Village Board - Regular Meeting

Welcome to the Village of Cottage Grove Village Board of Trustees meeting on Monday, February 2nd, Groundhog's Day, 2026. Um, this is a hybrid meeting both uh in person at Village Hall and on Zoom. Um, and that Zoom link is at the top of the agenda. You can also choose to watch our meetings on our YouTube channel. It is 6:30, so I'll call the meeting to order. We have a quorum and the agenda was properly posted. So, we'll stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance 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. All right. Item four, public's appearances, public's opportunity to speak. This is the portion of the meeting for community members to share comments and concerns with the village board. Um this is not a dialogue with the village board, so we won't have an exchange back and forth. Each speaker will have up to three minutes. Um and we ask that everyone respect the rights and viewpoints of others. So we'll begin with individuals who have submitted a request to speak form and are present um this um this evening. And then if anyone is on Zoom, we'll move um to Zoom and make sure that we um make hear all of their comments as well. So we do have um two wish to speak forms. Um, John, if you want to come up first, you can just state your name, um, your address, and then you'll get three minutes to speak. You can either sit or stand, and then we ask that you push the little guy speaking to make and it turns red and then the microphone's on. Thank you.

Yeah. My name is John Merrick. I live at 604 North Main Street and I'm a part owner of 616 North Main Street. Both in their reszoning. I don't I don't want my property resed. If you guys want to reszone the properties that you own, go right ahead. But you buy them first before you reszone any. That's what I think. Can I ask you a few more questions? We can't go back and forth, but you can ask those questions and we'll have that conversation during that agenda item.

One question is at the planning thing they said that you're going to sell the property to the to a developer and they're going to develop it. Correct. When you sell the properties, are you going to sell the properties at the price you paid the homeowners for, or are you going to jack the price up? That's not right. If you jack the price up, why should you make more money than me? I've been there over about 20 years. And you guys do enimate domain. Will you kick me out if we don't agree on a price if and when that happens? So, don't reszone my property or 616. I got a part in that one, too. Thank you.

Is there anyone else in the room that would wish to speak? Sorry, I'm just asking if anyone else in the room. Otherwise, we do have a wish to speak form. Katherine, I believe, is online. I am. Go ahead.

Hi, how are you? Um, I have questions. We had a talk with Aaron um about the reszoning and the um the area that you canvased uh the 400 yard radius around the property where you notified the um the owners. Um it just out of this conversation it seems like there were a lot more questions that came up rather than uh sort of resolving some of the issues. Um one of them was uh I saw the original plan of the development which only went up to the lumber yard and then after our mom passed I noticed that line jumped to include our property. Um, and I'm not sure why that happened or um, as Aaron described, it was just um, it's a large parcel and so it sounded like you wanted to restrict the sale of who we sold it to. Um, I know that we are all gr grandfathered in, but the question is when the next buyer comes up, what happens with them? Do they only keep it as uh rentals or can they do other things on the property? Some other issues came up with um the traffic that is actually on Cottage Grove Road and North Main Street as is right now. Um, at peak times it's basically bumper-to-bumper and that's not really including Amazon that hasn't opened yet. Um, and it doesn't seem like there were any studies or surveys or anything to

kind of project the f the fact that this is going to allow 100 to 200 more people if you're getting storefronts and apartments on top. How is that going to flow into um the busy streets that we already have? Um and addressing the 400 yard radius as the contact point. Uh this development is going to affect the whole village and not just this corner. So the question is why aren't you doing any more studies on and getting more people involved to actually live on the outside of that 400yard marker. Um, those are some of the main questions that came out of that um, conversation that um, I know that Aarin is on here, but it just seemed like these are questions that should come up prior to reszoning this area and actually what the people actually want. I mean, you just have to engage the people more, I believe, before you actually can reszone this area. Thank you. Is there anyone else on Zoom that would like to speak? property as well. Correct.

Um I'm talking mainly by the 616 North Main Street. Um all 10 children own that property. And so just kind of addressing why that line jumped up and included our property when all along everyone knew it was only up to the lumber yard. And then after our mom passed, uh it just seemed like it was just a intentional jump. um to our property. Uh okay, thank you. Is there anyone else in the room or on Zoom?

Okay. Um we're going to move on in the agenda then. Um and there's going to be discussion um later on where the board will have a discussion about the reszone. Um so we have discuss and consider the minutes from the village board meeting on January 20th, 2026. Those meeting minutes are linked in the agenda. I'll move approval of the minutes as presented. I'll second. There's a motion and a second. Any other discussion on this item? I had a comment, but I couldn't get off of Zoom or that mute thing.

I'm sorry. We're um public comments has passed. Is it the same? Well, I couldn't get the mute off my system. Let's just finish the this we'll finish this item and then we'll pop back to public appearances. Okay. Okay. So, we have a motion in a second on the meeting minutes. Any other discussion? Otherwise, all those in favor? I I I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. Okay. We'll pop back up to public appearances for you. Okay. Can I talk?

Yep. If you can just state your name and your address. Linda Andy, 520 Prairie Avenue, FondeLac, Wisconsin. And I would like to uh agree with my sister Catherine. All right, we're back online. I apologize. Um, Linda, I want to make sure that we allow you to have the full time again. So, if you want to start your statement over for us, please.

Okay. I would like to uh stress that I agree with Katherine wholeheartedly uh in that there was no survey or studies done on the resoning and also the traffic flow and also why 616 was an afterthought and added once my mother had passed and also I keep hearing that it's the downtown revitalization and that area is not downtown. Downtown is more like the 1848 I believe that restaurant is called. I would consider that downtown. Um, but I I am very um strongly encouraging everyone to do more of a study and more of an outreach to the general population of the town because that intersection is quite necessary in the traffic patterns during the day. Um, that's all I have to say. Thank you for your comments. Um I just want to make sure we didn't miss anyone else.

