Regular Council Minutes

Minutes of the Regular Council meeting held on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 at city hall pursuant to notice duly given.

1. Meeting called to order at 6:00 p.m. by Mayor Nerenhausen.
2. Roll call: Mayor Nerenhausen, Ed Young, Lloyd Heier, John Wittkopf, Al Schreiber, Joe Stiloski, Marlene Zahn, Dick Doeren, Jim Lacourciere, Sue Exworthy and Jack Maas. Atty. Mraz excused. Linda Belongia, Administrator and as recording secretary also present.
3. Invocation and pledge of allegiance given by Pastor Bobbie Skelly.
4. Moved by Heier seconded by Schreiber to approve of the agenda as presented.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 10 ayes
5. Moved by Doeren seconded by Young to accept and place on file the minutes as presented.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 10 ayes
6. Moved by Zahn seconded by Maas to accept and place on file as presented the Building Inspectors report.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 10 ayes
7. Correspondence/public input: Council members provided a copy of the letter regarding the DNR mandated cross connection inspection that was
mailed to commercial and industrial users per utility records; Response on
city applying for Stimulus funding for our road construction projects; Cedar
commentary newsletter; DOR report on the Major Class Comparisons for
2008; League Bulletin dated 4/6/2009;

Sue Schmidt, 219 4th Street, Oconto asked if we can come to some type of agreement on getting the alley closed; Schmidt questioned why can’t
the alley is vacated...the alley is not plowed during the winter…not able to
be used…why can’t it be vacated; no reason to have the alley…Schmidt
stated six property owners want it closed;

8. Discussion/action on:
a. Request to waive noise ordinance for Matt Pagel scholarship golf outing
8/8/09; Zahn stated the event organizer should contact the adjacent
property owners about this; Maas agreed; Wittkopf stated he heard there
will be three bands; Exworthy stated she is not against the request…but she works for the Youth Football benefit at the Nautical and they have to
shut down at 10:00 p.m.; Maas stated we could have an understanding…if the police dept receives a complaint they would shut the band down; Schreiber stated they need to keep it reasonable…at 10 p.m. tone it
down…any complaints…after that shut down; Exworthy stated with one
complaint…why put on police…if going to shut down…with one complaint;
Wittkopf refer back to who requested…getting property permission and if
band will be outside;

Moved by Lacourciere seconded by Wittkopf to approve of request to waive the city noise ordinance for the evening of 8/8/09 for the Matt Pagel
scholarship golf outing at the Oconto Golf Club to allow for the bank to
play till midnight.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote.
7 ayes: Young, Heier, Wittkopf, Doeren, Lacourciere, Exworthy and Maas.
3 no: Schreiber, Stiloski and Zahn.

b. Recommendation from Plan Commission to approve of proposed Declaration of Protective Covenants for CH – Highway Commercial Zoned
property and IG – General Industrial Zoned property. Mayor stated the
recommendation comes with an amendment on page 10, under
maintenance responsibilities, the Plan Commission deleted the words
“striping and sealing” in reference to parking and driveway areas.
Wittkopf asked where this comes from did. Mayor stated the Industrial
Development Commission wanted some guidelines in looking at
developing the Kelly Pickle property; Wittkopf stated pole barn type
buildings are nice…won’t be allowed? Exworthy stated with the
Streetscape project they tried to put into place downtown guidelines;
Wittkopf stated the Development Review Team should have a council
member on it; Stiloski stated he attended the public hearing and an issued
was raised on how long grass can be…3” or 6”; Exworthy stated this
should be referred back to Plan Commission for the changes; Mayor
stated those are editorial changes and they can be done by the Council;
Exworthy questioned what is the theme? Mayor stated History on the Bay is hard to define…may have to use your imagination; Schreiber stated if
someone wants to build are we making it so restrictive…need or should
get an aesthetics clause…agrees with keeping things within a neat and
orderly fashion…within reason; Mayor stated this covenant has a lot of
leeway;
Moved by Wittkopf seconded by Zahn to refer this back to Plan Commission for amending the DRT to include a council member; clarify
what is the grass length, 3” or 6”; and remove the words striping and
sealing.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 10 ayes

c. Moved by Zahn seconded by Doeren to accept recommendation from Airport Commission and approve of the amendment agreement for the
Operation and Maintenance of the J. Douglas Bake Memorial Airport.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 10 ayes

d. Moved by Maas seconded by Doeren to accept recommendation from Industrial Development Commission and approve of the marketing
designs for the two 4 x 8 signs to be done and placed by Keller Structures
on the former Kelly Pickle property at no charge to the city.

Discussion. Wittkopf questioned which design are they going to use?
Mayor stated each sign will be different; both designs will be used;
Exworthy questioned why is Keller doing this? Maas stated as advertising
they may get some work out of this; Wittkopf questioned if Keller’s phone
number will be on the signs? Belongia stated the IDC had Keller’s number
removed and just the city contact info on the sign.

Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 10 ayes

e. Discussion on recommendation from BPW to increase fee for removing snow from $40 to $75; Wittkopf stated this was brought to the BPW
because it’s pretty much the same people who are not
shoveling…recommend increasing fee from $40 to $75. Maas stated if we had manpower to write more tickets…no problems with increase but
should write tickets as well;

Moved by Schreiber seconded by Wittkopf to accept recommendation from Board of Public Works and increase the fee from $40 to $75 for
removing snow and instruct that tickets also be written for the violation.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote.
7 ayes: Young, Heier, Wittkopf, Schreiber, Lacourciere, Exworthy and
Maas. 3 no: Stiloski, Zahn and Doeren.

f. Moved by Wittkopf seconded by Heier to accept recommendation from Board of Public Works and approve of closing Spies Road on 6/12/09 for
the annual truck pulls.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 10 ayes

g. Moved by Maas seconded by Wittkopf to accept recommendation from
Board of Public Works and schedule a public hearing on closing the alley between Maple & Willow and Third & Fourth Street.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 10 ayes

h. Moved by Wittkopf seconded by Heier to accept recommendation from Board of Public Works and approve of proceeding with crack filling for
2009 as budgeted.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 10 ayes

i. Discussion on recommendation from BPW to amend the limited parking
restriction ordinance. Maas questioned what brought this up? Mayor
stated a couple of areas don’t have signs…in some areas we need to
have better turns…need clearance in winter times; Maas questioned limited areas around the courthouse; Mayor stated the county widened
Adams Street, so this will allow for additional parking;


Moved by Wittkopf seconded by Heier to accept recommendation from
Board of Public Works and post for 30 days the amendment to the Limited Parking Restriction Ordinance.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 10 ayes

j. Moved by Wittkopf seconded by Heier to authorize the Mayor to go with the new design for city signs having Oconto in front of the sun.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 10 ayes

k. Moved by Maas seconded by Doeren to accept recommendation from Wage & Personnel and amend the salary ordinance to include the
positions of Park Supervisor and Pool Manager.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 10 ayes

l. Mayor stated we now have three sites for the community sensitive design signs. The sign to the north will be on the Riewe property, on the
east side of the road, 20 acres north of where the telecommunication
tower is; the sign to the south will be on the Jeff Krueger property which is
the 2nd forty south of Oconto on the west side of the road.

Moved by Wittkopf seconded by Heier to approve of entering into leases with the Riewe’s and Jeff Krueger for the CSD signs.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 10 ayes

Mayor thanked Alderperson Wittkopf for getting us in contact with Jeff Krueger and also Ron Hayes for working with the Riewe family.

m. Moved by Zahn seconded by Lacourciere to accept and place on file the annual report for the Farnsworth Public Library.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 10 ayes

n. Moved by Doeren seconded by Lacourciere to accept and place on file the report and Certification of the Board of Canvassers for the City of
Oconto for the April 7th, 2009 Spring Election.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 10 ayes

o. Moved by Doeren seconded by Heier to approve contingent upon completion of the required operators beverage training course an
operators license to Holly Houle and Erinn Stewart.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 10 ayes

p. Maas as Finance Chairperson stated he, the Mayor and Belongia toured the public works facility buildings and authorized Bob Mommaerts
to get a proposal for renovating the present facility and/or building new;
this is only an estimate; financing options have also been briefly explored
and through the USDA, Rural Development they received stimulus funding
which is through the Community Facilities Grant program…would be a
75% grant; recommendation from Finance is to pursue the grant,
completing the application for a new building and also instructing
Mommaerts to get the costs for heating and electrical for renovating the
present facility, so that if we are not successful with a CFG grant it will
come back to finance as to how we proceed.

Moved by Wittkopf seconded by Heier to authorize proceeding with an application for a Community Facilities Grant for a new public works
building.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 10 ayes

q. Moved by Doeren seconded by Maas to accept recommendation from Finance and approve of the proposal from EMC for all the City of
Oconto’s insurance coverage.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 10 ayes

r. Moved by Wittkopf seconded by Young to approve of terminating the
Local Government Property Insurance Fund for the City of Oconto’s
property in the open coverage.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 10 ayes

s. Moved by Wittkopf seconded by Heier to accept recommendation from Finance and authorize that we obtain a demo of the ElectroVote system
for council chambers and check into references.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 10 ayes

t. Moved by Doeren seconded by Young to accept recommendation from Finance and approve of the listing of accounts payables for
$1,081,574.04; payroll for $102,379.41 and financial reports as presented.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 10 ayes

9. Mayor stated the Reorganizational Council meeting will be Tues., 4/21/09 at 6:00 p.m.

10. Moved by Doeren seconded by Schreiber to adjourn . M/C
Meeting adjourned at 6:59 p.m.

Minutes submitted by
Linda M. Belongia,
Administrator