 I'd like to call the eighth regular meeting of the City Common Council to go order. Would the clerk please call the roll? Alderperson Ackley, Alderperson Decker, Alderperson Donahue, Alderperson Feldy, Alderperson Phillips, Alderperson Spoglio, Alderperson Sorensen, Alderperson Felicky Paneski, Alderperson Born, he's he's not dialed in yet, and Alderperson Mitchell said he was going to be excused tonight. Mitchell is excused then. Would the clerk then please read the quote for the day. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Success in life hinges more on seizing opportunity than having everything go according to plan. Thank you for that. Please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The next item on the agenda is approval of the minutes from our seventh Council meeting held on July 6th and our fourth special Council meeting held on July 10th. Alderperson Sorensen. Thanks Mr. Mayor. I move to approve the minutes from our previous meetings. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. Is there any discussion on those minutes? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion please signify by saying aye. Opposed? Motion passes. The next item on their agenda is a presentation of the restoration of our tree Sheboygan known as roots by Tony Fessler of the Sheboygan Rotary Club. Tony? Thank you Mr. Mayor. Can you hear me? Yes I'm not used to speaking through one of these masks so we'll see if I make it through this. You can pull the mic over a little closer. Is that better? Yeah. Okay fine and if you lose me somewhere along the line let me know. First of all I want to thank the mayor, his honor, and members of the Council for allowing me to come and talk to you a little bit about the restoration of our tree Sheboygan project and perhaps related to some of the things we are trying to do with the city and throughout the county here. I'll give you a presentation for perhaps 10 or 12 minutes and then I'll open it to questions if any of the members of the Council or others have questions we'll try to address them. I am not an arborist but fortunately Tim Bull your city forester is here and can deal with the technical questions I would assume and before I get started I also want to introduce Scott Litke who is the president of the Sheboygan Rotary Club and along with a number of other Rotarians has been instrumental in helping me put this project together and getting it off the ground. Essentially this project that I'm speaking to tonight and the benefits for the city started about two years ago when the Sheboygan Rotary Club and a second Rotary Club in Sheboygan the so-called Early Birds Rotary Club came together to work with Joe Curlin your superintendent of Parks with regard to trying to do some planting with the city and I got put in a committee and was introduced to the scope of an environmental problem that I knew existed but I don't think I appreciate it fully and that is the infestation of the Emerald Ashbor which I'm sure this body is generally quite familiar with at this point. I worked with Joe and the public work staff and the park staff over a period of time the two Rotary Clubs raised resources that weren't available of the city to plant a total of about 140 trees and that was in celebration of the city's 40th anniversary of it being the Tree City USA and the oldest city and in the state that had had that remarkable honor bestowed upon it so we were able to raise $14,500 to assist the city in planting 140 trees and parks and on the streets here in the city of Sheboygan but during that period of time Joe Curlin and the city staff really educated me to the scope of the Emerald Ashbor problem and the devastation that was presenting to the city of Sheboygan and obviously well beyond the city itself throughout the county and at one or two points during our meeting I asked Joe whether the city was alone in this effort obviously there's some county involvement and state involvement and I asked whether the private sector was in all it all engaged in this effort to try to deal with this environmental threat and the answer quite frankly is the city was pretty much by itself along with some county and state help but that the private sector wasn't stepping up to the plate at that point and it seemed to me as a Rotarian that Rotary can play a role here in helping not only the city of Sheboygan but communities throughout the area and trying to bring forward private resources that weren't then being presented. I'm old enough probably older than most of you in this room to remember the Dutch Elm disease in the 1950s and 1960s that devastated what had been the city of Elms the city of Sheboygan was known as a city of Elms by of course a destruction of many of the beautiful elm trees that we had but the response to that was not just a city or a county response at that time it was a response involving the private sector as well and it seemed to me that it was time for someone to stand up and to be supportive of what the municipality here in Sheboygan and those municipalities elsewhere in the county were doing so I was able to prevail on the Rotary Club in Sheboygan to allow me to go forward and put together a project that eventually came to be known as restoration of our tree Sheboygan roots you have to have an acronym for what you're doing and we began the process of working