The Owen City Council held their regular meeting on Tuesday, January 28. The minutes were approved with corrections.

Operator licenses were approved for Donna Roder and Elizabeth Walther pending approval by Police Chief Patrick Fehlman.

The Municode contract was discussed, but no additional action was needed. It would have cost an additional $1,000 for Municode to do regular updates to the ordinances. They had included it in the contract as the council had asked at a prior meeting if Municode would be doing the updates, but it was removed as that was not part of the $20,950 price that was approved.

Toby Wantlin was approved as the new member of the Downtown Revitalization Committee to replace Linda Barna, who had resigned.

Under the Mayor’s Report, Mayor Scott Jalling asked where things were at with the hemp-derived cannabinoid ordinance. The response was that they are waiting on the city attorney who has the information needed. He asked that Pete Kaz be put on the February 25 agenda to talk about the Crime Stoppers program. He also updated the council on planned Owen Centennial events that are scheduled. He asked alderperson Ray Kilty to report on the mayor’s meeting that he had attended in place of Jalling. Kilty said that Brian Duell from the Highway Department had been there to talk about road projects and had asked the city to submit a list of structures less than six feet in diameter and 20 feet wide as they are not considered bridges. They also talked about assessors. Kilty said some of the communities had gotten pricing for dumpsters for businesses from GFL and that might be something for the city to look at when their contract renews.

Under other reports, it was suggested that there should be a sign on Highway 29 by the Business Park on the next agenda for approval. This came out of the Planning Commission meeting. Alderperson Pam Jaffke reported on the Police Committee meeting. She said they had talked about opening a savings account for the police department. The first quarter payments from both municipalities will be put into the checking account. Everything else in the account will be transferred to savings. This is about $150,000. They have two quotes for the garage and are waiting on two more. Withee doesn’t want to use money from the savings to pay for a new building for the police vehicles because of their belief that it is Owen’s building. They are concerned they won’t get their money back if they pull out of the police agreement at some point in the future. Alderperson Bob Wilczek said the garage was given to the O-W Police Department. Chief Fehlman found another police squad to be used by Officer Scheffler. It came with some equipment and is currently being outfitted. The total cost will be around $20,000 which is the amount the Police Committee had agreed he could spend. It will be ready in four to six weeks. Officer Scheffler will be back from Family Leave on February 16. Alderperson Jason Thornton reported on the Fire District meeting. He felt that the consensus of the Owen-Withee-Curtiss Fire & EMS District board was to keep a building in Owen. He said the current building has served its purpose and is landlocked. CBS2 has come up with five possible designs for a new building.