Dunn County PR&D holds public hearing on proposed Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — The Dunn County Planning, Resources and Development Committee has held a public hearing on the proposed Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District, with some of the testimony in favor and some against.
According to state statute, a public hearing must be held within 30 days of receiving a petition to form a lake district, and the county clerk’s office received the petition on July 14, said Andrew Mercil, county clerk, at the PR&D committee’s August 9 meeting.
Essentially the only business on the August 9 agenda was the public hearing for the lake district.
The proposed lake district would cover the area from the dam at Cedar Falls to the Russian Slough on the Red Cedar River to the Hay River near Peninsula Park.
The PR&D committee received testimony from about 20 people, with seven submitting e-mail comments prior to the PR&D meeting and others testifying in person at the public hearing.
The petitions for forming the lake district were circulated by the Friends of the Red Cedar Basin.
After Mercil received the petition for the lake district on July 14, the Dunn County Board at the July 27 meeting appointed the PR&D committee to hold the public hearing.
Notices were mailed to the property owners in the proposed lake district, and because of concerns about the timeliness of mail delivery, the notice was also posted on social media, Mercil said.
All together, 945 property owners were identified on the 2021 tax roll, and of the 543 signatures that were submitted, 508 were approved, representing 53.76 percent of the landowners in the proposed lake district, he said.
According to state law, 51 percent of the landowners, or landowners of 51 percent of the property, must sign the petition to form a lake district, said Chase Cummings, Dunn County conservationist.
Within three months of the public hearing, the PR&D committee must submit a report on the public hearing to the Dunn County Board, and the county board must make a decision on whether to form a lake district within six months of the public hearing, he said.
The report to the county board would have to be submitted at the October 19 county board meeting, and the county board would have to make a decision on the lake district at the January meeting, Cummings said.
The decision can be appealed in circuit court 30 days after the county board issues a decision, he said.
If the county board approves forming a lake district, the county board will appoint three landowners (one must be a resident of the lake district) to serve on the lake district board, one person will serve from the land conservation committee and one person will serve on the board from the municipality with the most land in the lake district, which would be the Town of Tainter, he said.
The initial lake district board will serve until the first annual meeting of the lake district. Except for the members from the township and the land conservation committee, the other members’ terms expire, Cummings said.
Petition drive
Tom Bilse of Menomonie, president of the Friends of the Red Cedar Basin, said the group has put in about 1,500 hours organizing and executing the petition drive for the proposed Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District.
The Friends of the Red Cedar Basin was formed more than 10 years ago, and during that time, the group has only been able to get one grant for a lake project because the state of Wisconsin considered the group to be a club, he said.
Lake districts, on the other hand, get the same consideration for state grants as universities. A lake district can also raise funds by other means such as crowd sourcing by setting up a Go Fund Me account, collecting donations from businesses, holding fund raisers and assessing property taxes, Bilse said.
Friends of the Red Cedar Basin started planning the petition drive a year ago and held several signing events this spring, he said.
Members of the group also canvassed the 30 neighborhoods identified in the proposed lake district and obtained more signatures for the petition, Bilse said.
Approval process
Monica Berrier, county board supervisor from Menomonie and a member of the PR&D committee, asked about the approval process for taxes and special assessments.
Property tax special assessments are approved by residents of the lake district at the annual meeting of the lake district, Bilse said.
The lake district can levy taxes and fees with the approval of the membership, he said.
Berrier also asked if there were requirements for meeting notices for the annual meeting.
“Yes,” Bilse said, noting that the meeting notices also would be posted on the Internet and that mailings would be sent to the residents of the lake district.
What if people cannot be at the meeting? Are there provisions for absentee voting? Berrier asked.
Bilse said that it was his understanding that people must be present at the annual meeting to vote.
In general terms, who did not sign the petitions and why? Berrier asked.
The biggest concern people have is about taxation, Bilse said.
They are also concerned about another layer of government, and they are concerned about the board of directors, although it is actually the membership that is in charge, he said.
How would the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District be different or similar to the lake district in Rice Lake? Berrier asked.
Bilse said he did not know much about the Rice Lake district, although he is aware that they use weed-eaters to try to clean up the lake every summer.
All lake districts are different, he noted.
When considering whether to sign the petitions, people also had concerns about the bodies of water up north not being cleaned up first, Bilse said.
The Red Cedar River Basin is a 1,900 square mile watershed.
Bilse said that in his opinion, there is “plenty” that can be done to clean up Tainter Lake even if the bodies of water up north are not improved.
Quorum
Diane Morehouse, county board supervisor from Menomonie and a member of the PR&D committee, asked if there was a requirement in the statutes for a quorum at the annual meeting of the lake district.
Cummings said there was no minimum number of members listed in the statute as a requirement for an annual meeting.
Mike Kneer, county board supervisor from Menomonie, asked about the maximum amount in taxes the lake district could levy.
The maximum amount a lake district can levy is $2.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value, Bilse said.
The lake district can also raise money through crowd sourcing and other fund raisers, he reiterated.
Bilse said he believed the lake district was a worthwhile project to pursue and that money could be raised through donations and fund raisers and that levying a property tax would be “a last resort.”
Written comments
Cummings read the written comments that had been received before the meeting.
Darwin and Candy Anderson said they questioned the information they had received about property taxes and had been told the amount would be $75 on $300,000 property but that $2.50 per $1,000 of assessed value would amount to $750 on a $300,000 property.
If the petitions were signed based on information that was not accurate, are the signatures valid? the Andersons asked.
Tim and Kay Stanton of Colfax said they are opposed to forming the lake district.
The Stantons own two properties in the proposed lake district but live outside of the district. Only one informational meeting was held, and the volunteers did not seem to have much information. Property owners may not have received all the information they needed to sign the petition, they said.