with an environmental organization a network if you would in eastern part of Wisconsin that is known as the Lakeshore natural resource partnership which is already working with the city on a number of other projects but we came together and formed an MOU and partnership with LNRP to try to put put together a strategy that we thought might make a difference in helping not only this municipality but others throughout the county so over the period of the late part of 2018 and early 2019 we put an MOU together with LNRP and there were three legs to it and I'm going to principally look at one of those with you one part of our strategy this evening which impacts on the city but there were three aspects of it first of all we wanted to get out and do some public education the city certainly in the county we're doing some things but this really isn't your role it seems to me in terms of public education and public outreach so we got together and worked with the Maywood Environmental Center and some other educational institutions in the area to try to begin to educate the public overall as to this environmental threat we've done that in some workshops we've run through Maywood we hope to do some more with the public education system here throughout the county frankly we're being slowed in the effort right now because of the COVID-19 and the inability to get people together but we're trying to do more virtually on that but that was one part of our strategy the second part was we realized that there was an absence of resources to do forest management and forest forestry planning now we're well along because of Tim and Joe and the others here in the city with that process in the city of Sheboygan and the larger municipalities in the county are well along as well because there's some resources there and expertise where we're not doing very well is in the townships and so the department of natural resources in the end of 2018 awarded us a modest grant to begin to work actively with the townships throughout the county and we are now well along in that process we're using volunteers we're using technical expertise from LNRP and also from the DNR in order to work with the townships to begin to build a database and to begin to collect data on the resources principally ash resources that are out there and that will be lost to this devastation I didn't mention it earlier but just to give you a scope of what we're up against here probably on the order of over one third of the street and park trees in Sheboygan are ash and they'll all be lost to this eab infestation before we're done in the next five or ten years you'll lose it all so as you all go home tonight take a look at the tree canopy and realize that about one out of every three of those trees you see is an ash and it's about to be lost that's why something needs to be done about this if we're going to preserve the canopy and overall in the county over 17 million trees are ash trees some townships like the town of Sheboygan for example the percentage of ash is much higher it's as high as 70 percent ash in the town of Sheboygan and if you drive into that area think about what that's going to look like in five or ten years so the second leg in this effort then was to bring some resources into this for actual planning and as I said that process is underway again COVID-19 has made it somewhat complicated to train our volunteers and get them out there I talked to the DNR within the last couple of hours and their understanding of the challenges that COVID is representing to us but they've been very accommodating allow us to go forward they've renewed the and extended that grant this past year and we're now up to a grant of about $50,000 that is being used for urban forest replanting but the real element to the strategy that I wanted to address with you this evening is what we call our community investment fund which is a fund that seeks private capital from industry from business and from large foundations that have the means to do so that go into the Sheboygan County Rotary Foundation a 501c3 organization that then we're going to make available and are making available to municipalities here in Sheboygan on a matching basis in order to accelerate the level of replanting of trees and the removal of ash trees that of course are a part of the problem here we're well along in that process we've raised resources both from the public sector the U.S. Forest Service a year ago granted us $200,000 for Sheboygan County that is essentially focused on mitigation of emerald ash borer and we're the only county in all of Wisconsin right now that has had the benefit of that large grant coming to us so it's a unique thing it's happened because of what Roots is doing and some of that $200,000 those $200,000 resources will be made available to the city of Sheboygan and to municipalities we've already dedicated some of those resources to mitigation in the Esslingen Park that you're familiar with just west of the city Gerber Lake out in the neighborhood of Lakeland University and the Sheboygan Marsh which is almost exclusively ash so the mitigation there will be underway and by mitigation I mean the removal of ash trees and the planting of non-ash replacement trees again COVID-19 has slowed up our ability to bring in some of the contractors that we want to but we're at least in the in the stage