MONROE — On Jan. 7, the Monroe Common Council:
● Reappointed Gerald Ellefson to the Housing Authority Board for a five-year term on an 8-0 vote
● Approved the recommended 2019 miscellaneous wages
● Set $53,040 annual salary effective Dec. 31, additional $1/hour for Elizabeth Sorn, recently hired as Behring Senior Center coordinator after serving as interim coordinator after the resignation of Tammy Derrickson on Sept. 14.
● Approved a temporary “Class B” wine and fermented malt beverage license to Monroe Theatre Guild in conjunction with comedy night at the guild Jan. 18 and 19, and Jan. 25 and 26.
● Postponed a public hearing to establish the Redevelopment Authority Project Area No. 1 boundaries due to not having enough information from advisors on the topic before the hearing date and rescheduled to Jan. 21.
● Approved RDA By-laws after discussing what permissions the RDA has in borrowing funds, which is granted by the state. RDA member and alderman Michael Boyce said state law allows borrowing to be done directly by the RDA, but oversight of generally all projects throughout the city involving the group would need approval by council as well.
● Heard an introduction from newly hired Supervisor of Parks and Urban Forestry Josh Trame, who provided information about his work as a young person in parks that fueled his love of the occupation and pushed him to pursue a degree in parks management from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He was first hired by the City of Slinger, eventually being promoted to parks and forestry superintendent two years ago. Trame, a South Wayne native, said he was “thankful to have this opportunity.”
● Held a closed session discussion of individual performance evaluations of City Administrator Phil Rath.
On Dec. 17, council members:
● Authorized improvements to the MERIT Center requested by Monroe Fire Chief Dan Smits for upgraded lighting and security improvements as part one of a three-phase process and agreed to a quote under $20,000 from Precision Drive Control of Monroe.
● Reappointed Rath to the Green County Development Corporation Board of Directors for a three-year term; reappointed Dave Gambosi, Barb Gelbach, Ron Markham, Luis Carus and Craig Patchin to the Business Improvement District board for two-year terms; and appointed Dave Wartenweiler to the recently restarted city Redevelopment Authority board to fill the unexpired term of Keith Ingwell until April 15.
● Approved a development agreement between the city and Kran Enterprises LLC to provide $8,000 annual tax increment financing to the developers to build an apartment complex on an empty lot at the corner of 10th Street and 15th Avenue. Alderman Ron Marsh said he was not against the development, but that the outlined plan of a six-unit building with costs of roughly $900,000 was not sensible financially. The resolution passed 7-1 with Marsh voting no. Alderman Michael Boyce abstained from the vote.
● Set public hearings for an ordinance creating code 1-16 in the city regarding public records, the rewrite of subsection 1-15-5(F) regarding the code of ethics in disclosing closed session information and a rewrite of code 2-2-2 regarding Board of Review meetings.
● Approved 2019 salaries and wage rates for full-time, permanent department heads and personnel.
● Established a no parking zone in the 1400 block of 15th Street in the interest of public safety on the northside of the street. The entire block will be a no parking zone from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays.
● Advanced $20,000 to the RDA from the city’s general fund to allow the group to cover anticipated costs of consulting by Vierbacher & Associates for blight determination within the RDA District No. 1, grant writing and administrative costs and educating the public on its intent and outlining goals of the RDA.
● Authorized a change of agent request from Aldi of Monroe. A registered agent is a person designated by a corporation to receive official communications for the company.
● Approved the purchase of new emergency warning sirens and related materials with roughly $51,000 in funds from the fire department’s capital bond.