Waste Managment did not get Tarrant Road on Mondays pick up and a couple of residents on A. They have committed to picking these up on Thursday of this week. I will keep an eye on this and inform everyone should anything change. Our disapointment has been communicated in no uncertain terms.
Thanks
Tim Tollefson
The next Town Board Meeting will be Monday January 11th at 7pm. Please watch later for the agenda. All Town Board meetings will be held in person and via Zoom. We must limit the number of people allowed in the Town Hall. We encourage everyone to try the Zoom feature. It is very simple to learn and use. I learned how to use it so anyone can.
The new 2021 Dog License Appliction are now posted. To find the License go to “Community” just above this area. Click on “Form and Permits” you will then see “Dog License Application 2021” click on that and it will bring up the new license.
Please see the attached notice of Voting Equipment Audit
https://townofharmony.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/11-24-2020-Machine-Audit.pdf
This is an audit of the voting equipment used in the November 2020 General Election. This is not a recount of any ward but a comparison of how the Voting Equipment counted the votes of Ward 1 in comparison of a hand count of those ballots. This will involve approximatly 162 ballots being reviewed. These audits are mandated by state statute and the municpality and wards are selected at random by the Wisconsin Election Commission. Estimated time to complete the audit will be two hours. This audit is open to the public but we must limit the number of people in the Town Hall to no more than 10.
The Town of Milton Fire Department has provided great service to the residents of our town at a great value. Our 4 year contact ends in 2020. For the 2021 contract the price of the services provided has tripled in cost. The contract price in 2020 was $72,920 and for a one year contract for 2021 the new cost on the contract is $225,198. We also believe that in 2022 that price may increase more to a possible $495,456 as this is what was estimated at a meeting in September of this year and no major increase in 2021. This is why we were seeking a $300,000 increase in our tax levy at a meeting of electors scheduled for Monday Nov 9th at 7pm. Without a contract for fire services most everyone in the town would not be able to get fire insurance or the cost of fire insurance for you home would be so expensive that it would be unaffordable.
The Town has not looked to increase our levy in 5 years and was not planning to look to increase our levy this year but based on this espense we must. Remember, the smallest portion of your tax bill is the taxes that come to the Town. 8 cents for every dollar you pay. For every $1000 you pay in taxes about $80 comes to the town. Without the increase very little road work would be done in 2021 as the road work budget is the only flexible account. All other accounts are a set amount to be paid.
While the increase in our contract price is shoking, you need to understand why the increase. At this point, Milton and nearly all other fire departments are having problems recruiting fire fighters. At what they are currently be paid, you could make better money working as a greeter at Walmart. Fire departments need to ensure they are prepared to handle multiple calls. Several years ago, the Milton Fire Departmen and the Janesville Fire Department came to an agreement that both would repsond to emergency calls and the first one on sight would handle the emergency and the other would go back. This agreement should make us all sleep better at night know the speed of the repsonse will happen. Again this is a large increase but we need to support our emergency responders and building that team for the future and for the increase in population for all areas they cover. Please support the increase in tax levi limit for the future of the emergency services.
Please see the attached Notice of Public Hearings for Planning and Zoning
Thanks
Tim Tollefson
Clerk
I have received numerous calls and emails asking for information about the election. I wanted to take a minute to explain some procedures.
Many questions regarding if their ballot was counted and why does it not show in myvote. On election day if you voted in person, you stopped at the desk and our inspectors issued you a vote a number in our pollbook and you signed the poll book. Each hour we reconcile the numbers on the machine with the number in the book. If the voting machine says that 102 ballots have been entered the book needs to show that we issued 102 ballots. Every hour we were open those numbers matched and at the end of the night those numbers matched. When you entered your ballot in the machine your vote is scanned, a picture taken of both sides of the ballot and your ballot drops into the space below the machine. It drops in no certain order and when we open the voting machine, Ballots are everywhere and in no order Your vote is recoreded on an encrypted flash drive that can only be read by the County Clerks office. At the end of the night we pull all ballots from the machine and they are counted numerous times by a team of election inspectors to ensure that the number on the voting machine matches the exact number of ballots we have. We had 534 in-person voters on election day. All ballots are organized by voting wards. Once the vote and ballot count is reconciled the ballots are then placed in a sealed bag that has a serial number. The bag is signed off on by 5 election inspectors. Those bags and taken to the Court house where they are stored for 2 years. The entire process is open to the public to come in and watch.