where we will dedicate those resources specifically this evening and there's a resolution you'll be voting on later the other aspect of our third level of strategy or third leg here is the private money that we have raised in the Sheboygan area it's still a modest amount but it's enough for us to go forward with five demonstrator projects two of those projects involve the city of Sheboygan and we're hoping that you will allow us to move forward with the adoption of a resolution a little bit later this evening each of the Sheboygan based rotary clubs is offering resources to the city of Sheboygan the Roots Fund itself which offers additional rotary resources are will be available for two sets of projects and then we have the assistance of the Alliant Energy Company that is making a corporate donation of about five thousand dollars to to further support this effort so what we're bringing to the city and with a lot of help from Tim and from Joe Curlin who helped put the plan together are two separate mitigation plans involving a total of six city parks it will accelerate mitigation in Lakeview Park you're familiar with that on the south side of Sheboygan the Rotary Park right down along the water area itself and area five of the Evergreen Park which of course gets tremendous use on the part of many in the community for recreational purposes public meetings that work will be done with the support of the Sheboygan Rotary Club and the Alliant Energy Company and also with a district grant from the Rotary Organization and three additional parks then will be supported in a mitigation effort by the Early Bird Rotary Club that'll be Roosevelt Park Cleveland Park and Veterans Park and they're also going to be part of the effort on area five of Evergreen Park so all told we're stepping up to the plate to work with the city of Sheboygan to accelerate mitigation in those six parks I want to tell all of you that you've got a tremendous staff here if you don't already know it you probably do with Joe Curlin and Tim Bull who've been instrumental in putting these projects together they've been highly responsive and I can't say enough for the city staff and the cooperation we've had I won't go into the details the other three projects but just I'll cover them very quickly and say that we've got one project going with the city of Sheboygan Falls to mitigate in the so-called River Park area if you're familiar with that and a access point to River Park will be doing that project and the county stewardship fund has come forward to help the Rotary Organization assist in funding the city of Sheboygan Falls in that project we also have approval now to go forward with a project for four parks and mitigation of four parks in Plymouth that again is being done with the assistance of the Plymouth Utilities Organization and again with Rotary District money and with Rotary money we brought to this to this effort for Roots so that project will go forward later this summer and finally we're out and working with the village of Elkhart Lake and a modest program out there involving two parks and a number of street areas so all told we have a lot going on with these demonstrator projects I would simply before I open myself to questions I would ask for the council members that are here present tonight and those that are of course virtually with us if we could look for your support first of all for the resolution tonight and secondly as Roots goes forward we're going to be continuing to knock on private sector doors corporate Sheboygan corporate Sheboygan county and also large foundations with means so that we can if you would if I may use an old navy term I'm a naval officer of 23 years retired to use an old navy term we are really trying to get all hands on deck here for a whole community effort to combat this problem we believe the council knows it's a problem and I know you've dedicated additional resources to the public work staff and the park staff we would ask you to continue supplementing that support which is going to be necessary in the next several years when the devastation becomes ever more apparent and while you do that Roots and the private sector will step up to the plate but anything you can do to help us raise money in the private sector would be would be greatly welcomed as we go forward we hope to have a project that really winds itself up in another two to three years we want to make an impact to use an old military term of mind I'm calling this a surge effort you've heard about the surge in Afghanistan rock well this is a surge for Sheboygan county but it's in an environmental war that we're engaged in we want to put resources on this problem quickly we want to do this for future generations I don't have to tell you that it makes a difference in terms of not so much those of us who are present tonight but our children and our grandchildren who will enjoy this tree canopy if we can maintain it the advantages are tremendous aesthetically it's an advantage offers of course the city of Sheboygan benefits in terms of its tax base quite frankly because it's a demonstrated fact that tree canopies help with property values public and private and the other thing I guess I would point out is that it obviously helps with the effort of global warming removes CO2 from the air and obviously pollutants as well so there are many benefits