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May 05 2026 Board and CoW Recap

·606 words·3 mins
Prescott Balch
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Prescott Balch
Disclaimer: the opinions expressed in these posts are my own and are not to be construed as official opinions of the village. Please see https://caledonia-wi.gov/ for official communications.

5-5-2026 Board and CoW meeting recap
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If you showed up and stayed until the end, you are a brave soul.

Board (Bored) Meeting
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The first topic was definitely not boring – noise from the Saputo building was a hot topic during public comment both here and at the CoW meeting. There are some frustrated local residents not getting a lot of sleep. We need to help them fix this problem. Sounded to me like the comments from the public will generate some near term action from the village to try to help.

Closed door

After some simple items, though, the boredom started for the residents. The trustees went into closed session … and stayed in closed session … and stayed some more … and some more.

Per the agenda, we were going to talk about three items:

  • TID 5 lakefront property redevelopment ideas
  • Cooperative boundary agreement with Raymond
  • TID 6 development agreement for F Street, for apartments and some single family homes at 4 Mile and Green Bay

We talked and talked and it got spicy at times, but when we came out we took no action on that third item. The agenda said we reserved the right to vote on the agreement, but we didn’t. Long story, wish I could tell you, but I can’t.

CoW
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Nothing much happened, until we reached “Discussion on Village Website,” which was my addition to the agenda. As my punishment, we decided to create an adhoc committee, chaired by yours truly, to see what we can do to fix the thing. Since I know a thing or two about website development, and since I spend a lot of time using that website, I am eager to see what can be done. We really took a step backward on transaparency and ease of information retrieval with the switch to the new website. If you want to share opinions, good or bad, about the website, please send them to me at [email protected].

Next: on to Continuing Business.

Guess what we did with Historical TID Analysis? That was the topic some wanted addressed prior to the election, to address social media misinformation on TIDs. Well, I can’t remember the official Roberts Rules of Order terms we used, but we tossed the item in the garbage can. Draw your own conclusions on that. We spent staff time and probably third party expense with Ehlers producing that analysis.

For Title 14 changes, I made a motion (woohoo, my first official motion, I think) to do this:

Direct staff to start over with current ordinance text and present changes ONLY under the following three categories:

  • Legal/administrative
  • Language clarification
  • Procedural improvements

That version will be discussed and likely formally approved.

Only after that will we try to address the philosophical changes around open space and density, and likely we’ll defer that 4th category until after the Comprehensive Land Use Plan is updated.

A Tale of Two Meetings
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If you were in the audience, this meeting was boring, long, and a big waste of your time. Thanks for coming if you did.

If you were in the closed session, it was a different meeting: meaty, spicy, full of rigorous and healthy debate. The next steps on all three of those proposals should be equally interesting.

Closing comment
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Thanks to Paula Pintar for calling out the resident-unfriendly nature of the meeting agendas. Message received and we’ll try to do better.

Super special thanks to the residents who came to speak about the Saputo noise issue. I think you got through to people last night.

My first board/cow meeting was 3:15. This one was 3:45-ish. Brutal.