County Board - Regular Meeting

for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Roll call of supervisors, please. Do we know where Gearson is? Oh, or gashki. Take your bike off. Let me know. Carol, let me know. Bri, let me know. I don't know anything from Cross. Okay. I don't There are 18 supervisors present. Supervisors Carol, Gashki, Gearson, Brookhouse, and Gray are excused. Citizens comments. Are there any citizens wishing to speak?

Good evening. Please state your name and address for the record.

Good evening. Veronica King, 551834th Avenue, Kenosha, Wisconsin 53144. Uh, I'm here tonight to share with you some recent data that I received um last month from the Wisconsin uh Council on Problem Gambling. I went to a two-day conference uh that was held in Wauaaw. Uh I went for three reasons. Um, first and foremost, I went to get CEUs for my three Wisconsin license. Second, I went to get some updated research to share with my students. And third, I went to get some information that I could share with you county board members. Uh so the first thing I want to state is that uh gambling can turn financial stress into emotional despair and into suicide risk and statistically elevated risk. Uh studies show individuals with gambling disorder are 15 times more likely to attempt suicide than the general public. 15 times more likely to attempt suicide than the general public. So, I know Kenosha is in the process of trying to uh get a casino here. I understand that it will bring jobs and it will bring revenue, but I also but I also want you to be aware of the pitfalls that a casino can bring as well. Um some some additional uh statistics uh include I'm trying to uh in the in Illinois in 2023 over

25,000 calls were made to the state gambling hotline more than double the call volume in 2022. Uh currently in Kenosha there are four clinicians that are uh certified to treat gambling use disorder. Just four here in Kenosha. The other problem we have is here in Kenosha there are no gamblers anonymous uh self-help groups. The closest group is in Racine at Grace Lutheran Church on Washington Avenue. So that's a problem. So as we push forward towards the casino, I'm asking you county board supervisors to make sure that the mental health services are available in the community to assist those individuals that uh be that are diagnosed with a gamblers gambling use disorder or potential um to develop a gambling use disorder. And I think if we start putting some things in place now before the casino comes um as the need is there, we will have certified clinicians that are available to treat these individuals. So as part of the planning that goes into this, I'm just asking that uh mental health services be included in the planning. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other citizens comments? Any other citizens wishing to speak? Any other citizens wishing to speak? Any other citizens wishing to speak? Seeing none, citizens comments are closed. Moving on to announcements of the chairperson, I'd like to just take a brief moment to thank the clerk's office for all of their uh diligence and hard work um for the elections. elections would not be possible without your office and the many dedicated volunteers who serve at the polls. So, thank you all for not just last night and yesterday's work, but the weeks leading up to it. It's it's not an easy job and it doesn't always go appreciated. So, thank you so much for what you all do. Thank you. Also, I'd like to remind the board that on Tuesday, April 21st at 6:45 p.m., we will have our county board picture. So, that will take place here in the chambers. So, please remember to be here by 6:45 so we can take that group photo. Moving on to our youth and governance. Tonight in attendance, we have Ruby Egalora Dorado, Olivia Gorgan, Kendall L Grande, and Andrew Serta from Youth and Governance attending tonight. So, thank you all for being here. It's nice to see you. And then moving on to supervisor reports. Supervisor Grady.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just an update from public works, the meetings we've had over February and March. Um, a synopsis here. We don't have to go into a great amount of detail. You'll be hearing more from myself and Supervisor Gearson about an upcoming u agenda item we have. So, we'll keep this a little bit on the light side. But, uh, we've got the, uh, potholes. Of course, this is always a springtime operation. You'll see county crews out there doing their best to uh keep our roads ready for the uh motoring season and uh just doing those types of repairs. Um we've got uh brushing operations where we're cleaning up the winter debris and so forth. Um we have some finally good news in terms of our fleet in the uh highways department. We are expecting second quarter of this year two triacle dumps which will be added to our fleet which are very necessary for some of the heavy moving of material and so forth. Um couple others are on order. They're a little bit behind schedule but we're at least making progress there. Um we've got culver replacements that have been ongoing. Most of those are completed now. County A, county X, county Z. um have some other items that are uh current. And one of the bright spots lately is, you know, it's a competitive job market out there. It's difficult to attract and retain some of the uh workers here for the county. Um highway department's no exception, but um this spring we've had three new patrol workers hired, which is a good start. Um, we've had an additional mechanic hired and a mechanic fleet inventory specialist hired as well. And we have offers out for additional highway patrol workers. So, that is a bright spot. Um, something that's brought to my attention