to maintaining a healthy tree canopy economic ecological and otherwise with that Mr. Mayor and members of the council thank you for your time and attention and I'll if you have any questions I'll try to field them again if they're technical I'm going to ask Tim to bail me out Tony thank you so much for your presentation are there any questions Mr. Fessler hearing none I want to thank you very much as an organization an individual for seeing a problem and trying to find a way to fix it and you're doing a great job thank you thanks mr. Mayor and we'll stay with it we're going to be here and this is not the only project that we're going to be doing for the city of Sheboygan as we go forward thank you next mayor go ahead um I have this is Ryan Jim born is on the phone he called my cell he wasn't able to join the go-to-meeting app so I don't know if he can vote through my phone through my end if that's okay but he's on speaker well we will try to reach him again and if nothing else works then that will be fine okay next we'll move on to mayor's appointments city attorney one set of appointments from the mayor to the members of the common council as a result of the resignation of Todd Wolf from the common council submitting the following appointments for your confirmation the finance and personnel committee and Roberta Flicky Panasky to the public works committee moving dean decker to the chair position and adding Betty Ackley to the transit commission dean decker to the board of marina parks and forestry dean decker the mayor's international committee Betty Ackley and to the redevelopment authority trained Mitchell thank you very much those appointments will lie over till our next council meeting city clerk do we have anything for public forum not this evening in there thank you next will be mayor's announcements thank you I'd like to ask police officer Jeffrey Mars to step forward officer officer Jeff Lee mayors grew up in new london wisconsin and graduated from clintonville high school in 1985 Jeff then attended Carthage College and graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in criminal justice and sociology Jeff then entered the law enforcement academy of fox valley technical college and graduated in august 31st of 1990 Jeff began his employment with the city of sheboygan as a police officer on january 27th of 1992 over the past 28 and a half years Jeff has been an active member of the department and served as a field training officer emergency vehicle operations instructor a firearms instructor an evidence technician a dive club member an emergency response team member and a police explorer advisory in 19 rather in 2012 the department transitioned from field training officer model of training to new officers to a police training officer program Jeff again volunteered and was selected to be a police training officer largely because of his passion for training and patience as an and expertise as a teacher and his off time Jeff has served as uh for a long time as a police academy instructor at lake shore technical college officer mars uh was assigned to the crime prevention unit in january of 1996 and worked as a community policing officer until 1999 Jeff finished out his career by being selected as a northside beat officer and in this position he has strengthened the relationship between the police department and the residents of the north side of the city helping to establish additional neighborhood associations and he's assisted other officers with problem-solving in their neighborhoods during his career Jeff received numerous commendations he has blessed us with strong communication skills a positive attitude and a drive to make others better and grateful for his service to the city of sheboygan and wish him all the best in retirement Jeff we have a certificate of appreciation that we'd like to present you and it reads certificate of appreciation the city of sheboygan is honored to present to jeffrey mars and uh and for his 28 years of dedicated service from january 27th of 1992 to august 1st of 2020 jeff congratulations and have a great retirement at our last council meeting we held a moment of silence on the passing of valentine schultz who served as an alder person and at this time i'd like to read the resolution that'll be up for uh vote tonight the resolution commemorating the distinguished service of valentine schultz to the city of sheboygan whereas god and his divine wisdom has called from this life our valued friend and fellow person former alder person valentine schultz senior whereas val schultz served the residents of the city of sheboygan as an alder person in the fifth district for many years from 1990 to 2003 and whereas during his tenure as an alder person mr schultz served as a valuable member of numerous council committees including judiciary and legislative the board of contract examiners industrial development commission the finance committee public protection and safety committee capital improvements the transit commission salaries and grievances industrial development commission redevelopment authority the city planning commission the boarding of heating examiners special marina commission and president of the common council from 1997 to 98 and vice president of the common council from 1996 to 97 and whereas mr schultz served his constituents in the city of sheboygan