People expect board members to know what’s going on in town, Hennessey Town Trustee Harold Shaw said during a special town board meeting Thursday night.

He said someone questioned him about a new laundromat going in and he didn’t know anything about it.

“What new laundromat?” asked Town Administrator Tiffany Tillman.

Shaw said it’s going in next to the new Family Dollar Store, then Mayor Bert Gritz said he’d heard about it, too.

“It will be shut down tomorrow,” Tillman said. “No building permit has been issued for it.”

“They’ve been doing dirt work on it,” said Vice Mayor Clif Vogt.

Tillman said she’d thought they were finishing the curbing at Family Dollar.

Gritz suggested that Tillman include a list of the building permits in her monthly report to trustees.

Digital police citations

A rental contract with digiTicket for $680 a month to provide two digitised scanners for police officers was approved.

Police Chief Aaron Pitts told the board the scanners are user-friendly and will scan a driver’s license, which will automatically be uploaded to the dispatcher.

He said an officer could also add a phone number and an employer.

“We already have the software program,” he said. “This will not only help dispatch, but will help Shelley.”

“Sometimes it’s hard to read the officer’s handwriting,” said Town Treasurer Shelley Burch, who is also the municipal court clerk.

It will also help when someone calls town hall at 8 a.m. and needs the amount of their ticket when clerks don’t have the tickets yet, she said.

Trustee David Jones, who’d suggested the digital tickets at an earlier meeting, said Waukomis has them and has for a few years.

“Yes, they sure do,” said the mayor who’d been a recipient.

Shaw asked how the scanner costs would affect the police department’s budget.

Tillman said the board had earlier approved the $22,000 purchase of scanners, but it would’ve taken more than four years for them to pay that off.

She said they determined it would be best to start out leasing them and that includes any upgrades that are bound to happen.

Pitts said if they are dropped, or broken, they would be replaced at no charge.

Gritz said since town hall has gone from having four employees to three, the scanners will also help productivity in that office.

Trustee Handbook approved

It looked like a slamdunk approval in five minutes, or less, after the mayor said they could go line-by-line in the 2022 Town Trustee Handbook, or cover any questions by trustees.

“I don’t need to go through it (36 pages),” said Jones. He said he’d gone through it twice before from copies provided earlier, and again that day, and all changes he’d requested were made.

“I’m ready to vote on it,” said Trustee Richard Simunek.

The vice mayor said he’d gone over it that day and was ready to vote.

“I agree on about 85 percent of it,” Shaw said before he brought up the laundromat, then asked about an item to only give someone three to five minutes to speak.

Gritz said that’s about comments from the public, not trustees.

He wants a standing podium so questions from the audience should stand at the podium and ask their questions from there.

Gritz said OMAG had recommended a trustee handbook be implemented during a presentation to the board last year and he had gotten the wording for Hennessey’s from another town.

Jones asked if the handbook is a living document so that changes may be made when needed.

“Yes,” said Tillman. “It’s just like town ordinances that may be changed at any time.”

In addition to the five board members, Tillman and Burch, also present was Town Clerk Kati Walters, who also serves as minutes clerk.

The board’s next regular meeting is at 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 11.