by Supervisor Nordigan is what's going to happen with county W. And since he's more familiar with that, with permission of the chair, I'd like to have him speak upon the construction project for County Hill W. Uh thank you, Chair UAS. County Highway W is going to be under construction starting Monday. It's the 13th. Uh construction is going to start from the state line and it's going to go through both intersections at Wilmont. The road will be shut down um on the 13th and the the um detour uh is going to be a little bit cumbersome, but it's going to be all on county roads obviously. Um, so if you're coming if you're coming north on W from Illinois, you'll turn west on CK at a stop sign, they'll be turn right or north back on KD to the next stop sign is Highway C. You'll turn right again and that'll take you right back to downtown Bmont. The the construction will cease just prior to the county fair. So that should be all open for that. Um because they expect to be at the intersections about that period of time. And then when they shut those intersections down, that that detour gets a lot longer. They're going to instead of going down C, they're going to take them all the way up to F and F all the way down to B and they'll be on Supervisor Decker's neighborhood at that point in time. So um it it's going to be long haul, but they will have it open for the fair. Anything else is not u not going to be happy. A lot of the business owners are not going to be happy for a while, but um it's going to very much improve things. That is the number one accident area in the county. Uh serious accidents uh up until including death and it's been really bad for a really long time. So this is this is well needed. So thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor Nordigan. Supervisor Grady. Um yes, and just to reiterate on what Supervisor Nordigan said, is it my understanding that the road will be shut down in its entirety? There will be no one lane travel in each direction. It'll be just shut down period. So, please advise your constituents out there that um W will be closed for the majority of construction season except for the county fair. Anything else, Supervisor? Um we do have our highway commissioner here and he might be able to clarify things a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. So, it'll be closed the door. Right. Could you please come up to the microphone, please? Thank you.

Uh Greg Bolt, uh highway commissioner for commercial county. So the road the road will be closed to all through traffic while they're doing a uh massive excavation of about 15 ft to lower a road uh lower a curve um kind of down by the Wilmont Mountain area. During that period of time, the roadway will be fully closed. We're expecting that to last anywhere from 6 weeks to 2 months. Outside of that time period, uh there will always be two-way traffic going through. So, um just during the uh excavation to uh regrade the the roadway curve by Mil Mountain, will the road be completely closed to through traffic? Okay. Just that clarification.

And that'll be what part of the season do we expect, Greg? Uh that that'll stuff that'll be starting right away here. So, that'll be the first starting here. um with that road closure, you know, kind of a soft closure. I just found out today a little bit more of a soft closure starting on um on Thursday, Monday, Thursday this week with that hard closure probably starting early May, early May because of um some utility conflicts they're dealing with. Thank you, Greg. Y Supervisor Grady.