All right, we're going to move on. Um we have under number new six uh discuss and consider uh new business number six new business discuss and consider resolution 2026-2 um TID 5 termination. And there's a memo in the agenda. I'll turn it over to Cameron.

Yeah. So the resolution is a pretty straightforward resolution. Um this is the act at the end of a a TID's useful life um when it's recovered all of its costs. The resolution is just a signal to do that the property and the value is returning to the general tax role. Um, so after tonight, uh, if the resolution is passed, um, I'll communicate out to our assessors, um, the property management at Dayne County, um, as well as do and just communicate that the the TID has officially closed. Um, some things I guess I want to highlight with with TIDF because this this is a um, I know we use the word TID and TIFF a lot, I guess, tax incremental financing district. um for those who are listening online. Um and and really these um these districts are intended to um create growth that would otherwise not happen without the assistance um whether that be um necessarily public infrastructure or other demographical uh or sorry um other geographical reasons on why an area might be difficult to develop. So, TID 5 opened in 2005 um cornerstone um with Summit eventually coming in into the mix um and eventually kind of filling out here with the last uh couple projects with one community bank and um JK um filing out the rest. So, there's only one remaining property in the TID district um which is village owned that would even be developable. Um in in Matt's update, you'll see a little bit later, there is one property that um Johnson Healthtech owns that um they'll consider in um an addition at some point

in time. Um why this is important is um before TID 5 um the the community really lacked a commercial tax base. Um and so over the course of the development in TID 5 um there was a significant amount of both commercial and and multifamily um development added to the general tax base which helps um spread out the overall tax burden. Um, in the tax insert that was sent out in December, um, there was a paragraph describing, um, residents should expect to see approximately a $1,300 decrease in their taxes um, coming out in December. And so, um, the kind of numbers to keep in mind when you're looking at your property tax bill is if you're you had assessment of 315,000 or approximately $450,000 equalized value. That's what we're referring to in the homeowners expecting to see about a $1,300 decrease. And and that wouldn't have been possible without the additional tax base created through the district. And so what happens when a district closes is instead of that the the village holding on to the the funds for the four pieces of the the tax district um it now goes and returns to each individual taxing jurisdiction. Um but that doesn't necessarily give each individual taxing jurisdiction additional authority to levy. Um, so sometimes I get a common question is is why why don't we use um some of the extra increment that's generated to pay down debt or do special projects and because we don't have that taxing authority anymore, it goes away and goes into each individual taxing authority. Um, so some of the assumptions that were kind of made with that $1300 decrease in uh on taxes next year is we were pretty conservative with estimating what our share of the Manoa owner Grove

School District's property taxes. We do know know that when the TID comes back onto the general role that our percentage increase of that district because it's calculated in TID out. Um so what happens is it takes our general equalized value less the development that happens within the the TID districts. So we'll see um an estimated increase from 30.8 to roughly 35% um in my estimation just to be conservative to make sure that we were giving a realistic number from a a cost share perspective. Um it kind of also part of that estimate was that the Manona Grove would not be receiving any additional state aid. Um you know there is some legislation out there um at the governor's office about potentially providing some state aid. Um the way school districts work they get they have a revenue calculation and property tax is just just a net effect of state aid less their revenue calculation. So obviously if they would receive any more state aid that could further reduce what the levy is next year. But for now we're assuming that nothing's going to change um until December. Also assumed in our our decrease was that no other bodies would be passing referendums in 2026. Obviously we're past the April date. Um but there is time for either Dane County um Manona Grove or the Tech College to go to referendum in November. We haven't heard anything that that's a direction that any of those bodies are are choosing to go at this time. Um, also in our assumptions was an increase to the Dayne County levy of about 1 and a.5% and Madison Tech College about 3% both about a percent or percent and a half more than historical averages. Again, what we were communicating out to residents, we wanted to be conservative. So that saving figure might be more than what was presented, but we wanted to

give something that residents could count on next year. So what this will result in is um the the t the equalized. Now when you see your taxes, you typically see the assessed ratio, but when we're talking about comparing a year of doing revaluation, it's better to talk about the equalized rates because then we're comparing apples to apples. So the equalized rate for this year was $19 38 well 19.389. Um and the next year we're anticipating for that equalized rate which is all the districts combined at $1625. Um so a pretty significant decrease in the overall tax rate. Um so happy that you know the district served its purpose. Um what we will have to do um from a a year from the date that the resolution is passed, we have to file with do um the final accounting report. Um I anticipate that final accounting report to be finished up in September. Once that report is finalized, I am able to distri distribute the surplus funds to the overlying taxing jurisdictions. Um and I have provided estimates to the the overlying tax jurisdictions about what those figures will be. Um so at this point if anybody has any questions otherwise

open up for questions from board members and if there are none it is a discuss and consider I'll move approval of resolution 2026-2 regarding TID number five termination. Second. There's a motion by Murphy and a second by Stowa. Any other discussion? All those in favor? I I opposed abstain. Motion carries. Uh we have discuss and consider resolution 2026-03 uh Black History Month. I would move approval of resolution 26 2026-03.

I'll second. There's a motion by Severson, second by Kell Nelson. Any other discussion on it? Otherwise, thank you Heidi for drafting it for us tonight. All those in favor? I

opposed abstain. Motion carries. Number seven, reports from village boards, commissions, and committees. First up is the plan commission. So, this is the um the agenda is linked there a meeting from a couple of weeks ago that was previously reported on at the last village board meeting. Um, we're bringing back the discuss and consider the request from ourselves to reszone the parcels that are listed from planned business to central business. Um, there's a new memo um, kind of outlining uh, the process and the discussions that have happened since. Aaron, if you want to kind of maybe go over that memo um, and staff recommendations.

