Town Supervisor Mike Kindschi had strong words for the Cottage Grove Merger Study Committee following Town Chairman Kris Hampton’s message that the Committee would be asking the Town to spolit the cost with the Village on the $8,000 Phase 2 of a three phase merger fiscal impact analysis. 

Kindschi said the $5,000 spent on Phase 1 “was a waste.” 

“You spend $5,000 on step one; it should have been the easiest of the three steps.  And then they sit there and say, ‘well we got enough smarts, we can go ahead and do the third one (Phase 3).’ 

Kindschi, who was in the audience at the October 10 Merger Study meeting, was referring to the Committee’s discussion to okay spending to allow financial consultant Baker Tilly to start work on the $8,000 Phase 2 while postponing a decision on the $15,500 Phase 3 and opting to possibly do the work themselves post merger.  

“I think the committee should have sat down and said 'we can do some work here,'” said Kindschi.  “Not just sit around the table and have a ‘quote-on-quote’ contractor come in and tell us how things are going to go.”

Town Supervisor and Merger Committee member Mike DuPlayee defended the Committee’s decisions saying that they wanted an independent third party’s opinion.  DuPlayee explained that Phase 3 is an ‘operational phase’ that would not play into the decision on whether to merge as would the first two phases and therefore would not require the unbiased input of a third party. 

The next Merger Study Committee meeting is scheduled for October 24 at 6:30 p.m. at the Village Hall.