Town of Washburn
Meeting Notes – January 13, 2026

Meeting was called to order at 7:00PM.

Those in attendance were Scottie Sandstrom, Christina Eliason, Seth Vasser, Matt Tetzner, Wendy Stein (on-line), Bob Anderson and Vicki Thoen

Public Notice was verified

Chair called for public comment:  None

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

A motion was made by Seth to accept the previous meetings minutes, seconded by Matt, all yea.  Motion passed.

Matt moved to approve and appoint Vicky Thoen as Town Clerk, Seth seconded, all yea. Motion passed.

No clerk report this month.

Treasurer report:
We are in a solid cash position.
We are halfway through tax collection.
Christina will cut people refunds for overpaid taxes after taxes are collected.
She would like to reimburse herself for cell phone bill $50.
Town bills are paid through Jan. 12.
Matt moved to pay Christina $961.45 (one third of clerk quarterly salary).  Seth seconded.  All yea.
Scottie moved to pay Christina $50 towards her cell phone bill.  Seth seconded.  All yea.

Road crew report (including Bob Anderson):
Scottie informed us that the Town of Washburn was ranked number 1 of the 11 Town LRIP applications in Bayfield County.  Ranking was done by the County CTRIC committee.  Applications now go forward for further regional and state rankings for announcement of funding approximately in late March.
Bob, our Town Road Maintenance advisor, shared some thoughts on town road maintenance
Bob informed us that the county tries to have one plow driver cover 50 miles for snow removal but Mike is covering over 100.
Mike is having a hard time keeping up with maintenance due to his snow removal work load.
He’s doing the bare minimum.
Maintenance is back logged due to Mike not feeling he could spend money on filters, etc. in the last fiscal year.
Mike would like to get an oil reservoir on wheels to make changing oil.

Scottie moved to have Mike get this piece of equipment, Matt seconded.  All yea.
Bob would like to talk to the Town of Barksdale about how they pay for new equipment.
Bob provided a sample job description for someone to help Mike with maintenance.
Mike had a very hard time dealing with the ½” of rain that we got recently because the roads were so slick.
Mike brought Paul Gilbert to Scottie’s attention.  Paul has a CDL and approached Mike about helping with snow removal.  He has been put on our list of additional drivers on our insurance.  Paul has taken a snowplow truck out for practice.
Mike talked to Dave from Barksdale about how they keep the snow removed.
They have three part time employees that can help with snow removal.
Mike is worried that he can’t call on our part time people too often or we’ll “burn them out”.
Mike is optimistic about Paul’s work. He might also be able to help with maintenance.
Mike would like to consider hiring someone 30 hours a week, year-round if possible.
Bob wonders if cutting back on plowing would help Mike keep up with the work load.  Mike would rather do a top-notch job and keep the residents happy.
Scottie is concerned that oil changes aren’t getting done.
Mike says that if Paul can help with plowing then Mike can focus on maintenance.
Bob spoke about a 20-year road maintenance schedule.
Paved miles divided by 20=road miles.
14 paved miles / 20 = 7/10 mile per year.
Crack sealing is the most beneficial technique to prioritize to preserve a road.Scottie would like Mike and Bob to draft a statement for the Town newsletter explaining our maintenance strategy.
Back window of the grader broke.  Windshield was about $800.  We don’t know the labor cost yet.   A chain snapped when Mike was trying to pull out a truck that was stuck and broke the window.  Scottie called the insurance company and asked them to send us a digital copy of the policy.  The window may not be covered.  Scottie asked for a quote that would include full coverage on the grader.
Lulich will haul the tractor in for about $130.  The tractor needs some other work that they will look into.  He thinks the total bill will be less than $8000 including the brakes.
Matt moved to do the additional repairs to the tractor, Seth seconded.  All yea
The hydraulics on the front bucket of the loader acts funny.  Mike has had people look at it but they haven’t been able to fix it.
The ’93 ford truck needs a carrier bearing.
Mike thinks the rest of the equipment should be in good shape.

Chair Report:
Jolma informed Scottie that we need to add them to our insurance before they can procced.  It will cost about $100.
Scottie, Bob Olson, his daughter (also his lawyer) and John Carlson will sit down to discuss the dust ordinance.  Scottie will share what they discussed at our next meeting.
Brightspeed has sent us all of our invoices so that we can figure out the discrepancy with our bill.
Scottie got a notification that Google Meet, the meeting app for our on-line virtual connections, was cancelled because our credit card expired.  Scottie has moved Google Meet to his credit card in order to bridge the gap until we get a new credit card, though he feels the Town should forgoe having a town credit card.  Vicky will look into getting a PayPal account set up in lieu of a town credit card.
Cindy didn’t prioritize getting a cell phone for the town clerk.  Scottie thinks we should not get a cell phone for the new clerk and Vicky agrees.
Scottie filed for County Bridge aid for the North Church Corner Road culvert.  We will get 50% back of $22,251.35 total cost ($11,125.88)

Seth moved to approve the reports, Matt seconded.  All yea.

Plan commission: No report

Discussion on Crafting a Road Crew Hire Profile Ad:
There will be a link on the Town Website to the full job description.  Seth will review the job description from Bayfield County.  We’ll review it at our next meeting and post it ASAP after that and hopefully hire someone by March.
We will list the job on Indeed and Zip Recruiter, the local paper, and our Facebook page.

Seth moved to authorize the payment of the bills.  Matt seconded.  All yea.

Seth moved to Adjourn, Matt seconded.  All yea.

Respectfully Submitted,
Seth Vasser, Supervisor 2
Town of Washburn