Date: January 13, 2004
Committee Members Present: Ashford, Sprecher, Lehman, and Cassity
Committee Member Absent: Wiese
Others Present: Gurney, White, Brenson, Bailey, Filus, Harold Dallmann, Darlene Hill, Tremble
In Chairman Wiese's absence, Vice-Chairman Sprecher called the meeting to order at 9:00 A.M. and staff certified the meeting had been properly posted.
Motion by Cassity, seconded by Ashford to adopt the agenda as presented.
Motion carried.
Motion by Sprecher, seconded by Cassity to approve the minutes of the December 23, 2003, Committee meeting.
Motion carried.
Mr. Brent Bailey, Register of Deeds, appeared and gave a short update on the new software system. He stated his staff was entering plats and CSMs and would be going live on February 2, 2004. The MIS Department was hooking up a printer for receipts and that will stamp document numbers and dates on all documents for recording. He said the title companies will need to be trained on the new system. Last year was a record year with 33,000 documents being recorded.
Mr. Bailey had no vouchers for review.
Mr. Ted Brenson, County Cartographer, then appeared.. He had received the GPS unit for the Planning and Zoning Department and has spent time working with it. He explained the he had budgeted for a Beacon antenna for the unit, but had not ordered it until he knew how well it worked without the antenna. He is not happy with unit without the antenna. His recommendation was to buy the external antenna. Mr. Gurney stated that the primary use was for locating driveways and it needed to be accurate. Motion by Ashford, seconded by Cassity to approve the purchase of a Beacon antenna for the GPS unit.
Motion carried.
Mr. Brenson then presented his list of the last vouchers for 2003 for approval. Motion by Cassity, seconded by Lehman to approve payment of the voucher in the amount of $383.99.
Motion carried.
Mr. Matt Filus, County Surveyor, appeared next. He reported on the status of the remonumentation for the towns of Washington and Bear Creek. A representative from Team Engineering met with him and Mapping Department staff regarding some problems that have arisen regarding invoices, reporting and completion of the project.. He said they had promised to have the control work with adjustments and corner locations completed by the end of December. They had also requested a 21 day extension. The reasons for requesting this extension was because of the deer hunting season and that the leaves had stayed on the trees too long this year. Mr. Filus stated that they were putting on extra staff. Mr. Cassity made a motion to deny the extension of time. The deadline is March. Ms. Ashford suggested they to come to the next meeting or to have a special meeting. Closed sessions and suggested meeting dates and times were discussed. Ms. Ashford seconded the original motion to deny the extension at this time.
Motion carried.
Ms. Ashford moved to set a time for a special meeting with the contractor and to hold any payment until after that meeting, seconded by Cassity.
Motion carried.
Mr. Filus will arrange the meeting. It was suggested that the Corporation Counsel attend also. The special meeting is scheduled for January 23, 2004.
Mr. Lance Gurney, Planning and Zoning Director, then gave his monthly report. He stated that he had received two applications for plat approvals. Ho-Chunk will be scheduling a site inspection for a project inspection. This project has been going on for about a year. The other plat was for Bluffview, they want to divide condos into lots and are proposing to add 20 more lots for new development . Richards and Delaney are proposing the rezoning of a small parcel. Progress on the Delaney property was briefly discussed. The army has put up money to study the sanitary facility and other alternatives. This process with take 6 to 8 months to complete. The GSA would like to transfer the plant to the sanitary district.
Mr. Gurney provided the Committee with a summary of department revenues. Ms. Ashford asked what happens to an increase in revenue. Mr. Gurney stated that it goes into the general fund. Discussion followed regarding why the department budget had to be cut when revenues were up. Under normal circumstances Lance would be asking for a new position. Present staff can handle that increase in permits on a short term basis, but mistakes do occur. He explained that new procedures and policies were recently put into place to avoid these mistakes.
Mr. Gurney stated that he would not consider any new ordinance changes at this time. The staff has put a lot of effort into trying to change the image of the office and improve relations with towns. Staff was working on changing office policies.
Mr. Lehman asked about the status of the Natural Beauty Council. There had not been a lot of activity involving the council. Mr. Gurney indicated that the council may be phased out in the future.
The Committee then reviewed the billing from Vandewalle and Associates. Highway 12, the Sauk City bypass study and the tourist entertainment corridor were briefly discussed. Motion by Cassity, seconded by Ashford to approve the payment of $3,508.26 to Vandewalle and Associates.
Motion carried.
Dave Tremble then met with the Committee to discuss the purchase of development rights on property owned by Raymond Green and Reta Green. There was an error in the meeting notice. The notice should have read the Town of Freedom, not the Town of Baraboo. Mr. Tremble gave a brief history of the parcel being purchased.
Motion by Ashford to purchase the development rights for the Green property located in the Town of Freedom, seconded by Lehman. Motion carried - 3-1, with Cassity in opposition.
Planning and Zoning had no vouchers for approval.
The Committee briefly reviewed a summary provided by Mr. Tremble regarding BRPP Conservation Easement Purchases. The Commission was looking at each parcel closer, before funding. Discussion following regarding putting a cap on the amount paid for each parcel.
Motion by Cassity, seconded by Ashford to adjourn.
Respectfully submitted: Judy Ashford, Secretary