WHITEHALL — The Whitehall city council and incoming city manager Daniel Tavernier agreed to the contract for his new position during Tuesday's regular council meeting, including a July 29 start date.
According to the contract provided in the city packet, Tavernier will receive a base salary of $115,000 annually, subject to increases recommended by the council at periodic performance reviews. Current city manager Scott Huebler will move to an assistant role to ease the transition prior to his August retirement.
The council also approved a $34,642 expenditure to outfit two Ford F-350s purchased for the Department of Public Works with the necessary equipment to use them as dump trucks.
The purchase came in under budget, but council member Tom Ziemer shared his frustration that the council was approached to approve another purchase for the trucks after he felt it was not made clear last month that the second expenditure would be needed. Council member Jeff Holmstrom noted the purchase came from a different company that sold the city the cars, which accounted for the second expense.
Council member Tom Ziemer recommended the Local Development Finance Authority, Tax Increment Finance Authority and Brownfield Authority meet in the evenings rather than their current schedule of weekday afternoon meetings once a quarter. He noted the three groups' planned meetings July 10 could not take place because none of them had a quorum available to conduct business, and recalled that those bodies had vacancies that had not been filled after the council and mayor Steven Salter clashed over appointments in January. In addition to evening meetings presumably being easier for members of those boards to get to, he also believes more public access to those meetings would be preferable.
"These boards control an awful lot of the city's tax money," Ziemer said, adding that the planned meetings' agendas included a 24-acre property purchase and the approval of a nearly $100,000 engineering contract.
The council approved, 6-1, a street closure request on North Mears Avenue made by Montague assistant soccer coach Scott Liskey to host a fundraiser there. Council member Scott Brown dissented; he is on record as being against the closure of any public street for any event.
The council declined to take action on a proposed three-year contract renewal with CatchMark Technologies, which streams council meetings and work sessions to its YouTube page. The company did not request an increase from the $300 per month it currently charges the city, but Ziemer, Brown and Debi Hillebrand preferred to discuss the matter at an Aug. 12 work session and potentially seek more bids for the service.
Healthy Roots owner Meredith Kuiper, who also wrote a letter to the city on the matter, spoke during public comment requesting First Street adjacent to her store no longer be closed off. She said the street was first closed to enable Pub One Eleven to host outdoor dining during the COVID-19 pandemic, but with lockdowns now a thing of the past, she wants to make it easier for shoppers to reach the parking lot behind her business so they can shop there. She said from what she has seen, the outdoor dining area at the pub is rarely used and a removable setup would be a better use of the space than permanently closing the street.
