Granton Village Board Hears Request from Library Director

Friday, January 14th, 2022 -- 12:00 PM

The Granton Village Board heard a request from the Granton Library Director.

According to the unofficial minutes from the meeting, the Library Director advised that she would be more effective when working on schedules, reports, viewing webinars, if she could work for 5 hours per month from home.

She advised that she will indicate on her time card what tasks she is completing at home and make sure she keeps school hours separate. Clarification was made regarding the contracted 12 hours required, in house, per week. Director will still maintain required hours.

A question was also asked regarding security of her home computer and the Library Director stated it was secure. The Board approved the request. The Board also heard the Library Update. Janet Boh is the new associate. She is doing great.

The new Library computer system allows Spanish speaking students to order books from other libraries in Spanish. Library usage has remained steady. The Board also heard an update on the Rails to Trails project.

Deana and Dan, with the Neillsville Improvement Corporation, shared some bike trail updates. 6 parcels of land have been purchased for the trail head. Playground equipment should arrive in June and will include adult work out stations.

The first 3⁄4 of a mile for the bike trail has been purchased. They worked with MSA Engineering to create a concept plan. The Opelt family is sponsoring a great deal of time and money to the trail head so the trail head will be dedicated to Carl Opelt.

The DNR grant was approved for $50,000. The Neillsville Alliance will sponsor the Pavilion. The lawsuit that was filed to prevent the sale of the railroad line was dismissed with prejudice and legal fees awarded. Dan invited anyone interested in more information to stop by to inspect maps and more detailed information.

The Board also heard the Water Report. They started working on the PSC Report. A bad sample was taken in September and the retest came back clean. They took the wastewater exam in December and are waiting for results. Finally, they removed snow around town to prepare for the next snowfall. They also took down the Christmas lights.

They also heard the Sewer Report. They helped unclog a sewer line. They also advised TDS their pole on 3rd street was broken. Finally, they worked on a new frame for the plow. The Village also replaced a failing culvert on County Rd K.

The water would run across the road instead of through the culvert. The culvert is in the Town of York but their Patrolman did not have time to replace it. The Village quoted the land owner $230 for the culvert. The price of the culvert increased to $301.50 and the total bill including gravel and labor was $531.30.

The landowner stopped in the Clerk’s office to advise the Village was not clear that gravel and labor would be extra and he expected a bill for $230. York could not be reached to verify their costs but the bill is comparable to the Town of Grant and the Town of Lynn.

The board discussed the land owner’s complaint and agreed to remove labor and charge for 1⁄2 of the gravel which reduced the bill to $381.50. The Clerk will contact the land owner and send out a new bill.

The Board also heard the Clerk’s update. She completed the 4th quarter 941 reconciliation and Federal, State and WRS payments were made. There is no Primary election on Feb 15th. She collected $96,000 in property taxes and $10,000 in water bills.

The Board heard the Treasurer’s Report. The Deposit and Expense report was presented. The Checking balance is $233,644.06, the Money Market balance is $617,801.72, (which includes tax payments), the Cemetery CD is $16,927.29, the CDBG balance is $32,182.55, and the Library balance is $26,480.86, which includes a Village deposit for $1,015.97 made in error and has been corrected.

The January settlement is completed, with checks issued to the County for $30,988.91, the Granton School for $35,505.61, and Mid State Tech for $3,549.15.

Finally, the Village President reported that he attended the recent County Economic Development meeting where they discussed Farm Tech Days.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.