Um that concludes what we're talking about for the highways. Let's move on to parks now. Um we had some bids that were open for the Keer Center chapel repairs and uh it was not particularly uh happy or good news in the sense that the estimates were significantly higher than what we expected even from the low bidder and upon further examination the timeline that we have designated we'd like to have it done quickly as possible is getting pushed a little bit further into the wedding season. So kind of disappointing in that account. Um I don't have all the details. Supervisor Bellski being more intimately involved with it. Probably does. So if you want the details on that, I would um have her comment upon that. But just a bit of uh disappointment there. It will get done, but like anything in today's environment, it seems to cost more and take longer. And this is not uh something I'm pleased to report. Um the next item up is uh we're looking at and I think I commented upon this before our mobile stage which is a part of the parks department. It's been on order for the past year or so. Um we expect that that's going to be uh up and running this season and if those are interested we may have a tour of that or viewing of that out at the Kosha County Center at some point. Um some improvements on uh area parks petrifying springs. um one also a Brightonale some parking improvements at Petrifying Springs beer garden area and also for those familiar with Petrifying Springs there is a proposal of thought that on the road south side of Petrifying Springs um the parking lot that is a little bit east of the beer garden you go up the hill there there is enough of a flat space that we could have conceivably a couple of pickle balls courts put in there. So,

that's in the design phase is being vetted. County executive has funding for that and she has some details that I'll bring forward at an appropriate time. Um, also petrifying springs, we're doing a maintenance shop, pair of them actually, one for golf, one for the parks, and those are in the ongoing planning stages. That's all for parks. Um, public works, we're still working through some punch list items. KCDC, the HBAC. Um, backup generators are pretty much done. Ceremonial courtroom is going along nicely. That's really turning out to be a a good project. Um, the big one, of course, is our human services building. And at our last meeting, we had a discussion about the transition and the length of time it would take to move from South Sheran Road to 52nd Street. And that's really quite a bit of time. We're talking I think beginning in July and it might go right through the fall, September, October. Um quite an involved process. Um some people may be working from home to accomplish this. So it will be a good when it's all done, but it'll be some some work to get there. That concludes what I have for that particular item. Um golf courses are open. They were open last month. Um, we're looking forward to a good year again. You know, we're always weather dependent upon that. And we do have a cold storage building that should be breaking ground right about now out at Brightonale adjacent to the facility where it's at currently. The current storage building, I should say. Um, facilities. Um, we have different things going on here. KCDC has some security upgrades going. Uh Brookside has some ongoing carpet and window soul things going on. Um KCDC is looking at a roof

replacement phase one. I think I commented upon that. So that's still ongoing. And I think that's about it. Thank you for your attention. Thank you, Supervisor Grady. Any other supervisor reports? Seeing none, supervisor reports are closed. Old business policy resolution, second reading to required. Policy resolution four from the finance administration committee. Uh policy resolution to approve the Kenosha County consolidated donation policy. This passed unanimously at committee. Vice Chair Gashki was excused. Supervisor Gent. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move resolution number four.

Moved by Supervisor G, seconded by Supervisor Nudo. Supervisor G.

Thank you. Uh, this resolution tightens up our our countywide donation policy. Historically, donations practices have varied by departments and we wanted to get some consistency into the practice. So, um, at a higher level, the policy does four things. Establishes clear rules for accepting donations. Establishes approval thresholds to ensure appropriate oversight of those donations. introduces financial and risk review safeguards and strengthens transparency and accountability. So, uh overall I I think it was it's a good uh good resolution. Um finance approved it unanimously and I would ask for your approval.

Thank you, Supervisor Gent. Discussion on resolution 4. Any discussion on resolution 4? Any discussion on resolution four? Seeing none. All in favor? I opposed. Resolution 4 passes unanimously. New business resolution 176 from the public works and facilities committee a resolution to support with the village of summers for the maintaining of Sheridan Road as configured. This passed unanimously at committee. Supervisors Decker Decker and Franco were excused. Supervisor Grady.

I would move resolution number 176. Moved by Supervisor Grady, seconded by Supervisor Bellski. Supervisor Grady.

Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. This has been in the works for some period of time now and it revolves around the fact that the U state department of transportation had a plan maybe still does have a plan to reduce North Sheran Road approximately from Carthage College to the county line from one travel lane or from two travel lanes in each direction down to one travel lane. um many parties have not been happy with this and I think uh basically one of the people who's more intimately involved with this because it does reside in this district is Supervisor Gearson. So I'd like to uh chair's permission pass it over to David Gearson to comment. Thank you Supervisor Grady. Supervisor Gearston.

