Minutes of Osceola Village Board Proceedings

The Village of Osceola met for a Regular meeting on July 11, 2023, at Village Hall. Village President Rose called the meeting to order at 6:00 pm.

Present: Deb Rose, Bill Chantelois IV, Bruce Gilliland, Van Burch, Brad Lutz, Arvid Maki and Neil Kline

Staff present: Devin Swanberg, Carie Krentz, Ron Pedrys, Shelby Friendshuh, Todd Waters, and Paul Elfstrom

Motion by Lutz and seconded by Gilliland to approve the agenda.

Ayes-7Nay-0Motion carried

Welcome Neil Kline to board!

Motion by Lutz and seconded by Chantelois to approve the minutes of the Regular meeting dated June 13, 2023 and Special meeting dated June 27, 2023.

Ayes-6Nays-0Abstain – 1(Kline due to not being here)Motion carried

Public input and ideas (Limit 5 minutes per speaker)

Dennis Tomfohrde at 508 Seminole Avenue showed the elevation plans for old hospital site and stated the drone footage was not done incorrectly, need to relook at edge and elevation of footage.

Jerry Viebrock at 513 Gerald Street has been hearing somethings around town degrading National Parks system and people and we need leadership from the board. Asked for comment from board and was informed there is no comment during this time. River is the biggest asset village has and the people running the River should be treated as a party that is helping our Village.

Vicki Nelson at 505 River Street has been to all meetings and has listened for two years and feels nothing has happened with board listening. There are people who keep the river wild and scenic and national and federal laws to keep river that way. Putting this building on the bluff is going to cause all kinds of problems with the river. Feels Village is breaking laws, these are not recommendations. Stop and take a look: size, location, presentation in the way it looks, and amount of money charging people. Not going to fix affordable housing in the area.

Reports: Staff reports

Public Works-Waters: Gave a rundown of all the work DPW has accomplished in the month of June. Such things as continue asphalt work, approx.. 7 miles of mowing ditches & rights-of-way, street sweeping, spraying weeds and trimming public trees. General inspections of playground equipment occurred in June and all employees to be playground inspector certified in 2023. All 53 newly planted trees last year have survived. Received the $5,000 forestry grant. Two new benches in Gristmill Park with Osceola logo on them and hydroseeding in month of July. Repairs to Cascade Falls boardwalks were done in June. 4 new picnic tables were added to parks. 405 rental property took 2 days to clean up, better site line, etc. Lakeland Communications wiring started at Village Hall.

Utilities: Caruso was not in attendance. Swanberg referred to memo stating no big concerns and PFAS were almost not traceable. Well #3 will be completed this week and should be good and started flow study.

Library-Friendshuh: June a busy month with the majority of summer learning programs this month. Hit the road with book bike, one repair already. Will begin evaluating yearly goals and sharing progress with board. Circulation has hit the 5,000 mark, which has been the goal. 46 new patrons. Have received lots and lots of donations, over $2,000 from donations which is 10% of total books budget. Ran through upcoming events. Community conversation taking place next week to help determine how to spend funds from grant received. Filled all spots for Library board with board education taking place next month.

Fire-Elfstrom: 6 runs total last month, 4 in Village of Osceola and 2 in Town of Farmington. Gave a quick rundown of all accomplished in the month of June and stated the burning ban is still in effect.

Building Inspection: Swanberg stated Village issued 8 permits in the month of June for a total value of $517,490. 10 permits in June as compared to 40 same time last year so behind the growth of last year.

Administration-Swanberg: Admin has a meeting with auditors tomorrow to discuss status of audit and what needs to be done to wrap it up. 6-month balance sheets given to department heads. Have met with two developers who are looking to build up by Kwik Trip. Busy in the office. Working on future fee structure with comparing to other communities our size and will present findings in September. There will be a special meeting later this month to review ordinance to combine courts with St. Croix Falls.

Police-Pedrys: Skatepark event in parking lot was a fun event and hats off to the library. 130 Ridge Road caught fire and Fire Department did a good job containing. Sheriff’s Department will be handling the investigation. Officer Gada gave two weeks’ notice due to moving to Kansas. Have posted for a full-time and part-time Officer positions. Will be unable to attend next months meeting due to training conference. Tornado Warning siren testing happens 1st Wednesday of the month through September.

