Common Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, I'd like to invite Pastor Katie Vanderlindon from Ebenezer Church up for an invocation.

Thank you. Greetings uh common council members. Very good to be here this evening. My name is Katie Katie Vanderland and I'm the pastor at Ebenezer Moravian Church right on the border of Watertown and Johnson Creek. I'd like to share with you some words from the Pope. Peacemaking calls for courage much more so than warfare. It calls for the courage to say yes to encounter and no to conflict. Yes to dialogue and no to violence. Yes to negotiations and no to hostilities. Yes to respect for agreements and no to acts of provocation. Yes to sincerity and no to duplicity. All of this takes courage, strength and tenacity. I invite us to pray. Make us peacemakers. Make us sensitive to the pleas of our citizens who entreat us to lead, to grow, to help, and to support. Keep alive within us the flame of hope so that with patience and perseverance we may opt for dialogue, reconciliation, and renewal. May peace triumph at last. And may the words division or hatred or war be banished from everyone, not just in the room, but maybe in all humankind. Diffuse the violence of tongues and hands. Renew hearts and minds so that the word which brings us together will be brother, sister, sibling, friend and may we have the way of life

always be of peace and shalom. Amen. Thank you.

Recording in progress. Okay. I'd like to call tonight's common council meeting to order. It is 7:05 p.m. Mr. Stevens. Prior to calling the role, I'd like to introduce Lucy Peterson is our new deputy treasurer clerk that's with me today. Davis here. Lampy here. Berg here. Barts here. Blanky here. Smith here. Arnett here. Wetzel here. Moldenhower here. Okay, thank you. Can you please stand for the pledge of

allegiance? I alian to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

Okay. First in the agenda, minutes of council meeting held on January 20th, 2026. Mr. approval of the council minutes of January 20th. Okay. A motion by Smith. Second by Wetzel. Thank you. Okay. Questions, comments on it. Okay. All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Okay. Thank you. Next, we have comments and suggestions from citizens presence. I may wish to speak. Just state your name and address. Eric Schmidt.

Eric Schmidt, 605 Lafayette Street, Watertown, Wisconsin. Um, I'm calling because it was brought to my attention that one of the aldermen on the board made comments in a public forum stating that certain policies driven by the state level are unconstitutional. And so to clarify some of those things that are rhetoric, um, inflammatory and plaintely untrue. So to back it up, I brought the Constitution to read the First Amendment verbatim for you, which was ratified in December 15th, 1791. Amendment one reads, "Congress shall make no law regarding or respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedoms of speech or the press or the right of the people to peaceibly assemble and to petition the government for redresses of governments. Nowhere does that say anything to do with how tax dollars are spent regards to education or not spent in education. So if alderman are going to make comments relating to constitution, I suggest you pick up a free constitution and read it first. Thank you,

Katie Vander. We have update you on the emergency shelter program that's been going on. Um we had originally approached the common council to help us with a place um and that was unavailable. In the meantime, we have partnered with both the heritage and with uh the super eight and are providing shelter. Um on the night of 128, we sheltered 22 people, including three children. That's one night. In the year of 2025, we opened it quickly in November before we had planned to open and house 50 different people aging from 6 months to 86. Now, where would those people be otherwise? This is not a free service. This has cost us thousands of dollars. thousands of dollars that the generosity of this community and our churches have been able to do so, but it is not sustainable. So again, I ask you to look at places like the former fire department, to look at places like the basement of this building, to look at other spaces in which we would be generous to take care of, but which would cost us a lot less money. Because every dime we have to spend to put people up for a night is a dime we don't get to and feeding, clothing, getting items, planning for the future because guess what? No place that we have looked at has a sprinkler system which is required by this common council. So in order to do that, we have to save money

which we're not doing by putting up people every night. We are open yet again tonight and have just as many people spending the night thanks to us. So please believe the unhoused is all of our issue, not just welcoming Watertown. And again, consider ways that we can partner to provide safe spaces. One quick note, we think it's ironic that we're worried about people dying in a fire while our workers are awake, but we're not worried about people freezing outside. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay. And next we have a public hearing for zoning request of lot zero gateway drive pin number 291-0815-1631-00003 from MR to SR4 wishing to comment at public hearing if you please state your name and address to the Seeing none, I will then close that public hearing at 7:11. Okay. The next uh reports we have board of health miss from December 16th, plan commission minutes from January 12th, finance command minutes from January 12th, public works minutes from January 13th, parks, recreation, forestry masks from January 19th, and RDMS from January 21st.

