STATE OF WISCONSIN
Town of Washburn
Bayfield County

Special Town Meeting Minutes – March 26, 2026

The meeting was called to order at 6:33 pm by Scottie Sandstrom.

In Attendance:  Scottie Sandstrom, Matt Tetzner, Seth Vasser, Vicki Thoen and Mike Harvey

Public notice was verified: Ashland Daily Press, the Town Hall, the town website and Tetzner’s Dairy

Public Comment-None

Matt Tetzner made a motion to accept the agenda. Seth Vasser seconded, all ayes. Motion carried.

Town Chair Report: The Board will meet at Scottie’s at 7:15 am on Saturday 3/28 to go to Cable for the WTA District meeting. Scottie reported on his meeting with John Carlson regarding Dust Ordinance and suggestions from Pam McGillvery. The board discussed various options. Scottie has another meeting on April 8.  We will keep it on the agenda for the April 14, 2026 town meeting.

Town Insurance Review: The board reviewed quotes from three insurance agencies. Will change to Rural Mutual due to better coverage at a comparable premium. Will raise deductible from $1000 to $2500. The annual premium is $18,024, which is within budget.  Seth made the motion to change to Rural Mutual, Matt seconded, all ayes. Motion passed.

Tractor Financing Review: The board reviewed financing options from 3 local banks. Matt made the motion to move forward with Chippewa Valley Bank. Seth seconded, all ayes. Motion carried. The terms of the loan are as follows: amount = $181,000, for 5 years at 4.25%, with annual payments of $41,014.75.

Next Steps for filling Road Crew Vacancy: There was only one applicant that was really interested in the position. Options were discussed. Decided to have closed session at 6:15 on 4/14/26 to interview the applicant. Seth will contact the applicant.

Adjournment: At 8:00 pm Seth moved that the meeting be adjourned, Matt seconded, all ayes. Motion carried.

STATE OF WISCONSIN
Town of Washburn
Town Meeting Minutes – March 10, 2026 

The meeting was called to order at 7:02 by Scottie Sandstrom

In Attendance: Board members – Scottie Sandstrom, Matt Tetzner, Seth Vasser, Vicki Thoen. (Christina Eliason absent-out of town)

Bob & Monique Mattson, John Carlson, Sandy Raspotnik (Washburn School Board President), Ellen Avol-Law (Washburn School Board Vice President), Connie Cogger, Tom Cogger, Kim Bro (Plan Commission), Shane Hanson (Northland Lawn & Sport), Pete Lulich (Lulich Implement)

Online: Wendy Stein, Pamela McGillvery, Jake Benson, Jim Park, Gerry Powers

Public Notice was verified: Ashland Daily Press, Tetzner Dairy, website

Public Comment – none

A motion to accept the agenda was made by Seth, Matt seconded, all ayes. Motion carried.

A motion to approve minutes from previous meeting was made by Seth, Matt seconded, all ayes. Motion carried.

School Board of Washburn Presentation: Sandy Raspotnik presented information about the cost of the school voucher program to the school district.  She presented a motion to be made by Town of Washburn, to add a statement on the tax bills regarding these costs for transparency to taxpayers. Scottie made motion to open floor for discussion, Matt seconded, all ayes.  The public asked questions and made comments. Board decided it was good information for taxpayers to have, though Scottie shared that the Town should consider being involved in only that which is Town business, like the Board decided to do with the Website, and didn’t feel this request is Town business. Seth moved to close open comments and Matt seconded, all ayes. Seth moved to accept proposal to include sentence about voucher program expense, no second. Seth moved to table the topic until the April meeting.  Matt seconded, all ayes. Motion carried.

Dust Ordinance Update Presentation: John Carlson and Pam McGillvery discussed changes to Dust Ordinance to apply to the trucks and contractors. Must mitigate dust and could apply calcium chloride and post a speed limit of 15 mph on non-paved surface. Operators of the pit and haulers are responsible for mitigating the dust. Enforcement is an issue. Discussion was had on ways to enforce the ordinance The cost to apply calcium chloride is estimated to be $1500. The Board discussed and decided there was more work to do on the ordinance.  The Board needs to determine how much we can budget for the calcium chloride application. Perhaps the pit owner (Bob Olson) can pay part of it.  John Carlson suggested we adopt the changed ordinance. Seth moved to table until April meeting, Matt seconded, all ayes. Motion carried.

