Port chairman says snafus with land-division meeting underscore need for change

    It’s time for the Town of Port Washington to consider appointing a clerk rather than electing one, Town Chairman Jim Melichar said after a series of snafus regarding the scheduling of a meeting on a proposed land division last week.

    Melichar said the Town Board will consider the change when it meets at 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 6.

    Although he is conferring with Town Attorney Steve Cain to determine the steps needed to make the change, Melichar said it will require a referendum, possibly in spring 2014.

    If approved, a clerk would then be appointed when Clerk Jenny Schlenvogt’s term ends in two years, he said.

    This would be the second time in recent history the town considers appointing its clerk. In 2010, residents rejected the change by a 25-vote margin.

    Melichar’s decision came as the Town Board considered a request by Ted Burbach to divide two lots off Dynna Drive.

    The Town Plan Commission recommended approval of the certified survey maps that would divide the properties, and officials agreed the Town Board would consider the matter before the town’s annual meeting on April 16.

    But Melichar said when he got to the meeting, he discovered no agenda had been posted by Schlenvogt and thus the board could not meet.

    When he asked her why, Schlenvogt “got mad, yelled at me and stormed out of the room,” Melichar said.

    “I thought it was my job to tell her what was going to be on the agenda, and her job to put out the agenda.”

    The board agreed to reschedule the meeting for Thursday, April 18, he said, and he put together an agenda for that night.

    The board met and took action, but after the meeting discovered that it had not been properly noticed, Melichar said. He had posted the agenda at Town Hall, but did not provide notice to Ozaukee Press, the town’s official newspaper.

     The board then rescheduled the meeting for Monday, April 22, and notified Burbach of the error. On Monday, the Town Board unanimously approved the land divisions.

    Melichar said he’s always believed Schlenvogt was doing a good job, but his faith in her has been shaken.

    “I feel terrible about what happened. I thought we were all on the same page,” he said. “We can’t have an elected official causing this much havoc.”

    Schlenvogt said she didn’t post an agenda for the April 16 meeting because she didn’t receive the certified survey maps ahead of time.

    “In the past, we made sure we had the materials before scheduling a meeting,” she said, adding she notified supervisors Jim Rychtik and Mike Didier there would not be a meeting but couldn’t reach Melichar.

    She would not comment on Melichar’s statement about a confrontation, but said she wasn’t feeling well that night so she left before the annual meeting.

    Schlenvogt said she didn’t know Melichar had rescheduled the meeting for Thursday until receiving a text message that night. She was at another meeting and could not attend, she said.

    Schlenvogt said she was surprised to learn Melichar is planning to look at appointing the next clerk.

    “I believe I’m doing my job as required of me,” she said. “I believe I’m comunicating properly. I do have a lot of responsibiities on my plate.

    “I don’t think the board disrespects me. I thought we had a good working relationship.”

Concerns with aesthetics, environmental hazards prompt Port board to explore ways to tighten regulations

    Concerned with aesthetics and potential environmental hazards, Town of Port Washington officials last week began considering ways to beef up its junked vehicle regulations.

    “We’ve had some complaints recently,” Town Chairman Jim Melichar told the Plan Commission April 11.

    “There’s a farm on Highway H where they’re collecting tractors. They must have 200 along the fenceline. Some people think it’s a nuisance.”

    Other members of the commission cited areas along Highway LL and Highway KK where abandoned vehicles can be seen littering the countryside.    

    While the town code prohibits the storing of junked vehicles, truck bodies, trailers, tractors and appliances for more than 30 days, it exempts farms from that regulation.

    “That isn’t right,” Supr. Jim Rychtik, a member of the commission, said. “I’m zoned agriculture. I’m growing corn and raising pigs, so I can park cars? I shouldn’t be exempt.”

    Today, farmers have some of the cleanest properties in the township, he noted.

    Melichar said his concern springs not so much from aesthetics but from the potential for contamination if oil or gas from these junk vehicles drips onto the land and contaminates the soil and groundwater.

    “I know this is going to bite us someday,” he said.

    Plan Commission member Dave Murphy suggested the town get rid of the exemption.

    “If they have a car they’re just too lazy to get rid of, is that right?” he asked.

    But Supr. Mike Didier, a member of the commission, warned that it may not be easy to enforce the regulations.

    “If we start to enforce this, are we poking a hornet’s nest?” he asked. “The first guy you drag in here is going to come in with a list as long as his arms of properties with junked cars.”

    Rychtik said that isn’t the right reason not to do anything.

    “I don’t think we’re saying we’re going to go on a witch hunt,” he said. “But we need a better ordinance so we can enforce it.”

    “If we don’t say you can’t do it, you can’t enforce it,” commission member Randy Noll said.    

    Building Inspector Rick Fellenz noted some people use old vehicles as art. If the town makes an exception for this, he said, everyone will claim their abandoned vehicles are art.

    Although the commission seemed reluctant to take action, Melichar said he expects the Town Board will refer the matter back to the panel for a recommendation.