Advanced Disposal Bulk Pickups

Advanced Disposal has resumed their bulk pickup schedule.  Our next bulk pickup is scheduled for June 8th.  This includes all electronics such as TVs, Computers, Monitors, applicances and so on.  If you have bulk items for pickup please call customer care at 1-800-248-2373 before June 5th at 2pm.  you will need to give them a list of what you are putting out, your name and address.  Please write down the name of the person you spoke with at Advanced in case for some reason they do not pick up your bulk items.  Please give them till Tuesday June 6th as I am sure there will be more bulk items than normal. Items inluded are Ewaste, large items too big to put in your container, tires (limited amount) Furniture, Mattresses,  Should you be told that you can’t put out Electronic items, please remind them you are in the Town of Harmony Rock County and our contract allows our residents to put E-waste for bulk pickup.

Thanks

Tim Tollefson


Road Work 2020

Updated 06-03-20.  I just wanted to let everyone know that at this point the County is running behind by 3 to 4 weeks.  Due to Covid-19 Rock County Public Works was running on a skeleton crew so was basicly shut down for as much as 7 weeks.  Normally much of work would be completed by now.  For the roads where chip sealing was to happen around Memorial Day, that will likely happen closer to July 4th.  

Just to keep everyone up to date with regard to roadwork for this year.  

We will be chip sealing the following roads

Rolling Hills Subdivsion Sable Drive, Sable Ct, Pine Tree Ct.

Grandview Subdivision  Pleasant (west of NW Rotamer), Waverly, Grandview, Sylvan

The Vineyard   Zinfandel, Shiraz, Chardonnay, Catawba

Chip sealing is required as it will extend the life of a road by 7 to 12 years.  It does create a lot of gravel on the road and that gravel must be on the road for two weeks depending on the weather.  We have asked that the county hire the city of Janesville to come in and sweep the roads after about two weeks to minimize the amount of gravel on the roads after the sweep. This is scheduled to happen around Memorial Day so we wanted to prepare everyone.

The remainder of the roads will patch work like you see on most of our roads.  Last year we changed from doing grader patching to a much better practice where the road ride much smoother and it should hold up better.  Everyone of our major roads will get some patch work done this year.  As always the roads that receive the highest traffic counts get the work done first.  But all of the non subdivision roads will have work done on them this year.  We will also be crack filling a number of roads through out the township Such as East Rotamer, Bingham, Galaxy, Apollo, Lunar, Saturn and Polaris and sections of Town Hall Road. 

We received a grant from the State of Wisconsin for Harmony and Town of Milton to redo sections of Townline Road.  The sections are From Kennedy Road to County Y and from Henke to Vickerman (Tarrant Rd).  We anticipate this work will start happening in 2021.   

Our road traffic from heaviest traffic to lowest is as follows (does not include subdivison roads)

Town Hall Road

Newville Road (we share this road with Town of Janesville)

Townline Road (we share this road wth Town of Milton

Kennedy Road

NW Rotamer Road

Henke Road

E Rotamer

Milton Shopiere Road

Bingham Road

Tarrant Road

Wilcox

Thanks

Tim Tollelfson

Clerk


Thank you All!!

I wanted to take a minute to thank everyone.  I want to thank all the voters that showed up on election day for their patients and understanding.  My election team really appreciated all the thank yous and appreciation the voters showed them.  Thank you to all the absentee voters for learning how to request an absentee ballot and your patients with the system.  We had over 700 people that were mailed an absentee ballot.  

Thanks to my entire election team.  Those that chose to work and those that chose not to.  It was a difficult and emotional decision for everyone and the struggle you all went through was understandable and appreciated.  Thank you to those that were not part of the original team but came forward and volunteered to help in this difficult time.  We had many volunteers and asked a number of them to help out.  Their contribution to our effort was impressive and I hope all of you will consider becoming a part of our regular election team!

Thanks to Duane Jorgenson who is the head of the Rock County Public Works Department and his team of employees.  He organized delivery of the personal protection equipment to all the polling locations in Rock County and many of his team volunteered to help at different polling locations on election day. 

Thanks to the County Clerk Lisa Tollefson (yes she is my wife) but no matter, she arranged production, purchasing and distribution of the personal protection equipment such as face shields, face masks and sanitizer from local facilities like Prent who is making face shields and she did much more with communication with all Clerks.

Thanks to all the Clerks in Rock County.  Rock Counties Clerks are a team and everyone shared ideas with one another as to what safety protocols they were putting in place. 

Thanks to the Wisconsin National Guard.  While we did not take advantage of their offer for assistance in Harmony, where they did help, the Clerks said their contribution was incredible and appreciated.

