Merger talks seem to come and go in Cottage Grove like the popularity of bellbottom pants. 

About every ten years since the mid-1970s a new generation of Town and Village board members decide to talk merger, and once they see it’s not for them they put it away for the next generation to try on some day.

The Town shut down a nearly yearlong merger discussion at the Merger Committee’s November 14 meeting.  The Committee made a motion that it will meet again on January 9.  At this time they will decide what recommendations, based on Committee findings, to report back to the Town and Village boards.   

“I guess I am telling you that merger is not going to happen at this point and time,” said Committee’ Co-chairperson and Town Chairman Kris Hampton.

The Town board might be willing to resume merger discussions, said Hampton, if the Village would like to make the changes he mentioned or if they would want to talk about just a boundary agreement in the future. Changes he outlined included addressing issues with property rights, including farmland preservation; the "Village-only officer" matter and concerns with a Village plan commission letter to the Town that has fractured the Town's trust in Village planning.

“There is a lack of trust between the Town and the Village at the present time,” said Hampton, adding that the nearly two months until the next meeting would give the Village time to make changes to its ordinances and comprehensive plan so they fall more in line with the Town’s interests. 

This rapid shift from the optimistic attitudes of Committee members a month ago to a discussion shutdown seemed sudden to Committee Co-chairperson and Village President Diane Wiedenbeck even though she said she anticipated the changing attitude.

"I could see it coming.  I think most people who sat in on meetings could see it coming.  But I didn’t see it coming now." 

The joint board meeting last week, she said, had a negative vibe, most if it coming from three of the Town supervisors. "They were not happy about things," she said.  About a week prior to that meeting, Hampton announced at the Town Board meeting that the Town was being asked to pay half of an $8,000 Phase 2 merger study to which the Board eventually voted down during its 2012 budget negotiations.

Hampton said it was a billing issue that started to turned the merger talks sour for the Town. The Town and Village share billing responsibilities for their shared services. Part of the Village's responsibilities is police department billing, and according to Town reports the Village at times in 2011 has been as much as two months late with its invoicing.

This continued to be a growing concern for the Town through the summer and into the fall as the Village failed to meet the agreed monthly billing deadlines, said Hampton. "We cut them slack for over six months.  We couldn’t look at our profit, loss and tell where we were."

Being minus a Village Administrator until recently, Wiedenbeck said Clerk-Treasurer Deb Winter was tasked with these duties. Winter, she said, had taken it over and found some problems in the software.  "Some of our payments online were coming in to the wrong accounts."  The combination of circumstances, Wiedenbeck said, led to the backlog with much of it since being caught up.

Another trust concern for the Town was the Village-only police officer billing process. Newly acquired health care costs for this position needed to be covered and when the Town was suddenly hit with a more than $3,000 charge for what was said to be the Town's portion, Hampton said the Town refused to pay. What was agreed on, Hampton said was that the Village would pay for training, equipment, car and fuel.  "They wanted us to pick up benefit costs to that officer and that was never an option.  We had said that over and over again that we are not paying those costs."   

Wiedenbeck said that the move to place the heath care expense into the shared budget was not unanimous among Village Trustees. Disagreeing with Hampton's assertion of of trust being the issue here she said it was a wasn't a trust issue but rather a money issue.

Beyond protective service expense discrepancies were matters of planning and Hampton's request that the Village retool its comprehensive plan. This stemmed from a Town resident's land use request concerning an extraterritorial jurisdiction matter with the Village that started more than a year ago.

"Their comp plan needs to be updated to at least being able to work with the Town’s plan." said Hampton who explained that the mattered ended with a letter written by Village Attorney Lee Boushea telling the landowner and Hampton that they couldn't be included on a recent meeting agenda to discuss the issue and therefore wouldn't be heard.  "He gave us all kinds of reasons (for not being on the agenda) but they were not pertinent to the request that we were making," said Hampton.

The request was initially denied a year ago because of zoning restrictions, said Wiedenbeck, adding that when Hampton came to the Commission in October with the request it was denied because the application, which was from a year ago, had expired and a new application was needed.

"I had our planner look at it, he said that’s not the way the plan is written.  It would take an amendment to the plan." According to the letter, the landowner was asked to come back in January and to have a new request reviewed, said Wiedenbeck explaining that she was following Boushea's advice. "We had no choice in the matter and our lawyer was involved because it was a legal issue."

What it comes down to is a short yet complicatedly involved list of issues that the Town has placed on the Village to have completed by January 9. An unrealistic deadline, according to Wiedenbeck. “I don’t know how the village will have time to do what you request,” said Wiedenbeck.  “This process is going to take time.”  She said they could start doing work on the comprehensive plan after the first of the year or possibly before then, but work wouldn’t be complete until June or July.  “It’s about a six month process.”      

Once she was done addressing Hampton’s reasons for pulling back from the merger discussions, Wiedenbeck pressed the question of why the Village was being asked to work through these matters without the Town members.  “I thought that was the process that was done through this committee.  We could say what we think, but we need input from the Town.” 

Hampton responded, saying if invited the Town would be willing to attend Village meetings and give input.