Mr. Burke, um Robert or Mr. Mr. Mayor, I I wanted to just maybe raise the issue that the finance committee uh meeting minutes for uh January 12th, they had a topic there where where there was a um a split vote. And in my recollection of this topic as far as showing what happened, uh I've seen it in the past, but not maybe consistently where we would show u you know if it passed uh and people are going to know who's on the on the committee for finance, but if they show a split vote uh I've seen it typically where they would show the dissenting vote or votes that would be there for transparency, for awareness uh because in the end we our elected officials. People are curious how we perform our duties and I have no problem voting in in the minority if I feel it's the right issue to do. So I I I have no problem with being um you know I'm not doing it intentionally, but I just feel it's a good intent to uh to show u the actions of our of our finance committee. So, I I'm asking if we could go with that approach and show the dissenting uh individuals that may or may not uh be voting that way.

Well, I think it was on uh it was actually number 10.

There were several there was seven 10 and nine that had split votes in that meeting. Is that your intent? Yeah, the intent I think where it passes is to show um you know where where the dissenting vote came from u one two or whatever number in in our committee we have uh basically five so you would have uh typically maybe three to two or that type of thing but I I just recall in the past doing that so I'm just trying to bring it back as a topic and if there's agreement I would say we we show the dissenting of persons that did vote in the minority. Future agenda item.

Okay. Why don't we just we'll notice that the future agenda item, Mr. Berg. Okay.

Um the other topic I wanted just to give a compliment on was in looking through the park and wreck uh minutes from January 19th. It was uh telling the story of u of Emerald Ashbbor and the impact it's had on our community uh from 2002. And uh in the minutes it shows that uh they had approximately 1,000 ash trees that were affected by this u disease. And uh what was remarkable for me is that they're showing that we're down to 74 ash trees that remain having this uh disease that need to be treated and dealt with. But to take away that many over this period of time is a compliment to the to the workforce and to the to the employees within our our department, our city. We made a a decision to uh to to get them cut down and to deal with them through a treatment if we felt needed. But the fact that we've taken away 9 and 26 of them to this point is quite a compliment to our staff. And I think we obviously had to do it. they weren't going to get better and it was going to turn into a problem and a safety issue at some point. Um, so I I'm giving kudos to our our u our city for doing what we did. Thank you, Mr. Bird. Okay, nothing else. Move on to communicate communication recommendations. One reminder on February 17th, council will be moved to February 16th on that Monday due to the primary election and a different person will be chairing that meeting too I believe. Uh next we have Main Street program quarterly update. Hello. Um I have just four things that I

wanted to highlight from our first quarter um of 2026. Uh first we started off by advancing our downtown initiatives and one of our biggest initiatives is our facade and sign grant program that we have. I wanted to take a moment to just explain to you the process of our grant program because now the city is investing in that program. I wanted you to understand um the process that applicants have to go through and what Main Street does to try and make that process as smooth as possible. So um an applicant would turn in an application uh to the Main Street office. That application has to contain the application itself. It has to contain an estimate from the company that they are going to use for the project. It has to have a rendering uh of the project complete. So, it has to show me um the building actually as like an artwork picture uh with what they want to do to their building or the sign that they want to create and that has to be placed on the building in that picture as well. And then finally, they have an application fee. There's a $50 application fee uh for signed grants and a $100 application fee for facade grants. um that is returnable, that's returned to the business owner. Um once they have the completed the project in the time allotted, uh once they have once I've received the application, they've turned everything in, then we go to the historical preservation commission and I present that project to them. They meet um at the end of every month and usually I have one or two projects that I try and stay on top of and present to them. Um during that meeting, the historical preservation commission has the opportunity to make suggestions or recommendations. They also have the opportunity to either approve or disapprove of the project. Um if it is approved, then it goes to our grant committee that is part of the uh Main Street program. It's members of our

board that have uh sacrificed their time further to meet together and to look at these projects and establish how much money um they will be granting to that applicant. Um once that is established, then the applicant is given the go-ahad to start the project. And once they complete the project, they turn in a paid invoice to the Main Street office. And at that time, I write them a check for whatever um the grant uh that was awarded to them. Um they also receive their application fee at that time as well that's refunded to them. There are a couple of things that we require um of the applicants even after the project is done. We ask that they volunteer for at least two hours for the main street program. Um since we have um funded part of their project, uh we would like to see them volunteer. Oftentimes that's done for our flower planting um or uh Riverfest is another big opportunity for volunteers for our applicants. Um, so we have a that's our community engagement requirement that we have for the project. And I just wanted to go over that with you because um part of ourou is that you're um contributing $5,000 to our grant program. So I wanted you to understand the process that our applicants are going through. Um we've also spent first quarter um preparing for the event season. We had two events in January already. We had our winter market. That was the first time that we've done a winter market and I do believe it was a success. We had 15 vendors um in the community room of the library and I would say we had about 150 um patrons that came through um and were able to um shop at the different vendors. Uh the second uh event that we had in January was just on Saturday, our sweet stroll. Uh we had 78 participate.