Yeah. So, this was um pushed back to this meeting to allow more conversation with some of the affected property owners and obviously we've heard some of the from some of them already. Um spoke with Katherine and the Merrick family. Um and also Sherry, another one of the property owners uh in the area. Um you heard some of their concerns about um just input and knowing more about what the project's going to be. That's all built into the scope of the comp plan amendment that's going to happen later this year. So there will be, you know, a broader public input process and um additional design work for that area built into the plan. Um given that that's coming up probably late summer or fall, I'm fine holding off on doing any resoning until we have that process if that makes the property owners more comfortable. comments from board members

going that direction and waiting until the um till we're updating the comp plan and really allow the whole community to have say in this um in what they want to see right in the middle of town I think makes a lot of sense. So technically, do we table this until that point or do we um just take no action and Rick's microphone is like muting him. Uh so because the village is the applicant, I think we could just if that's the direction the board wants to go, we could just move to withdraw the request since the village is the one making the request. That way we're not dealing with like a denial or a tableabling, but we would have to start the process over again once um if the village decides to go forward with resoning at some point in the future.

I would move we withdraw the application for the resoning. And I'll second. All right. There's a motion and a second. Other discussion?

Yeah. Um I have no problem postponing this. It's fine. I just I did want to me I did want to clarify what is happening and what is not happening. The reasoning is not we're not talking about what's going to go there in 20 years. We're not talking about what we want to see there. Zoning is by its nature restrictive. So really what a reszoning would do is make sure we don't have things there that we don't want. We don't want a strip mall and we don't want a big huge tower or anything like that. Um so that was the original intent of this bill. As to the um traffic um it's already zoned business. So I I again that's that's another that's a different step in the process. Um some things are getting kind of conflated. This is this is just trying to push it in a direction for the form we want it to take. When it if it gets developed there will be a traffic impact analysis at that point whether it stays planned business or whether it gets resoneed to central business. So, there will be some kind of traffic analysis at some point regardless of what it's zoned as. Um, and I think, if I was hearing this right, maybe I'm wrong on this, but I think that the difference the woman was talking about the two lines bumping up. I think maybe that's one is that property is not in the TID district, but it is in the planned business district. So, I think maybe that's why those two lines seem inongruous. I don't know why they are like that, but I think that's what that is.

I would just like to say a couple things. Um, so in terms of um John, your question about eminent domain. Um, I can only pledge for myself. I've never liked eminent domain. Um, I would never vote for eminent domain. Um, I don't believe it's the right of the government to take people's property. So, just know that. Um, I actually heard some similar comments about what is Cottage Grove's downtown. Um, and some people think it's, you know, Cottage Grove Road down by like Piggly Wiggly. Some people who've lived here a long time think it's the area by 1855. Um, so I think one of the things that needs to happen, and maybe this is part of the comp plan, um, but I think we need to have like a public discussion on what is our downtown. Um, and the way that the village has come about, right, is in different pieces. So we don't have like defined downtown like Stoton. So you know, what would the public like to see um, in that regard? I think that's a big conversation that needs to be had. Um and then you know obviously traffic is going to play a role as well. Um you know it may even be a consideration honestly um if we look for an additional spot for a fire station um if depending on what the PAA study says if it says you know it makes sense for like let's say a village only fire department right um you're going to want to place it in an area that's easy to get to other areas. And so there might be other uses um that we're not even think about thinking about today. So just wanted to throw those comments out there. Um I think there were additional some additional questions about what if we acquired the properties what we would sell it for. And I think that's all future to be determined on how the request for proposals would go and how what the visioning eventually looks like. The work that we do this year is kind of setting us up for next steps. Um

and just kind of reiterating the um what Chris said that traffic studies and you know all of those steps come further along with development once we know what more what the project is. So it's a very early preliminary work right now. Um but agree that you know resoning doesn't have to happen um today. We're going to go through the comp plan revisions and then we're going to go through visioning exercises and really incorporate all of your feedback and then you know resident feedback too and make sure we do a good job of this. Um there was a comment too about the 400 yard notification which is part of our ordinance. Um so everyone within 400 ft of the reszone got a notification. Um, and again, when it comes to, you know, doing the comp plan and the visioning exercises and those types of things, it'll be villagewide um, information. Any other comments? Just on the 400T, we have reviewed that 400 ft and we're like the farthest distance in

double in Dayne County. So, I'm glad that we send um to that many people um to get exactly the feedback we uh were looking for on this for those properties nearby. So, I appreciate that. And I think there have been other comments too about is the village going to be a landlord and that's also not not the case. So, there's still a lot of work to be to be done. And then please, you know, continue to reach out to staff if you have additional questions. And you know, I know Erin's happy to sit down and continue having conversations to make sure concerns are addressed. All right, so there is a motion and a second on the table. Um, any other discussion? Otherwise, all those in favor? I

I

opposed abstain. Motion carries. All right. Update from the emergency preparedness committee. So, um the Emergency Preparedness Committee, soon to be renamed, is um met on Friday, January 23rd at 9:00 a.m. Uh we um discussed we appointed chair, vice chair, um approved minutes from the previous meeting and then um discussed the emergency preparedness plan and um potential ordinance changes for recommendation to the village board. Um we discussed re committee restructuring and name change to make sure it's consistent. We talked about website updates. Um and items that came out of this meeting were that we will have a new draft of the emergency management plan, new name, um for the committee to approve and then as recommended to the village board for final approval. Um we made a recommendation for committee restructuring to kind of make staff and maybe possibly Mona Grove School District non- voting members incorporate village board members and some citizens on that committee. changed the name to emergency management committee plan and director. And um we'll have a revised website to also take a look at at our next meeting which is February 27th at 9:00 a.m. and it'll be hybrid again. So Rick has a lot of homework to do to get ready for that meeting. Um but I think you know had a lot of good discussion, a lot of changes and um put that plan together and then bring it back to the village board for the first meeting in March. Did I miss anything? I

I think you hit everything. Um, yeah, the goal is to have uh recommendations for changes to the plan and ordinance changes for the emergency management committee. I guess that's the recommended new name. So, that would be at the February 27th and then coming out of committee, it would come to the village board for approval, potential approval of the ordinance changes and emergency management plan. Yes. All right, moving along to Cottage Grove Fire District Commission.

