City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. I'd like to call to order the December 10th, 2025 meeting of the FondeLeak City Council. The first item of business is roll call, which is done electronically, and I will declare a quorum present. The next item on our agenda is the pledge of allegiance, which is followed by a moment of silent reflection. Please rise to the stands. Liberty. Next, we'll move on to our consent agenda. The consent agenda finalizes the proposed actions of the meeting. A November 12th, 2025 minutes and B, list of claims dated December 3rd, 2025. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, I will entertain a motion.

We didn't get buttons. Oh, I'm not on there. Thank you.

All right. So, we had a motion by Mr. Mullen and second by Miss Laring. Sorry, bear with us. We're starting our trying out some new software. So, all right. Is there any discussion? Otherwise, please proceed to vote. And the motion has passed unanimously. All right. Next on our agenda is audience comments, agenda and non-aggenda items. The presiding officer will limit speaking time for non-aggenda items to one minute and items noticed on the agenda to five minutes. Miss Heftter, did we have anyone wishing to speak?

We do not. So that concludes audience comments. Um next we move on to our action items. Action item A is class B into Intoxicating liquor and class B fermented malt license limited liability company the approach LLC agent name Tyler Ludkkey doing business as the approach business address 170 North Prairie Road and our introduction is by our city clerk Miss Hefer.

Thank you President Bald. The Approach LLC is requesting a class B liquor license at 170 North Prairie Road, which is located inside of Ledge View Bowling Alley. The Approach has a separate entrance, bathroom, storage area, and a designated staff that meets the state requirements to have their own alcohol license. Background checks were done on the applicant and city staff and alcohol license committee recommend approval. Thank you. Is there any discussion? Yep. Um, and so just to clarify for everybody, we're still pushing our buttons. If you'd like to speak, um, we don't have that function on the new app we're using, but Mr. Schustler, I believe your mic should be on if you'd like to make your comment.

It is. Sorry. At the committee, um, these are for the golf simulators. Am I right? That is correct. Very positive thing for the community. Wonderful. Great to hear it. All right. I'm not seeing any other discussion, so I will entertain a motion. Sorry, Mr. Heistler. [laughter] All right. Motion by Mr. Godfrey and second by Mr. Schustler.

We're going to have to go Mr. Heisler. Oh, okay.

Technology. All right. Um, is there any other discussion on this item? Seeing none, please proceed to vote. And that passes unanimously. Next is item B, resolution number 9213, a resolution approving and confirming election officials for the 2026 2027 election term. Again, our introduction is by our city clerk, Miss Hefer. Thank you. Again, state statutes requires the governing body to appoint election officials for a two-year term. This term will be from January 1st, 2026 through December 31st, 2027. Election [clears throat] officials are required to attend training within this two-year cycle. The list provided to you includes party recommendations along with reappoints. The city of Fondelock is fortunate to have dedicated election officials that work to ensure that our elections are fair, accessible, and transparent. I would be happy to answer any questions and recommend approval of these appointments.

Thank you. Are there any questions for Miss Hefer? Seeing none, I will entertain a motion. We have a motion by Mr. Heistler. And if you're using the app, just make sure you're clicked on that green box. We have a second by Mr. Mullen. Is there any other discussion? I would just like to offer a thank you to all of our uh pole workers and everyone who who helps our elections move smoothly because it's a big job. So, thank you. All right, with that uh let's proceed to vote and that has passed unanimously. Item item C is resolution number 9214, a resolution making an appointment to the Downtown Final Partnership Board. Our introduction is by our city manager, Mr. Moore.

Thanks. Good evening, everybody. We've got three people uh to nominate tonight. Uh Miss Angel is the GM of the Rhett Law. Miss Bolson is the owner of Gallery and Frame. And Miss Ben Meyer is probably a name new to you. He's a fairly new property owner in the downtown but has been very active and so I recommend all three of them for appointment.

Wonderful. Thank you. Are there any questions for Mr. Moore? Seeing none, I will entertain a motion. We have a motion by Mr. Schustler and second by Mr. Heistler. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, please proceed to vote. And that passes unanimously. Item D is resolution number 9215 and that is a resolution making reappointments to the alcohol license committee and housing authority board. Again, our introduction is by our city manager, Mr. Moore.

Thanks again. No details needed here. You've approved these four people before other than to say they they've served well and I recommend their reappoints. Wonderful. Thank you. Are there any questions for Mr. Moore? Seeing none, I will entertain a motion.

