By Heather Graves
Correspondent
BELLEVUE – The board and village staff participated in an emergency operations center training at the village board meeting Wednesday, Feb. 26.
“The village is concentrating our staff and fiscal resources on activities that may have the greatest impact for the greater good,” said Village Administrator Diane Wessel.
During the emergency training, the group was presented with a flooding scenario and were asked to walk through the process of the village’s response.
The goal of the exercise was to increase the board and staff’s familiarity with the village’s emergency operation plan, practice the plan, work through any gaps or problems with the plan and make note of future improvements.
Wessel said the emergency training will help further prepare the village for what is expected to be a wet spring.
She said the village has taken several proactive steps to prepare for spring flooding including:
• Purchased a portable pump to keep our lift stations running in case of power outage.
• Purchased a flat-bottom boat in case it’s needed for evacuations.
• Prepared 800 sandbags to protect the village’s sanitary lift stations most vulnerable to flooding.
• Prepared flood response plan and evacuation of the village’s Community Center/Fire Station 2 located at 1811 Allouez Ave.
• Preparing suggested evacuation route maps for high-risk flood areas. Wessel said these maps will be periodically posted on social media.
• Purchased sanitary back-up insurance to assist homeowners in case the sanitary system does flood and backup into homes.
• Social media campaign to encourage residents to prepare.
Wessel said this is the beginning, and the village will continue to plan/prepare.
Alcohol sales in village parks
Trustees unanimously voted to not change the village’s policy regarding the sale of alcohol in parks.
Instead they directed staff to research the topic further and bring back recommendations for language to restrict the sale of alcohol at youth events.
The topic was discussed following a request from organizers of the Green Bay East Youth Baseball Club to sell alcohol at their annual tournaments at DeBroux Park to raise funds to help offset the expenses of travel ball.
The club originally requested at the January parks meeting to host a beer garden at its Summer Kick-Off Food Truck Rally fundraiser May 31 at Willow Creek Park.
Both of these requests would require an amendment to village administrative policy because currently the sale of alcohol is only permitted at Josten Park.
The Park Commission voted to defer their decision on the amendment to the board.
The board was presented with a variety of options, which included keeping the policy the same, regulating which type of events are prohibited from selling alcohol, changing the policy with restrictions, and changing the policy without restrictions.
Resident Jackie Krull supported the policy amendment allowing the sale of alcohol at all three parks noting all are parks of equal size and offerings and should be treated equally.
Others were concerned that the sale of alcohol in DeBroux and Willow Creek parks would increase noise and decrease safety in areas surrounded by homes.
Board President Steve Soukup said as a former Little League coach he understands the concept, but was not in favor of allowing the sale of alcohol at children’s events.
Trustee John Sinkler agreed.
“I appreciate what you guys are doing by trying to help kids on the traveling team to afford it, but that’s a tough pill to swallow,” Sinkler said.
He said the setup at Josten and allowing the sale of alcohol there is different.
“I live there,” Sinkler said. “Those guys are out of there by 10 p.m. and I don’t even hear them. It’s a different setup there.”
A vote to remain status quo with direction to staff to bring language to restrict alcohol sales at youth events, passed unanimously.