For absentee ballots, we had 1216 ballot envelopes received. One of those ballot envelopes had no signature on the envelope and that ballot envelope was received the evening of Nov 2nd and the voter was out of state so could not be contacted. Another envelope was received that had only the instructions in the envelope but no ballot. So no ballot could be counted. 1,214 absentee ballots were entered into the voting machine and at the end of the night the same process happens. We counted, organized and sealed in a bag by ward, 1,214 Absentee ballots.
At the end of the night I delivered the two encrypted flash drives that also have serial numbers logged to the Town, to the Court House to be entered into the system and the counts are then posted to the Rock County website. Those counts on the County website matched to our tapes that print from the voting machines.
All ballots, inspectors statements, incident logs, signed pollbooks, voting machine tapes and any other documentation is sealed and securely stored in our safe and the following day all of that documentation that has been sealed and signed off on by the election inspectors is delivered to the Court House and checked in by the Clerks office.
Also other questions that have come up are people who registered to vote on election day do not see the registrations in myvote. You won’t until late next week. That infomation will be entered once the State has certified the election. Also you won’t see that you voted until late next week once the election is certified. Clerks actually have 45 days to get everything entered. While a Township has a small number of infomation to enter, it will still take me at least a full day to enter this info. Imagine what it takes for a city like Milwaukee, Madison or Green Bay. But I always start entering names of voters and election day registrations the week after the election.
So, if your ballot was taken by the voting machine, which they all were, your vote has been counted. If you were one of the two absentee ballots that were not counted that will show on myvote right now. If you have questions please let me know. Send an Email to [email protected] and I will answer as quickly as I can.
Thanks for everyone voting, it was are largest voting day ever in Harmony. Thanks again!!
Tim Tollefson
Clerk Town of Harmony
There will be a budget meeting and meeting of electors on November 9th at 7pm. We will discuss the budget for 2021 and will hold a meeting of electors to seek to raise the Levi Limit by $300,000 to pay for a new contract with the Milton Fire Department that has increased by 3 times what the cost was for 2020. The cost in 2020 was $72,920 and for 2021 will be 225,158. It will also help to pay for road work in 2021 with scheduled projects being M-H Townline road from Kennedy to County Y and from Henke to Vickerman. A 2 year project. Also we would like to rebuild Wicox a project we have put off for 6 years, Chip sealing in several subdisvisons and more. I will post more on the contract with the Milton Fire Department in the near future.
Thanks
Tim Tollefson Clerk
Updated 10-29. Just two days left of In-Person Absentee Voting. Today and Tomorrow Noon to 6pm or later if necessary. There have not been lines. The longest line was 10 to 12 people and eveyone of those were voted and out the door in under 15 minutes. If you are registered to vote it takes less than 45 seconds to get your ballot once you are in front of me. Yes, you can register to vote and vote during in-person absentee voting. You need to have proof of residence and your ID. If your drivers license has your correct address that’s all you need. If not then you need to have a utility bill, pay stub, govt issued document that has your name and your current address. You need to have lived at your new address for 28 days. On election day the lines may be long. We can only have approximatly 8 to 9 people waiting in the building the rest will be waiting outside.
I am extending the hours of In-person absentee voting for Wednesday the 28th though Friday the 30th. I will be conducting in-person absentee voting from Noon to 6pm each of those days. At this point we have not had lines of people with the longest wait of about 10 minutes. A good way to tell if there is a wait is by driving by the Town Hall at 440 N US Hwy 14 (Next to Silha Construction) and if the front lot is full there may be a line. If the front lot is mostly empty probably a very short wait. Again, I am not sure what the wait will be on election day or how long the lines will be. During in-person absentee voting I can allow more people in the room because we have only me and possibly one other Harmony person in the Hall. On election day we will have 7 to 8 people in the hall so we can only alow 3 people in the hall. We are moving through voters pretty fast. So come and vote in-person.