I think the cold kept many of them away. Um, but we had a lot of sweet treats that were offered and um, I was excited to see that our newest, one of our newest businesses got a lot of engagement from the community and that was the basketball bar. So, they were one of our locations. She had I walked in at one point in time she had about 20 25 people in there and she was explaining what she does. Um, and so that was exciting to see. Um, we have some events coming up in February. Um, we have a another winter market. It's actually on Valentine's Day and again we're looking forward to about 15 to 18 vendors that will be there and um and showing their wares. And then in March we actually have uh four three three uh events. We have our morning mixer event on March 1st and then we have our u we have one more farm uh winter market on March 7th and then on March 12th we have our luck of the Irish bingo. Um, again, just so that you're aware, uh, whenever we do a bingo, that money is what funds our grant program. Um, so, um, those are very important events for us as that does allow us to, um, give more funds to the projects that come. We're also going to have another Main Street meetup in March. Um that's a time for us to get together as business owners and meet with um we'll invite city officials. Uh board members will be there and we talk about different issues that are going on on Main Street and try and solve them for each other. Um so those are some things going on in March. I'm very excited to say one of the things that was in ourou that was new this year from Main Street as a commitment to the city was that um we would uh offer four

events or at least three events at um uh Benson Family Town Square. And I'm excited to say that we have established five nights actually that we're going to have a farmers market after hours. So, five Friday nights starting in June, we will uh take over those night markets that parks and wreck was doing. Um and we will have night markets. We're going to encourage the businesses to stay open that later those nights so that we can kind of have an after hours party on Main Street. Um lots of shopping and walking around is the hope. So, u we're excited about that one. Uh the third uh thing that we've been up to over at Main Street is strengthening our community partnerships. very excited to have been meeting with Deb Cybel um to talk about what are some ways that we can um encourage some new entrepreneurs um new businesses to come into Watertown. Um so I call the chamber building where tourism main street and chamber all work. I call it just 519. That's our address. So it just makes it easy. So 519 has been meeting with Deb Syel and talking about some different opportunities um that possibly we could be involved in to help in bringing some more business. So I'm excited about that. And then the last month we have been partnering with the um Watertown United School District. They gave their teachers $15 vouchers to be able to shop downtown um along Main Street. And so, um, we've been receiving those vouchers back from the businesses and paying those out for those teachers to be able to shop downtown. So, that's been an exciting project as well. And then I've also submitted to you the budget um for water street program for 2026. And that's what we've been up to.

Thank you, Stephanie. You're welcome. Does anybody have any questions for Stephanie? A quick one. Do you track the occupancy rate of the businesses down town? I don't know if you keep track of, you know, 55%, 70%, 80% are filled.

I I don't know that I could give you a percentage. Um, I could basically go down Main Street and be able to tell you just by picturing it how many storefronts are empty. I could also tell you why they're empty. Um, we do have a couple of buildings that are um in the process of being renovated to have businesses in them, but they are currently the storefront is empty right now. Uh, what I'm working on right now is working with building owners that if their storefront is empty that we would be able to decorate it properly so that it still looks inviting. Um, but I can't give you a percentage. I can work on that though. Get it back to you. Cool. Thanks.

Yes, sir. So, one of the things I think we're relying on the Main Street program to be a major conduit is to make sure um what we're doing with the reconstruction is good for downtown business. Are are you getting feedback or concerns on that yet?

Yes, sir. Um I think a a big concern uh that came up in the last couple of weeks is um the talk of the streetscape. Um, one of the things as I talk to businesses is, uh, it's it is they know it's going to be difficult. Uh, many of them stayed open through the bridge reconstruction. Um, so they understand it will be tough, but they also, uh, look at the proposal for the streetscape as the shiny light at the end of the tunnel, if you will. and they know that it's going to be an ideal place to have a business to have patrons walking uh down Main Street. So, there is concern that some of that might be um changed up. Um and then just overall they they want to be heard on issues and they're uh relying on me to uh vocalize that for them. Um and and I feel like I've working with Deb with the task force and I've talked with the mayor several times. I think the key will just be really good communication um during that time as well. But yes, there is some concern um about talk of changing up the streetscape for sure. The uh the lamp post in in specifics as I was in that meeting um they are 25 years old and they've already been painted. So many of the business owners kind of scoffed at the idea of reusing those.

