Last Monday’s meeting began with the approval of the consent agenda, which included regular city council minutes for October 12th and minutes for October 15th’s Finance Committee meeting, which passed without a negative voice vote.

The previous Finance Committee meeting started with all department heads presenting their 2021 budget. Except for court, which had a reduction in wages from $21,600 to $16,000, the only increases were wages at 2.5%.

The water and sewer budgets had wages increased so someone can be brought in to train for six months for the Water and Sewer Superintendent, who will be retiring at that time.

The capital budget included one-time items such as an additional zero-turn lawnmower, a hydrant buddy, police building remodel, a manhole lift, an air conditioner, security upgrades, leaf and snow guards for Freedom Park, as well as staining of the pavilion and gazebo at Freedom Park. Also included were one mile of mill and overlay for city streets, water tower refurbishment, one well needs to be repaired and another well needs to be upgraded. The budget also included $50,000 going towards trails.

Other items reviewed by the committee were reviewing kayak permits, charging for downtown parking and a bed and breakfast hotel tax.

In the meeting of the whole council, a motion was received by council member Maureen Otwell and seconded by Joshua Gergen to approve a four-year contract with Menasha-based assessor firm Accurate Appraisals at $17,900 per year with a market revaluation being completed in 2023. The motion passed without a negative voice vote.

“Accurate (Appraisals) has been very good to work with,” City Administrator Jayne Brand told the Board. “Anybody who’s been at the Board of Review, I think we found them easy to work with. They have a really good website; you can go out and look up all the information on the website. They’ve moved a little bit closer to La Crosse, so it’s going to be a little bit easier to get them up here if we need them.”

Next up was a Gergen motion that was seconded by Otwell to approve the purchase of a power lift for public works at the amount of $25,950 with funds coming from the capital fund balance passed without a negative voice vote.

The 4×4 2005 JLG lift has a new engine and 3,320 hours of use logged.