Common Council updates

Whitewater Common Council Approves for a Better Whitewater

Tuesday, March 3, 2020 the Whitewater Common Council Board meeting shows a promising future for the city of Whitewater, Wisconsin. 

For the staff report, the superintendent for parks and recreation, Chuck Nass has officially retired and was awarded a plaque for his service reserving, protecting, and helping improve the forestry in Whitewater. Chuck served on the Wisconsin Urban Forestry Council and  Dwayne Sperber mentioned, “Chuck Nass has demonstrated true leadership. It was a very easy nomination to make. He’s leaving quite a legacy”. 

On the other hand, the Whitewater Library has been finding ways to better serve their guests.  According to the Irvin L. Young Memorial Library Director, Stacey Lunsford, they counted over 66000 visitors and over 6000 people have library cards. There are some updates that the library has put into place such as updating the lighting and carpet. There are also plans set to remove soome shelving for more available seating. 

After that announcement there was an approval from the council members to supply the water department with over $3000 to get an automatic valve turner machine. According to Brad Marquardt, these machines are desired to help clear the systems of debris and it will prevent further work injuries from turning valves. With some of their own cutbacks and savings they have a total of $61,000 to put toward a $63,560 valve turner machine. 

The city council appeared eager to help the water department get the tools they needed for a more efficient and safe work environment. When it came down to voting this idea didn’t have any objectives but the board members didn’t hesitate to extend the help. 

Lastly, another objective was for the Whitewater Police department to get funding for a grant for a federal funded program. Deputy Chief, Dan Meyer and Chief Aaron Raap brought to the council members the idea that each school needs to have at least one office on site for all of the whitewater K-12 grade schools. This would demand for more money provided to be able to pay for each of these officers as well as the benefits provided. According to Deputy Chief Dan Meyer, “ The school district provides 60% of the salaries for the department ”. The police department was approved for $100000 as they estimated an officer at top pay with a family and dental and health insurance would receive about $93,000 annually. 

The council members such as James Allen, the Council Member at Large, was the first to raise questions regarding what the money was going to be used for and the states he approves the request at hand. The other members were right along with him to state that it was for a good cause and they expressed their gratitude for the officers work and push for safer schools. 

The meeting ended with a debate about page design and layouts for the agenda that would best please the council members and a discussion about switching from paper to electronics. Price became a topic and a debate about what is best for them. There was no commentary from the public and the meeting was adjourned.