We have a motion by Mr. Mullen and second by Mr. Zimmerman. Is there any other discussion? Seeing none, please proceed to vote. And that passes unanimously. Item E is resolution number 9216, a resolution approving the 2026 FondeLac area transit title six civil rights policy. Our introduction is by our new transit manager and I am not going to try to pronounce her name because I don't want to butcher Dreer. Nicole Dreer. So, Miss Dreer, welcome and the floor is yours.

Okay. Um, so good good evening everyone. Um, tonight on the agenda is the approval and adoption of the title six of the civil rights act. Title six is more than just a legal requirement. It is a promise that everyone in our community, regardless of race, color, or national origin, has equal access to the services our city and the transit department provide. As a re as a recipient of the federal of federal funding for our transportation program, we are responsible for upholding this promise. The updated title six demonstrates our commitment to fairness, equality, and accessible service for all residents. This includes providing meaningful access to individuals with limited English proficiency, maintaining non-discriminatory policies, and responding effectively to complaints when concerns arise. Adopting the updated title six supports our mission to serve every member of our community with dignity and fairness.

Right. Thank you. Are there any questions for Mr. I'm not Oh, Mr. Mullen. Question. I just like to welcome you to uh FondeLac and hope you enjoy it here. Thank you.

Right. Thank you. Uh I'm not seeing any other questions, so I will entertain a motion. We have a motion by Mr. Mullen and second by Miss Laring. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, please proceed to vote. [laughter] And that passes unanimously. Thank you. All right. Item F. Right. That's where we are. Okay. Yes. Item F is resolution number 9217, a resolution approving the application to the Wisconsin Emergency Management for the pre- disaster flood resilience grant program. And our introduction is by our city engineer, Mr. Johnson.

Thank you, President Rald. Um, as stated, this is a resolution authorizing uh the city and the city manager to execute a uh application to the Wisconsin Emergency Management uh department in the state for grant funding to study uh certain areas of the city for flood resilience. Uh this is just the grant application um which would cover 75% up to 75% of the cost of a flood study if we were to be awarded that the grant. Um so engineering uh recommends approval of the resolution and we would uh then proceed with uh submitting the grant application later this week.

All right, great. Thank you. Are there any questions for Mr. Johnson? Seeing none, I will entertain a motion. We have a motion by Mr. Heistler and a second by Mr. Zimmerman. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, please proceed to vote. And that passes unanimously. Item G is ordinance number 3820, an ordinance amending chapter 630 vehicles and traffic of the code of the city of FondeLac to add parking restrictions on West Bank Street. Uh the advisory parking and traffic board recommend recommendation is to deny. Introduction is by city engineer Mr. Johnson.

Thank you again. Um, this ordinance is to proposed ordinance would be to provide a no parking zone along the south side of West Bank Street from North Macy Street to North Main Street. The requesttor uh Mr. Lombard um made the request because his feeling was that emergency vehicles were not able to traverse up and down West Bank Street um because of parking on both sides of the road. I believe he's reached out to several council members in the last few months. Um we did have the advisory parking and traffic board meeting last month to go over this. Um the requesttor uh obviously he was at the in attendance and in favor of this proposed resolution, but we also had believe five to six property owners along this stretch of West Bank Street and they were all opposed to the the additional parking restrictions. they felt that there was no need to basically restrict parking along the street. Uh that being said, because of the overwhelming support to not have additional parking restrictions along this stretch of West Bank Street, engineering and advisory parking and traffic uh do not support the additional parking restrictions. Questions? I'll be to answer.

Right. Thank you. Are there any questions for Mr. Johnson? I am not seeing any. And I would just like to say I would like to just Oh, sorry. Oh, so there. Yeah, the button on the app doesn't actually show up anything on the screen. So, you still need to hit your button. And so, Mr. Schller, you are recognized. Sorry.

I'm a committee member and I was at the meeting and uh Mr. Lenarb spoke very passionately. people parking in the interfering with his driveway. A lot of misbehavior on the street on the part of people causing him trouble and I sympathize with him. But like it says in the report and I think I'm echoing the comments of was the committee was was a 5 to1 vote against. Um, this is a pretty new a new stretch of road built in 2010 and uh, as Mr. Johnson's report says, it's a sufficient width to allow for parking on both sides of the road and still allow for two-way traffic down the road. Then between November 15 and March 15, the winter restrictions are in effect where it's on the even days, even side and all that. So that's there. Um the this is a street that has a lot of renters. I mean, people have to have a place to park. This is a a regulation street. Um and so what everyone asked for at the committee was and we had an officer there if there could be a period of stepped up enforcement just like you do when speeding gets out of hand like near me on National Avenue and people are passing me at 45 miles an hour. you know, you you call the police department and you ask for a little temporary step up of enforcement and I think that should be tried here before this is a not a good precedent, I don't think, to have a regulation street impose this type of restriction. I sympathize with Mr. Lombard. Um, but if people start getting tickets for not being within 4T of the driveway like they're supposed to be, I I really