Was anyone at the meeting? Trusty Doll usually takes pretty good notes, but I see he's virtual, so I would be happy to go through the agenda. Yeah, I had thought you had done minutes for the meeting, so I was assuming you were going to take it here, Heidi. Oh, I do. I just subbed for minutes but uh last meeting but Renee did you have the minutes? Okay.

Okay. So um to begin with um see here the chief's report was noted that in the month of January that 20% of the calls were false alarms. So, I'll circle back around to that. Um, in 2025, it was the highest volume call ever, 387 calls that year. Um, so the higher incidents, there's also been a higher incidence of accidents which have impacted both the village and the town. Um, the fire chief put together annual report which we reviewed. Um the um there's a memo from um Chief Gary about what to do about the the um high volume of false alarms. And so it was discussed um a graduated policy um which would offer an educational step up um for repeat offenders. The first call would offer an opportunity to educate um individuals on their alarm system. Um the second time they called in, it would be um a verbal and a written warning. And third time, then the fines begin three on up. And it was discussed, do we agree to starting um each year January 1st through December 31st or do we um do the rolling um I forget the I'm looking for the correct terminology where for example if um somebody calls in on April um 3 that would be the start of the new year for that particular homeowner. So it was determined or discussed how do we uh keep track of that. Um law enforcement will be

responsible for um doing any of the citations. Um there was a discussion about the um fishbowl um chairs which Cameron sent out uh notification and that's going to be uh tabled until uh further funding is determined. Um, electrical upgrades have been complete. Um, stripping on the apparatus bay has not the vendor has not been showing up. It's not clear why the vendor has not been showing up to do the job. They're waiting until it's warmer out. Uh, Chief Archable then will be looking for another vendor um or waiting until spring for that to occur. um the um discuss the town and village public works the on call systems over this past year there's been a handful of incidents where uh public works has not been re been reachable after hours which has been causing a delay in homeowners receiving service. So, it was discussed that Chief Archbold and Kyla will be hopefully getting together in the near future to work out a plan. Um, so when homeowners call in after hours and call public works and there's nobody available, then they call back to emergency and those calls automatically go to uh Dne County Dispatch, which then fire and police are both notified. So they all show up at the scene and the problem has been that with the turnover of staff and public works, some of them live further away. So it's taking them um anywhere from an hour or so to get to the scene and in the meanwhile um trying to um coordinate

um turning water off. Fire does not have the keys to um turn water off. So that could lead to an educational opportunity between Chief Archbold and and Kyla to work together on how to resolve this issue. Um, and I think that's about it unless I missed anything else. Heidi or Pete

just add on that we talked a long time about the false alarms and how we're going to remedy that and um Chief Gary did a lot of research about um what some other communities around us do. Um, and so it it seems like going in um as uh Trusty Benzo was explaining um going updating our ordinances um and the town would like to then just copy or have the same ordinance as we do. However, it's so it would be a permitting process. So, everyone that has an alarm that's linked to automatically dial um 911 would um they would need to be have a permit in the village. Um and then that would be an educational opportunity to try to prevent some of these even the first false alarm um to start with and then um as explained earlier have that graduated um citation uh process for people that have repeat false alarms. Um so that you know can be um vary in range because either the property owner and has a tenant operates a buildingwide system or individuals in their home or individual units have a system. So there's a couple various types of alarm systems that can cause this. Um, so just trying to to curb that and make sure that important um life-threatening safety like the the important calls are getting through and um you know people that truly don't need service are you know disarming their calling off um the services in a timely manner. Um, so I I think we're looking for some direction.

Yeah, we're on the discussing sort of direction to staff because the direction was to from the commission to staff to do the ordinance, but it needs to come to the village board so we can direct uh the ordinance changes. Um, I don't know if Chief Gary, you had anything else on what you've been working on or what you're, you know, looking to draft. you both covered it fairly uh well. So um it'd be working with legal direction to work with legal.

So I know we had um talked about it at the LEC committee as well and I um I think I would prefer to see an annual instead of this rolling um fee or structure to be an annual calendar year. And I think it puts administrative burden on you know the departments and clerk to coordinate this and to track it which we don't necessarily want to do that but um I think if the applicant you know has to January one register their system every year then it makes sense to have a calendar year. Um,

are we giving staff direction or are we going to debate the merits or because I mean obviously we could spend a lot of time talking about the details and I think the the question and the discuss consider is to provide staff direction legal to work with Chief Jerry Gary on putting together framework to address the false alarm issue or do we want to dive into the details? So I think I mean we talked about this at committee level and bringing that back up to the I that's the direction I would like to see the ordinance go in. Um, we can certainly debate details. We can debate that because that's

Yeah, because we had a long conversation at at fire and I think there there was pretty much I I think Heidi, you were probably the only one that was into the 12-month rolling or the the 12-month calendar year. But, you know, I guess this is a deeper conversation if it's going to be discuss and consider the merits of of the ordinance or discuss and consider given staff direction. So, that's my direction I just gave you is I'd like to see it written as a calendar um year. I'd also like to see some type of change about for nonprofits. Um it's my understanding that some nonprofits were charged fees last year or fines last year. Um and I am not necessarily supportive of that and I'd like to see some type of language in the ordinance um for nonprofits. Yeah, I agree with the nonprofit, but I think the rolling versus calendar year, there's a lot of things to debate there. And I think at FIRE, there was very strong support from the town to have rolling. And I agree with rolling based on the merits of um the violations, if you will.

