By Kayla Barnes
Blanchardville’s Chief of Police asked the Public Safety Committee at the Committees as a Whole meeting on Monday, Dec. 22, to consider decreasing his hours or increasing his pay due to the stress he is enduring from his work case load. The Public Works Committee also discussed the informational meeting for the STH 78 utility project on Main Street that will take place on January 14 at 6 p.m at the Pecatonica Area Middle/High School Library and a potential project happening in the TID No. 1 lands north of the village. Blanchardville’s Chief of Police Ryan Kumor stated he was recently approached by the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department to come back on as a full time officer. He stated that he is at the point where he was considering the option due to the case load he has been enduring and he just needs a break. Over the course of 2025, Kumor has taken on 90-100 cases. He has been able to complete 80 percent of those cases as many are simple cases and don’t take long to complete. There are some cases that are more in depth, including his open cases of child abuse, child neglect and child sexual assaults. All of these cases have taken place within the village. Kumor stated that when he worked with the Sheriff’s Department, they would begin the initial cases but then detectives would take over the rest of the case, so he would just need to focus on patrolling. In the village, he is seen to do it all, begin the case and follow it through until it is closed. Some cases do require outside help, like from Lafayette County Human Services or some assistance from detectives from the county, but the rest of the work falls on Kumor. The Sheriff’s Office has asked for his help on a couple shifts as they are down a couple patrol officers and a detective. “It is nice to get a break, to get away from here and all the cases that need work. I get it. Why go work somewhere else when I have so much to do here but sometimes I need a break. I could work 10-12 hour days and still won’t be caught up,” Kumor said. He said the whole reason he took the Blanchardville Chief of Police position was to be able to spend more time with family but he is to the point where he is bringing everything home and it is effecting his family and home life. “It is getting to the point that I don’t want to come to work.” At the meeting, Kumor asked to either drop his hours down to 80 hours every two weeks or increase his salary. When he was hired, he suggested to be paid salary at $72,000, which was the average of the base rate at the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Office and what he was earning last year at the sheriff’s office. He said that switching him back to hourly wouldn’t be fiscally responsible for the village. The committee felt this subject should be brought up at the Police Commission first before anything could be decided. Brian Nutter thanked Kumor for his honesty. Kumor added that it took a lot of discussion between his family but he has decided that he does want to stay here but wants to find a happy medium and be able to enjoy his job. The Police Commission will meet on January 13. The Public Safety Committee will then meet after that to discuss what their suggestion is and bring a recommendation to the February board meeting. Main Street Meeting The public residential/business informational meeting date for the STH 78 Utility Project will be January 14 at 6 p.m. at the Pecatonica Middle/High School Library. Brian Berquist, Project Engineer at Town & Country Engineering, will be there to discuss the Main Street project portion of the entire STH 78 project. The Department of Transportation will also be in attendance. TID No. 1 sewer plans Berquist brought up the fact that STH 78 will be tore up from Lien Street all the way to County H near Daleyville. During that time would be ideal to possibly get some sewer work done for the TID No. 1 lands north of the village. There is some serious interest from the developer for those lands. Berquist mentioned that during the time the road will be tore up, the village will have Maddrell Excavating in town and the village could potentially connect the sewer along side STH 78, past the well house and cut it up on the south side of County F. Berquist stated doing this is risking in case the developer were to back out and it would be an added cost that the village hadn’t potentially thought about happening this soon next year. Matt Miller from Vierbicher stated that the village is hoping to have a developer agreement drawn up and signed soon and that would give them some confidence that the land would be getting developed soon, like as soon as next year. The village would pay the up front cost of putting in the sewer until the developer would pay them back. They would be saving money on not having to cut the asphalt and repave it if the road was already going to be tore up. The piping would be about 300 feet along side the roadway and 300 feet angled up into the TID No. 1 lands. The final route for the piping would be through the streets planned on those lands. Berquist stated this was all informational and something the board should think about and possibly consider. Berquist said he would chat with Maddrell and learn more information soon. Miller added that the developer has changed some of their plans but what he thought was best for the village to have built on the land was multi family housing, business opportunities, and commercial space as well. He hopes to have something tangible to show the village at their January meeting as to how some of the lot sizes have changed. One of the things the developer wanted to have on the land was some substorage opportunities north of County F, like a warehouse, in the industrial district. Other business Sarah Kyrie is working as the interim director for the Argyle Public Library for January and February for 5-10 hours a week or until they find a full time person. She wanted to reiterate to the board that she will not be leaving Blanchardville but just wanted to help out Argyle. Rolly McGowan asked that the committee only allow village residents to dump brush and yard waste at the dump site on Old Q Road. Recently, Intercon Construction has been dumping their fill from the road work they have been doing in the village. McGowan is afraid the Department of Natural Resources is going to be upset since the village doesn’t have a sill fence or any type of erosion control there. The committee made the motion to purchase no dumping fill signs that clearly state the fine that could be issued if anyone is caught violating the rules.