Luukas Palm-Leis, Editorial Intern
At the June 7 regular board meeting of the Village of Arena Board of Trustees, the board discussed the results of a police survey, appointed a liaison to the Iowa County Sheriff’s office and made appointments to the newly restructured Public Safety Committee.
Members also discussed changing the current ordinance for lawn height to allow for residents to participate in No Mow May. To finish the meeting, the board empowered the clerk to apply with the state for a water rate increase.
Police survey results
Results from the policing survey given to Arena residents, open April 19 to May 17, were recently made public as the Arena Village Board again discussed various issues around the future of emergency services and public safety.
The survey gave residents three options for the future of policing services provided in the village. The survey had 106 respondents. 32 voted to maintain the Arena Police Department as it existed prior to November 2023—when it went part time, which included two full time and one part time officers. 28 voted to reduce the department to a single full time officer and 46 voted to dissolve the Arena Police Department entirely and contract the Iowa County Sheriff’s Office for ordinance enforcement.
All options had an estimated monetary cost to taxpayers, with the last option—presented as the estimated cheapest option—predicated on a maximum of four hours per week of contracting with Iowa County.
Survey respondents were also asked to rank the importance of five basic public services. Results, in order of importance, were: Fire/EMS, infrastructure, police, parks and recreation and business and development.
Surveys were sent out by mail to most residents of Arena and included a code for recipients to respond online. 325 total surveys were sent out.
During review of the results at the meeting, there was confusion amongst board members regarding to whom the survey was sent to — residents, homes, businesses or taxpayers.
“To whoever pays utilities,” said DaNean Naeger, clerk/treasurer for the Village of Arena.
In discussion of the results at the board meeting, Trustee BeccaRaven Uminowicz voiced concerns about the inclusiveness of the survey, stating that residents were “uncomfortable that they only went to one person per household,” and that “nothing was sent to them because they were in apartments.”
“It doesn’t feel like it really… got a good sampling of all of Arena,” Uminowicz continued.
“We made it as inclusive as we could,” said Kate Reimann, village president of Arena.
Reimann, Naeger, as well as Trustee Kristen Shea then noted that they didn’t know of any better ways in which surveys could be distributed to residents.
Trustee Mathew Schroeder also expressed concerns about the results.
“The way it was structured didn’t provide all the information that a person might want to answer the questions,” Schroeder said.
Schroeder then provided an example taken from a report generated by the Iowa County Sheriff’s Office showing the average number of calls from area municipalities in the past three years.
Within the report, the municipality of Arena, with a population of 844, is listed as fielding 1,375 phone calls on average per year over 3 years. This is compared to Highland, population 910, which received an average of 107 calls yearly.
The report does not list whether the numbers refer to the village or town of Arena, or both together—but clearly give the population for just the village of Arena.
Shea cast doubt on these numbers provided by the sheriff’s office.
“I’ve been here now two years and I’ve seen the police reports and in no way in the last few years have there been 1,375 (calls) just from the village,” Shea said.
Appointing a policing liaison
As part of the new policing agreement with the Iowa County Sheriff’s Office signed May 14, after the resignation of the Village’s entire police department on May 8, the board discussed options for a police liaison—a non-law enforcement officer who would act as a third party communicator between the village and sheriff’s office.
“The village will designate a liaison to provide the Sheriff with any information relative to the performance of the assigned duties and special assignments which the village desires,” the contract states.
Under this agreement, the Village receives a minimum of four hours of police coverage per week, at $70 per hour.
Schroeder noted that the signed contract’s coverage hours differed from the favored option respondents chose on the police survey, which stated a maximum of 4 hours of police coverage.
Village Trustee Melissa Bandell motioned to appoint Reimann as the liaison.
Discussion continued with Uminowicz suggesting the newly restructured Public Safety Committee be involved in liaising with the Iowa County Sheriff’s Office.
“I have been told, verbally, that I should be the liaison because I’m village president,” Reimann said, without elaborating by whom.
Reimann then suggested that Uminowicz hold her comments for the following agenda item regarding the Public Safety Committee.
The motion carried to appoint Reimann as liaison to the Iowa County Sheriff’s Office, with all members in favor except Uminowicz, who opposed.
Public Safety Committee setup
The Arena Village Board also finalized restructuring the village’s Public Safety Committee after repealing the old community member-led group. The new group consists of two village board members and one community member.
Uminowicz brought up the previous citizen-only Public Safety Committee during discussion of the proposed ordinance that would create the replacement committee.
“Why do we feel that the three residents were such a bad thing?” Uminowicz said. “Because they were in place for so long, like we never discussed that, that’s never been clear to me why we’ve eliminated that.”