Okay. I just also this is a town village ordinance or this is just a village ordinance? No, we want to work with the town and the whole idea was to come up with something that uh we could adopt together and implement together. But again, if if we want to deviate, that's our choice. But it's not the type of work that we would like to do with the town. Although that we would be utilizing the resources um to write the ordinance and then they would they'll be reimbursing us. that that part wasn't discussed, but

what we discussed was that chief, you were going to work on putting together a framework before we invested in legal resources and that we would have an opportunity align on the framework because the way our ordinance was written right now is just automatic systems. And as we talk, there are other things that trigger false alarms that need to be addressed. and chief, you were going to look at that whole gamut of the false alarm universe and come with recommendations before we would actually implement legal uh work. Unless I'm missing something, chief, I'd say that we're at that point of legal needs to be involved if we're writing the ordinance to cover all these things.

So, do we have a draft of a framework? because when we met at fire, we really talked about a lot of questions and there was a lot of things that you were going to follow up on. The proposal that was brought up at fire and brought to LEC was the groundwork that would now lead into working with legal to give you what you're seeking. So then I guess the question that you're bringing up Cindy is do we do do we go down the path and develop an ordinance for the village and that's fine and we can certainly do that or do we want to partner with the town?

I can't hear anything. Sorry my mic is not working. Um the town expressed a great deal of interest in in working together on this. So if we can honor that and and work together. So are we looking at aou to split to share cost on this?

That's a good question. You're talking about LEC and fire. So it's it's a little bit twisted in terms of um the committees that are involved. And I don't think either spoke about how that the legal cost would be shared. I I would say um so we did not cost at speak about cost at le that's that's okay. Um I think either way regardless of we and the town have um exact ordinances or not. I think we need to kind of start moving on this because it's obviously a problem. Um, so I guess I would be in favor of um directing um Chief Gary and then Chief Archabald to work with um our attorneys uh to to draft this ordinance um based kind of on the staff me staff memo using that as our framework. Um I think one thing that we should put in there is a an exemption for medical um calls, right? because we don't be, you know, we don't want to penalize somebody who's having a medical issue or, you know, it ends up not being a big issue. Um, so that's a change I'd like to see. At leaning more towards the calendar year piece. Um, but now I'm thinking rolling only in the perspective that let's say somebody has um three situations, three false alarms in the month of December, right? And then January hits and they get a reset. I mean, I think that's the and maybe maybe I'm overthinking that, but I think that was kind of where the town was going with that sort of thing is, you know, it restarts the clock, but have they fixed the issue that led to three false alarms in a row? Um, and perhaps we can

just leave the calendar, the year kind of defined and figure that out, but I think we can start drafting the ordinance. Yeah. I I think if there's a just a framework for us to work from and put together an ordinance and that way when we we can bring it back there can be debate on the specifics of the language or provisions and then we can make the changes and bring it back for a final sort of approvable version uh based on that debate.

Guess only comment on this on the rolling average opposed to the calendar year. It's fine when you're talking about like three or four organizations. When we talk about scalability and tracking for a 100 plus false alarm community, um it just becomes a bigger administrative challenge to track. Um so from an administrative management perspective, I would strongly advocate for the one calendar year. Everybody starts fresh at the beginning of the year as opposed to having to keep track of each individual business. um it's just it's going to take more time, lead more chance for an error um from a tracking perspective. So

yeah, and the goal obviously is we don't want hundreds of false alarms. That is the root cause of the problem. And I think doing a calendar reset kind of gives a little bit of leniency where I think if you've got someone with three false alarms to reset to zero doesn't really implement the type of accountability we're looking for. So we can debate that after the fact whether it resets on calendar year or rolling. I don't think that impacts the framework and the ordinance that's put together and we can table this part of the discussion unless we want to hash it out. Now

can I just ask a clarifying question? Did we um I know when we talked at LEC obviously you're tracking these in the village. Um was there direction on how these are being tracked in the town? like you're not going to be tracking the town's false alarms. Correct. That is correct. We don't track the town's false alarms. Uh I know the fire department does. I can't speak for if uh Dane County Sheriff tracks other alarms for them. Okay.

Is Chief on the call? Maybe he can answer that for us. You know, false alarms are important on both sides, both fire as well as police, but at the end of the day, the burden that it puts on our volunteer department when half of the call

All right, so we're on the discuss and consider direction to staff regarding potential amendments, it sounds like direction from the village board is to have the chiefs work with our legal team um on ordinance changes, but maybe we'll have a future discussion since that Pete had to drop off. We want to make sure he's included on the rolling versus annual, but um please also maybe bring a full staff recommendation on what you would prefer to see and what kind types of pros and cons there are to to both scenarios for us to consider. Um and then I would like to see the language for the nonprofit and the additional language for the um medical incidences as well. Do you want a formal motion on that?

I'm sure we're going to track like time on this too, but I'd like to talk with the town about how much, you know, because they should just be able to have their legal review real quick and like how much time we'd spend on it to see if they'd be willing to contribute to the kind of writing of some portion of it. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm imagining well just like I don't think it'll take a whole lot of legal time to put the ordinance together, but you know, back and forth with their attorney and so um we'll try to get something back as soon as we can.

And I want to make sure that the ordinance is really village focused though for us and we're not making any type of concessions because the town wants something particular that applies to them more than us in it and we're including that in our ordinance where it's not relevant. So, all right. But no formal motion needed. Uh, I don't think so. Tonight, all right, then let's move on to law enforcement committee.

