SOLDIERS GROVE - Brian Copus, longtime Village of Soldiers Grove Public Works Director, announced his resignation at the June 8 meeting of the village board. Copus said that he will be working for a municipality ‘a half mile down the road,’ and that the health insurance benefit offered was ‘just too good to pass up.’
Copus’ last day on the job will be Friday, June 23. He told the board that he will be available to continue to offer guidance and assistance to the new employees hired by the board on Fridays. Following a closed session meeting of the board, Mike Allie and Jeannette McCormick were hired to fill the open Public Works positions.
“We are required by Wisconsin DNR to have a reciprocal emergency back up arrangement with a neighboring municipality for the sewer plant, and for us that is Readstown,” Soldiers Grove Village President Paul Nicholson told the board. “Charlie and Charlie from their Public Works team will cover us during the week until we get our new team up to speed because we are required to have a licensed operator for the sewer plant.”
Village clerk Kaitlynn Ott told the board that the village has used this reciprocity agreement before, and it has worked well. The Village of Soldiers Grove will compensate the Readstown employees for their time, in the same way that when the Readstown Village Clerk takes an upcoming maternity leave, Ott will be compensated for her time by the Village of Readstown.
New Fire Chief
Rounding out the changing of the guard in key village positions, Jeannette McCormick has moved into the role of Soldiers Grove Fire Chief after previous chief Roger Olson stepped down.
“I’ve been working hard to get caught up on backed up stuff in the department,” McCormick informed the board. “We’ve been doing maintenance on fire department vehicles that has been put off, and the fire department overall is improving, with more attendance at our monthly meetings, and more training happening.”
McCormick said that the department has two new members and three applications, with the two having completed their certifications and obtained their operating license to drive the trucks. She said that five department members have signed up for a wild lands firefighting class coming up in July as well.
McCormick informed the board that Engine 16 is currently down, but that after having it checked out, they’ve learned that once needed repairs are made, it will be fully operational. Those needed repairs include fixing gauges that were reading wrong, and various other items of maintenance.
“My goal for the department is to increase our amount of community engagement, and do more fundraising,” McCormick explained. “We are working hard to plug in to the upcoming Soldiers Grove Fun Days, and are also planning a gun raffle.”
Community compost
In the public input section of the board’s agenda, Erik Gundacker of Scenic Valley Farm in rural Readstown told the board about a proposed community-composting project he is working to launch. Gundacker said he is poised to submit an application for a two-year, $400,000 grant, through the USDA-NRCS Composting and Food Waste Reduction (CFWR) program.
“What I am asking from your board tonight is to take action indicating that this is an initiative that your village might be interested in participating in,” Gundacker explained. “Signing on to support the feasibility study would not commit the village to participating.”
Gundacker shared that the impetus to pursue this initiative is that 20 percent of the global methane emissions that are contributing to climate change coming from food waste deposited into landfills. He said that in the U.S., 40 million tons of food waste go into landfills each year, which amounts to 219 pounds per person.
“Our goal would be to produce affordable compost as an agricultural fertility input, with free compost offered to residents of participating municipalities,” Gundacker said. “The proposal would include dollars for the municipalities to educate their residents.”
Gundacker said that the composting method that would be employed in the initiative is a technology-based system currently used in the City of Minneapolis. He says he has spent the last few years learning about Minneapolis’ system, working with Kellie Kish of the City’s Organics Program.
“Village residents would be issued five-gallon buckets to deposit the food waste into, and it would be picked up weekly by a garbage collection service and delivered to the farm,” Gundacker explained. “The operation will be located on my farm initially, but in the future the plan is to purchase a dedicated location for the business.”
Gundacker said that the communities he’s approaching to pilot the project would be Soldiers Grove, Readstown and Kickapoo Township. He explained that eventually, the goal is to expand the program to municipalities within a 20-mile radius.
“As this was not published on our agenda for this meeting, the board would not be able to take action on your proposal tonight,” Nicholson explained to him. “We can put discussion and a decision about whether the village wants to support the feasibility study for this project on our July meeting agenda.”
In other business
In other business, the board:
• heard in public input that the Big Buck Rod & Gun Club is soliciting $100 donations from individuals and businesses for a fall fundraising raffle
• approved payment for wood chips and an ad from village CDC funds
• agreed that spraying for mosquitoes would be a good idea when and if they became a problem, which they currently are not because it has been so dry
• agreed to purchase a new John Deere lawnmower from Sloan Implements for $13,400, and to list the old lawnmower for sale on the Wisconsin Surplus website
• approved a $250 donation for the Gays Mills Fireworks
• approved renewal of liquor licenses, operator licenses and cigarette licenses in the village
• agreed to consult with the village corporate counsel about the status of the village’s contract with their current garbage and recycling removal service provider to see if the contract is still valid in the event of a sale of that business
• agreed to move the day of their July, August and September board meetings to the first Tuesday after the first Monday of the month, beginning at 6:30 p.m. @font-face {font-family:Arial; panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536859905 -1073711037 9 0 511 0;}@font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face {font-family:"MS Mincho"; mso-font-alt:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:modern; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 134217746 0 131231 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho";}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho";}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}
