It appears the Village of Soldiers Grove will receive $12,011 from the Riverside Sawmill for timber on parcels of village-owned property.

The Riverside bid was significantly higher than the only other bid of $5,000 from the Rockbridge Sawmill in Richland Center.

Village president Jerry Moran told Riverside Sawmill’s representative Steve Smith that the village did have a verbal agreement from an adjacent property owner to allow access to the timber. However, Moran cautioned that there was only a verbal agreement for access to one of the parcels. He asked Smith to prepare two separate bids for each parcel, the Reservoir parcel and the Hog’s Back parcel just in case something went wrong with access to one of the parcels.

In answer to questions, Smith said he would present the village with contracts for the two parcels and they would have separate prices on each parcel. Smith said the sawmill would give the village a down payment of 10 percent, when the contracts were signed and pay the entire amount before the start of any logging.

In addition to approving the sale of the timber to Riverside Sawmill, the board also discussed the sale of a 27-acre village property that lies east of Highway 61.

An adjoining property owner, Jim Gray, has expressed an interest in purchasing the property. The board decided it would try and get a handle on what the property is worth and what Jim Gray will offer for it. The village will also advertise the property for sale.

Bids to repair the roof on the sewer plant and the roof on the park shelter bathrooms were opened as well.

The board selected local contractor Ben Clason to do the work as his bid of $5,819.28 for both roofs was $360 less than Mark Swiggum's bid for just the sewer plant.

Clason did not bid on the roof of the Lion’s Park Shelter Building and Swiggum did. The board decided against doing that project at this time and will seek more information about the condition of the shelter roof.

No one spoke at the pubslic hearing held before the regular meeting to solicit comments on the proposed floodplain zoning ordinance and map revisions. The map changes included expanding floodplain areas around the mouth of Baker Creek and another creek in the village limits.

The DNR official responsible for reviewing the ordinance and maps wrote in a letter that no residential properties would be affected by any changes  to the map.

The board also discussed fixing the village siren or replacing it.

“It’s a constant problem,” village trustee Jim Helgerson said of the siren. “We fix it and then after some time it doesn’t work again.”

Village president Jerry Moran suggested the village explore options for replacing the siren. He noted it would become a more urgent matter in spring when the siren is needed to alert residents of dangerous storms, like tornadoes.

In other business, the Soldiers Grove Village Board:

• heard that the CDBG loan for home improvements to a property would require current tenants of the residence to qualify as low or moderate income or the loan would have to be repaid—the board tabled the matter

• discussed a letter from the village’s attorney on how to proceed with having dilapidated or unsafe properties inspected and decided to proceed with the inspection process

• heard a report from North Crawford’s Tarasa Lown on the changes in administration at the school

• were further advised by Lown of the availability of a Crawford County Community Fund Grant with an Oct. 1 deadline