We met on the 27th of January at 5:30. Uh, there was no public appearances. We approved the minutes. We discussed, considered, and passed a recommendation for the village board to pass a sexing ordinance. We got an update about the social media police bladder. It's currently on hiatus, but it is coming back. It's just getting uh rebirked a little new business. We talked about we had a sort of overview about the flock safety equipment. Um might be useful to have that with the full board at some point, but um it was good. It was a good little conversation. We talked about the 2026 Polar Plunge, which is coming up. Um the police department is raising money for the Special Olympics. We talked about the um false alarms. We got chief's reports from November and December. And in the future, we will be discussing ebike and scooter usage and the 2025 annual report.

Comments or questions? I was just going to say two additions. Um I would agree. I think the flack camera conversation would be good to have at the village board level. Um there's a lot of good information and then there's a lot of public dialogue going on about it. So that would be good. Um and then we also were talking about um as a next agenda item uh moving um the meetings potentially here so that they could be televised for the public. And then we do have a discuss and consider ordinance 03-2026. There's a memo and then the ordinance for consideration in the agenda.

So, this was brought to LEC a while ago. Um, again, the memo lays out the intent and purpose behind it. Uh, our partner agency, the city of Manona has had a similar ordinance on the books for a number of years. Uh, it's supported by the Mano GO school district to address some of the matters. Uh again, this is related to minors or juveniles. Um and I recommend that the village gets an ordinance on the books that we can start uh taking action on and trying to correct uh patterns and behavior in a positive way.

I would move approval of ordinance 03 um-2026 and I'll second. All right. Right. There is a motion by Severson and a second by Murphy. Any other discussion? All those in favor? I I

opposedain. Motion carries. Any other comments for LEC? Otherwise, the library board met on Wednesday, January 21st. Um should 2026. Uh we um approved our minutes. We um reviewed our we annually review our mission, vision, core values as well as our programming mission statement. Um the direction was to remove emphasis on a building um but maintaining our vision um and so we have um worked some edits and I believe our staff person got everything posted today. Um we discussed programming um the mailer that went is going out this week um the lunch and learn schedule and topics. We talked about programming cards which we're going to reserve for um our summer programming which is going to have a good emphasis on a summer reading program actually here in Cottage Grove. Um we up had updates on two new free little libraries that we're working on. Um and then a whole host of um programs that are um kind of consistently expanding um and a lot of um new things at Drumland kind of um reaching out to some of the seniors a little bit more too. The all community read is tomorrow at 6 PM at GRS and hope everyone can come to that. Uh we um approved our bills. We um had a little update on the Glen Grove resource fair that we went to earlier that day. Um we did receive a considerable and very generous donation to the library board. Um and our future our next meeting is February 18th at six o'clock. Okay. How about parks, recreation, and forestry? Uh, yep. We met on Thursday, January 22nd. Um, we approved the minutes. We talked

about the Miracle League playground update and they uh have raised enough and ordered the equipment. It's headed to the storage uh facility until it can be installed this summer. um and they're doing well in their fundraising goals. So, um still looking for a Q3, early Q3, like July start. Um Shady Grove Park update. Um the contract is signed. It's a June 13th substantial completion. So, that neighborhood should have a good part of the summer um actually right when school lets out um to utilize that playground in Shady Grove. Um then Sean provided his report. Um the Village View uh guide is scheduled to come out on the 18th, so keep an eye out for that. Um some programs to highlight. Um the cooking with Claire um is an exciting program to offer. um cooking classes. Um otherwise, uh basketball, youth volleyball, um posting the jobs for summer, and then some offseason maintenance is keeping staff busy currently. Uh Sean, did you have anything else you wanted to add?

Nope, you got it. Thank you. All right. And then our next meeting will be February 26th. All right. What about landfill monitoring? Um, approve bills from November and December. Any comments or questions? Um, ad hoc housing chapter updates.

Sure, I can do it. Um we met on um last week Wednesday and we are meeting again this week to continue our work. We are currently working through um housing priorities and looking for strategies and action items. Um so we uh are we've got like three former priorities to go to get through that document. Um the next steps in that is that um once we kind of finish our work, Dane County will um come up with a draft um and then we will have a couple of um like public listening sessions that we approved at our first meeting um as part of the public participation plan before it goes to plan commission and then us. Um so we're still chipping away at it. I don't know a timeline. Um it's it's a big task and you know we get into a lot of details and discussion which is really good. Plus the county gives us a lot of information to look over and take in. Um you know we have a binder that's yay thick. Um so it's been a lot. I will say on the website if you click on um our committee page um all of the documents that we've gone through are now up there. So you can look through kind of what we worked on at each meeting. Um you know the different resources that the countyy's giving to us. Um but when it comes to the village board, it's it's going to be kind of a big deal. And so any prep work you can do now will save you time later.

Yeah. So we had six core priorities and we were just trying to finalize them and we got through two of them. So, we needed another meeting to finish it out, but it was good. It was good work. It was good. Good conversation. Uh, what about reports for village officers, village attorney?

Uh, nothing to report tonight. I mean, there are So, the legislature is um they've got about a month left of session and they're taking a break until the election um or they come back to session in January of next year. So, um there are some bills that if they go through, I might have some updates for um but otherwise, uh we're busy drafting ordinances and things like that right now. Matt, village administrator.

Yes. Um a couple uh employment anniversaries to report. uh most notably 21 years uh Sergeant Freriger and then um wanted to give some kudos our office staff here. Uh we had um an elderly resident that was in to pay taxes and um uh staff noticed that uh she was struggling to get in her vehicle uh during the cold weather and uh it turns out her key fob battery was um uh not working or dead. So, um, Kelly from our office went to Ace Hardware, got a fresh battery, and got her home safely. Um, and then we were all treated to some treats from that nice resident the next day. So, um, good story all around. So, I just wanted to share that.

