ELLSWORTH — The Ellsworth Park Board took on items from the two draft East End Park Master Plans at the Aug. 26 committee meeting. Engineering firm MSA will now take into consideration the committee’s directions, return with a condensed singular final concept with probable costs and seek a forward to the Village Board. The Health, License, Welfare Committee also met, voting to draft a resolution that if the Ellsworth Police Department ever takes interest in automatic license plate readers, they must first get Village Board approval.

MSA Landscape Architect Eleanor Brandt returned to the committee to speak about the two concepts. The committee provided directions on a combination between the two concepts, taking ideas from both.

“The final Master Plan does not commit to any spending or timeline, does not finalize specific design of areas or elements,” Brandt said.

There were 370 responses to the public survey, which Brandt said is higher than expected for the size of the community. The results showed the highest ranked amenities as a restroom facility, traditional playground and open-air picnic shelter.

“Overall, playgrounds were a big focus of the public survey results,” Brandt said. “The other top ranked amenities were open lawn space, basketball court, natural playground… performance and event space and covered stage.”

New street parking on Wall Street was a popular item both in the community survey and with the board.

Concept one includes a daylighted stream, pedestrian bridge, relocated restroom, the cabin being repaired and a larger open lawn for an estimated $1.8-2.5 million. Concept two includes stormwater plantings, the restrooms staying where they are, relocating the cabin and keeping the basketball court. The cost for concept two is estimated to be lower, but as Brandt said, it is not a case of concept one versus concept two, items can be taken from both to create the most optimal plan.

“It’s helpful to think of the unique features of each rather than be tied to concept one versus concept two,” Brandt said. “The big things with the naturalized stream are grading pedestrian access, public interaction, landscaping, flood plain engineering. The biggest considerations with a naturalized stream are going to be the environmental benefits, the public perception of a naturalized stream, the function of the stream and then things like placemaking and stormwater management. There’s trade-offs to be made with a naturalized stream.”

Regardless of the decision on uncovering the stream, there are drainage issues that the plan needs to solve.

“If it stays covered, there would still be some re-excavation,” Village President Becky Beissel said.

Beissel said a small band shell structure would be nice for events at the park, and someone expressed interest in constructing it for the village. Other items, like the cabin, can remain flexible in the final plan by setting aside money for the cabin’s future without a specific designation of what to do with that money.

The next Park Board meeting will pin down the details on a final draft plan to go to the Village Board.

Automatic license plate readers

The Health, License, Welfare Committee also met, making the decision to draft a resolution that any Ellsworth Police Department automatic license plate readers installed in the village would first need to be approved by the board.

“It’s in the news. It’s getting a lot of attention right now. This was brought to us by a board member to get this conversation started. I want to be clear, the village does not own or operate any of these cameras. We have no plan to purchase any. That’s where we stand right now,” Village Administrator/Clerk-Treasurer Brad Roy said.

Sgt. Eric Van Nocker provided information to the committee about the readers. He said there are many brands of them, the largest being Flock.

Van Nocker said the department used River Falls’ cameras when CCF Bank had its ATM ripped out, although that route did not lead them to solving the case. He also said they are beneficial to abduction cases and for putting plates on a list for instant notification if they pass a reader. That said, he also spoke to nationwide concern over data collection and privacy.

“We had a vehicle there, so we knew what vehicle and it was stolen out of River Falls. I was able to take that license plate, call up the River Falls Police Department,” Van Nocker said. “In 1979, it was Delaware and Prouse that case law at the United States Supreme Court ruled that we can randomly run license plates. As I’m driving down the road, I come up and I see someone’s vehicle, I don’t need a reason, I can run their license plate and see who it's registered to, if their registration’s up to date.”

The case ruled that the car was on a public roadway, so it is not a violation of the civilian’s rights. Multiple cases have since upheld that ruling.

Van Nocker said years ago a license plate reading company reached out for a brief conversation pitching the cameras, but nothing came of it, with a primary reason against the cameras being the cost.

“Nothing ever went from there,” Van Nocker said. “The one time when I talked to them a couple years ago, they wanted a minimum of three cameras if we had a contract with them. They wanted one at East End and then two at the stoplight. Had a conversation for about 20 minutes and never went anywhere from there just because their cost was something I couldn’t say yes to.”

Roy said no one has approached him asking the village to look into putting up the readers.

“I, for one, am strongly against the installation of these within the village,” Trustee Ryan Bench said. “Just the privacy concerns. The fact that they’re not even cameras that the village owns.”

At the county level, multiple cameras from the brand Axon were approved to be installed. Roy said if the village were to ever take interest in the cameras, they would first need to establish policies internally to cover who has access to the data and externally to ensure safety from the camera company.

“We’ll go along with whatever the board wants. We just don’t want to tie our hands or the people’s future from now that are in our position when this technology maybe gets better,” Van Nocker said.

The general consensus of the committee was to vote to draft a resolution that prevents the department from making a move in favor of the readers without approval from the village prior.