The Owen Common Council held their regular meeting on Tuesday, October 28, 2025.
The budget for 2026 was discussed and approved for the budget hearing. Clerk Tracy Rau found additional state aid that allowed for replacing the library roof, money for the nuisance property abatement, and some money for playground equipment and repairs to the garage used by the police department. They also plan to do another section of the parking lot at city hall in 2026. The budgets as proposed show a general property tax levy of $426,720. The general fund budget expenses and revenues balance at $1,531,998.54. The Owen-Withee Police Department balances with revenues and expenses of $375,368.48 to be shared by Owen and Withee. For Water, revenues and expenses balance at $607,126.02 and for sewer at $460,011.93. These numbers compared to the 2025 budget of $1,424,201.93 for the general fund, $364,876.80 for police, $598,570.96 for water, and $454,602.17 for sewer.
John Kolpanen was appointed to the Owen Library Board to replace Nikki Hall who recently took a job as the librarian for the Loyal Public Library.
The council approved moving forward with a new roof for the Owen Public Library in 2026. DPW Chad Smith had gotten an estimate of $23,000-$24,000. The library has $5,000 that they have raised and the city will budget for the rest. Alderperson Ray Kilty will work with Library Director Loralee Petersen to put together a scope of work so the project can be bid with all bidders working with the same information. The project will be bid with the work completed next summer.
The council also approved repairs to the garage for the police squad cars. Alderperson Bob Wilczek said they talked about it in the finance meeting. Public works will work on getting it sealed up this fall so that the mice can’t get in. Money was put into next year’s budget to do more work and they will continue to work on it until the project is done. When complete, the Village of Withee will be charged rent for the police portion of the garage. A storage area will also be built in the garage for city files.
In regard to the abatement of the nuisance property on 2nd Street, Police Chief Patrick Fehlman has to follow-up and provide updated information to the city attorney. They are currently waiting on a court date.
The council approved an offer to purchase the property at the corner of 3rd and Oak streets for $2,500. The land is being purchased by Ray Kilty, who abstained from the vote. They will also allow a variance for him to build on a lot that is smaller than required by city ordinance. The council also approved a conditional use for Kilty to add an apartment to the front of the storage building he is constructing on 3rd Street. Kilty again abstained from voting.
Alderperson Kilty had submitted a grant for the library roof and playground equipment. He hasn’t heard anything back yet. The grant proposal was written to tap into some of the funds that Gov. Tony Evers was offering to municipalities.
City Hall is looking at a different website provider, Municipal Impact. The set-up cost is $500 and there is an annual fee of $737. The new website would be ADA compliant, allow for alerts to be sent, allow for easy posting of agendas, and allow people to pay their utility bills and campground registrations online. The council approved going forward with the change.
The council cancelled the second meeting in December. The budget hearing will be held on November 25 before the council meeting.
Under the Mayor’s Report, Mayor Scott Jalling said the city had received a $1,000 grant from River Country Co-op/Land O’Lakes. The grant was written by Lisa Hardy and came as a pleasant surprise to the city.
Under Other Reports, Alderperson Wilczek reported on the fire district meeting with the village of Curtiss. He said they offered to sell the building to the fire district for $635,000 but it would have to be a staffed fire station for 20 years. He said that isn’t feasible. He said there is a lot of confusion on the idea of swapping the current building for a building site and how that works with the grant match. An Innovation Grant is now available that would fund a new station at 100% if the fire district can work out a deal with the Clark County Sheriff’s Office for a north dispatch center. The grant will open again in March. Curtiss is willing to continue to rent to the fire district.