LAFAYETTE COUNTY – Ted Wiegel, chair of the Lafayette County Building and Insurance Committee called the meeting held Friday, March 10 at 9:00 a.m. to order.
    •Tony Wiegel, Head Maintenance at the courthouse, began the meeting speaking about the courthouse roof situation. He stated, the good news is that the roof wasn’t in as bad a shape as he first thought. Wiegel has been working with Tilsen Roofing Company of Madison and they suggested (and bid) to fix the bad spots and then budget for a new roof in five years. The bid to fix the bad spots by Tilsen was $2,800. These fixes should get the roof through the next five years. The rough figure to reroof the entire courthouse roof, which is 85 square feet, was $80,000.
    The bad news is a lot of the leaking in the courthouse is not caused by bad roof. According to Wiegel most of the leaking is coming through the bell tower outer walls, as they are in need of tuck-pointing. The bell tower is 30’ wide x 6’ tall and a rough estimate provided by a Mineral Point firm was $14,500. This should be done before the entire roof is redone.
    A motion was made and approved to have Tilsen do the $2,800 roofing patch job.
    •The sale of the old radio towers (at highway department & old sheriff’s tower); sale of the 5 acre lot the old sheriff’s tower was located on; and the vacant paved parking lot west of the courthouse. The sheds that are on the paved lot will not be sold. The lots will be sold through sealed bid, with the county reserving the right to accept or reject any or all bids. The lots will be advertised in the Republican Journal. The towers will be put on Craigslist.
    •No action taken on lighting in judge’s chambers.
    •The committee is looking at hiring a limited term courthouse custodial assistant, to fill in for an employee in the current position that is having surgery on his knee and won’t be back for six to twelve weeks. After wrangling about what the wage to be paid will be, a motion was made that the offer between $15 to $17 per hour for 40 hours per week. The motion passed. The job will be advertised.
    •ADRC reception area at the Human Services building was discussed next. A new reception counter with a glass partition is proposed and planned for. A 4’x8’ glass in front of the reception would cost $1,600. A motion to approve the remodeling project was made and approved. The project will be paid for by Lafayette County, since the building belongs to the county.
    •During the paying of vouchers. Committee member Larry Ludlum questioned the reimbursement of Library Services. For the Library Services current financial year, Lafayette County paid $114,278 for in-county libraries and $34,909 for out-of-county libraries for a total of $149,187. Ludlum said, “I understand we pay the in-county library expenses, but I don’t understand why we should pay the libraries out-of-county. Many committee members were not aware of the process in which neighboring county libraries get paid by Lafayette County. The out-of-county numbers look like this: Dodgeville - $5,120; Fennimore - $144; Lancaster - $367; Livingston - $251; Mineral Point - $3,126; Platteville - $15,308; Monroe - $10,584. According to Wisconsin Statues 43.11 a county must pay based on how many books are loaned out (to Lafayette County residents). According to Statues 43.13 (1)(b) a county may pay just 70% of the amount presented to the county by the neighboring libraries.