Last but certainly not least a thank you and my gratitude go to Lucille Vickerman (Chief Inspector) and Linda Zainer (Deputy Chief) for all the work they did during the month or better leading up to election day.  They are both true leaders of the election team.  What was done could not have been done without them.  THANK YOU!!!!

 

There were so many offers from the pubic, the board and outside oranizations to help, so a blanket thank you to everyone that offered to help.  Lets hope this is the last time we ever have to run an election this way and lets hope that everything gets back to normal as quickly as possible.  I would rather see a smile on peoples faces than a face mask.  

Thanks

Tim (Tolly) Tollefson

Clerk


April 7th Election

Updated at 9:45pm on April 6th.  

The US Supreme Court this evening ordered that all outstanding absentee ballots must be post marked by April 7th or hand delivered to the polling location by 8pm on election day.  This was a change from what was announced over the weekend where they did not indicated a post marked date.  

This election is kind of like the weather in Wisconsin, give it 10 minutes and it’s going to change.

We have worked hard to the the Town Hall set up to be a safe location to vote.  We believe that we have done what is possible to minimize cross contamination.  However we are working on a skeleton crew at this point and we must limit the number of people that can be in the building.  This may cause lines and extended waiting periods.  Due to running on a skeleton crew we also must minimize the amount of curbside voting.  Wait periods for this may be quite extensive as we have only enough staff on hand to run the inside polls.  Only when we have no one waiting inside can we send a team of 2 people out for this.  Curbside voting also takes 10 minutes or more and to be honest there is a greater chance of cross conamination when do this then just coming in to vote. Either way this will be an election to remember and hopefully one that will not get repeated.  Stay safe!


Updated at 8pm April 2nd election Information

Updated at 8:00pm April 2

Date:             April 2, 2020

 

Subject:        Federal Court Order Affects Spring Election – Absentee Ballot Request and Receipt Deadlines Extended; Witness Signature Requirement Modified

 

This afternoon, Judge William Conley of the Western District of Wisconsin federal court has issued an order related to absentee ballots for next week’s Spring Election and Presidential Preference Primary.  The Court ordered the following:

 

1)      The deadline for the receipt of absentee ballots is extended to 4:00 p.m. on Monday, April 13, 2020.  The Court specifically did not add a requirement for a postmarked-by deadline as long as the ballot is returned by the new deadline.

 

2)      The deadline for receipt of absentee ballot requests by mail, fax or email (and if deemed administratively feasible in the sole discretion of the WEC Administrator, online) is extended to 5:00 p.m. on Friday, April 3, 2020. 

 

3)      A witness signature on the absentee ballot certificate envelope is not required if the absentee voter provides a written affirmation or other statement that they were unable to safely obtain a witness certification despite reasonable attempts to do so, provided the ballot is otherwise valid.

 

Judge Conley’s decision was issued in a set of three federal lawsuits which were consolidated and which requested various remedies related to the Spring Election.  The decision did not grant other requests such as postponing the election date or suspending and photo ID requirements for mail-in absentee voters 

This will be an election I don’t think we will forget for a long time.  While this is not an awards show I do want to thank some people and when you see these people you all need to thank them.  First I want to thank Lucille Vickerman who is our Chief Election Inspector who has been working tirelessly for the last month or better to ensure this election is planned out. Lucille has been staying in constant contact with all of our election inspectors.  Working by her side is Linda Zainer the assistant Chief inspector.  The work they have done is more than appreciated and I can’t thank them enough.  When you see them be sure to thank them (from a distance) for all the work they are doing.  I also want to thank the entire team of election inspectors whether they have stepped back from this election or not.  The decision to as to whether to work this election or not has been a very stessful decision for everyone. 

And thanks to everyone that voted absentee.  We are just over 700 absentee voters and about 80% of those are first time absentee.  For those, it will be much easier to request and absentee in the future should they need to.  On the subject of absentee.  If you have not mailed your ballot here are other options to return your absentee.  You can return these to my office at the town hall.  You can slide them under the door, as this is where my mail is delivered.  The office building is open Weekdays 7am to 4pm.  OR  I have have a box at my house.  At the bottom of my driveway there is a tan box located on the fence Next to the gate that goes into my basement.  I check this box several times a day.  My address is 5818 N Kennedy Road. 