believe that his situation should should improve. I I is a vote yes, a vote to deny. So, we we haven't actually made that motion, but that's what I would if if we want to follow the recommendations of the parking and traffic board. I would recommend making a motion that is to deny the ordinance and then you would vote yes to deny if you want to or no if if you don't agree with the denial. So, does that make I I know we've had this discussion before. So, since that's the way the committee handled it. I would think that's how we'd handle it, right? So I don't want to prematurely make that motion if people want to talk.

Okay. Yeah, we do have a few more in the queue, but um so um Miss Larrying was actually Oh, okay. All right, Mr. Mullen. Uh same thing. I just wanted to clarify exactly what we are voting on. I'm I'm in favor of what traffic has decided and we just want to make sure we word it correctly.

All right. All right. And I just I want to say thank you to Mr. Schistler for providing the perspective being the the board member who was there. Um because I believe I was the first council member that Mr. Lombard reached out to. And so initially I I got his point of view and I got to see you know there's there were some issues with parking. So I think some increased enforcement might really help with that. Um, I'd like to thank Mr. Johnson for the work that went into, you know, bringing this to parking and traffic and and having the discussions, but also ultimately knowing that a number of other residents showed up and said, you know what, we don't want to see this restriction and knowing that there'd be hardships for for parking. You know, it's it's a tough issue, but I I would also like to say I' I'd prefer to go with the recommendation currently of the the parking and traffic board since um I think that's the way we need to go. So, okay. So we are not able to make a motion to deny in the app. So if somebody would like to make a motion, but some Miss Laring. All right. So we have a motion by Miss Laring and second by Mr. Mullen to deny the ordinance. Um so if you vote I, you are saying yes to the denial. Um with that, is there any further discussion? Seeing none, please proceed to vote. Okay. All right. And that passes unanimously. All right. Item H is ordinance number 3821, an ordinance amending chapter 720 of the code of the city of FondeLac related to bulk requirements and permitted uses in residential districts. Uh the recommendation by the plan commission is to approve and our introduction is by our city attorney, Miss Hoffman.

Thank you. Uh President Bro, I'm uh filling in for Diane tonight. So this is all work that she did. Um and it it came out of the housing study and strategic plan that was intended to help facilitate housing development throughout the community. And all these various changes are are intended to allow for um more housing uh the ability to um build more housing in more of the districts. So that's what um what you have in front of you. So it it's going to affect several um districts, but it's all again intended to help with the housing creation. All right. Are there any questions from council? Mr. Mullen?

Yeah, I just wanted to to give a little clarification. Um most of what these changes are are reductions in the minimum lot size. Uh that's going for various types. That's um part of the idea of that of that was to help with infill. Um so that vacant properties might be developed that otherwise wouldn't be. uh it also affects new developments in that you can do a little higher density hopefully making it a little easier to create workforce housing. So that's that's basically the the rationale behind this was to make housing available especially less expensive housing.

Right. Thank you. Are there any other questions from councel? Seeing none, I will entertain a motion. We have a motion by Mr. Mullen and second by Mr. Heistler. Is there any further discussion? All right, seeing none, uh, please proceed to vote. All right. And that passes unanimously. Item I is ordinance number 3822, an ordinance amending chapter 630 vehicles and traffic of the code of the city of Fondelac to add and remove stop signs at various locations. The uh recommendation by advisory parking and traffic board is to approve and again our introduction is by our city engineer Mr. Johnson.

Thank you, President Balt. Um, this particular uh, ordinance is been brought by engineering and traffic. As you've probably seen within the city, there's been several new subdivisions being constructed and completed this year. And as part of that construction and these new roads, there needs to be new stop signs provided um, as per the plans. Um, so but we have to add those to the code. So, this uh particular request is to add new stop signs on various streets within the city. Uh not only for some of the subdivisions that have been recently created, but there was a couple that were done by a previous uh uh development that also needed to be add added to the code. And that being said, there's also two stop signs that need to be removed from the code because of the construction that occurred uh back I believe in 2023 the Johnson Street I mean sorry Highway 23 reconstruction out on the east side of town. So that being said uh engineering traffic supports the addition andor traction of the stop signs from the code. Any questions to answer?