Uh thank you Supervisor Grady and thank you Madam Chair. So um I mean I've been living in Summers right by Sherid Road for 40 years. They probably have driven more on that road than anyone on earth. Uh I was surprised when I saw the DOT proposed changing it from four lanes to two lanes. Um we initially adopted a resolution in the last term uh that supported the village and supported keeping the fourlane profile and uh long story short uh the county village the community worked with DOT they get put this thing on a pause pushed back the um uh the timeline of the construction and converted the 45 mph to 35 mph uh and and then they were going to see how we did there. So, right now they're in that uh uh pause time frame. Uh we'll continue to interact with DOT and see what uh what they're going to do with this thing. Uh but you know it really would hurt the community and hurt um the traffic and all of the development that's going on on the north and south side there if this uh main artery the furthest e east main artery after we spent hundreds of millions on expanding lane miles in the county now we're going to reduce lane miles. Uh it would just not not be sensible. So the village supports this. Uh the county has previously supported it. All of our local community partners support maintaining the fourlane profile. But uh one other thing is while we changed from 45 to 35, there was improvement in the the uh behavior. So um we we we didn't have any fatalities that the accidents declined. We have statistics on that. We'll continue to work with DOT to try to keep this four lane. So, thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Supervisor

Grady. I yield. Thank you, Supervisor Gear. Supervisor Grady, do you have anything else you'd like to No, I think Supervisor Gearson has stated the case quite eloquently. I would just add that this Friday, there will be a meeting in Wauaaw with the regional uh DOT administrators and um many people of interest will be attending, including our own uh county executive Samantha Kirkman. had a conversation with her today about that. So, there seems to be widespread support for this and I would simply ask for your approval this evening. Thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor Grady. Any discussion on resolution 1676? Seeing no discussion, all in favor?

I opposed. Resolution 176 passes unanimously. Resolution 177 from the Judiciary and Law Enforcement Committee, a resolution to approve the probationary cabaret license, Packard Enterprises, doing business as Great Lakes Dragway at 18411 First Street in the town of Paris. This passed unanimously at committee. Supervisors Brook House and Gray were excused. Supervisor Bellski, I move resolution 177. Moved by Supervisor Bellski, seconded by Supervisor Morsy. Supervisor Bellski. Thank you, Madam Chair. Captain Bannis provided a report. Um, Mr. Henning used to be on the liquor license and the only reason for the change is the gentleman has passed away. So, Mrs. Claire Henning will now be on this cabaret license and they see no issues with uh uh her holding the license. I would ask for your support. Thank you, Supervisor Bellski. I see some discussion. Supervisor Decker, I just have a question because on the signature page only three supervisors signed yet the clerk stated that Brook Supervisor Brook House and Gray were missing. They left they left early without signing.

But but they did vote. Yes. Okay. Thank you. I just it it's a little confusing. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Decker. Any other discussion on resolution 177? Seeing none. All in favor? I opposed. Resolution 177 passes unanimously. Communications 137 communication from the finance and administration committee. The 2025 to 2026 carryover and annual closeout.

Refer to Finance Administration Committee 138. Communication from the Finance and Administration Committee. A resolution to accept and utilize the state of Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs MG911 GIS grant. Refer to Finance Administration Committee. 139. Communication from Supervisor Gashki. A resolution authorizing Kenosha Joint Services to accept donation from Kenosha Prince Hall Masons in recognition of National Public Safety Telecommunicator Week. Refer to finance administration committee claims 68. Vera Boyco property damage

referred to corporation councel. The approval of the March 17th, 2026 minutes by supervisor Nez. Supervisor Nez. I move to approve the county board meeting minutes from March 17th. Motion by Supervisor Nez, seconded by Supervisor Moresy. All in favor? I opposed. Motion passes unanimously. Motion to adjurnn. Second. Motion to adjurnn by supervisor Decker. Seconded by Supervisor Robinson. All in favor? I opposed. We are journed.