As stated earlier, this will be an election to remember.  I want to give you a glimps of what election day will be like.  The hall is not set up as usual.  There will only be one line.  We are working on a skeleton crew so I would expect lines, not due so to the amount of people but due to the fact that we must limit the amount of people in the town hall and in the hallway to the town hall, so at times I would expect to stand outside.  Do your best not to touch anything and we have done what we can to keep touching of anything to a minimum.  When you show your ID please DO NOT hand it to the election inspector.  Please hold it so they can see it and state your name and address.   Everyone must use the front door of the building and exit out the back door of the building.  There will be Xs taped on the floor to stand on.  Couples will be required to stand separatly on the Xs because we must limit the amount of people in the building.  If at all possible please don’t bring children.   There will be signs going down the hallway to the town hall that everyone should read.  They give direction and are a good reminder of what to do and what not to do.  We have put up plexiglas sneeze guards.  We will prop all doors open to minimize cross contamination.  We will be cleaning and sanitizing all day long. We will be breaking hourly or more, for all election workers to wash hands.  Here is something I never thought I would have to warn people of, the possibility of a stronger smell of sanitizers in the building. 

We have done what ever we can to minimize the possiblity of the spread of Covid-19 and with everyone’s cooperation we will keep everyone safe.  Should anything change over the next days I will post updates.

Thanks

Tim Tollefson

Clerk 


Updated at 5:30pm Thursday April 2nd

Updated at 8:00pm April 2

Date:             April 2, 2020

 

Subject:        Federal Court Order Affects Spring Election – Absentee Ballot Request and Receipt Deadlines Extended; Witness Signature Requirement Modified

 

This afternoon, Judge William Conley of the Western District of Wisconsin federal court has issued an order related to absentee ballots for next week’s Spring Election and Presidential Preference Primary.  The Court ordered the following:

 

1)      The deadline for the receipt of absentee ballots is extended to 4:00 p.m. on Monday, April 13, 2020.  The Court specifically did not add a requirement for a postmarked-by deadline as long as the ballot is returned by the new deadline.

 

2)      The deadline for receipt of absentee ballot requests by mail, fax or email (and if deemed administratively feasible in the sole discretion of the WEC Administrator, online) is extended to 5:00 p.m. on Friday, April 3, 2020. 

 

3)      A witness signature on the absentee ballot certificate envelope is not required if the absentee voter provides a written affirmation or other statement that they were unable to safely obtain a witness certification despite reasonable attempts to do so, provided the ballot is otherwise valid.

 

Judge Conley’s decision was issued in a set of three federal lawsuits which were consolidated and which requested various remedies related to the Spring Election.  The decision did not grant other requests such as postponing the election date or suspending and photo ID requirements for mail-in absentee voters 

This will be an election I don’t think we will forget for a long time.  While this is not an awards show I do want to thank some people and when you see these people you all need to thank them.  First I want to thank Lucille Vickerman who is our Chief Election Inspector who has been working tirelessly for the last month or better to ensure this election is planned out. Lucille has been staying in constant contact with all of our election inspectors.  Working by her side is Linda Zainer the assistant Chief inspector.  The work they have done is more than appreciated and I can’t thank them enough.  When you see them be sure to thank them (from a distance) for all the work they are doing.  I also want to thank the entire team of election inspectors whether they have stepped back from this election or not.  The decision to as to whether to work this election or not has been a very stessful decision for everyone. 

And thanks to everyone that voted absentee.  We are just over 700 absentee voters and about 80% of those are first time absentee.  For those, it will be much easier to request and absentee in the future should they need to.  On the subject of absentee.  We are getting close to election day and as of today, your ballot must be returned to me no later then 8pm on election day.  Should that change, I will post an update.  So if you have not mailed your ballot here are other options to return your absentee.  You can return these to my office at the town hall.  You can slide them under the door, as this is where my mail is delivered.  The office building is open Weekdays 7am to 4pm.  OR  I have have a box at my house.  At the bottom of my driveway there is a tan box located on the fence by the gate that goes into my basement.  I check this box several times a day.  My address is 5818 N Kennedy Road. 

As stated earlier, this will be an election to remember.  I want to give you a glimps of what election day will be like.  The hall is not set up as usual.  There will only be one line.  We are working on a skeleton crew so I would expect lines, not due so to the amount of people but due to the fact that we must limit the amount of people in the town hall and in the hallway to the town hall, so at times I would expect to stand outside.  Do your best not to touch anything and we have done what we can to keep touching of anything to a minimum.  When you show your ID please DO NOT hand it to the election inspector.  Please hold it so they can see it and state your name and address.   Everyone must use the front door of the building and exit out the back door of the building.  There will be Xs taped on the floor to stand on.  Couples will be required to stand separatly on the Xs because we must limit the amount of people in the building.  If at all possible please don’t bring children.   There will be signs going down the hallway to the town hall that everyone should read.  They give direction and are a good reminder of what to do and what not to do.  We have put up plexiglas sneeze guards.  We will prop all doors open to minimize cross contamination.  We will be cleaning and sanitizing all day long. We will be breaking hourly or more, for all election workers to wash hands.  Here is something I never thought I would have to warn people of, the possibility of a stronger smell of sanitizers in the building. 