Chamber of Commerce/Mainstreet: No Chamber staff present – refer to memo in packet for last month updates.

Other business – discussion and possible action re:

TID #3 Amendment to include new parcels - Baird

Adam Ruechel with Baird when through the 1st territory amendment for TID #3. With the life of a TID one has 4 opportunities throughout life of TID to make amendments, which include adding properties, subtraction properties, etc. This amendment came about with the possibility of a steel manufacturing company coming into a parcel currently owned by the Village. After reviewing, if it wasn’t added to TID district this project would not be able to happen. That was the “But for” analysis that was reviewed to see how we got to this amendment.

Burch is abstaining from vote due to being included in properties.

Motion by Lutz and seconded by Gilliland to approve Resolution #23-06 Approving Project Plan Amendment for TID #3 of the Village of Osceola, WI and Making Certain Findings with Respect thereto.

Ayes-6Nays-0Abstain-1(Burch)Motion carried

DPW Downtown Tree Curbing

Waters working with different entities mostly with Mainstreet Director, Yeager. Issues with downtown tree roots, causing a trip hazard. Maintenance and aesthetics standpoint what can they do? DPW currently has $30,000 in CIP funding to improve curb and sidewalk. Approve DPW to seek request for proposals for installing curbing like what is included in packet. To find out what it would the cost be to have crates removed, replaced and have a more easily maintained spaces.

Burch asked about obstructions, signs currently on sidewalks – what would be the plan for those? These updates/improvements would be to make a corridor for those obstructions to be placed in. Lutz would be in favor of recommending if DPW is willing to enforce the walk corridor? Rose stated it should be a collaboration with Chamber and Mainstreet to enforce the walk ways downtown.

Motion by Lutz and seconded by Burch to direct DPW to move forward to seek quotes.

Ayes-7Nays-0Motion carried

Updated Board Commission/Committee assignments

Rose gave a run down of setting up commission/committees after the election and filling spots with an open trustee position. Now with Kline on the board some changes to make it more equal between members.

Motion by Gilliland and seconded by Maki to approve changes to commission/committee assignments as presented. Ayes-7Nays-0Motion carried

Appointment of Mike Sine to the Planning Commission (3-year term expiring 2026)

Motion by Gilliland and seconded by Burch approve Mike Sine to Planning Commission.

Ayes-7Nays-0Motion carried

Development and TID agreement amendments with Osceola Bluffs Development

Swanberg stated there was a Development Agreement before the Board in the packet and Adam Ruechel from Baird is there for any TID discussion. There needs to be one change on page 10, to update the Village Administrator’s email address. Board was given different proformas with different numbers one assuming 0% inflation with minimum assessed value of $18.4M and does not include the tax rate. Very conservative numbers for the proformas. One proforma has a 1% inflation value increase of building just to show the difference.

Discussion took place among all board members with Ruechel and Swanberg on the need for TIDs, the different scenarios and uses for TID/TIFs. Swanberg stated that changes for the development amendments are mainly date changes and also took out construction of the road for 3rd Avenue because that is not determined by the development, something the Village can choose to do regardless of the development.

Motion by Lutz and seconded by Chantelois to approve Development Agreement with the stated correction to change the email address of Village Administrator.

Ayes-7Nays-0Motion carried

Motion by Gilliland and seconded by Chantelois to approve 2nd Amendment TID agreement with Osceola Bluffs Development with $4.6 Million and 99 units and add two (2) proformas to Exhibit D.

Ayes-7Nays-0Motion carried

Certificate of Appropriateness Appeal – Osceola Bluff Development

Rose left it up to the Board to decide if going to discuss due to late submission. Board felt a discussion was needed. Harriss from Harriss Architect stated here tonight to appeal HPC’s denial of certificate of appropriateness. Their appeal is based on Village Code, Chapter 130 – Historic Preservation and the meeting minutes from 06-14-2023 HPC meeting.

