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Shullsburg residential development revisited
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SHULLSBURG—The Shullsburg City Council revisited the proposed residential development property at their meeting Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016.
    It was revealed in the original proposal presented by Delta3 there was no mention of electrical costs. Alderman Jim Paquette stated that the city should ask way that was left out. Everyone on the council agreed that the electrical costs should have been included. Alderman Darrell Morrissey will follow up and talk to Delta3 about the matter.
    Land being traded came up next. The current property is L shaped now and Alderman Cory Ritterbusch, and others on the council, wondered if a farmland owner could trade land with the McCoy property, so the property being developed would end up rectangular. This way you could develop house lots on both sides of the street and it would be more economical and efficient to develop. Rittenbusch said, “It makes all the sense in the world.”
    A meeting is scheduled for March 1 and is to be posted, with Gary Peterson to talk about TIF districts and how TIF’s could apply to the proposed residential property.
    At a previous meeting the possibility of a referendum had been brought up. It was discussed at the Wednesday, Feb. 3 meeting and in the council minutes (that appear in this weeks RJ) it seems that some council members were still in favor of referendum and some thought it was a dead issue. Either way a lot of work and information would need to be completed before the possibility of getting a referendum on the ballot for fall elections.
    Abatement – Police Chief Josh Jerry reported, “that we have been making progress ‘up there,’ however slow it may be, and after tomorrow (Thursday, Feb. 18) we’ll have a better idea of how much progress.” Mayor Gloria Swanson said, “We did move to go forward with the abatement process, we do need to have that in order when the snow melts.”
    Nathan Russell then addressed the group and explained the process of serving a petition and how long it would take to get to court. If the council waits until the next meeting, you’re looking at early to mid April for a court decision and that would be best case scenario. More likely it would be June.
    Jerry commented, “If we can get them to clean it up, it’s going to get done a whole lot quicker, with the least amount of expense.” The council will wait to hear from Jerry Thursday, Feb. 18 and hopefully will have good news, otherwise they will proceed with the abatement at the next meeting.
    In a correspondence with Jerry, he stated that more progress was made on Thursday, Feb. 18.
    Accounting Software – the council approved purchasing accounting utility billing software from Civic Systems of Madison, for an estimate of $31,150. This will include four and half days of training, updating server, new software, licenses, travel and conversion.
    City Website – Rittenbusch was having problems contacting the previous web designer. He then talked to Ginger Schroeder who is designing the Shullsburg tourism website. she indicated she would be interested in working on the city’s site. A quote of ‘not to exceed $4,000’ was given. The council approved the bid and gave the go-ahead.
    Miscellaneous Items – Approved mobile home park permit for George Ubersox; Approved annual assessment for – Shullsburg Fire Dept. at $34,295.96 and Shullsburg Ambulance at $12,195.75; Discussed the possibility of a city manager; the Water leak on Esty Street has been repaired; No problem with lead in the water of Shullsburg; Looking into a grant to resurface the basketball court; On track with a new librarian for the end of March; The police department will be hiring two part-time police officers.