We are fast approaching Election day. I wanted to give everyone an update on where we are at and a sneak peak at how the Town Hall will be set up for election day so that everyone will be ready.
As of Monday October 26rd we have 1048 Absentee Ballots that have either been mailed out or people that have voted in person. We have 139 Absentee Ballots that were mailed still outstanding. If you are still holding one of these please ensure you get those in the mail as soon as possible. As of this date, all ballots must be at the Town Hall by 8pm on November 3rd election day. Any ballots received after 8pm on election day will not be counted. Please see other news items as to how you can return your ballot.
IN-PERSON ABSENTEE VOTING
The week of October 25th, we will have in-person absentee voting at the Town Hall. The times for voting at this point are from 1pm to 5pm, Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday through Friday we will be Noon to 6pm. Please watch the upcoming events part of the home page. This week it has been a good flow of people doing an average of 30 ballots per day with no long wait times.
I have been asked by many people, what happens to my ballot when I vote in-person absentee? When you vote in-person absentee, you will see that I put a sticker on your envelope that has your name and address. To print that sticker I must enter you in the wisvote system as having voted absentee. You vote your ballot and place it in a sealed envelope. I sign the ballot as your witness. At the end of the day I conduct an audit of the number of people that were put in the wisvote system to verify I have the correct number of absentee envelopes compared to what is entered. Your ballot is then placed in a file box alphabeticaly and that box it placed in the fireproof safe in my office. I also audit all absentee ballots qtys daily and compare to what the wisvote system says we have on hand. If the number does not match, I must go through each file box one by one and find where the error is. (they have matched everyday so far). On election day our election inspectors will open each envelope one at a time, state the name and address of the absentee voter and feed the ballot through the machine. We take hourly counts to ensure the number of ballots fed into the machine matches the number we have for ballots that should have been entered. At the end of the day, all counts from the voting machine are compared to our poll book and the number of absentee ballots that were fed. The number must match.
ELECTION DAY
Due to covid and for the safety of everyone, we must limit the number of people in the actual Town Hall to no more then 11 people and that includes our election officials. So that means that a maximum of 3 voters will be permitted in the Town Hall at any one time. Voters waiting in the hallway are limited to a maximum of 7. The remainder of those waiting will have to wait outside. Depending on the traffic there may be a wait outside. So please dress for the weather that day. We ask that everyone comes in the front door and exits out the back door. Again to ensure social distancing. There will be greeters at the front entance to monitor the number of people in the building. There will also be a monitor in the hallway to guide everyone into the Town Hall. We ask that everyone please wear a mask or facial covering. At the front door we will have pens you can use and take home with you or you can drop in a bucket as you leave.
We have set up the hall different then what you have seen in the past. The reasons for this are, help us to limit the number of people in that room and it opens the space up much more to increase the social distancing for those in the room.
If you do not have a pen, we have pens that you can use and take with you or drop in a bucket as you leave. Gel pens are not permitted, blue or black ball point pens are to be used and if you are not sure, please take one of the pens provided. We will have sanitizers on hand and as each voter leaves the voting booth, the sanitizer will clean that voting booth. We will shut down for 5 minutes each hour to sanitize the room and allow our election inspectors to sanitize their hands and workspace.
You will see that the area where you come in to pick up your ballot has a 24 foot wall of plexiglass to protect everyone. This requires that everyone speak up a bit in order to be heard and we will speak up also. You will have to show your ID and state your name and address. We have developed a protective signature board that is sanitized after each use. This will be used when you sign the poll books.
Our goal is to ensure an accurate and safe election. Should you have any questions please let me know.
Thanks
Tim Tollefson
Clerk