Harriss read Chater 130-5: Duties of Powers of the Commission, Item b – “In the case of the construction of a new improvement upon an historic site or within an historic district, the exterior of such improvement would adversely affect or not harmonize with the external appearance of other neighboring improvements on such site or within the district.” Harriss wanted to emphasize the word district. Went on to read Item c – “In the case of any property located in an historic district, the proposed construction, reconstruction, exterior alteration or demolition does not conform to the purpose and intent of this chapter and to the objectives and design criteria of the historic preservation plan for said district.” He noted there is no design criteria for the district. Second focus is minutes from HPC, read as follows “Rice & Lorenz stated mutually members do not have a problem with revised style of building or colors of materials selected but do have issue with overall size of building and it’s appropriateness in the historical district.” He goes on to ask that this decision by overturned.

Harriss presented their Project and how it relates within the district, which has a wide variety of buildings. Including the appearance of the building and dealing with HPC. Did not get clear directions from HPC but took their comments and changed the exterior appearance and materials.

Discussion regarding drone footage and where the footage started between Board, Harriss and Herbert from Gaughan. This included a question regarding loss of tree cover and it was stated no loss of tree cover is expected other than overhanging limbs in which case the DNR would be consulted.

Rose was asked about the word that HPC committee got stuck on, which was “harmonize”. She stated there is no way to quantify harmonize. Also, the language in the HPC there is not much that is quantifiable. Discussion took place that there is not a lot of harmony in the downtown area. Lutz stated he was told by previous village staff that if the proposal meets the requirements of code you are compelled to approve that proposal. Most of the time this is an easy determination but has become complicated in a larger project when there isn’t quantifiable choices to be made.

Lutz stated there are two items to be considered and when looking at exterior (item b) there were comments made that say everyone is in agreement the exterior changes were fine and that ends discussion on this issue. The other issue relates to design criteria (item c) where we don’t have anything specified for this development or any development. In the absence of criteria to make decisions does not preclude making the decision. The decision still needs to be made with all the information provided. Board members feel there is merit to overturn HPC’s decisions and had a discussion on that. All members felt the project meets all requirements and concerns brought to board have been addressed through the discussion.

Motion by Gilliland and seconded by Burch to reverse the decision of HPC and approve the appeal.

Roll Call Vote: Ayes-Lutz, Gilliland, Maki, Burch, Chantelois, Kline, Rose Nays-0 Motion carried

Public Contract Parking Spaces price increase

Swanberg gave a quick overview of increasing our public winter parking spaces from $100 to $200 a spot beginning winter 2023. These are contracted parking for apartments downtown with no parking on site.

Motion by Gilliland and seconded by Lutz to approve public parking spaces from $100 to $200 for winter parking pass.

Ayes-7Nays-0Motion carried

Licenses and Permits:

Motion by Burch and seconded by Chantelois to approve all Operator License applicants except for item (i) as presented.

Ayes-7Nays-0Motion carried

Motion by Maki and seconded by Chantelois to approve Special Event Permit Application for Light Up the Night 5k Walk/Run as presented.

Ayes-7Nays-0Motion carried

Lutz will be abstaining from vote on the Osceola Community Fair due to being on the fair board as an officer.

Motion by Chantelois seconded by Kline to approve Special Event Permit Application for Osceola Community Fair as presented.

Ayes-6Nays-0Abstain-1(Lutz)Motion carried

Swanberg wanted the verbiage noted regarding signage, same as last year. Pedrys wanted it noted that extra signage is being requested from previous years.

Motion by Gilliland and seconded by Maki to approve Board, Committee, Commission and Agency Reports:

a) Admin & FinanceJune 2, 2023(Commission approved July 7, 2023)

b) Airport CommissionMay 15, 2023(Committee approved June 19, 2023)

c) Library BoardMay 11, 2023(Commission approved June 8, 2023)

d) Historic PreservationJune 7, 2023 (Commission approved June 14, 2023)

e) Public Works CommitteeJanuary 26, 2023(Commission approved June 28, 2023)

Ayes-7Nays-0Motion carried

Motion by Rose and seconded by Burch to approve vouchers payable.

Ayes-7Nays-0Motion carried

Future agenda items and updates

Welcome Kline to board.

Consent agenda.

President Rose adjourned the meeting at 8:36 pm.

Respectfully submitted by

Carie Krentz, Village Clerk

WNAXLP

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