The Owen Common Council held their regular meeting on Tuesday, September 24. The trees on city property near the Pike Office Supply building that Earl Martin wants to remove were discussed. Martin was at the meeting and said he had spoken to the DNR. They said if it involved less than an acre, there was no problem. He also checked with Clark County and was told that it was in the city limits, so they were not involved. Alderperson Bob Wilczek said if the DNR was okay with it, he had no problem with removing the trees. Alderperson John Mauel suggested that Martin add some blue rock after the trees were removed. Martin said that was already part of his plan. He also intends to put landscape fabric under the rock. Wilczek said it will look better and help keep the geese off the property. Martin plans to pull the trees out, rather than cut them down. Alderperson Ken Martine inquired if Martin would need a permit. The response was no as he is removing the trees, not trimming them. Mayor Scott Jalling asked about insurance, but Martine suggested a waiver of liability for the city should be enough. The council approved allowing Martin to remove the trees providing he signed a hold harmless agreement that the city wouldn’t be liable for anything that happened.

The Council voted to send all contracts to their city attorney for review feeling that even though Cedar Corporation looks at construction contracts that they are looking out for their liability and not necessarily the city’s.

Alderperson Pam Jaffke reported on the Police Committee meeting. She said they tried to get Withee to ask questions about the budget and third officer, but they said they had to take the information back to their board. Withee subsequently had a meeting where they approved the third officer. Wilczek said there are misconceptions that need to be cleared up in what the police do. He also talked about the issue of Withee not paying their share of the contribution to the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS). Jaffke said that Chief Fehlman did make some cuts to other areas of the budget because of the addition of WRS and workmen’s compensation insurance. The Council went on to approve the hiring of the third officer for the second time. The amended police budget was also discussed, with Jaffke and Wilczek explaining that the Act 12 money is expected to be permanent and to increase every year. The amended budget was approved with Owen’s portion of the budget now set at $237,169.92.

There was no update on the nuisance property as there was some confusion about the next steps and who was to take them, the city attorney or the chief of police. The feeling was that the attorney needs to send a letter to the property owner.

Under the Mayor’s Report, Jalling said that Ray Kilty had gone with him to the United Communities of Clark County meeting. They learned about some services that Xcel would offer for free in regard to industrial parks, etc. Kilty will follow up on this. Kilty also spoke to the Village of Dorchester who told him that they didn’t lot their industrial park off as Owen had.

Kilty said the dog park is still in the works, but the company is now saying it will be early November before they get here. Jaffke reported on the Finance meeting. She said they talked about separating out Act 12 money. DPW Chad Smith had gone over his current year’s budget with the committee. They also got an update on the fire assessment. Another meeting has been scheduled for October 7 to begin work on the 2025 budget.