There were a number of different items the Lancaster Common Council handled last week during their monthly meeting, from whether or not to allow local Cub Scouts to have a BB gun shooting range in the city limits, to approving the development agreement for the workforce apartments, to whether or not move forward with streaming meetings to the public.
For the pellet gun range, the council decided to move forward with amending the city ordinances to allow a pellet gun range if a temporary permit was requested.
The issue came up because the annual Cub Scout day camp, which is normally held on the Grant County Fairgrounds during the summer, wanted to have a pellet gun range as part of the activities.
Lancaster’s ordinances designate spring loaded or air rifles as firearms, which prohibited their use in the city limits without expressed permission by law enforcement like other gunpowder weapons.
The Lancaster Police Department has allowed limited use of this in the past mainly to deal with wild animals deemed a threat.
Under changes for the ordinance, the Police Department could give a permit to allow groups to use pellet guns for youth activities.
Unlike the state and federal governments, the city designated those as firearms, limiting their use in the city limits. The State of Wisconsin specifically omits BB and pellet-firing guns from being the prohibited firearms when enforcing the gun-free school zones in the state.
The Federal Government typically designates anything with an explosive projectile as a firearm, and only would include pellet guns if they were made with the same frames as an actual gun.
In other law enforcement items, the council approved a memorandum of understanding with the Wisconsin Professional Police Association to alter the current agreement with the union when it comes to reimbursement for uniforms.
Under the current contract, the city is responsible for covering the cost of three full uniforms a year for officers. Chief Deb Reukauf said the reason for the change was to cut the agreement back to two, and take the funding to instead purchase external vests for the officers.
Those vests, which Reukauf was wearing, allow for an officer to be able to remove it if they were in the office, and improve mobility over the undershirt vest the officers normally have.
The council also approved a developers agreement with Wisconsin Management Corporation for the planned workforce housing complex to be built in Arrow Ridge.
During the discussion, Council member Mike Johansen wanted to find out about whether or not anyone could change the range of income levels for the apartments at the complex. Half of the development is being paid for through a grant targeting workforce housing needs of the region.
City Administrator David Carlson stated that because it is targeting certain income levels, that would stay with the buildings for the next 20 years, even if WMC sold the complex after it was built.
In the center of the council chambers was a grey, cylindrical device. That device, an Owl Labs Meeting Camera, was on loan from the Lancaster Fire Department, and showed off what may be the future for the city council meetings.
The Meeting Camera uses a mixture of a 360-degree camera, directional microphones, and software, to give close ups of all the individuals who are talking at a meeting. Used by different entities, including Grant County, the meeting allows viewers to see who is talking, to better follow along with public meetings.
Council President Shane LaBudda wondered if it meant the council would again have an online version of the meetings.
Like most governmental entities, the City of Lancaster began hosting committee and council meetings via the meeting application Zoom in the spring of 2020, as the COVID pandemic was underway.
The city dropped the ability for the public to participate via Zoom in Spring 2021, as vaccines rolled out. The city has continued to use Zoom in a spotty fashion in the nearly two years since, allowing council and committee members to connect to their respective meetings if they are out of the community, or are dealing with a health issue. The city has also allowed individuals who are part of a presentation to also connect via Zoom.
Last month, City Administrator David Carlson let an individual from the community to connect to listen to the surveillance camera presentation because that person is on the Lancaster Community Fund Board, and if the city went forward with the project, they hoped to get some funding from the fund.
LaBudda wondered with such technology, why wouldn’t the city let all of the community connect to meetings. “Is there a reason not to have this open for a resident, is there a reason we wouldn’t do that?” LaBudda asked.
Carlson said that they would have to look at the issue. He noted that running an application like Zoom, that it was time-consuming for the person operating the computer, and it may mean bringing in another staffer. He also noted that anything said in the chat space of the application would need to be read into the record.
Grant County has been operating Zoom meetings since the pandemic began. It has shut off the chat part of streaming meetings. It has also began recording every meeting, archived by the County Clerk’s Office. The City of Lancaster does not record any of its meetings, even with audio recorders.
Council member Bob Schmidt wondered about the microphones of the device. Schmidt has been a council member who has utilized the remote meeting item for alderpersons, and has had trouble hearing those talking at the meeting when he was online.
Despite the council spending almost $9,000 on a microphone and speaker system for the council chambers, online meetings have been using a 360-degree microphone plugged directly into the laptop being used for Zoom.
Carlson said in using the Owl camera for meetings with engineers, he said being able to hear everyone was quite easy.
Carlson said they would look at different streaming options, like YouTube or Facebook Live, and see if comment windows can be shut down. They would bring back recommendations to the council.
