It was an interesting meeting of the Gays Mills Village Board on Monday, May 4. It all started with welcoming newly elected board member Joe Boland.

Boland was elected as a write-in candidate for one of two village trustee seats. Additionally, incumbent Gays Mills Trustee Kevin Murray, whose name did appear on the ballot, was re-elected.

Besides welcoming Joe Boland to the board, Gays Mills Village President Harry Heisz made a point to express his appreciation to village trustee Ethan Eitsert for the time and effort he put into serving on the board. Eitsert decided to not seek re-election this spring.

One of the major topics of the meeting was a report by village president Harry Heisz on a recently held meeting for the Highway 171 project. Heisz was one of four people at the rather lightly publicized highway project meeting. There were 30 others attending the meeting online.

Heisz reported the Wisconsin DOT and the main contractor Gerke projected finishing the project by August 26.

“The deadline for finishing the project is August 26,” the village president told the board.

The work proposed includes resurfacing Highway 171 from Mt. Sterling to Rolling Ground. In addition to resurfacing, other infrastructure improvements, like guardrails, culverts and more will also be fixed or replaced.

Heisz told the board that he discussed the access needs of the fire department, EMS and school buses. The contractor and DOT were unaware of the three weeks of summer school that will be held at North Crawford.

The village president also informed them of the events starting with this weekend’s Gays Mills Spring Festival, the Fourth of July, the Crawford County Fair and more.

In addition to being the resurfacing contractor, Gerke was also selected by the board to do the sewer main work on one block section of Highway 171, that runs alongside the Royal Bank. Gerke was the low bidder on the sewer main work at $72,000.

The contractor and DOT stated that all Main Street businesses would be able to stay open, even when both lanes of Main Street are closed. Rear and side entrances would be kept open to the public.

The project is scheduled to start on Thursday, May 7.

In other business, the Gays Mills Village Board:

• learned the village had hired another DPW worker to assist Bob and Richard with mowing and other work
• approved taking out a loan of $145,000 to pay contractors repairing the swimming pool deck and fencing
• approved getting a line of credit for $72,000 for the sewer main project
• approved a land lease request of for ‘buyout’ lots at 500 and 512 Main Street­–the use restricted lots are adjacent to the Pastorino residence on either side of it
• increased the wages of swimming pool employees by $1 an hour

The Gays Mills Village Board adjourned to closed session to discuss the lifeguard positions and a part-time cleaning position.