! Then were going to have credit cards at the dump, then we were going to buy scales and weigh everything, well both of those got blown back. Next a representative came in for a presentation for a cell tower, a 15 minute beautiful presentation. Supervisor Baur said I made a call and it is too close to the line. The presenter said that is a Township thing, the State has control over that not the Township, then she had the gall to put it up for a vote.

Fortunately, the Chair wasn't present and the one running it at the time had the wisdom to vote present instead of yes but the next meeting they did vote it in. Wicklund was at his three minute limit and two people in the audience gave him their three minutes. He continued, Then I read the opinion about the  board saved us tax money, well there is one person in this room, Mr Coble, I don't know if he is here or not and I am disappointed that he is not still our clerk now, but it wasn't the board or the committee or supervisors that did that, Clarence knows that. Fact! Hiring: It is a rubic here now, we have gone through four treasurers, They don't know how to hire anybody. I have been in Human Resources for 30 years, I don't hire an engineer, I have an engineer doing the interview, someone that is qualified to ask the right questions...Another time they took all the benefits away from Keith Swallow. So there was push back, back and forth and Supervisor Baur didn't know there was an employee handbook, he had to show the supervisor the handbook and she said that is not valid anymore and Mr Coble was there and stated oh yes it is. Lot of blow back again and they reverse course and got the benefits back. Thats a Fact! Last thing, I would hope that what Mr. Kowalski said that the Township about the Water issues, is we should vote on it and I do agree with that. The Chairman should be looking out for the whole township, not just 9% of the Township, so anything they do should be up for a vote. I have been in this Township for 47 years and this is the most dysfunctional board I have ever seen. Thank You, I'm done”!

Marcia Rettke then spoke, “I was the previous treasurer and I just want to set a couple of things straight, first of all, the Recycling Center is not operating in the black. If you go on the TOP website, it tells you the financials that are out there for the past couple of years. You look at the income for 2022 and you look at the expenses, were in the red...we are not in the black! I keep hearing how wonderful the Recycling Center is doing and want to spend more money out there, again, look at the website, all the numbers are out there. You look at the expenses for 2021 and the expenses for 2022, we have spent $15,000 more money from last year, We are not in the black! Furton tried defending the budget saying why it looks like we are in the red in 2022 is because we made a $400,000 down payment on a fire truck and those dollars were used from ARPA and it is not shown as income. In a response back to Furton, Rettke said, I was talking about the Recycling Center which has nothing to do with what you stated. Baur then said, the RC is a service the town has with a budget of $30,000 that comes from the taxpayers, it is like the fire department, a service to the residents. The service in 2021 when I was elected it was $12,000 over the $30,000 budget. In December of last year it was $20,000 under budget, because the $30,000 doesn't show up in the forms Marcia was talking about, so yes we are $20,000 under budget. Rettke then commented to Furton, I didn't know this was a back and forth, since Cindy did come back at me, go on the Town website and look at the financials and you will see the financials are out there. Look at the income and look at the expenses, unless your financials are wrong on there it shows that it was $15,000 more spent from last year to this year. When you have income of $68,000 and expenses of $79,000, that tells me that is in the red. Look at the numbers or correct the numbers that are out there Cindy. Furton verified that all the financials are out there and are up to date”. 

Mark Bruemmer addressed Kayla, “I asked you this question at Little River and you said the 1.667 million was awarded but not secured”. Furton replied, "I pause because the Town received the award letter that those funds are allocated towards the Town. There is a process to receive the funds through the EPA and that guidance has not been released yet”. Bruemmer asked, “That is a 20% town match correct”? Furton responded, “They haven't released the 2023 fiscal year guidance and we can rely on the 2022 that is a little more than 20% match. We won’ know specifics until we have the 2023 guidance. Just because the funds were allocated to the Town, if we cannot fulfill our match we are not obligated to the funds”. 

