The meeting was called to order at 7:30. The clerk certified that the notice had been posted at the Black Earth State Bank, at John Bird Accounting in Black Earth, Amcore Bank in Mt. Horeb, on the town web site www.townofvermont.com, and on the front door of the town hall. It was also published in the News Sickle-Arrow and the Mt. Horeb Mail.
Present: Chairman, Mark Sherven; Supervisors, Barbara Grenlie, Steve Cowan, Don McKay and Bill Hanson; Clerk Marc Robertson and Treasurer Sarah Danz.
APPROVAL OF AGENDA
A motion to approve the agenda was made by Bill Hanson, seconded by Barbara Grenlie and approved, with the provision that the community deputy will provide her update when her schedule permits.
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT AND CORRESPONDENCE
The Wisconsin Heights School District will be holding a leadership summit on February 12th, any interested Board members are invited to attend. A Cultivating Collaboration seminar will be held on February 24th at the Alliant Center. It is to be a discussion on the direction of land use in Dane County in the coming years regarding farm land, growth and development and intergovernmental cooperation.
CITIZEN INPUT
There was no citizen input.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Barbara Grenlie moved approval of the minutes of the January 12th meeting, Steve Cowan seconded, and the minutes were approved.
TREASURER’S REPORT
Deposits for the month of January were $548,411.76. $526,852.60 was received in property tax payments, much of which was paid out to the County, State and school districts. $19,913.23 was received for State Transportation Aid, $870 for dog licenses and $775.93 in interest. A motion was made by Steve Cowan and seconded by Don McKay to accept the Treasurer’s report and the motion was approved.
CLERK’S REPORT
We received a check for $30,510.94 from the State and Federal governments as partial reimbursement for money spent repairing damage from last summer’s rains. This month we had an additional $455 bill for our worker’s comp coverage, most of that due to the extra labor costs associated with summer storm damage repair and the heavy snows of the last two winters. The spring primary election will be Tuesday, February 17th from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., at which time people may pick up copies of the draft comprehensive plan as well as review the associated maps. The trees behind the Town buildings were trimmed this past month.
A motion was made by Barbara Grenlie and seconded by Steve Cowan to accept the Clerk’s report, and the motion was approved.
PAYMENT OF BILLS
Approval is sought for payment of bills for January, 2009 and paid by checks numbered 1365 through 1412. Checks 1365 through 1375 were discussed at the January meeting.
Check 1413 is a February 2009 check, written today after the month of January was closed out. It is expected that an early check will be sent out for office supplies related to the comprehensive plan. Except for some relatively minor highway equipment repair and maintenance bills, all bills were routine monthly and quarterly bills.
A motion was made by Barbara Grenlie and seconded by Bill Hanson to approve payment of bills for January and the motion was approved.
DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE APPROVAL OF OLYMPICS LETTER OF AGREEMENT
A letter of commitment regarding the use of local facilities for several 2016 Olympic bicycle events, should Chicago be chosen as the host city, has been signed by the State, Dane County and the City of Madison, and has been presented to the Town for signature. It will be necessary to involve local emergency services providers in the discussion. Meetings to consider the details of the agreement will be coming up. It has been suggested that the agreement will have a limited impact on the Town since we currently provide few of the services that the event may require. Additionally, the agreement is sufficiently vague that any commitments contained in the letter would not be enforceable. Don McKay’s review of the agreement indicates that little of it applies to the Town, but that it would be impossible to bill the Olympic organizers for any services that we did provide. Additionally, the impact on the Town will extend for possibly more than a year prior to the Olympics as practice and test events are carried out. Bill Hanson moved that Chairman Mark Sherven be authorized to sign the letter of agreement should the questions that have been raised be satisfactorily addressed at upcoming meetings with the Olympics organizers. Don McKay seconded the motion and it was approved.
UPDATE FROM DANE COUNTY COMMUNITY DEPUTY
Deputy Longley provided a record of calls for service from the Sheriff’s Department within the Town for the prior quarter. Compliance checks for the holders of liquor licenses are being planned throughout Dane County. She noted the success of the Community Watch program in other communities and will forward information on the program to the Town Hall.
DISCUSSION OF AMENDED CONTRACT GOVERNING DISTRICT ONE EMS
Steve Cowan, the Town representative to District One EMS, has relayed questions from the previous Town Board meeting regarding the first draft of the revised contract, and these questions will be addressed at the next District One Board meeting. These questions include the procedure for calling and cancelling District One Board meetings and the separation of secretary and treasurer positions. It was noted that responsibility for adjusting EMS district boundaries resides with residents, who can request that the municipality in which they reside negotiate a boundary adjustment with the affected EMS districts. A potential difficulty is that the Mt. Horeb Fire and EMS Districts are combined, so that residents choosing to move EMS service to Mt. Horeb must also accept Mt. Horeb Fire service.
CONSIDERATION OF PLANNING COMMISSION APPROVED DRAFT OF COMPREHENSIVE PLAN
There was no discussion.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
There were no committee reports
DISCUSSION OF AGENDA ITEMS FOR MARCH MEETING
The agenda should include further discussion of the Olympics agreement letter, the revised District One EMS contract, and public comment from the public hearing on the draft comprehensive plan.
ADJOURNMENT
A motion was made by Steve Cowan and seconded by Barbara Grenlie that the meeting adjourn. The meeting was adjourned at 8:46.
Marc Robertson, Town Clerk