All right. Thank you. Are there any questions from council? I am not seeing any. So I will entertain a motion. We have a motion by Miss Larry and second by Mr. Zimmerman. Is there any other discussion? Seeing none, please proceed to vote. And that passes unanimously. All right, that ends our action items. So we will move on to our presentation of input items. We have the city year in review presented by city manager Mr. Moore.

Thanks very much. You can tell by the audience this is greatly anticipated. [laughter]

That's true. But we will have it on demand for posterity and hopefully it will give you some good reference points. maybe during this some opportunities to ask question, make comment, etc. So, let's just start with what I'm communicating here on the upper left. It it's the beginning of the story of the year. This is our 24th meeting of the year together. We've done a lot of work throughout the year. A lot of success. I'm going to try to communicate that to you because you're a big part of that. So, what did US News and World Report say about Fondelac? It said that of the over 1,800 municipalities in in Wisconsin, FondeLac is the 12th best community to live in. It said that it's the seventh best community to retire in. And you've seen those polls. They've got a number of metrics. that's really uh not important, but I thought you would appreciate knowing that, you know, that's that's pretty impressive given, you know, the the number of communities in the state. Maggie, we can go to the next slide. Unless it's Arlene. Arlene, thank you. Well, we have Rachel Fuller here, you know, week and a half on the job. super excited to have her at the library. And I will say that the leadership team this year's done great work. Just ask them. They'll they'll tell you. [laughter] No, but it it's been a really good year. I think you you had a good opportunity this summer to have some great back and forth with with them. You know, Diane left about a week and a half ago, right before Thanksgiving. And I I put a date

up there because that's kind of my optimistic perspective, my my goal to have back Phil by the end of the first quarter. And I I wrote you about, you know, where we are in that with interviews and and recruitment and such. But I just want to say thanks to the leadership team and a big welcome to Rachel because we've got a great team. And um I will say that the people that we've interviewed so far for the community development director have all made mention of the group dynamic amongst the directors, how impressed they are and maybe a little intimidated too. Arla, let's go to the next one. So, these are some big picture uh topics I wanted to touch on. As we move through this, I'm not going to read every word to you. You you can read. I I'll pause on occasion to let you read. But again, uh equalized value of the city's real estate increased substantially. That now is about seven years in a row. That's that's a very good sign. You've heard Trisha say and I've said and and others have said too that the the 2026 budget is certainly in our opinion the most fiscally sound budget we've had in in many a year. I feel really good about where we are with our bond rating, our reserves, our plan for uh our operating budget, our capital improvement plan, everything. So, thank you for that. We've got labor agreements in place across the board long term. That's that's great. We're one of the few employers that I know of whose health care premiums will remain flat between 25 and 26. So that's a real benefit for our employees. You know, and you were part of the conversation. We reset the organization's wage structure across the board. I think that was a great outcome.

That goes into effect in a couple of weeks with the first of the year. And we reset the city's property values with the revaluation. unemployment's still super low, historically low. And um lastly, I'd make mention that although I when I talk about room tax, I'm using that as a proxy to say that the hotel business is pretty good, the room tax is an indicator of what's come back to destination Lake Wnebago as a result of room stays, but we've only been over a million dollars a couple times ever. And so that that's a really good sign for our tourism in the area. Next, please. So, who's KD? Cat Duvenac. She doesn't know I put that up there, but she missed the meeting tonight for her kids concert. Uh, she said this when we were talking and and I thought, you know what? I I I need to communicate this on behalf of all of us to to you. It she was very genuine when she said this. and she was very proud of the the work her department had done this year. Next, Arlene. So, we're always uh focused on growing the community, growing the tax base, growing the quality, and you see here are three priorities to do so. public safety, prosperity, and you know, the uh the work we do with infrastructure and the and our expansion of recreational assets. And I' I've got some information about those things to talk about. Next, please, Arlene. Next. So, since Rachel's here after a week and a half, I wanted to give her a ton of credit for the great work the library's done this year. She wrote a book, uh,

