MUSCODA - The Village of Muscoda meet for its regularly scheduled monthly meeting last Tuesday, Dec. 8. 

The meeting was started with a public hearing for the 2021 budgets. No community members were in attendance for this portion of the meeting as the action was taken to adopt the budget as presented. Included in the budget was the village tax levy of $729,962.75 for the accessed value of $9,981,500 and a mill rate of 0.010430796 in Grant County. In Iowa county, for the village, the levy was $103,669.25 with an assessed value of 9,807,000 and a mill rate of 0.010570994. 

Yearly housekeeping items were covered in the Discussion and Action portion of the meeting. Including the board choosing to renew it’s yearly lease with Simpson’s for their skid steer use and choosing the Mini Mart’s bid for where they purchase their fuel throughout the year.  During the discussion about the skid steer lease the request to further explore purchasing of a blade for plowing snow, similar to what trucks use when plowing. The board requested more information regarding costs before any further discussion would be had. 

 The 2021 authorized wages were approved as well as issuing of the annual employee appreciation/holiday gift to full time village employees. 

The topic of adding another light switch and outlet to the library was also discussed. The library requested this change for a new outlet by the window as well as a different switch. Director of public works, Troy Wardell expressed to the board that it seemed as though it would be a easy, noninvasive job. Village President Dorothy Hackl suggested giving the library permission to do the job as long as it was not too invasive but requested that they pay for it. However, ultimately the board decided to table the decision and await more clarification on other potential work the library was hoping to accomplish. 

Village Police Chief Bill Schram shared with the board that over all things have been going well in the village. One thing of note however is that calls regarding domestic issues have gone up significantly. “We’ve gone on more domestics in the last three months than in the last five years,” Schram shared with the board. 

Schram also shared that the passes for the boat launch are now available, noting they are out in time for folks to purchase them as holiday gifts. He shared a list with the board detailing last years day passes, showing a interesting variety of locations from which people hailed from that visited the village launch. The board seemed interested and surprised to see the wide variety of locations that included spots like Kenosha, Nekoosa, Lamont, IL, Dubuque, IA, Sheboygan, Chicago and Suttons Bay, Michigan, to name a few. 

In the Clerks report, Cinda Johnson shared that the audit for the election was completed and went off without a hitch. She noted to the board that it took about four and a half hours and that everything matched as it should. 

She also shared that the village employees will need to start the process of updating the village owned cellphones. It was noted that the now somewhat old fashioned flip phones that they use do not receive the  service they need and the employees are finding that at times when they are on call they are not getting calls coming through. Johnson shared that they will likely need to upgrade to smart phones to avoid disruptions in calls and service.