Tractor Cost Comparison for Potential Action – Scottie made the motion to move this topic up in the agenda before reports, Seth seconded, all ayes. Motion carried. Representatives from Lulich Implement & Northland Lawn and Sport presented quotes for a new tractor. Lulich Implements quote for a new 2025 New Holland was the lower bid. Our 2005 tractor is worth approx. $15,000 on trade in. Scottie made the motion that we move ahead with the purchase of the New Holland, Seth seconded, all ayes. Motion carried. Vicki will reach out to area banks regarding financing options.

Reports:

Clerk: Board members (except for Matt Tetzner) have been registered for the Wisconsin Town Association District Meeting on March 28. Matt indicated that he will be able to attend so Vicki will send in his registration. Heart Graphics will print and process the annual newsletter for mailing. Including postage, the cost will be approximately $420. The town was overcharged in December 2025 by Chicago Iron & Supplies. Vicki reached out to them and a refund of $1818.80 was received on 2/26/26. Christina talked to Lynn Adams about the past due snow removal invoice from 2022-2023. Lynn confirmed it was added to the next property tax bill. The Wisconsin Town Association County unit meeting is scheduled for March 23 at 7:00. Vicki picked up the ballots for the upcoming election and the Assessment Roll Book. Currently there are requests for 30 absentee ballots.

Treasurer: the treasurer’s report was emailed to board members prior to the meeting since Christina was out of town.

Road Crew:  no report

Chair: Spring road load restrictions were sent to Ashland Daily Press and posted on the website. They go into effective on Thursday, March 12 at noon. Kelly Traczyk, a Rural Sustainability Specialist with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), would like to meet with us to discuss the solar panel project. We will invite her to the May Town meeting. Mike Harvey has mentioned he would like to attend continuing education. WTA is offering ‘Town Road School 2026’ in late April. The total cost will be approximately $700. Scottie moved to approve this expense, Matt seconded, all ayes. Motion carried.

Matt moved that we accept the reports, Seth seconded, all ayes. Motion carried.

Plan Commission: Kim Bro shared Public Road Access Frontage Requirements recommendations. The board reviewed it and approved it for submission. He shared the brochure about the town created by Trisha Miller. There are updates that need to be made and it will be upload to website and some printed. 45 mph signs will go up this spring in some areas. Discussed the idea of the town posting Share the Road signs about bicycles/pedestrians.  Seth moved that we post the signs, Matt seconded, all ayes. Motion carried. The Plan Commission will share information about Dark Skys and light reduction at the Annual meeting on April 21.

Appointment of Plan Commission Chair and Plan Commissioner for New Term: Kim Bro to continue in position until April 30 2028. Caroline Twombly was appointed to another 3-year term. Motion was made by Scottie, seconded by Seth, all ayes. Motion carried.

Bid preparation for West Engoe Road Double Chip Seal Project: must notify state 7 days before we go out for bids. Scottie will notify state by April 7, Emmer Shields will assist. Request for bids will be published in Ashland Daily Press on April 16.  Bids will be opened and review at the May meeting.

Items to be placed on future agendas:

Statement on tax bills requested by School Board

Dust Ordinance

discuss plowing driveways next year

Authorize the payment of bills:  After review of bills to be paid, Seth moved to authorize payment, Matt seconded, all ayes. Motion carried.

Adjournment: At 9:23 pm Matt made the motion to adjourn the meeting, Seth seconded, all ayes.  Motion carried.

STATE OF WISCONSIN
Town of Washburn
Town Meeting Minutes – February 10, 2026

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm.

In attendance: Scottie Sandstrom, Seth Vasser, Matt Tetzner, Vicki Thoen, Mike Harvey, Kim Bro, Tom Cogger, Wendy Stein (on-line)

Public Notice was verified: website, Ashland Daily Press, and Tetzner’s Dairy

Public Comments: Tom Cogger presented a painting of the Town Hall that included history of the building.  It was painted by Connie Cogger. Kim Bro wrote the history. The building was built in 1905 and was originally a one room school house. The picture will be hung in the Town Hall.

A motion to accept the agenda was made by Matt, seconded by Seth, all ayes. Motion carried.

A motion was made by Seth to accept the minutes from the previous meetings, seconded by Matt, all ayes. Motion carried.

Reports:

Clerk: Tamarack Health no longer does random drug testing. Learned that they can be done at Essentia Health in Ashland. Will be getting that set up soon. Discussed moving payday from Tuesday after the end of the pay period to Thursday to allow more time to processed in Quick Books. Matt made a motion that we move payday to Thursday, Seth seconded, all ayes. Motion carried. Completed a housing survey for the State. In 2025 the Township lost one single family home on Lucia Road and added 4 single family homes. There is an outstanding balance of $1500 for snow plowing 2022-2023. The information isn’t in QB to determine who owes the money. Will research further.