Clarence Coble was welcomed back and spoke in public comment, saying, “I would like to correct some information that has been put forward concerting that the Town Board cut property tax by 1.5%. That is False Information. The Town Board since tax levy limits were put in place by the State of Wisconsin in 2006 has taxed the maximum allowed by the levy limit and the same was done the past two years and no amount was cut. The reduction happens when growth in assessed value of the Town increases with new construction and increased values divided by levy reduces the levy percentage. So, there was NO action by the Town Board to lower the levy. The second incorrect information is mention of grants that the Town Board received. The ARPA dollars were applied for by former Treasurer Marsha Rettke and myself as clerk, did the paperwork to obtain those dollars. The Covid grant was applied for and obtained by Kristen Edgar before she left the Board. As far as the $1.667 million grant, that has NOT been awarded at this time, as best I know, so the grant dollars are incorrect. Also, the new fire engine has not been received or totally paid for. You still need to obtain the dollars for that. Thank You For Listening. These are the facts”.

Jennifer Friday then commented, Some things that have been said recently by others of what I put on the Town of Peshtigo Community Facebook page, just because it goes against a certain individuals narrative does not make it mis-information. I request that if anybody thinks I put something out there is false, please let me know and I will immediately correct  it. If it is my opinion, I am entitled to that and I will often note that, but if it is other things that are incorrect, please let me know. I want to let you know that I had the honor to speak in front of the Marinette County Republican Party last week as an independent and was honored they reached out to me and they wanted to endorse Myself, Clarence Coble and Jimmer Wortner. I spoke to them to let them know what we are representing and I think it is very important that we work with people even if they have opposing views and that is what I hope to bring to this Town should the residents vote me in. I hope everyone goes to vote no matter who you are going to vote for. Let's make this a record election, in person, absentee, whatever works for you, just vote”.

Resident Randy Klema commented on snowplowing “I just want to touch base on the plowing situation, one thing that is not mentioned here is efficiency. When you are running six trucks to nine trucks plowing and now there are two to three and I get up at 6 a.m. and the road is not plowed, Radar Road is not plowed, and every responsible party that has a snowplow contract is supposed to be out there 24 hours plowing for the taxpayers. The guy we have now 'aint' doing it. I plowed Countryside Lane the last snow fall and plowed everyone else's driveways at 3:30 in the afternoon. We have a plow service and we cant depend on our roads to be plowed. When I did go to work I see a grader in the ditch stuck with a pickup truck trying to pull it out. You have two people out there plowing with equipment that is not up to snuff to do the job. We need a plow service that has six people plowing us out. I am not here to talk dollars, I am looking at the efficiency and the need that the taxpayers have for us getting our roads plowed. Everyone is leaving for work in the morning or doing their things and we cant have our roads plowed until 3:30 p.m.? Radar Road didn't get plowed until 8:30 p.m. in our last snow storm. I plowed half of Rader Road on both sides so people could get out. I understand sometimes you cant get things done, but two trucks can’t do it. You need to look at the efficiency in the business and get the snow off the road so everyone is safe.

After Public Comment, there were three announcements, the first with giving thanks and gratitude to Supervisor Tatem Schroeder for filling a vacancy and her service and dedication to the Town as this was her last monthly meeting of her term. The second announcement was to advise that the Annual Town Elector Meeting will take place on Tuesday, April 18 at 7 p.m., followed by the monthly Town Board Meeting. Furton then announced that the Road weight limits are now in effect.

In his Fire Department report, Chief Mike Folgert advise there were only four calls since the Feb. 28 monthly meeting, including: two EMS assists, a Vehicle crash near W1372 State Hwy 64 that was canceled enroute to the call and a Garage Fire at N1513 Harbor Road. Fire Department member James Matthews completed a Hazmat Safety Officer training course in Stevens Point; Probationary Firefighter Justin Walk completed a 60 hour NWTC Entry Level Firefighter Course for new firefighters and is now moving on to Certified Firefighter 1 training. DNR Personnel provided a Spring fire season training update at the station on March 13 with 18 firefighters in attendance

Folgert added, that the status of the CDBG-CV Grant projects included: a new washer/extractor and soap dispenser have been installed; Most of our virtual training devices have  been received and they are awaiting final delivery on a couple of items and the installation will happen after the classroom ceiling repair is finished and the remaining PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) and cleaning supply items have been ordered.

