Story originally printed in the Holmen Courier or online at www.holmencourier.com

Published - Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Town readies for ordinance overhaul

By ADAM BISSEN | Special correspondent

The Onalaska Town Board wants to take its time in reviewing a complete ordinance overhaul scheduled to be completed this summer.

Last year the town contracted with the Florida-based Municipal Code Corporation to review all of its ordinances, eliminate redundancies and redraft sections with modern legal language.

According to town clerk Sue Schultz, Municipal Code will be able to provide the town a complete draft of its rewritten ordinances by late June or early July.

Hauser said at Monday’s town board meeting that the ordinance review committee would need at least six weeks to review the draft.

Originally Municipal Code wanted to give the town two weeks to review the draft ordinance and then schedule a face-to-face meeting for $1,050 per day or a telephone conference that would cost $500 per three- hour session.

“I think once we’ve reviewed it, a teleconference would probably suffice,” Hauser said.

The board then voted unanimously to pursue a teleconference after at least six weeks of review time. It anticipated the final draft of its ordinances to be several inches thick and would take several meetings to get through.

“It’s going to be a confusing, arduous task either way,” said board member Joe Schaller.

Road work

The board accepted a contract with Scott Construction to reseal town roads, although a special town meeting still needs to be held to determine which roads need work.

Although Scott Construction was the only company to submit a bid for the road project, Hauser said Scott has worked with the town for the past 20 years and has done “an excellent job.”

“I’d prefer seeing more bids, but I think in light of the fact of the work they have done, I’d be hard-pressed to go with someone other than Scott,” Hauser said.

The board voted unanimously to accept Scott’s contract of $13,754 per mile for resealing work on a 20-foot-wide road. Since the town has budgeted $130,000 for road resealing in 2008 this would allow around 10 miles of streets to be resealed.

Town residents will determine the roads for construction and related budget issues at a mandatory special town meeting, which has yet to be scheduled.

Appointments

New board member Howard Kelly was appointed to four town committees Monday, filling seats formerly held by Frank Fogel, whom Kelly defeated in the April election.

Hauser appointed Kelly to the Park Committee, Recycling Committee, Technical Advisory Committee for the stormwater utility and the Hunting and Firearms Committee.

When asked about his experience for the last committee, Kelly responded: “I have a shotgun. I own a fishing rod.”

Hauser then appointed Schaller, who succeeded Fogel on the Plan Commission last month, to vice-chair of the town board.

Board member Howard Booth will succeed Fogel on the Fire Board.

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