The WI Towns Association meeting is March 28 at Lakewood’s in Cable. Let Vicki know if you will attend and she will send in registration.

Treasurer: Officially finished with the town’s duty of collecting taxes. Collected $664,235 in total for the first installment of the 2025 property taxes. Of that amount, the Town of Washburn will receive $50,871.78. Property owners have until the end of July to submit the second installment to the County Treasurer. There was an overpayment of $918.45 from two separate property owners. Checks will be sent to them for reimbursement. The bank is reconciled for January. A journal entry was made for $527 to force the reconciliation due to posting errors discovered in prior periods.

Road Crew: There has been a reprieve from snow so a lot of maintenance has been done. The tractor is at Lulich. The total price to fix the transmission is estimated at $26,000. $8000 was budgeted to repair brakes. Mike asked what a new tractor would cost and it was estimated at $202,000 for a New Holland tractor. Discussion was had on if we should fix it or work on replacing it.  Matt offered to research options. Scottie asked if we could share tractor with county Mike didn’t think so because it’s used so much in the summer.

Chair: Bayfield Elec needs to be added to insurance as loss payee for solar energy. We will include it when we renew our insurance at the end of April. Met with John Carlson and Bob Olson & Pam about dust ordinance. Pam mentioned ordinance NR415 and that our ordinance should be amended to match NR415. John agreed it would be good for us to amend the ordinance to agree with NR415. Our current ordinance focuses on the property owner and NR15 places responsibility on both the owner and the truckers. John will work with Pam to amend the current ordinance. Dayton Road – property going up for sale, we are supposed to maintain to within .26 of a mile. We aren’t maintaining quite enough on that road. There’s a culvert that needs to be replaced and in spring we will maintain based on our obligation. Jan 20 a meeting was held at Washburn City Hall including all the entities that have the responsibility of overseeing the reclaimed Landfill on South Maple Hill Road in the Town of Washburn, which include the City of Washburn, the Town of Bayview and the Town of Washburn.  Matt Dickenson of the WisDOT was invited to be present, also in attendance were Kim Bro, Don Jenicek from Town of Bayview, and Mary Motiff Mayor of Washburn. We want get as much clay as possible from the City of Washburn’s project next year to cover more of the landfill. When contracts are bid the city will contact the contractor and we could be first in line for that dirt. Scottie attended the quarterly meeting for the recycling center in Town of Barksdale. The contract with Republic will be renewed this spring. Sandra Raspotnik (School Board member) asked to be added to next month’s agenda. She wants electors made aware of the private school vouchers that are available. We will be adding supervisors and treasurer phone numbers to the website.

Seth moved to approve the reports, Matt seconded, all ayes. Motion carried.

Plan Commission – Kim Bro – Distributed copies of the Comprehensive Plan. There are 11 pages of things we committed to doing for 2025-2026. One area is Economic Development. good area to work remotely. Encouraged to promote Dark Skies, committee is working on ideas for this. Will include information in the upcoming newsletter. Every year members of the plan committee come up for re-election. Caroline Twombly is this year. Checking to see if she will run again.

Motion was made by Scottie to appoint Elizabeth Hughes as an additional Poll Worker. Matt seconded, all ayes. Motion carried.

Annual Newsletter Planning – mail by mid-March, approve at March meeting. Submit information to Vicki.

Finalizing and Approving Road Crew Hire Profile Ad – Seth updated the job ad . Seth will post on Indeed, Scottie will submit to the Daily Press. Vicki will look into FB admin credentials. Run Indeed until March 15. Use town garage phone number in the ad.

Plan for 2026 Insurance Policy Review- time to shop for new coverage. Rural Ins is a good option. Great Lakes Ins – Dave Martinsen. Get quotes by March Meeting current policy ends end of April

Items to be placed on future agendas:

School Board of Washburn President

Review applications (possible closed session to review)

Mower/tractor update

Appointing planning commission members

Dust Ordinance update

Authorize the payment of bills: after reviewing the check details for Jan. 14 – Feb. 10, Seth moved that we authorize the payment of bills, Matt seconded. All ayes, motion carried.

Adjournment: at 8:55 PM Seth made the motion to adjourn, Scottie seconded. All ayes, motion carried. Meeting adjourned.

Vicki Thoen, Clerk