Orchard trustees sift through thrift store proposal

It was business as usual as several motions passed during the Village of Orchard Board of Trustees meeting, June 13.

Trustee Dwight VanOstrand was unable to attend the meeting.

Shelly Strope and Bev Krutz talked with trustees about a proposed thrift store being housed in the former Orchard schoolhouse. Strope said after discussions with a lawyer, a lease to be located in the schoolhouse will be necessary. Strope asked if the thrift store could use the entire second floor

Chairman Stephanie Cleveland referred to previous meeting minutes.

“Motion would allow them in the old building. That is all we have down, so we didn’t specify location in the building,” Cleveland noted.

Strope mentioned they would like to use all of the second floor, if possible, along with some of the tables and supplies already in the building.

No action was taken.

Trustees also discussed remote access equipment at the well.

Village maintenance director Bruce Horstmann said remote-access equipment would send an alarm to his phone if the village’s water well pressure was going down, before there is nothing else that can be done about it. Remote access would cost $200 and would come out of the village’s keno fund.

Trustee Glen Cheatum made a motion to purchase the remote-access equipment for the well and Curt Mitteis seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.

The employee review handbook was another topic of discussion. Cleveland mentioned that the board never made a motion regarding Duane Risinger’s pay. An amount of $15 an hour was previously agreed upon. Trustee John Ferguson made the motion to pay Risinger $15 an hour and to retrograde his pay to when he started this year. Mitteis seconded the motion, with everyone voting in favor.

Cleveland has been approached about lifeguards commuting from other communities to teach private swim lessons. She mentioned gas prices, noting guards received $20 an hour for private lessons a year ago. Currently, guards earn their normal wage for private lessons.

“Can the pool schedule that better?” Mitteis asked.

Cleveland spoke with pool manager Kylee McManigal, and she is doing everything she can to have guards teach lessons right after their shift.

“We can go back to the way they used to do it, but then the pool gets nothing,” Mitteis replied.

According to Cleveland, private lessons run four times a week, with 30-minute sessions, at a cost of $60 per child. Mitteis said they are ultimately paying a guard to teach the lesson and a manager to be there for insurance purposes. Mitteis noted that private lessons “are great, but they are expensive for the pool.” He said he will talk to McManigal about scheduling.

“I don’t know if there is a solution though,” Mitteis said.

Cleveland presented an $800 check to the board from Dusty’s that was profit from the powerlifting meet held at the school, in April.

“If anyone is here who helped me, thank you for coming up and helping,” Cleveland said.

The American Legion Axillary and the alumni association have requested the women’s coaches room in the schoolhouse to move out of the Rex Theatre.

“It’s plenty big for us then the alumni association would like to share the room with us for their stuff,” Mitteis said.

The next item of discussion was the old schoolhouse weight room. They discussed that Jeff Shabram would need to have a lease agreement to continue running the weight room. He gave a donation a while back, but he would have had to start paying $300 rent as of May.

Mitteis asked the status of the shed in the practice field? Nobody seemed to know the exact details on the building.

Trustees discussed the future of items inside the old schoolhouse. They thought an auction wouldn’t work because there isn’t enough to sell. Board members decided they would let the village clerk, library and thrift store see if any items are of use. A decision was made to draft a letter to area schools to see if they would be interested in purchasing anything.

Issues on the school playground have been reported. A basketball hoop was broken and the donor saw it break when kid hung on it. There have also been signs stolen around town. Cameras caught the boys’ backs. Trustees discussed buying a recording camera that can hold up to 30 days of footage.

“I think that would be a good idea,” Mitteis said.

Keno funds would cover the cost of the camera. Mitteis made the motion to purchase a security system for the school playground area and Ferguson seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.