Lomira Village Board Approves Water Main Replacement on Northern Portion of Water Street

During the Lomira Village Board meeting on Wednesday, April 8, Trustee Gary More proposed replacing a portion of the water main on Water Street due to a high frequency of breaks.

To begin his proposal, More gave a presentation on five areas with chronic water main breaks within the last 10 years. These five areas are South Avenue with 10 breaks, Church Street with nine breaks, Water Street also with nine breaks (three near EMC and six on Northern Water Street), Pleasant Hill with four breaks, and lastly Main Street with three breaks.

According to his presentation, it costs the village between $3,000 and $5,000 just to excavate each break. Fill and asphalt expenses are not included in these excavation costs.

“Conditions are deteriorating yearly, and with these chronic areas, we’re having to repeat visitation there all the time,” said More. “These five areas . . . come up periodically throughout the winter, and it’s not changing from year to year. Our economic situation doesn’t change much either.”

More proposed replacing the water main on the section of Water Street from the water tower to North Avenue in 2026. The estimated project cost is $275,000, which includes a “10% contingency plan.” The project expenses would be paid for using the village’s utility fund savings, and would leave roughly $840,436 within the savings account if the project costs equal the estimate.

“One of the other things that we need to think about is that it may ease the labor time crunch during the busy snow season.” More continued,“The last thing is it eliminates two of the five chronic areas in 2026. We have a plan for South Avenue . . . That’s 19 breaks over the last 10 years that we can get rid of.”

“For whatever reason, [there’s] just a peppering of breaks here. And a break, generically, could be a crack, or we’ve found plenty of holes in the pipe once we get down there. It’s just a troubled area,” added Director of Public Works Nick Roskopf. “I’d like to see the village move forward on this. We need to continue off our South Avenue project and be more proactive . . . It’s only getting worse.”

Trustee Gary More made a motion to replace the section of water main on Water Street from the water tower to North Avenue for a cost not to exceed $276,000. The motion passed unanimously.

After the motion, More stated, “This problem is going to come up every year. Every year we’re going to be posed with the same situation. There’s no horizon where you can say, ‘We’re about to get a landslide of money for utility projects.’ That’s not going to happen. We know the pipe is deteriorating rather quickly. That’s why I brought it to the board now.”

Board Matters:
• The board discussed approving Ordinance #384, address number labels on exterior of apartment buildings. The amended ordinance would require “the numbers assigned” to apartments to be displayed in a manner that can be “plainly seen from the street.” A motion to approve Ordinance #384 was made by Trustee Jenny Priesgen and passed unanimously.

• The board also considered passing Resolution #1071, official depositories. The resolution designated Bristol Morgan Bank, National Exchange Bank & Trust, Summit Credit Union, and TSB Financial/Empeople as the village’s official depositories for 2026. The motion to approve the resolution was made by Trustee More and passed unanimously.
• Additionally, Resolution #1072, official Village attorney, was discussed by the board. The resolution designated Richard Manthe of Stafford Rosenbaum LLP as the village attorney and Michael Devitt of QBS Law as the village’s official attorney for municipal ordinance civil actions for 2026. Trustee Priesgen made the motion to pass Resolution #1072, which passed unanimously.
• Another resolution the board considered was Resolution #1073, official Village newspaper. The motion to approve the resolution designating the Dodge County Pionier as the village’s official newspaper for 2026 was made by Trustee Joey Jewell and passed unanimously.
• The board discussed committee assignments for the ensuing year. The only change made to the current assignments was designating Trustee Priesgen as the village’s Library Board representative, replacing Trustee Jessica Loomans. Trustee Loomans, in turn, will replace Trustee Priesgen on the Fire, Police, Ambulance & Civil Defense Committee. A motion to approve the committee assignments for 2026 was made by Trustee Priesgen and passed unanimously.
• The board considered whether to bid out a project to extend or replace the water main located near EMC on Water Street. The water main that currently carries water to EMC runs underneath the railroad tracks and supplies water from behind the building. There have been three breaks in that water main in the last four years. Roskopf expressed concern that a water main break could occur beneath the railroad tracks, saying, “If we have a break under the railroad tracks, I bet it could cost $50,000 to do that repair. . . There are a lot of concerns and liabilities.” For the village to extend the water main on Water Street to provide water to EMC from the front of the building instead, it would likely cost over $54,000 due to engineering, easements, and other expenses. Roskopf informed the board that he spoke with EMC and proposed reimbursing the company to complete the project itself at a lower cost. President Don Luedtke made a motion to ask EMC to extend the water main and be reimbursed up to $48,000 for project expenses or for the village to complete the project if EMC does not. The motion passed unanimously.
• During the Department of Public Works (DPW) report, Roskopf informed the board that Well #2 is “ready to go” but is “waiting for the DNR” to be put back online.
•After reconvening into open session, the board considered hiring Carson Kemmel as a public works laborer. Trustee More made the motion to hire Kemmel, which passed unanimously.
•The board also discussed Resolution #1070, loan for the South Avenue reconstruction project, after reconvening. The resolution authorizes the village to “borrow an amount not to exceed $1,000,000 for public purpose of providing financial assistance to South Avenue reconstruction project” from TSB Financial. The motion to approve Resolution #1070 was made by Trustee Priesgen and passed unanimously. During the DPW report, Roskopf informed the board that the project will start on April 27 and will occur in two phases, beginning on the east end of South Avenue.