The Common Council met at City Hall in the City of Black River Falls on December 5, 2023 at 6:00 P.M.
Alderpersons Olson, Dougherty, and Gearing-Lancaster were present. Alderpersons Brown, Ammann, M. Rave, and E. Rave attended remotely via Zoom meetings. Alderperson Wussow was excused. Mayor J. Eddy presided.
It was moved by Alderperson Brown, seconded by Alderperson M. Rave to dispense with the reading of the minutes of the November 15, 2023 Special Common Council meeting and approve as presented. Motion carried.
CITIZENS IN ATTENDANCE
There were no citizens in attendance.
There were no updates from County officials on the County Jail / Justice Center project. The City Administrator advised city and municipal utilities staff attended an initial meeting with the County’s consultant to discuss utilities under and around North Third Street.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
It was moved by Alderperson Olson, seconded by Alderperson Ammann to place on file the minutes of the November 27, 2023 Utility Commission meeting. Motion carried.
It was moved by Alderperson M. Rave, seconded by Alderperson Gearing-Lancaster to place on file the minutes of the November 29, 2023 Plan Commission meeting. Motion carried.
It was moved by Alderperson Ammann, seconded by Alderperson Dougherty to approve the Certified Survey Map submitted by Ethan Remus on behalf of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church for land on West Jefferson Street. Motion carried.
It was moved by Alderperson Dougherty, seconded by Alderperson Gearing-Lancaster to approve the
application for payment #3 – FINAL from Visu-Sewer for sanitary sewer rehabilitation in TID #8 in the amount of $6,841.45. Motion carried.
It was moved by Alderperson Olson, seconded by Alderperson Dougherty to approve the application for renewal of Pawnbroker License submitted by Nick’s Pawn located at 26 N. Water Street. Motion carried.
It was moved by Alderperson Dougherty, seconded by Alderperson Gearing-Lancaster to approve the Medical Director Agreement between Black River Memorial Hospital and Black River Falls Emergency Medical Service. Motion carried.
It was moved by Alderperson Ammann, seconded by Alderperson E. Rave to approve the appointment of election inspectors (poll workers) January 1, 2024 – December 32, 2025 as presented. Motion carried.
There was lengthy discussion on the local share for the shared-ride taxi service which included: cost of the service has been steadily increasing over the past ten years and has really escalated the past three years, total cost of the service in 2024 will be $477,448 with estimated revenues of $90,000, don’t expect revenues to increase much if at all, federal and state grants will cover 54.7% of the deficit in 2024, leaving the local share at an estimated $126,283.94, took significant step approving a levy of $85,000 in 2024 budget up from $50,000 in 2023, still estimated $41,000 shortfall that will need to come out of reserves, total cost of the contract to provide the service increases 4%-7% annually based on the consumer price index (CPI), two out of every three years we also have a local share for vehicle replacement which comes in at $16-20,000 on top of the operating deficit, this size of an annual operating deficit is not sustainable, city tax payers are subsidizing the service, This is not a mandatory service like police, fire and EMS, it is a valuable service for people to get to medical care, get to work, and get to the grocery store, when the service shut down for three months December 2022 to March 2023 only received one call so people found alternate transportation whether that was temporary or not, when the service shut down again recently due to communication system failures there were numerous calls as it was unexpected, options would include discontinuing the service or reach out to Jackson County to see if a countywide taxi service would be feasible, this type of system would also address the transportation issues that have been highlighted in the current and past county health needs assessments and spread cost of service over all municipalities in the county, right now we are the only municipality in the county offering a transportation service, a mini bus could be on a schedule, the Ho-Chunk Nation already has some infrastructure with bus stops in place that could help facilitate that, anyone can operate a taxi service in the city, our current contract is a 2 year contract through December 2024 with three option years to follow, now is the time to figure out what we want to do in 2025, we don’t want to stop the service abruptly, any changes would require a public hearing, we could have the hearing, if the decision is made to close the service we could communicate that and continue to operate and give people time to find alternatives as we did last December, the 2024 levy amount could cover the cost to operate the service for an abbreviated year if it comes to that, we are not doing this to get rid of the service but rather find a more efficient method of providing the service, this will come back and we will have more discussion.
It was moved by Alderperson Olson, seconded by Alderperson Dougherty to adjourn. Motion carried at 6:49 pm.
A. Brad Chown
City Administrator
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