Happy to take any questions on any anything else that was in the comments or questions. Yeah, on the reporter tracker. All right. Otherwise, we have an update on the impact fee from um assistant administrator finance director Sawyer.

Yes, this is a little bit of this is going to feel out of order. Um so, we'll kind of work through this. Um so, first and foremost, Allers completed their uh facility assessment summary. So, that's kind of step one in the process of determining the possible implementation of impact fees. Um so as part of that process um you know we had a meeting with Ellers and uh Rick last Thursday to kind of talk about the implementation or the steps to implementation of the result of that study. So one of those steps um we're required um when we do a public hearing notice a reference to the draft ordinance. And so as part of that draft ordinance, I didn't feel like I had enough um board direction on the amount for uh the public safety or law enforcement impact fee. So wanted to bring this conversation back to the board. Um if you would like me to just include the amount that was calculated via the study in the draft impact or in the draft ordinance and we can always change it. if you would like me just to have the water and sewer changes in there and then we can talk about on March 2nd the law enforcement, we can certainly do that. But really before um we draft an ordinance that might not even be used. I just want to make sure that we're effectively utilizing our resources. So just um and I will be putting the feasibility study on file with the clerk tomorrow. Um, so what you'll see, uh, a a residential, uh, impact fee calculated for the law enforcement, uh, portion is $2,158. Um, water is $1,518. Um, and sewer is $2,563. Um, both water and sewer, we were really pleasantly surprised that the delta

between the 1995 fees and the fees today were not was not significant. Um, so very happy of a result. Um, law enforcement obviously, you know, we kind of expected something similar to that based off of McFarland study. Um, so really what I'm hoping for and we'll get we'll get feedback on February 19th. We have feedback we listening session on Zoom at noon and then inerson feedback session um from 5 until 6 that that evening. Uh we'll post a possible quorum. So, if board members are interested in attending and listening to any feedback, we'll certainly welcome you guys to to come. Um, I'll do Erin and I will do our our our best to summarize that and have that to present that along with um the the feasibility or the facility study on March 2nd as well. Um, so just kind of looking for for general direction on what you'd want to see in an ordinance.

And um, just a quick comment on that. So we would put the ordinance together. We have to notice the public hearing and then there's the public hearing on that ordinance. That doesn't mean we can't change the ordinance after the public hearing. I mean, you gather input to to make those decisions. So, we just wanted to have direction on what the ordinance would encompass, whether it's sewer and water and law enforcement, what those numbers are. So, you said it was for the law enforcement impact fee was $2,158.

Yep. So, just remember that uh there's a single family, multif family, and then industrial and commercial at different rates. I just gave the the residential. Okay. Um, and then the commercial and office would just be backed in through equivalencies. So I I can't do that. Like if you said you want $500 uh fee, I don't know what the equivalency for commercial industrial off the fly, but I would I would let the board know what those are. So 2158 is for residential. Is that Yes. per unit or per acre or per square foot?

Per unit. So um multifamily is assuming is a little bit less. It's it's 1,439. And so when when allergy goes into their impact, really what it's doing is it's estimating per per person or per capita in said unit. And so they're they have to do some obviously estimations as part of that with the their assumption because they can't use partial people. They're they're using three for uh single family and two for uh multifamily. So then if you have a unit that has 10 units, it would be 10 times the 1439.

Thank you. One of the things I will present um I know this is a lot to think about you know right off you know the meeting and it's something we can certainly discuss further at the next meeting but um I am putting a table together um working with our building inspectors um and some other communities to chart out the cost of pulling a permit in each community um and kind of ranking them on if you know what our current impact fees are and what these proposed are just so there's visualization on the kind of the cost of or affordability of a a single family home and it's going to be based off of again 2500 square foot where I got that number. All the other studies that I've seen comparable have used 2500 square foot. If you if you're tied to a specific square footage number, I can certainly provide that information, but right now that's what I'm using. And

I think that comparative data would be really helpful to have and to be able to look at all at once. I think I've said before that I wasn't I was interested in, you know, having this information, but as far as implementing a um an impact fee for specifically for law enforcement or for the police station, I think that that is a planned debt expenditure that even if you were to come in with a a new house and be and pay these impact fees next year, you're still paying for that for the next 19 years. Um, I would be interested in an impact fee, you know, based on the outcome of fire and EMS study once we have that information. That's something I'd be much more interested in entertaining in the future. That's just my comments.

Yeah. And one of the things that um I I can mention, I think I think the water and sewer amounts and structure of the fee we've been looking at over the last year with the utility commission. Um there's nothing saying that we can't move forward with water and sewer and then come back and add law enforcement once the board has had, you know, more time to to or if you guys are ready to make a decision. That's certainly up to the board. But what I need to know tonight in general was what in an ordinance you'd like to see. I'd like to see water and sewer in an ordinance. others.

I guess I, you know, obviously had brought this up to begin with, so I would prefer to see um the police department um project in there. Um I think, you know, Ellers's obviously did a a pretty substantial report, which we'll get a copy of, you said, right? Um so, you know,

I would advocate for the numbers that they used and that they developed from the report that they did. Um, and I think, you know, again, the trigger for the police department was the growth that we've had plus the expansion. So, I think it makes sense. I would like to see it in there. I would agree as well to um correlate with um Aaylor's report and I'd like to see um the police in um in that as well. I'd really like to hear like see that comparative data since we're adding a new fee and look at the whole story of all the fees that takes to pull a permit. Um, but I don't want to hold updating the water and the sewer um while we, you know, dig deeper into the the newer fee that we're considering. So, um, I'd be in favor of splitting them just because I think we really need to do, you know, the the water and sewer fee. I view this as more of like an update where we have a new fee. So, I feel like we should do our due diligence and like get the full report versus like this this is the updated water and sewer impact fee. So, I I don't want us learning more about and getting more information on the public safety impact fee to like hold up water and sewer. Is there is there a way that we can kind of make them separated so we it's not like all or nothing?