The Stantons also objected to the methods proposed to clean up Tainter Lake, saying that the methods are “experimental” and that they would object to raising property taxes to use experimental methods.
Jon and Margaret Fuller of Colfax said the scope of the Tainter Lake problem is too large for 945 property owners to clean up a 1,893 square mile watershed covering eight counties.
Scott Jasper, Town of Menomonie, said he objected to forming a lake district and objected to the process used to collect signatures.
The people who signed the petitions may not have been fully informed, he said.
A lake district sounds good on paper, but the work to clean up the lake will cost millions, Jasper said.
Adam and Karly Mucks said they had been residents of upper Tainter Lake for 10 years. The smell from the algae blooms is bothersome, and they appreciated the efforts to form a lake district, they said.
Another person who submitted a written comment wanted to know if residents could “opt out” of the lake district and whether the meetings would be held at times when most people would be working.
Water testing
Chuck Tack of Colfax is a citizen lake water volunteer who has been testing the water in Tainter Lake for three years.
The water has high levels of phosphorous and chlorophyll, which fuel the algae blooms, he said.
In 2019, there seemed to be some progress in the water quality, but then after that, water quality “has been going the wrong way,” Tack said, adding that it would be beneficial to use the ideas suggested by Dr. Scott McGovern, Ph.D.
Not beneficial
Jerry Porter of Colfax said he did not support the proposed lake district and that he believes it would not benefit district members.
Brad O’Connell of Menomonie said he also was opposed to the proposed lake district.
Members of the lake district will experience tax increases without changes in assessed value, he said.
The northern part of the watershed must be addressed first, he said.
One woman said she supported the lake district but was concerned that the annual meetings would be held when not everyone could attend, such as people serving in the military or those who go south for the winter.
Up north
Dick Lamers of Colfax said the phosphorus coming from the watershed must be reduced before there would be improvement in Tainter Lake.
A lake district will not impact the root cause of the algae problem, he said.
Lamers also alleged that the volunteers gathering signatures were not transparent with their information and that the signatures should be thrown out and the process started over again.
Lamers said he was concerned, too, about methods being suggested that are not used by government agencies, and that the county’s land and water conservation department should receive more support.
Democratic
Lake districts are a democratic process, said Dr. Scott McGovern of Menomonie, who added that he is an advocate for biomanipulation.
Biomanipulation is described as “a management practice in which humans intentionally remove whole species from an ecosystem.” For Tainter Lake, that would involve removing some fish species and encouraging others.
McGovern said that while there are problems with all projects, a variety of methods should be employed to improve water quality.
People living in the lake district would have to agree to the projects and to increases in their taxes, he said.
Layers of government
Ed LaVenture of Menomonie said he has lived on the lake for 44 years and that he is not in favor of a lake district.
The state Department of Natural Resources should “do their jobs,” he said, adding that more layers of government are not needed.
Government agencies must be pushed to do their jobs, LaVenture said.
Structure
Al Brown of Menomonie said he is in favor of a lake district because it will provide an organization and a structure for improving the lake.
A lake district would create a good opportunity to work with the DNR and Dunn County, he said, noting that people who live on Tainter Lake have no control over what is being done farther north in the watershed.
Tainter Lake is not a tourist destination, and the people live on the lake will benefit the most from a lake district, Brown said.
Brown said he is “tired of waiting for someone else to do something,” and “it is incumbent on us to clean it up.”
One man said he had concerns about establishing a quorum for the annual meeting and whether there would be absentee voting options.
Tax funded projects would need accurate budgeting, and would the lake district be hiring a project manager? he asked.
Friends
Pete Heimdahl is on the board of directors for the Friends of the Red Cedar Basin and was a canvasser for one of the neighborhoods to collect signatures.
Heimdahl said he was asked many times what the Friends of the Red Cedar Basin planned to do with Tainter Lake, but making plans for the lake “is not our mission.”
The lake district does not exist yet, and it was the objective of the group to try to establish a lake district, he said.
The Friends of the Red Cedar Basin want to establish a lake district so there is an organization with accountability and access to resources to improve the water quality on Tainter Lake, Heimdahl said.
No matter what the Dunn County Board decides about forming a lake district, the Friends of the Red Cedar Basin “will be done,” he said.
If the county board decides “no,” “there is nothing more to do,” and if county board decides “yes,” “there is nothing more we need to do,” Heimdahl said.
Michael Eide of Menomonie said he had heard about studies of the lake and that if it were cleaned up, there would be more tourism dollars, but that he has never heard of anything actually being done to clean up the lake.
He said he was in favor of the lake district and that fund raisers could raise money so the funds would not be all tax dollars.
Report
In response to a question from Kneer, Cummings said the land and water conservation staff would work on a draft report from the public hearing that would be submitted to the PR&D committee for review.
The report will be finalized before the PR&D committee’s September meeting so the committee can review it again, and the report would then be ready to be submitted to the county board in October, he said.
Tom Quinn, county board supervisor from Downing and chair of the PR&D committee, noted that there is always a public comment period at every meeting.
Morehouse said she would like to see a synthesis of data concerning other lake districts, such as levels of success, the projects they have tried and the funding used for the projects.
Gary Bjork, county board supervisor from Colfax and a member of the PR&D committee, said both sides had made good points.
Bjork said he was concerned about the absentee voting on the issue of taxation so that if people cannot come to the annual meeting of the lake district they could still vote.
Bjork also wondered if there is a way to limit the money that would be spent on administration of the lake district.
Berrier said she was curious about the average property value in the proposed lake district and the average property taxes paid in the proposed lake district.
A lake district is like a city or a village and can approve special charges, assessments and make ordinances, Kneer noted.