Anybody else? Stephanie, thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Next, we have the 2025 community health assessment there for you. Anyone else got any questions? I know Mrs. Quest is here. Mr. B. Yeah, I want to give a a compliment again because I know each of our department heads when they give us our their reports are they're they're very thorough. They give a lot of information and I I know we do our best to get the word out on the high points within these reports, but this one is just full of good information. uh top talking on topics of mental health and all kinds of u of suggestions that can be helpful including u uh you know ideas and suggestions regarding uh the use of cell phones and what have you but it's just reallyformational. I really did spend some time to look it through and I I I did though just as a point of uh of information. It shows uh again our our city right now with the current demographics of how we are u are made up as a city. We are showing that we are u um I think 68,000 for a median household income for the city. Uh as a state we're at 70 almost 75,000. So, we're clearly behind below uh that the median household income which we pretty much knew and uh at least at this point in time it still is that way. Um what I think was unique too just in looking at the makeup of our our city is that we have when compared to the state as a whole where they they showed 8% on Hispanic uh background of uh of our of our residents within the state and city and we have 11 and a half% within our city. So we are higher than the average on our which we know uh but it's

justformational and it's worth making note of that we we get a very large contribution from Hispanics in the in our in our population. But uh it's it's a very good report and I the more they can get the word out and make people aware of uh I think we all benefit from that. Anybody else? questions for Carol. Move on to the 2020 2025 building safety and zoning department annual report. There are people online if anyone has a question on that as well. Okay,

Mr. Lampy, I don't think I see it in the report, but I think one of the things that would be interesting here would be some a little bit more information in terms of uh inspections and enforcement actions. I won't put anybody on the spot here, but I that that might be interesting. Okay. For future reports, you mean?

Okay, Mr. I think I know this to follow up on that. Mr. Lampy,

anybody else?

Mr. Burke. Yeah, just one other comment u involving the uh the very good information again that comes to us to to make us aware of our of how we're how we're growing and and in different areas of how that growth is uh is showing up here. But the one graph that was uh on types of residential construction showing over a 10-year period and we have uh been I think uh alder person blankie made reference to a perception of being stagnant and we have had that uh image uh and it's because of of good reason. Uh if you look at a lot of years when we had 15 16 12 uh 17 as far as the number of single family homes that were built uh for that year but this last year that we just finished and we're into uh looking at more critically we've got 55 that are showing up there and that is the highest number in the last 10 years. Now, they didn't go back further than than 15, but but I I think we clearly are on a a bit of a of a of a momentum here that is uh in the right direction and it will benefit us u in our budgets and it'll benefit us in our population uh to hopefully have growth here that's going to going to help us in all kinds of ways. So, I'm I think it's a good a good number to look at and I'm glad to see it.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Bird. Mr. Blankie,

I just have one item from the first page of the report. Uh about halfway through, you'll see a note about 26 approved conditional use permits at plan commission. And this is just a way for me to really thank uh Brian Service and the entire zoning staff and Vanderval for all the work they're doing on the zoning rewrite, which you're going to be seeing coming through in the the coming months through this year. And one of the biggest things that that will do is eliminate the need for most I'd like to say all, but I can't I don't ever want to say an absolute, but most of the need for a conditional use permit in the new zoning code should be eliminated. So, that's one thing where it's a lot less work on those that city staff will have to do that they can focus their efforts elsewhere. All right, we'll move on to miscellaneous business. Payroll summary from December 24th through January 6th and January 7th through January 20th. No vote needed. Okay. All right. Next, convene a close session per statute 19.85 to confer legal counsel for the governmental body who is rendering oral or written advice concerning strategy to be adopted by the body with respect to litigation in which it is or is likely to become involved. Dodge camera comprehensive plan boundary agreement. I would so move. Okay. Motion by Lampy.

Second by Berg. Lampy. Hi. Berg. Hi. Barts. Hi. Blanky. I Smith. Hi. Arnett. Hi. Wetzel. Hi. Moldenhower. Hi. Davis. Hi. Motion passes. Okay. Thank you. 7:34.

We got one more. We got something. Should start recording.

Recording in progress. Okay, back in open session. It's 809. Okay, last thing on the agenda. Ordinance 2601 amend chapter 550 zoning code through the amendments of language to sections 550-32C and 550-33C 550-36C and 550-37C and 550-56 sponsored by myself and the planning commission on its first reading. Okay. Motion by Lampy, second by Blanky.

Lampy. Hi, Berg. Hi, Barts. Hi, Blanky. Hi, Smith. Hi, Arnett. Hi, Wetzel. Hi, Moldenhower. Hi, Davis. Hi. Motion carries. Okay, next we have comments and suggestions from citizens present. Seeing none, I'll then look for a motion to adjurnn. Motion by Barts. Second. Second by Menhower. Okay. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Thank you. 810.