faithfully and honorably being a man of outstanding ability and integrity and whereas mr schultz was a valuable member of the city council and committees upon which he served always giving conscientious consideration to all matters which came before him for legislation and with an open mind putting honesty and charity before all else he will always be a good example to all and therefore be it resolved that the city of sheboygan common council go on record in their deep sorrow and offering his family their deepest sympathy whereas val schultz passed away on july 1st to 2020 now therefore be it resolved that the common council hereby commemorates the distinguished service rendered by mr val and schultz to the city of sheboygan throughout as many years of service and expresses its sorrow to his of his passing and offers to his wife susan and their entire family its deepest sympathy be it further resolved that this resolution is to be published in this council's official proceedings and that a suitable copy be presented to the family of valentine schultz and last i'd like to give a covid 19 update uh just want to review the numbers for today as of today we had 418 positive cases that's up 97 from last week where we had 321 we have 127 active cases and that's up 36 from 91 of last week we have 285 cases that have recovered that's up 59 from 226 of last week we uh maintained only two people in the hospital both weeks and unfortunately we had one additional death this week so that brings our total deaths from four up to five there's been over uh rather 14 683 tests administered and that's up from last week by another 1941 and the cases have increased slightly in their prevalence the percentage of positive cases to to tests done increased from 2.5 percent to 2.84 percent the shabuigan county public health officials released the shabuigan county safe restart recommendation plan to reopen that included strong controls for businesses and residents we continue to be in phase two of this plan that says that businesses open they need to follow the economic development corporation's best practices and sanctions specific to their sector the mead public library this week opened up their children's department to the public with limited hours the entire mead library is open on monday through fridays from 10 to 6 and uh saturdays 10 to 2 the mead library and other city buildings including city hall have also instituted a mandatory mask policy to enter the buildings and masks will be provided if needed as the covid 19 numbers have dramatically increased the food truck gathering that has taken place at valrath park and is an event where very little social distancing has been practiced in the past and this has caused concerns today i asked that no parking signs have to be placed on valrath boulevard and north third street at the food truck event i have asked the vendors to put a plan together for how they can address the lack of social distancing that is gathered to make it safer so it can come back it was well i was welcome to see many of the commercial businesses in our community and around the area taking action to require masks while shoppers conduct business in their facilities it's good to see that they recognize the role that they can play to help protect the health and well-being of the community they serve by following the evolving guidance of health officials thank you and next we'll go on to the consent agenda that'll include items 2.2 through 2.25 all the person sorenson thank you mayor i move to receive and file our all roes receive our all our season adopt all resolutions and ordinances second thank you for that motion and support is there any discussion on any of the items in the consent agenda see none will the clerk please call the roll all the person flicky paneski reberta are you on the call all the person born please repeat that this is all of them born can you hear me yes all the person born how do you vote on the consent i thank you we have eight eyes motion passes next we'll move around to reports of officers those items one point three point one through three point four will be referred to various committees under resolutions item four point one is resolution number 57 of 2021 by all the person sorenson and decker authorizing that the fire the fire chief to take all steps necessary to accept monies from the estate of richard new stadler in the amount of four hundred dollars all the person sorenson thank you mayor i move to suspend is there any objection to suspension seeing none please proceed thanks mayor i move to adopt the resolution thank you for that motion and support is there any discussion on the motion seeing none will the clerk please call the roll all the person born aye all the person flicky paneski nine eyes motion passes item four point two is resolution number 58 of 2021 by all the persons actley donahue borance of ugly all flicky paneski feldi philips sorenson mitchell and decker commemorating the distinguished service of valentine schultz to the city of shavuagan all the person sorenson thanks may i move to suspend is there any objection to suspension seeing none please proceed thanks mayor move to adopt the resolution second thank for that motion and support the clerk please call the roll for passage all the person born i all the person flicky paneski nine eyes motion passes