Silver Lake may see more stop signs

By Gail Peckler-Dziki~Correspondent

The Silver Lake Village Board had the first reading of a change to the village ordinance to increase the number of stop signs in the village at the Dec. 18 regular board meeting. Village trustee Pat Dunn explained that the police department created a list of problem areas.

“Many of these signs are at T intersections or blind corners,” he said. “There are a couple yield signs included, but there are portions where those are not enough.”

A complete list is available at the village hall. Some included intersections are on Dells Road at northbound Elizabeth Court, southbound Marti Court, southbound Prairie Drive, southbound Meadow Drive and northbound Glenwood Drive. Stop signs are slated for installation on 6th Street at westbound South Spruce Street, Elm Street, West Poplar Street and West Wisconsin Avenue. Northbound Park Street at 6th is also on the list.

Sue Nelson comes back to Silver Lake

The board also voted to rehire deputy clerk-treasurer Sue Nelson in a six to one vote. Pat Dunn was the lone naysayer and had questions about the posting of the position and how for the hiring process had gotten with other applicants.

Trustee Soti Wilber, chair of the finance, legislative and administration Committee explained that while the village had received a number of applications, interviews hadn’t been scheduled.

“I would have to send letters to the applicants to explain what happened,” she said.

“I feel torn on this,” Wilber continued. “People need jobs, but this is good for the village since Sue is already trained.”

Trustee Sue Gerber agreed and said, “There would be no learning curve for her. Rehiring her would be the best for the village.”

Nelson’s first day was the day after Christmas, Dec. 26.

Employee insurance clarifications

Wilber also brought employee insurance changes to the board. Silver Lake has nine employees and they all take insurance with the village. At some point, an employee might have a personal insurance option (for example, a policy similar to colonial penn life insurance), so the village has an opt out policy. There are many companies that have insurance for employees, whether that is health insurance given to employees or life insurance from somewhere like Mykeyman Insurance (www.mykeymaninsurance.com) for their key employees. This ensures that they have enough coverage to get through whenever anything unfortunate happens.

It is easy to confuse the insurance that provides for the welfare of employees and one that helps the company cope when a key person demises. The key person life insurance is something a company gets insured to protect itself during the demise or disability of a key employee. Employee health and life insurance, on the other hand protect the individual employee.

If companies look at agencies similar to Eden Health who tend to provide virtual health care and telemedicine facilities for their employees, there could be a reduced risk of any kind of mishap happening. Nonetheless, it depends on the employer and their will to take adequate steps to protect his staff.

For the situation in the village though, a employee who does not use village insurance would receive 12 payments of half the amount the village would pay.

“It’s a win-win,” Wilber explained. “It would cost the village about $14,000 for that policy and giving the employee $7,000 still saves the village some money.”

Added to the policy is a payback clause if an employee has need t join the village policy at any time.

“This is why we have the payments made monthly,” Wilber explained. “If we paid the entire amount at one time and then an employee needed to use village insurance, there would be a lump sum that would be required to be paid back.”

Nuisance issues tabled

Last August the village began working to clean up some nuisance properties in the village. Three are unoccupied, two properties in foreclosure. One is occupied.

Tickets were issued and ignored as were following court dates. Interim village judge Robert Goodenough explained that a corporation can’t be ticketed, only an individual.

It is possible to clean up the properties with structural issues and debris in the yard and place the cost on the tax bill, but current tax bills have already gone out. The cost would be borne by taxpayers until next year. The board tabled the issue for further information.


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