The Soldiers Grove Village Board held their last Tuesday meeting on their special summer schedule on September 9. Starting in October, the board will return to its regular Thursday evening meeting schedule.

At the board’s meeting, which was quick and efficient, issues relating to the Fire Department and Public Works dominated the agenda.

Soldiers Grove Fire Chief Jeannette McCormick said the department had held their monthly meeting the prior Wednesday, and a Dairy Days meeting the prior evening.

“With Dairy Days, we’re just trying to get things lined up for next year well in advance,” McCormick said.  “We’re ready to go for the tractor pull, as soon as they start sending out contracts.”

McCormick also reported that two new members had asked to join the department since the last meeting.

“One of them, he used to be a member here, and came back, talked to me, and after talking to the officers, we allowed him to get back on,” McCormick said. “We told him he's going to be on probation for a year after he finishes his entry level class. He was super good with it. He understood, so we'll give him the chance.”

 McCormick said that there is another person interested in joining, and the only issue is she's 17. McCormick explained that the young woman will turn 18 in December, and that she wants to take the entry level class when it is being offered in Crawford County in October.

“I don't know how the board sits with liability things for situations like this,” McCormick said. “She turns 18 in December, and when I joined the department, I was 17. I just want to make you guys aware of it.”

McCormick told the board that if someone who is 18 joins, they will start out shadowing the department on calls to learn, and to make sure its something they want to get into. With someone who is 17, she said they would only allow her to participate in situations where they could keep an eye on her, and would allow her to assist only in a support role.

“I just don't want her getting hurt,” Village Trustee Vicki  Campbell said. “And then here she is, 17, and we're in trouble.”

Another trustee asked if the department or the individual pay for the entry level class? McCormick said the individual pays for the class, and the department will pay for the $30 test fee. She said that now, the State of Wisconsin is funding the test fee.

The board agreed to check with the village attorney and the insurance company before deciding what the individual’s involvement in the department could be before she turns 18.

On another training note, McCormick said that enough interest existed in the fire departments operating in the northern part of Crawford County for Certification Level 2 training that Southwest Tech has agreed to provide that training in the county.

McCormick explained that all the officers and a couple other members have their Certification Level One, which allows them to go to mutual aid calls. She said it’s a state certification that allows other departments to know what a member’s experience level is. She said that at that point, they'd be covered under the insurance straight across the state.

“So that's why a lot of our members took Certification One so that they can go on mutual aid calls and not have to worry about that,” McCormick said. “In January, there's a Certification Level 2 class coming out, which a lot of us want to take, and it is being hosted up here by Southwest Tech because there's so many of us that want to do it. It’s the highest state certification you can get at an entry or volunteer level, and will help us with our participation in the Crawford County Rescue Task Force.”

Public Works

McCormick said that Public Works had been having a hard day since their regular sludge hauler had backed out on them two weeks ago. She said that Mike Ales had found another hauler from the area, and he had finally come down the prior Thursday.

“We showed him the plant, showed him the connections that he needed to work his magic, and then we didn't hear from him again until yesterday,” McCormick said. “He showed up at noon today, and it has been one thing after the next. We got one load loaded, but now they have to bring back the tractor tomorrow, because they brought a semi, and with the incline of the driveway coming out of the plant and the semi fully loaded, the tractor can’t get enough traction to get out of there.”

McCormick said that they had also been dealing with a lot of other odds and ends such as putting in a tube, some work at the ballpark, and catching up on mowing, to name a few.

 The chief also said that they had been flushing hydrants, and met with the company that can assist the village with converting their sewer system records into an online map.

“We brought up the mapping at the last meeting, about putting all of our water shut-offs, sewer lines, spirals, all that stuff into the system that they offer,” McCormick said. “They kind of walked us through it and gave us  a crash course on it. The cost is give or take $30 a month.”

McCormick said that the system also offers many advanced features that would make some of the village’s reporting much easier.

“During road construction, they hit a couple of our laterals, and we had no way of finding them,” McCormick said. “We had to get Jerry Moran, because that book was written when he was in the director position. Then, we came to find out that the map in the book corresponds to the map from 1971, with all the manholes numbered on it. It’s different from the map we've been using, and they completely changed the manhole numbers, so that would have never worked for us at all. So, with this online system, everything is plain English, it's all on one system, and everybody can have access to it.”

Lastly, McCormick said that the work supposed to start that week on Baker Creek had been postponed again. She explained that the Baker Creek work has no deadline, and the contractor is working on a project in Readstown that does have a deadline. For this reason, the contractor will begin work in Soldiers Grove after they’re done in Readstown.

In other business, the board approved a Picnic License for the Driftless Area Art Festival, and for the Soldiers Grove Lions Club, for September 20-21.