ELLSWORTH — During a special board meeting of the Ellsworth Village Board on Jan. 29, the board came out of closed session with the approval of a purchase offer from Kwik Trip in the Crossing Meadows Business Park.
After a closed session period during the November regular board meeting, the board approved the start of the negotiation process, with Kwik Trip, and a purchase offer was on the January agenda, but no action was taken at the time.
The original motion to start the negotiation process cited that the negotiations would be for Lot 3 of the Crossing Meadows Business Park, just south of the site of the former Shopko.
At the same special meeting, the board came out of closed session to approved the submittal of an offer for parcel #121-01083-0100. According to the Pierce County website’s mapping, the location is just off of Railroad Avenue, near the crossing of North Morse Street and East Wall Street. The website states the property is currently owned by Pierce County A Quasi-Municipal Corp.

 Micro-surfacing bid accepted
The board accepted a bid from Fahrner of $71,622 for micro-surfacing, a road treatment for small corrections in roads.
The village received one other bid of $75,719, from Struck and Irwin Paving with $71,000 dedicated to the project planned out in the budget.
Even despite the financial discrepancy of the bids, Public Works Director Brad Vick said the Fahrner bid may have still been the recommended one based on previous collaboration the companies have done with the village.
“We would have probably went with them two years ago, Fahrner, but there was a scheduling conflict,” Vick said. “We used that Struck and Irwin company, and, honestly, we used Fahrner the year before, and their work was a lot better.”

New patrol officer
There were more closed session items that faced a motion at the February regular board meeting Monday night.
After the closed session, the Village Board approved an offer to Kyler Costano for a police patrol officer vacancy pending a background check. Interviews for the position were conducted by the Salary and Labor Committee during the Jan. 29 meeting, according to the agenda.
Another post-closed session motion was to accept an offer for the purchase of a portion of Lot 9 of the Crossing Meadows Business Park from Loberg Law Office.
The board approved a Developer’s Agreement with C&E Wurzer at 245 S Chestnut St. C&E Wurzer is the developer currently developing houses and apartments at the site of the former Junior High.

The final motion was to retain legal services for eminent domain proceedings.

Other business

• Approved a $1,200 donation toward the Cheese Curd Festival as a sponsorship. The village makes a donation to the festival of $1,200 annually. The board also approved a donation of $2,700 to the Ellsworth Senior Center, another donation that has traditionally been made annually.
• Approved the payment of $500 for the silver tier membership with the Pierce County Economic Development Corporation. Trustee Tony Hines asked that the PCEDC bring proposed opportunities to the village rather than going through other businesses or community members and catching the board up later down the line like he has felt to be the case in the past.
• Approved a temporary Class “B” Retailer’s License for the Ellsworth Fire Services Association’s March 22 Annual Chicken Feed Fundraiser.
• Approved committee reorganization due to the resignation of Trustee Tom Schutz. After the spring election, the committees could see further changes.