The Crow Hunt fundraiser sponsored by the Outback Bar and Road King Excavating was held on Sunday, March 12, bringing in over $2,000 for the department. Other fundraisers will include a Lenten Fish Fry at The Moose Lodge on Wednesday, April 5 with proceeds being donated to the Fire Department. They will also be holding a Spring gun raffle soon and the tickets are on order and will be available in time for the April 4 elections. They have also been actively soliciting donations from local businesses to help sponsor prizes for fundraising events. To date, the Department has received sponsorships from Sequin's Cheese, The Motor Company and Sal-B Scrap Metal. Folgert also mentioned that fundraising efforts for the Spring Raffle will be starting soon. In Personnel news, Paul Schneider resigned from the Department on Monday, March 20 and Folgert is expecting possibly a couple of more resignations. The current active roster stands at 22 Volunteer Firefighters.

Clerk Denise Wiedemeier announced that the upcoming election times for the Tuesday April 4 election will be held from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Also, sample ballots are available in the office and early voting times are during regular business hours are now being held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays prior to the election.

Building and Grounds added a new member, Rick Dittrich, to the Committee. There were also several commission member approvals including: Dave Buechler renewal on the Fire Commission for the term of May 1, 2023 through April 30, 2026; Three Planning Commission members were approved including Jim Devcich for a term from April 1, 2023 through March 31, 2026, Jim Baur for a term from April 1, 2023 through March 31, 2026 and Dennis Czapiewski’s Term Fulfillment of his term will be from April 1, 2023 through March 31, 2024.

In the absence of Buildings and Grounds Supervisor, Tatem Schroeder, Supervisor Cindy Baur gave an update on the roof status for the Town Hall. Baur shared the status so far stating that she has been working with Schroeder on the project and Schroeder has vetted Oshkosh Roofing and also received information. References were checked out and out so the Town will be moving forward with the project with Oshkosh Roofing. Schroeder is also working an insurance review. We have had the current carrier for 24 years so we are doing a review on that.

John Kowalski then gave an update of the happenings in Roads and Ditches saying, the road foreman has been busy patching holes in the road, cutting brush, picking up dead deer and all that stuff and has been doing a really good job and hope he keeps up the good work. Also, "We had an issue on Canal Lane with a resident that had a petition for no parking and people turning around on his property. The resident had a gate up on Town property so he will be taking the gate down and the Town will put no parking and dead end road signs up and so far he was satisfied with that solution", Kowalski said.

Kowalski also discussed snowplowing efforts and per direction of Fire Chief Folgert, an addendum was added to the snow plowing contract to include a list of roads for top priority in heavy snowfalls to make sure they keep the main roads cleared of snow and ice including: Roosevelt, Radar, Old Peshtigo, Schacht, Hale and Frontage Roads. Kowalski said that Cramer will run down and back on these roads and then continue to go bak and do the rest of their normal plowing after those main roads are cleared.

Kowalski also stated that due to snowplowing, shouldering on some roads will need repair. There was further discussion if the contractor is responsible for repairing the damage or if the Town is responsible. Kowalski said he will be having the County look at Old Peshtigo Road with the bad condition it is in. The road needs repair work first and then shouldering. If it is in the budget I would like to have them do other road repair work as well.

Baur then mentioned that the Recycling Center will have a Spring Clean Up Day in May and the information will be on the Town website. It will include free disposal of appliances including freon items, up to one truckload of garbage or furniture or things that go into the rolloff, up to four car or truck tires, not including tractor tires and tires must be off the rim or there will be a charge for tires on the rim and up to 20 fluorescent bulbs. Free brush was incorporated last month. As always vehicles must have a sticker adhered to the front window or there is no admission and no taking advantage of the spring clean up day. There will be no building materials or hazardous waste accepted at the center ever. This is for household only and not for businesses. The shredding will also be on the same date.

Supervisor Kayla Furton advised there will be some town hall improvements with the assistance from the CDBG-CV grant to include engineering and professional services not to exceed $26,500 that these funds can be used for. Some of the improvements will include safety measurements in the office, increased ventilation and better countertop for residents. With unexpected engineering costs of the Grant, there was discussion of tabling this until next meeting until Rich Seils mentioned that they have extra money that they will not be using from that grant that can be re-allocated for the hall improvements so the project was then approved to go forward with.

In Personnel, Baur said an ad has been put in the Peshtigo Times for a Roads and Maintenance part-time worker for a two week run to include two times in both the Peshtigo Times and Timesaver.

Boyle commented that there will be a DNR Listening Session on Wednesday, May 3 at NWTC with a noon session from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. and an evening session from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

The next Town of Peshtigo Meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 18 starting at 7 p.m.