unanimously items uh 3.3 and 3.4 will be referred to various committees under reports of committees item 5.1 is an rc number 89 of 2021 by finance and personnel committee 2 humans referred resolution number 47 of 2021 by all the persons down a human board and providing for the sale of approximately four million six hundred and fifteen thousand dollars of general obligation refunding bonds series 2020 c recommends adopting the resolution all the person donahue thank you i move to receive the report of the committee and adopt the resolution second boron thank you for that motion and support is there any discussion on that motion seeing none will the clerk please call the roll all the person born all the person flicky paneski nine eyes motion passes item 5.2 is rc number 90 of 2021 by the public works committee to whom was referred resolution number 51 of 2021 by all the persons sorenson authorizing the appropriate city officials to accept two grants from the restoration of our tree sheboygan roots regarding the emerald ash borer mitigation at the city parks and recommends adopting the resolution all the person sorenson thank you mayor i move to receive the report of the committee and adopt the resolution thank you for that motion and support that that motion is before you is there any discussion seeing none will the clerk please call the roll all the person born all the person flicky paneski nine eyes motion passes item 5.3 is rc number 91 of 2021 by the public works committee to whom was referred resolution number 52 of 2021 by all the persons sorenson and decker authorizing the appropriate city officials to execute a memorandum of understanding with acuity regarding the terms and conditions of the driveway improvements off of indiana avenue related to infrastructure associated with acuity's expansion and advocate aurora's hospital project recommends adopting the resolution with amendments to change indiana avenue to union avenue all the person sorenson thank you mayor i move to receive the report of the committee and adopt the substitute resolution thank you for that motion and support is there any discussion on the motion seeing none will the clerk please call the roll all the person born aye all the person flicky paneski nine eyes motion passes item 5.4 is rc number 92 of 2021 by the finance and personnel committee to whom was referred directory for all resolution number 54 of 2021 by all the persons donahue and borne resolving support of federal economic support of federal economic stimulus investments and water restoration priorities for the great lakes coastal communities recommends adopting the resolution and directing the city clerk to send copies to our congressional representatives in the united states senators representing the city of shabuagan all the person donahue thank you i move to receive the report of the committee and adopt the resolution acting foreign thank you for that motion is there any discussion on the motion seeing none will the clerk please call the roll all the person born all the person flicky paneski nine eyes motion passes item 5.5 is rc number 93 of 2021 by the finance and personnel committee to whom was referred direct referral resolution number 55 of 2021 by all the persons donahue and borne authorizing the appropriate city officials to execute a vacant land offered to purchase with martin's trilling true value hardware and recommends adopting the resolution all the person donahue thank you mayor i move to receive the report of the committee and adopt the resolution second foreign thank you for that motion and support is there any discussion seeing none will the clerk please call the roll all the person born i all the person flicky paneski nine eyes motion passes under general ordinances item 6.1 will be referred to the finance and personnel committee under items for discussion only item 7.1 as a discussion regarding land located in the shabuagan business park a term parcel 59281479085 for this i'd like to call on planning director chad pelichek for some comments thank you mayor so this item was in the closed session at the finance and personnel committee last monday and after some technical difficulties of going back on in open session this document was never moved forward so at this time this is to sell a parcel of land in the current shabuagan business center to torgonal for a future expansion of their facilities off of baron's parkway it's a roughly 8.7 acre parcel with a value of around 187 000 given the way it's on the agenda for discussion only i'm happy to answer any questions from the council but i think at this stage i will give the torgonal have them submit an offer to purchase that the council can take up at a later date thank you for that information does anyone have any questions for chat on this issue very good um on move on to other matters authorized by law call on city attorney charles adams item is an ro by the city clerks submitting variance license applications for the period ending december 31 2020 june 30 2021 and june 30 2020 thank you and that would be referred to the licensing hearings and public safety committee there's no need for a closed session tonight so i call on all the person sorenson well thank you mayor move to adjourn okay thank you for that motion and second to adjourn all those in favor of adjournment please signify by saying aye hi