The Village of Withee held their regular monthly meeting on Monday, October 12. Minutes and financial statements were approved. Payment of bills was also approved after a couple of questions were answered. One was about a bill from Dennis Ovyn Trucking. This was for both the culvert at the Lions Park that the O-W Lions are reimbursing the village for and a culvert at the corner of Pine and Clover Streets. There was also a question about a check written to the village from the Water Department for Administration. That was for the percentage of Clerk Ellen Niemi’s and DPW Derek Schad’s wages that are paid for by the Water Department.
The payroll report and timecards were reviewed. A couple of questions were asked about DPW Schad’s timecards. He was at an Expo on Thursday of one week and left early on Friday rather than accumulate overtime hours. The other question was in regard to him being called in for an issue at the water plant.
For Committee Reports, Trustee Bill Kroeplin reported that the library board would be meeting the following night. Linda Barna is now the president and Louise Olszewski is the vice-president and acting secretary. Nichole Hougard has submitted her resignation and the school will have to appoint a new representative. Trustee Nancy Amacher passed out the minutes from the Clark County Tourism Committee meeting. They meet in different places each month, in this case the meeting was held at Christie Country Quilts.
Louise Olszewski gave a presentation on the library. She thanked the board for supporting the library. It was created in 1919 in honor of local veterans and has been in four locations. The current location is handicap accessible. She said they want to work with the board to make the community better. When they moved into the current building, which is shared with the village hall, the library paid 60% of the remodeling costs, installed a security system, and more recently an AED. The library also had to pay for new shelving. They get $36,000 a year from the village and pay $13,500 of that back in rent. Olszewski said that 58% of the library budget is for salaries. They also get money from Clark County and a couple of townships. They have a budget shortfall of about $15,000 per year and they fundraise to help cover that. The library has 196 patrons that check out about 6,000 items per year. The library does more than just check out books. They offer free internet, magazines, puzzles, etc. They also have people coming in to tutor those who don’t speak English as a first language. They take books to homebound people. They also have LEGO Club and participate in the school’s Summer School program. They are the historical center for Withee and have done oral histories, which are available on YouTube. They digitized the local newspapers from 1901-2005 and hope that people will soon have online access to them. They also have cake pans available for checkout. People can come in to cool off in the summer or warm up in the winter. They are getting a new copy machine. They pay WVLS a fee to handle the technical stuff. Olszewski has been on the board for 50 years. She has also been on the Clark County Library Board for 50 years, but is retiring from that position.
Under the Police Report, it was reported that Chief Fehlman was given a $1.00 an hour raise. This was approved by the Withee board. They also approved the budget. They are still working on the amount that needs to be paid back to the city of Owen for FICA, etc. The reimbursement amounts have been correct since June of this year, so it is for 2025 and the beginning of 2026. The Withee Village Board also approved the police budget for 2027. The total budget is $436,649.64 with Withee’s portion being $152,827.37. It is hoped that there will be a lease agreement for the rent of office space and the garage from the city of Owen at their next committee meeting.
The board went into closed session for about 10 minutes to discuss employee wages. In open session they approved a 5% increase for DPW Schad and Clerk Niemi effective January 1, 2027.
For Public Works, they discussed hiring a part-time employee for back-up at the water plant, plus mowing, snow plowing and general help. If the employee is paid more than 1,200 hours per year, they have to be given Wisconsin State Retirement. Over 1,560 hours, they would have to be given health insurance. Schad thought $18 to start based on talking to other municipalities, $24 if they are water certified. He said Dave Laabs averaged 12 hours per week. A question was asked on whether they could hire a high school kid for the mowing. Schad suggested putting the higher wage in the budget and see what happens. Niemi said that water could pay part of the wages if the person were doing water. Schad said he will be talking to a representative from Rural Water to see what he thinks and to come up with an ad sample. Schad will also come up with a possible job description.
A resolution adjusting the 2025 budget was approved. In addition to moving funds between line items, $21,048 was moved to various savings accounts.