had a great summer reading program. I mean, this this has been great. No, I I called John Mark a few couple weeks ago and said, "Hey, John Mark, you know, we've put this presentation together. You had a really great year. Thank you for all you you did." And thank you because you authorized I don't know if you remember but you authorized the money in ARPA to publish this book or we wouldn't have we wouldn't have been able to do it as as efficiently as we did. Chapter 52's been around 10 years and I I wanted to mention that it was about then we made a decision that we we just couldn't tolerate blight. If we saw blight we had to do something about it. That building was blight. And so when we had the opportunity and talking with the library needing to expand, we asked city council, can we buy that building and and renovate it? Which we did. And now 10 years later, it's still active. A lot of circulation at the library. The couple of kudos I wanted to share with you. This growth in the Libby ebook app, 125,000 ebooks. I mean, that's we wouldn't have said that 5 years ago. That's literally just new benefit for everybody who uses the library. It's pretty awesome. And then last thing that's new, and I know that you heard Lori Burgess talk about this, she's super proud of the experience passes because they're maxed out all the time. Literally, people want to use those to get into a variety of places for free. It's it's really a nice thing. Next, please. So, we had some uh places open. Uh we've the Norris is on the west side of town. You I think some of you were there for the grand opening of Wendy's. Uh Tom's Drive-In just is breaking ground this

week just next to Backyard Grill. And then I I put the big picture of the beer company up because I don't know how many times over the years I heard, why don't we have a brewery? If only we had a brewery. Well, we didn't the city didn't put money into this, but you know, as a result of some support partnership, now there's a brewery. And and I think that's a really good outcome because you can remember that building, I think, as you drove on Fourth Street. It needed some it needed something. And so, you know, it was like a two birds with one stone situation getting that renovated. Next, please, Arlene. On the right there is Main Street when it was about halfway done getting ready to be paved. I I want to call out a few things. Uh big kudos to uh the water superintendent and the water utility because we're really accelerating now our replacement of lead service lines. You can see we're almost at 500 this year. Next year we'll be at 700 for the summer. That's that's really really a good pace. Now what we're doing over at the wastewater treatment facility is just fantastic. I mean it is setting the standard. People are traveling to Fondelac to see the wastewater treatment plant because of what's going on over there currently and also what's being added with the bioolids dryer and the purification the gas purification system. And you know, it's thanks to you that we were able to make that investment because that's one of the biggest investments we've made in a long, long time in that plant. And it's it's really impressive. A lot of awards have been won by that team. Thank Paul and Chris and everybody, Adam Schmidt, for all the coordination that went into Main Street. You know, it was

a big undertaking. was easy to put off over the decades because there's a lot of pain and inconvenience involved. But I think it came out pretty good and it looks nice and u you know we won't have to do that again for a while. You may remember that in the budget memo I wrote to you about the the barriers that we wanted to start using. We we we've we identified quite some time ago that there's a threat associated with mass gatherings of people on a street. There's no doubt about that. How to how to best protect against that threat? We've determined is to use these barriers and you've seen some of them out. They're the yellow accordion looking things. We thanks to you, we're going to buy more of them in 2026 so that we'll be able to button up every event that happens on our streets in the city. And I'm I'm really happy about that. We've replaced a ton of light, street lights, and that saves a lot of money and a lot of energy when you you uh implement LED. And then lastly, I would say that now with the delivery of our new buses, our our bus fleet is as as new as it's been, it's it's incredibly wellmaintained and, you know, Nicole's, you know, on top of that. But it's it's really great. we were able to get the the buses in just parenthetically incredibly long lead time on those things. So, some of those were ordered four or five years ago. So, that's that's really good for the community, especially people who who need those buses. Next, Charlene. Yeah. So the top right, another thing that uh I was often asked, I'm sure you were too, you all often wondered, you know, when is that Home Depot ever going to be something? And all these years, Home Depot, the company was paying its lease. There wasn't really any

motivation for the building owner to do anything. Well, that that lease came to an end, and then that that building sold, and now it's it's being redeveloped. Uh there's for sure five retailers, maybe six going in there, but that's what you see if you drive by there right now. It's it's being completely repackaged for for retail. And then you see we've had a couple of other retail openings this year that appear to be quite popular with people. So that's that's really good and a good use of those spaces, too. Next, Charlene. Once again, super impressive in the police department. Uh, another we're on a path again to uh for accreditation, reacredititation. That's that's really impressive. Uh, only if you lived it in the police department, could you know how what a painful preparation that is. And um and they knocked it out of the park. So, that's that's fantastic. I will say that another thing that's really impressive with with the police department is the way it has embraced its role in supporting people that are unhoused. And I I think that's that's good for all of you to know and reflect on because I think in a lot you you will read a lot of in a lot of places there's conflict between law enforcement and homelessness and trying to enforce uh the the rules that are on the books. And we haven't had those problems here because our police department leadership has has an attitude of support and caring and empathy. And that's that's really been a a good thing. That third point's really important, too. Uh, what that's referring to is people that businesses that serve alcohol. So, the police department cut the