We have done what ever we can to minimize the possiblity of the spread of Covid-19 and with everyone’s cooperation we will keep everyone safe.  Should anything change over the next days I will post updates.

Thanks

Tim Tollefson

Clerk 


April 7th Election Information Updated April 2nd

This will be an election I don’t think we will forget for a long time.  While this is not an awards show I do want to thank some people and when you see these people you all need to thank them.  First I want to thank Lucille Vickerman who is our Chief Election Inspector who has been working tirelessly for the last month or better to ensure this election is planned out. Lucille has been staying in constant contact with all of our election inspectors.  Working by her side is Linda Zainer the assistant Chief inspector.  The work they have done is more than appreciated and I can’t thank them enough.  When you see them be sure to thank them (from a distance) for all the work they are doing.  I also want to thank the entire team of election inspectors whether they have stepped back from this election or not.  The decision to as to whether to work this election or not has been a very stessful decision for everyone. 

And thanks to everyone that voted absentee.  We are just over 700 absentee voters and about 80% of those are first time absentee.  For those, it will be much easier to request and absentee in the future should they need to.  On the subject of absentee.  We are getting close to election day and as of today, your ballot must be returned to me no later then 8pm on election day.  Should that change, I will post an update.  So if you have not mailed your ballot here are other options to return your absentee.  You can return these to my office at the town hall.  You can slide them under the door, as this is where my mail is delivered.  The office building is open Weekdays 7am to 4pm.  OR  I have have a box at my house.  At the bottom of my driveway there is a tan box located on the fence by the gate that goes into my basement.  I check this box several times a day.  My address is 5818 N Kennedy Road. 

As stated earlier, this will be an election to remember.  I want to give you a glimps of what election day will be like.  The hall is not set up as usual.  There will only be one line.  We are working on a skeleton crew so I would expect lines, not due so to the amount of people but due to the fact that we must limit the amount of people in the town hall and in the hallway to the town hall, so at times I would expect to stand outside.  Do your best not to touch anything and we have done what we can to keep touching of anything to a minimum.  When you show your ID please DO NOT hand it to the election inspector.  Please hold it so they can see it and state your name and address.   Everyone must use the front door of the building and exit out the back door of the building.  There will be Xs taped on the floor to stand on.  Couples will be required to stand separatly on the Xs because we must limit the amount of people in the building.  If at all possible please don’t bring children.   There will be signs going down the hallway to the town hall that everyone should read.  They give direction and are a good reminder of what to do and what not to do.  We have put up plexiglas sneeze guards.  We will prop all doors open to minimize cross contamination.  We will be cleaning and sanitizing all day long. We will be breaking hourly or more, for all election workers to wash hands.  Here is something I never thought I would have to warn people of, the possibility of a stronger smell of sanitizers in the building. 

We have done what ever we can to minimize the possiblity of the spread of Covid-19 and with everyone’s cooperation we will keep everyone safe.  Should anything change over the next days I will post updates.

Thanks

Tim Tollefson

Clerk 


Absentee Ballot Update 03-27-20

Today is Friday March 27th.  I have mailed out about 450 absentee applications thus far, mailing out the same day I receive by 8pm and doing drops at the post office prior to the trucks leaving for Milwaukee.  As of this typing all absentees are in the mail.  I will be working the whole weekend to ensure that all absentees I receive hit the post off that day.  Those that put in for an absentee this weekend, we still should be able to get these to you and back to me provided you vote the ballot and mail back ASAP.  For those that do not want or can not upload a copy of your ID (License or State ID) you can drop off a copy of these at my house.  At the bottom of my driveway there is a gate on the fence where we enter the house, on that gate is a tan box where you can place the copies of the ID.  You can simply write your name and address on the photo copy an write that you would like an absentee.  I check this box through out the day.  This will also save time in not mailing the request to me.  The office building is locked over the weekend so please don’t attempt to drop off at the hall.  I will be working there but not sure what times.  I would like to see us get to around 700 absentee ballots out and back to me.  That would be almost half of our registered voters.  Should you have questions please call my office number 608-563-4477 as I will be checking this over the weekend and will try to get back to everyone.  Here is my address.

5818 N Kennedy Road

Milton WI 53563     Again, place the requests in the tan box that is located by the gate where we enter the basement.  Thank you!!

Tim Tollefson

Clerk