Wilton tables softball field project

By SARAH PARKER | County Line Editor

Though the Wilton Village Board accepted bids for its proposed softball field Monday, it tabled further action on the matter. 

In the spring of 2022, Norwalk-Ontario-Wilton School District Superintendent Travis Anderson had asked the village if it wished to create a new softball field that the school could use. The district is planning to put in a new track and football field, and that would eliminate the softball field space on the school grounds. Brookwood’s baseball team already plays in Wilton. 

Last month, the board agreed to obtain a $250,000 line of credit for the project. According to a public notice that appeared in the Feb. 9 issue of the Monroe County Herald, the village sought sealed bids for excavation and fencing. 

The school district intends to supply the scoreboard, bases, nets and bleachers for the softball field, according to board member Sam Wildes. 

Board member Lorrie Bever expressed misgivings about moving forward, saying the village should wait until it could put together a firm figure of its cost. 

“Looking at this, there are so many extra things that it’s hard to come up with what this is going to cost,” she said, adding that concessions might be moved to the village-owned garage between the two fields, resulting in more expenses. 

Wildes responded, “Is (moving the concessions) necessary? No. It’s an option.”

Bever said, “I think we should wait until we put all of these pieces together and figure out what the cost is going to be … We need to be very smart about this. And I don’t think we’re being that right now.”

Moreover, the village should determine whether it would receive any grants before it spends any money on the project, she added, maintaining that it would be problematic to apply grant money to the softball field costs retroactively.

“Once you pay for something, there’s no back flow on grants.”

In response, Wildes noted that the school district had offered the use of its grant writer. 

It appears no grants are pending through the school district, though, and Bever objected to using village staff to do grant writing. 

During discussions on the project last year, Superintendent Travis Anderson said the village could garner 50 percent of the concession sales from the Wilton games, with the remainder likely going to the Falcon Booster Club. 

Board member Sid Thayer said, “I think the Village of Wilton should get the first chance every time (to earn money off concessions).” 

If the village chooses not to sell concessions, then another group such as the booster club could instead run concessions, he added. 

In the end, the board agreed to meet with Superintendent Travis Anderson for further negotiations. 

The board did not disclose any information on the bids.

Low bid for wastewater treatment plant is more than $4 million

Evan Chambers of Town & Country Engineering said his firm has received bids for the village’s wastewater treatment plan project earlier this month, noting that the lowest bid, which came in $4,401,842, was submitted by Waukesha Construction. The board approved the bid. Thirty-two contractors and subcontractors had bid on the project. 

At the start of the planning process two years ago, Town & Country had projected that the wastewater treatment plant improvements would cost about $3.75 million, but rising construction costs have resulted in higher-than-expected bids. 

In June 2021, Town & Country reported that the village would receive about 64 percent of its funding from the USDA’s Rural Development program. Both grant and loan money would make up Rural Development’s contribution. 

DNR requirements on effluent limits (e.g., ammonia) is the main reason the village needs to refurbish its plant, Chambers said. Constructed in 1980, the village’s current plant has had few upgrades, he added. 

For the average water/sewer user, the new rate would be about $85 a month, a rise from about $45, Chambers said. The board, however, tabled setting the sewer-rate increase until next month. 

Other business

• Minneapolis-based lighting contractor Apadama Technology gave a presentation to the board on a proposal to install LED lighting at the Wilton Community Center and on the Main Street light poles. The estimated project cost would be $64,928, minus a $3,100 rebate from Focus on Energy. 

According to the Apadama representative, due to the reduction in kilowatt usage, the village would save about $10,000 per year. Additionally, Apadama estimated the village’s maintenance costs would drop by roughly $14,700 annually. 

After the presentation ended, Board President Jamie Evans noted that Luke Laufenberg of Laufenberg Electric, based in Cashton, had submitted a proposal for $45,000 to upgrade the lighting. 

Clerk/treasurer Leigha Barton told the board that the two quotes were comparable and the Focus on Energy rebate would remain the same. 

In the end, the board agreed unanimously to hire Laufenberg Electric and to research financing options. 

• Board members now will receive their meeting packets electronically on tablets, as they agreed to buy a $150 device for each board seat. 

The measure would “save trees,” Evans said, and Yoder noted that because each tablet would be assigned an email address, village business wouldn’t be done on board members’ personal email accounts and documents would be in the public sphere instead.  

• After a closed session, the board agreed to survey village-owned land adjacent to the wastewater plant, with the possibility of parceling it out. 

• The village recently completed several facility undertakings, Evans said. First, village employees took materials from the former chiropractic office in the Wilton Community Center and installed a new door on the Wilton food pantry, which also is in the community center. 

Also, village employees gave “the (Wilton Community Center) kitchen a facelift and are in the process of finalizing a facelift on the (village) office, which, in my opinion, turned out really well. It was all done in house,” Evans said. 

• Among the January bills was a $7,570.73 payment to Betcher Mechanical, a Tomah HVAC company, for remodeling work at the village’s ambulance garage. In 2021, the village purchased the building for $186,500 from Sid Thayer (who also serves as a village board member). 

• The board voted unanimously not to discontinue cat licensing in 2024. 

Clerk/treasurer Leigha Barton told the board that the cost of tags had exceeded what the village had earned from license fees. But board member Eli Yoder, also a Wilton veterinarian, said that licensing was one aspect of a multifaceted approach to controlling the village’s cat population. 

“At the end of the day, we have a lot stray cats in the village that pee and poop everywhere, and people don’t look after them,” Yoder said. “If we take this away, this is one less tool that lets us say, ‘Whose cat is this?’ … If we take it away, even though it costs money, we lose one of the toolbox things we can do to try curtail this. What we should really be talking about is an ordinance that you can’t feed stray cats. That’s a big problem. Trapping cats, euthanizing cats — all of that gets extremely messy and painful over time. A good place to start would be talking about the ordinances, with making it a finable offense to feed stray cats. That’s one way we could reduce our overall cat population. Spaying and neutering also is great … if we take away this cat licensing thing, it’s going to hamper us.”

He added, “People still turn out cats at night and let cats go loose where we don’t accept it in our dog population … it’s a very large discussion.”

• The board voted to put in place a new ordinance regulating engine-brake noise. 

• According to Evans, a resident had complained that downtown bar The Hitchin’ Post’s outside door to its beer garden wasn’t secured. To remedy the situation, the bar will put up a sign noting that the beer garden is closed for the season and put a snow fence across the entryway. 

• The village’s reservoir at its wastewater plant needs an array of repairs at a cost of about $12,000. The board agreed to the expense. 

• A John Deere no-turn mower the village had purchased in 2021 lacks sufficient power to mow the village grounds and leaves behind clumps of grass clippings, said Public Works Director Steve Laufenberg. A windrow kit might solve the problem, said Nick Coleman, a public works employee. Otherwise, the village likely will sell that mower, which has about 20 hours on it, along with an older John Deere model. 

• The board agreed to install a new light pole at Main and Cemetery streets. 

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