Yes. So, we can we can separate them out. I mean, right now sewer and water is in chapter 198 specifically. Um, we have park improvement fees which are in a different section of the ordinance, right? So, we can separate them out. If the thinking is, let's get more information about the law enforcement, we can, you know, depending what the direction is of the board, I suppose. You know, we could move forward with the sewer and water right now, have a public hearing on that, get more data on the law enforcement, have a separate public hearing on that at some point in the future. or we could have two separate ordinances, I suppose, to bring forward. But, um, the sewer and water is going to be a little bit easier to put together because we're not starting from scratch necessarily.

I thought we delayed, um, when I first brought this up last spring that that we delayed a decision on that so that there would be cost savings and efficiencies with doing these two things side by side for the entire process. um you know having the same public hearing the same time frame. So I guess I'd like to see that continue as we planned for last summer rather than delaying it again. My hope would be it would be in the same chapter. Um, I don't know how coingled the um, law enforcement fees have to be with I I think there's a couple paragraphs in the very beginning that are a little co possibly comingled, but then actually talking about the law enforcement. Yeah. So, as you can see, we can go it can it it can be drastically different avenues and just wanted to make sure that we're just being efficient. So we can we can we can prepare kind of two versions or do we prepare the ordinance as the study is and then the board can make an adjustment based off of their decision.

I think that that would be most efficient moving forward. Okay. To just prepare it as the study. Yeah. as the study and have the public hearings but and then provide us with the data comparative data because I do have concerns about affordability, you know. Yeah. Based on like I said, I'm not on board, but I haven't been since the beginning. So, okay. I think I have enough direction. Where are we at? Communications and miscellaneous business. Consider approval of vouchers. The bill's list is in the agenda.

Comments or questions? Um there was a couple questions that were sent that I followed up via email. Um Chief, can you just touch base on the time expense from DO from DOJ? So time expense from DOJ is it's a essential part of our operations as it relates to getting returns on driver's license, vehicle registrations, uh warrants, issuing missings, lost property, um anything that goes into the system, the statewide system, uh stolen property, things of that nature. So, uh, all our officers are certified for the operation of that core element.

And then, um, just a a couple requests for some legal invoices that were sent out to the board. Um, and then a question on on the new tech painting bill, uh, that I sent out, uh, calculated value for, um, that that agreement specifically was 80% of the the taxes generated by that property rebated through the MRO obligation. Um, that was just amended in December. Any other questions? Move approval of the vouchers as presented. Second.

All right. There's a motion by Murphy, second by Severson. Any other discussion? All those in favor? I

opposed. Motion carries. Uh correspondence. Um, I think I'll just use this time to update you that we had a kickoff meeting for the um fire and EMS uh study that is between um that is going to be happening over the next four months most likely. And so we talked about um just kind of aligning expectations when it um you know going through the RFP and making sure that we are hitting those deliverables, setting some um timelines um and next steps. We um Steve Anders and I are going to sit down and go through um the survey that they proposed that they're going to be giving out to elected officials and we're going to make sure that we are aligned on that survey before it goes out to everyone. Um and then they will follow up with elected officials as needed. Um and so that's kind of our part and that will be sent out probably in the next I think it's in two weeks. Um they are also um there's going to be um a walkthrough of the current facilities. Um we made sure that everybody was um aligned with you know the goals and expectations of the study and really focusing on um the village and town and not um you know the the village of Deerfield and their facilities. And so we made sure we had that very clear. Um we met with Cedar Corp and then talked about um some of the mapping um and looking they're going to do some kind of extra um mapping of where fire is responding from and kind of looking at some of those call times which I think is going to be really good data for um kind of the current needs and when it go and how we then um you know either invest or you know what's going to happen with the ESB and so that's going to give us some extra data um that I think will be really good and so yeah that next step is really that on-site visit with the chiefs And then you can all expect to survey to and have there'll probably be a deadline associated with that. So any other correspondents

upcoming community events? The community read is tomorrow night which is exciting. Family fun night. Family fun nights is February 13th at Cottage Grove School sponsored by the school and family organization. The night hike is the Saturday and then the Sunday is a special story time. So it's family fun weekend in Cottage Grove.

There's a bingo night too, right? Manona Grove Education Foundation has a bingo night or day afternoon on Sunday February. I don't know, but you can look at their Facebook page. It's coming up, I think, in the next two weeks. I'll just throw a plug in again. Polar Plunge, February 14th, taking donations for Special Olympics.

All right. future agenda items. We will have the 107 property offer to consider um at the next um board meeting. Um there was a request for a little presentation on the flock and maybe I don't know if we want to pair that when the transparency module is live so that if we talk about it then people can actually go and look at it and that should be upcoming too. Um any other future agenda items? Discussing alternatives for meeting Zoom webinar. Yes. Funding that immediately. Thanks.

There'll be a budget amendment. Um there'll be the first 26 amendment and 25 amendment. Um I just need to work with Kyla and final reconciling costs in 25 and 26. Naturally, some projects get don't get finished at the end of 25 that have to be carried over to 26. Vice versa, sometimes we have cost efficiencies and buying things in December for 26. Um, so I'll have a budget amendment to bring the cost into the proper year and adjust either forward or or down for actual cost. And then, um, Greg will be here from Ellers to present the 2026A financing plan. Um, as always, uh, as you get draft copies of the agenda, don't hesitate to reach out and ask ask questions.

All right, friends. Motion to adjurnn. Second. Motion and a second. Non-debatable. All those in favor? Hi.