Bandell and Trustee Brittany Carney noted their displeasure with the former committee structure, complaining of a lack of communication to the village board.
“Did they advise the board about any issues that were happening?” Carney said, “There was no advising with the board at all, so obviously there was a huge bomb that went off that we had to deal with, which I agree isn’t the best way things were handled, but I personally feel that if we have someone from that committee come and advise the board on what was going on we could’ve remedied this differently.”
Over Uminowicz’s objection, Bandell moved on with the motion to enact the changes.
“I don’t want to take the time in another meeting to rehash it, I want to move on,” Bandell said.
The motion carried with all in favor except Uminowicz, who opposed.
The board then considered its options for appointments to the Public Safety Committee and Plan Commission.
A heated discussion ensued, with Schroeder inquiring about the qualifications of Tami Erspamer, the proposed citizen appointee to the Public Safety Committee, who was not in attendance. Erspamer recently served as a board trustee until the elections in spring, when she declined to run for reelection.
The discussion continued, with at one point Trustee Kathy Stoltz flippantly asking Schroeder if he would like the position instead.
Uminowicz then asked why the board had not considered others for the position. Offering resident Steve Wilkinson as an example, who is involved with the fire department, formerly served on the village board and worked as an EMT.
“Well, Steve Wilkinson,” Reimann asked, “are you interested in taking a seat on the Public Safety Committee?”
Wilkinson, who was in attendance in the public gallery, confirmed his interest after asking what the responsibilities of the position would entail.
The board subsequently debated whether to choose Tami Erspamer or Steve Wilkinson.
“Steve could stand up and tell you his background,” Uminowicz said.
“I think either sounds like a great candidate,” Carney said. “ I don’t see any downside to Tami or Steve.”
Bandell suggested that they continue with the appointments as initially presented for the Public Safety Committee and Plan Commission, which included Erspamer as the resident seat, which passed.
Schroeder abstained and Uminowicz opposed in the vote.
No Mow May
Board members also discussed amending ordinances regarding the length of lawns during the month of May, which would allow residents to grow their lawns past the current eight inches allowed to participate in “No Mow May.”
The village ordinances already allow for “natural lawns” that exceed eight inches in height, but require a permit.
No Mow May is the practice of residents allowing their lawns to grow out during the month of May to benefit pollinators and usually includes municipalities waiving enforcement of lawn tidiness ordinances.
“Early spring is a crucial time for pollinators that emerge early in the season,” said Susan Carpenter, Wisconsin Native Plant Garden Curator at the UW Arboretum. “Not mowing may keep more flowers available for these pollinators.”
Several board members were concerned about both the appearance of lawns reducing village appeal, as well as issues regarding mosquitos and other pests. Currently, village public works sprays to reduce mosquitoes. Other experts at UW-Madison have said that ticks prefer woody environments and that if there are ticks in your yard with long grass they are likely to be there with short grass as well.
“So I love the idea, but I’m opposed to it,” Bandell said. “Because why would we spend thousands of dollars on a sprayer to have long lawns, to have bugs everywhere.”
“I wonder if there can’t be a compromise,” Reimann said. “If that’s possible, to have a portion of a yard that can be a dedicated butterfly and bee [area], you know, with flowers.”
Members continued to discuss options, which included a size restriction or posting a sign to indicate participation, for a potential compromise.
The board ultimately tabled the ordinance to discuss next month to allow time to create a new draft.
In 2022, the Village of Spring Green voted to allow No Mow May.
Fireworks, Tower and Water
The board approved plans for the Yolanda Peterson and Mary Jones Memorial Celebration event on July 13. Events for that day include a parade from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., a chicken barbecue from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., a Home Talent baseball game at 6 p.m. and fireworks at dusk.
T-Mobile expressed interest to the board regarding purchasing the village’s cellular tower after T-Mobile acquired some of UScellular’s wireless operations in May. No purchase price was offered from T-Mobile and the board motioned to gather more information regarding their offer.
The village’s new well pump was completed and began providing water to the municipal water system on May 22. Pump one is currently shut off pending maintenance, with an estimated final completion date of June 29. The board approved a payment application of $182, 991.43 for the projects.
The board also voted to apply for a water rate increase with the Wisconsin Public Service Commission. Ehlers, the Village’s accounting consulting firm, recommended that the Village raise the rate by 4.1%. Bandell noted that the rate increase would generate approximately $6,000 more from utilities each year. If approved by the PSC, this would be the first water rate increase since 2004 and would take effect on October 1.