failure rate in half. That's through education. That's through mentoring. That's through a whole lot of handholding. That's a really good outcome. And then the in the next point, what we're talking about here is we're not stopping people just to stop people. we're stopping people in a traffic stop situation because we we want to find any drugs or guns that are in the cars that we might be stopping. And so that's that's why there's been a real focus in that area. And then I highlighted that word training without going into a lot of details. you you can rest assured and be proud of the police department that you have that they're incredibly well trained, always paying attention to training and making sure that all the senior people are trained as well as all the new. Next, Darlene. So, this year we added a third hospital. So, two years ago, Aurora expanded significantly. Now we have uh uh we have SSM expanding, but I but I show a picture here of Thetaare because it's built from the ground up. It's it's incredibly nice addition and from what they've told me, all their forecasts for their patient load are essentially coming to fruition. So that's been a really nice outcome. They've gotten off to a good start. In the middle there is uh the picture of what is ongoing about a million and a half dollar investment over at Marane University to retool that ball field so that it's all artificial turf so that rain is no longer an enemy. And then on the right that is uh a picture of Sam Meyers building on the bottom right before he got to grass planted. And then on the top right there, right after he opened it, and I point that out because the site was

blighted and the little old building in the front, it sure looked like blight when it was over on Mars Street. So again, really, really upgraded both the building and that site. Next, Arlene. And by the way, I've only got about 40 more slides and then be out of here. No, but I mean, we got to celebrate, right? If we don't do it, who will? Um so fire rescue uh the again they had the accreditation team here and fire rescue uh did everything they needed to do to successfully complete that and they were recommended for accreditation. So that's that's a great outcome. The fourth ambulance now is completely integrated into the operation. So, it's it's on duty full-time around the clock. We've had a lot of good acknowledgement and and um recognition in fire rescue. And I just noted the one here with the emergency response heroes award. That's that's very impressive. And I think you've seen how the Red Cross when they've come to visit, the kind of accolades they they share with this with our fire rescue. And I I wanted to call that out because of that. And then I I thank you and and and fire rescue for uh being attentive to this conversation about another fire station. You know, that's a work in progress, but you authorized us the opportunity to do some design work in 2026. So, we'll keep moving forward on that and uh I feel good about where we are on that as well. Thanks, Darlene. A lot of acronyms. These are all Trish's acronyms. U but re really really important that

ERP has has dominated a team of about 10 people uh so substantially the last few months. It's amazing that they're able to do their full-time job. Uh the the amount of commitment to training and and deploying that is is impressive. and it's going to make us a better organization for the long haul and that's where we're making the investment. Trisha and her team did a great job with with the audit and the acter and I I mentioned that it's it's not really, you know, fancy, but it's really important to to be that successful in those areas. It's great that uh we're recognized with certificates of achievement every year for the Afford. And uh lastly, I'll mention that Trisha and Paul, Travis, and the team really were attentive in in figuring out how to acquire a number of different revenue streams via the safe drinking water loan so that it's the the lead services expenses aren't all borne by city of FondeLac rateayers. So we they they have acquired external funding for that which has been great. On the next Orlelene, I just wanted to highlight some things with our parks because we've made so such substantial investments in the parks and and these are some of the payoffs. So we we installed three playgrounds in 2025. They all seem to be quite popular. pavilion parking lot. Re sort of a nons sexy effort, but sure came out great and added a lot of parking and a lot of access. I really like how the bridge came out, too. We got that done just in time for

the holiday lighting. That was great. And then this one I wanted to talk about just a little bit, the carousel building. So, you know, in the last year in the capital improvement plan, we have a carousel building because those old horses are like antiques. They're they are one of a kind things and they've got to be hand painted, etc. And so Dave Whan owns those horses and and advised us that the the weather and the climate just too hard on them and they need protection. And so, uh, we're building a building to allow the merrygoround, the carousel to stay in place and not have to be disassembled and moved every year. And that has to be done. That that's a custom design. And I feel good about having that done by Memorial Day. And we we're on that that's going to be a a big improvement. Maybe not noticeable to people, but we'll know that we will have preserved a real historical real history there with the carousel. Some other things uh we we have over the years been investing more in Hamilton Park. We felt like that was somewhat of an underserved area. And Hamilton Park now's it's got a great, you know, it's got bathrooms, but it's got a great playground. It's got a lot of amenities that it didn't have. [clears throat] redid the tennis courts over at Buttermilk Creek. Uh really nice walking trail at Trail Taylor Park now. And new basketball courts over there, too. And then maybe you may not have noticed it, but there's a gazebo out in the middle of the lake at Ledge View Corporate Center, and we had that redone this year. It's all repainted like new, so that that came out nicely. And then couple pictures over to the right. I wanted to mention uh Diane's not here to take the accolade, but she really was

