The Blanchardville Village Board threw out their thoughts at their meeting on Monday, May 4, on the need for a part-time police officer for the village.
When the subject came up on the agenda, Village President Lanny Gilbertson didn’t think the village should pursue the option at this time due to the amount of projects the village has to pay for, mostly pertaining to the Main Street construction.
Police Commission board member and former Blanchardville Police Chief Steve Allbaugh wanted the village board to think about having a part-time officer in the future. He felt having a part-timer would be beneficial to the village. It would provide additional protection and help offer more services to the community that just one police officer might not be able to do. The village has had several part-time officers in the past. The last part-time officer was in 2022.
“You can’t predict how busy you can be,” Allbaugh stated.
He felt that having an officer work at least two days a week would be helpful.
Clerk-treasurer Kathy Drake asked Police Chief Ryan Kumor to write down an amount of hours for a parttime officer and a wage so that the village can get an idea of what it would cost so if they do plan on adding the position, they can budget for it for the future.
Kimmie Marty questioned if Lafayette County Sheriff’s Deputies could help out more and asked what services do they pay them to do.
Allbaugh commented that even though the village does pay the county deputies for additional services, those deputies don’t come out to the western part of the county much to patrol and their agency won’t know exactly what is happening in the village as much as a part-timer or the Chief would know.
“We get personalized services from our own police department. Often Blanchardville’s officer will know ongoing problems or details about a situation that Lafayette County deputies might not,” Allbaugh said.
Marty but didn’t see the need for an officer at this moment due to budgetary reasons.
“I understand what you are saying but we are also in charge of a budget. My thoughts are not personal. I’m just looking at the budget,” Marty explained.
Drake stated that due to the construction project being done in a shorter amount of time, that has put constraints on the village as to what can be dealt with and paid for immediately. There are things that they didn’t plan on having to be paid for this soon, like $24,000 for the concrete poles for Main Street that had to be paid for a couple weeks ago out of the general budget.
The board came to a consensus to table and send the discussion to the Public Safety Committee to get numbers and costs for having a part time deputy.
Park Committee report
Marty informed the board that the pond bathhouse has now been pushed back three weeks according to Cleary Building. They are waiting on Scott Jelle to do an inspection and waiting on permits. There is a power line that needs to go underneath the roadway so they are unable to do any concrete work until that is done. They have made alterations so they can hopefully be open by May 31.
The inflatables will go in May 30. They will be doing operations from the top of the park until the building gets completed, operating out of the white former restrooms in the upper Mckellar Park. It is anticipated to have the building up the first week in June.
Amy Francis is workin on getting the POS system set up for the pond. They did hire four lifeguards and one of them will be the deputy director of the pond. Francis stated she needs to reach out to the EMS to set up a safety procedure with the inflatables.
Zeke Garthwaite made the motion with Neal Klassy seconding to purchase a phone and computer for the pond operations.
Public Works Committee
Things are moving right on schedule for the Main Street road construction project. The sanitary sewer crew to the north of the village along Oak Street/STH 78 will start work the week of May 18, starting at
Baker Street. The local detour will not be put in place until then. Cassie Elmer from Town & Country Engineering stated that crews could start paving the road around Memorial Day.
The board approved paying pay request #2 for $274,726 and disbursement request #3 for $241,684 for the Safe Drinking Water Loan and $84,441 for the Clean Water Fund.
Matt Miller from Viebicher spoke is an interested party about wanting to do phased projects in the 21st Century Addition. More will need to be discussed on that before coming back to the board.
Discussions are also being had on the price of outlot #6, which Alliant Energy would like to purchase from the village to be able to expand their substation. St. Isidore’s representative Bob McGowan told a member of the board that the church has agreed to purchase the land
behind the Calvary Cemetery. The village is waiting to hear from Ron Krause if he is still on board on obtaining the extra land to make the land being purchased by Alliant Energy and the church have a straight line.
Personnel Committee
Brian Nutter has made it known that he would like to resign from the board. At the time of the board meeting, he had not made his resignation official. The village is asking that all those interested in holding a seat on the board to submit an application to the village office no later than Friday, May 29 at 12 p.m.
License, Finance, Insurance, Policy committee
The board approved the operator license for Mark Emberson, awarding the bid for the Graceland Cemetery Maintenance, adding a board member as a signer on the Woodford State Bank main account and approval of the bills.