the the leader in in getting all these signs designed and getting them deployed. And I think they came out great all around the trail. And I put the grandstand the uh the stage in here because you recall the city was the biggest donor to that project and it went in it, you know, it it opened this year and that's that's a great thing. Quite popular, too. Next, please. I wanted to give CAT some CAT duven some accolades. They've had a lot of work this year. There's some uh ARPA money sprinkled in here, but I'm not going to call it out specifically. I just wanted to highlight that uh we've done all we need to do now to have our underground fiber completely uh updated and serving everywhere we need it to serve. And then uh we did a lot of work with Wi-Fi to make it better in the downtown. And we finished up all the the cameras that we wanted to upgrade and also to make them all the same. Over the years when we needed another camera here or there, we might go to Best Buy, we might go whatever. We had a collection of a wide variety. Was not very good for maintenance and and now we've got a uniform branding and and warranties, etc. And so the it did a great job with with all of that. Next, please, pardon me, couple things I wanted to call out in the downtown. I've I've mentioned the word blight. Uh the corner of division and Maine had one piece of blight left. You know, on the left of that food hall picture is the Rhett law. In the background is 18 hands. So those buildings were totally renovated. This food hall is about 90% done. It's

going to be done completely in March and we have we have identified a team to help manage that with us and for us which is a great outcome. And as you drive on Main Street, people may ask you what's going in there next to it. That's the demo there in the middle picture. That's going to be a food court, outdoor food court that ties into the food hall. And there's an elevator that we've put in to get people upstairs in the in the food hall, too, if they if they need that kind of help. But that's going to be that's going to be really nice. That's a first class renovation. And then Sam Meyers project, you know, that that building wasn't quite blight on the top right, but it was headed that way. And you know, Sam bought that building. You may recall we we're partnering financially pretty substantially in that project. That's a good thing. And so the the renovation's fully underway now. I was over that way today. And u what they've done just in the back part of the building is changed it completely. So there's a lot of great work going on there to create more residences. Next, Arlene. We're almost to the end. So four new neighborhoods. The ones on the left are between Highway V and Martin. If you drive on Highway V down towards the BP, Park A used to just stub right there. You couldn't go anywhere if you took a right. Now you can go halfway across to the water tower. That's what those pictures are. And so there'll be houses built out there, duplexes, single family, etc. And then on the right, the uh picture on the bottom is of the new Lynn Avenue. It's open, so you can

drive from Highway K, which is the in the foreground back there toward Aurora. You you can get through there now. And so, uh, Robert's Homes is building houses in there. You probably see a handful of them there with just the Tyveac wrap on them that have come out of the ground and they're being finished. And then up above that is a new street that goes way back towards those trees. That's in in front of Holy Family. So that neighborhood's being developed by Addison Jones. And you'll recall you authorized us to be financially involved in those projects, too. And the great thing is it worked just the way we we said. So we're going to make investments in infrastructure. We got the work done. Now they're building the houses. That's that's a really good outcome. Thanks, Arlene. So, we've got a few things we're paying attention to. This is not an all-inclusive list. Kind of the top five. Kind of self-explanatory. You know that we're going to keep working on housing construction. And I can tell you that we've had a pos really positive conversation with one developer who has submitted for tax credits for property on Police Memorial Drive. If you can picture where uh SSM is off of Camelot and Police Memorial Drive goes from there over to Martin, there's a farm field there. So, that's of interest to perhaps put in about 60 units there. So, we'd like to see that. And then the the FE uh property, that parking lot, we've talked to you any number of times about. We we've got a we've got a conversation right after the first of the year with a potential developer, too. So, those those are two things that I I think are showing real potential. And you know they both of those will

address affordability as well which is important. And then you know Chief Goldstein can talk to you all day long about drug abuse and domestic violence and Chief Garrison can too because he's you know going to help people that are are suffering with that. And then you know we we've got uh we've talked about homelessness a number of times. I will say that uh we we had a get together over the Katherine Drexel facility a couple of weeks ago with the whole team that's involved and I've never seen such good communication, good sharing of ideas, etc. That that was really impressive. people are really thinking they're really aligned on on supporting people who are having challenges that lead to homelessness and the warming shelter's been running under capacity so far this season. So, they're doing great work, too. And u I have to give an accolade to to the Holy Family community because, you know, they had the priest on the roof and I think it was over the course of four freezing hours that they ra $60,000 just like that. They went from 0 to 60. They had one of those thermometers where you color it in. And long before it was over with, it was colored in. just people were bringing checks non-stop. So that that was really really [clears throat] great. So anyways, warming shelters in good shape doing good work. Next, please. I always uh talk about these things just to remind everybody. I anytime I uh talk to people, we had some school kids in here a couple weeks ago and I asked them to guess how many gallons of water we pump out of the ground every day and they're like a thousand, a million. You know, the guy who said a million thought

he was being crazy, but no, it's, you know, 5 million every day. So, and and the thing that is really interesting about that is all the maintenance that has to go on to make that happen, right? And um you know, our water utility does great work, but everything there is pretty self-explanatory and you know, we do we do that every day. Next, please. You've seen this before. This is the updated version from Edelman. I I always look at this because it keeps you humble. You know, when when asked, people will say that folks like me that are in government are generally not competent and we are unethical. And u you know what I would ask of you is to remind people that okay maybe that's true other places but that you know you're the board of directors you're the city council of an organization that is you know operating in the upper right quadrant where we've got competence and ethics not the bottom left quadrant. But in any event you know we we see this u every day. We've got to, you know, make sure we're always communicating well with people because the tendency is to believe the worst and not to be able to trust too much. And we we're trying to overcome that all the time with good performance. Next, and I think last any questions, thoughts? I mean, you you all were a big part of that, so thank you for that. And um I hope it makes you feel good. We had a good year. All right. Well, thank you for the presentation and welcome. Uh I want to say welcome to Rachel for sitting through your first council meeting and council presentation and welcome. Um and uh I will open it up to council for questions or comments. [snorts]

And remember uh you hit your button on your um microphone, not on the computer app. Mr. Shler, don't forget that the RDA got 146 Shabboan Street. [laughter] And if you drive by, it's busy, busy, busy. Mr. Shler, some stuff I got I can't do everything. I [laughter] can't I can't say. [cough] But yes, I mean that renovation looks good. Thank you, RDA. Yes. Yes.

All right. Are there any other questions or comments? I'm not. Well, I'll jump in and if anybody has anything, please just hit your button. Um, [clears throat] but I just want to say thank you for the presentation. I think seeing the past year laid out, it's kind of shocking how much has been done in a good way.

You know, there there's been some incredible projects, some painful projects like Main Street and uh the Proman Drive Bridge. You know, how many people were complaining about they couldn't do their loops through the park this summer and um just so many things were done. Um, so I just want to say thank you to all of our department heads and to your staff, all the city staff for everything that has been accomplished this year. It's it's just pretty amazing. And um, yeah, it just makes you feel good about living here. Um,

Miss Brol, I got to say something. It it's funny because, you know, we've been renovating the PD while operating the PD and and this last phase caused the chief to have to relocate and he really had to take one for the team because he relocated into an office [laughter] that was just slightly larger than he is. and and and the he and the assistant chiefs are kind of tucked away in these little little rooms, but yes, I mean, so I didn't mention things like that, but even even things like that going on inside the buildings to, you know, make those things nice is good. All right, Mr. Heisler.

Yeah, thank you again for the presentation, Joe.

Lengthy, but worth it. That's the summary. It was really, really great. And and and I just wanted to also say thanks again to all the department heads cuz doing the budget every year, man, I I don't know how you guys do it. You got you you this really tough financial constraints and and for that budget to be as good as it was and continue to provide all the great things that it does. I mean, that that was honestly mind-blowing because we're going through these budget books for months and months and months and we're going and we're doing the minutia of digging through projects and all that sort of stuff and then to see a presentation where the budget ends and all this stuff comes out of the budget and all the things that we do on a day-to-day service continues, it's it's pretty amazing stuff. So, kudos to all of you. Thank you very much.

All right. Well, I am not seeing anybody hitting their buttons, so no more questions or comments. So, thank you again, Mr. Moore. Thank you to all of our department heads and staff on a great year. Uh, and with that, that ends our input or yes, that ends our input items. So, um, I also just want to take some time to wish everybody a merry Christmas and hope you have a happy new year. Um, because this is our last meeting of 2025. So, with that, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. And you can second. All right. We have a motion by Mr. Zimmerman, a second by Miss Laring. Uh this is not debatable. Please proceed to vote and make sure to get into

your All right, we are adjourned. your