DC PR&D: Lake district board application on-line, deadline to apply December 5
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — The application to apply for serving on the initial board of commissioners for the proposed Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District is now online, and the deadline to apply is December 5.
After working with Dunn County’s information technology department, the link to the application can be found on Dunn County’s homepage below the meeting calendar by clicking on the link for “news,” said Chase Cummings, Dunn County conservationist, at the Dunn County Planning, Resources and Development Committee’s November 22 meeting.
Dunn County’s website is located online at www.co.dunn.wi.us.
The application is a fillable on-line form that will be submitted to Cummings.
The application asks for a name, address, parcel number to verify that the address is within the proposed boundaries of the lake district, along with three questions for the nominee to answer pertaining to interest and qualifications for serving on the initial board of commissioners, Cummings said.
Applicants can also print out the form and fill it out and mail it to the land and water conservation office, he said.
Although Cummings or PR&D committee members did not suggest it, applicants could also drop off the printed out form at the environmental services offices located in the Dunn County community services building on state Highway 12/29 in the former Dunn County Health Care Center building.
As of the November 22 meeting, two applications had been received, Cummings said.
If the Dunn County Board approves the proposed Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District at the county board’s January meeting, part of the process will involve appointing three commissioners to serve on the board for the lake district until the first annual meeting is held and land owners in the lake district elect a board of commissioners.
Out of order?
Gary Bjork, county board supervisor from Colfax and a member of the PR&D committee, said it seemed to be somewhat “out of order” to be taking nominations for the lake district board when the county board had not yet approved the lake district.
Before the Dunn County Board can approve the order forming the lake district, the order must also include the names of the initial board of commissioners, Cummings said.
A draft order for forming the lake district was included in the PR&D committee packet for the November 22 meeting.
Cummings said he had worked with the Dunn County corporation counsel, Nick Lange, on writing the draft proposal and had included it in the meeting packet for the PR&D committee’s review.
If there are any suggestions for revisions or comments on the draft order, the PR&D committee will have time to do that prior to the January meeting of the county board, Cummings said.
The PR&D committee also will have time to approve the nominees for the initial board of commissioners and to appoint the representative for the county from the land and water conservation council that will be forwarded to the Dunn County Board for approval, he said.
Process
The P&D committee also should consider approving a process for the county’s representative to the lake district to serve on the board of commissioners, said Tom Quinn, county board supervisor from Downing and chair of the PR&D committee.
The question is — how will the county’s representative on the lake district’s board of commissioners be appointed going forward? he asked.
The county’s representative will not serve in perpetuity, so the appointment could be annually or perhaps on a three-year basis, Quinn said.
Lange said he would have some suggestions and recommendations for how to appoint the county’s representative for the PR&D committee to consider at the next meeting.
Bjork asked if the county’s representative on the lake district’s board of commissioners was required to be a county board supervisor.
The representative can be anyone from the county and does not have to be a county board supervisor, Quinn and Cummings said.
The other commissioners elected during the annual meeting will serve for three years, so three years might be a consideration for the county representative, Quinn said.
The county’s representative will represent the entire county, Cummings said.
Is the representative for the Dunn County Board required to be a land owner in the lake district? asked Mike Kneer, county board representative from Menomonie and a member of the PR&D committee.
“No,” Cummings replied.
The three people appointed by the Dunn County Board to serve on the lake district board of commissioners will only serve until the first annual meeting of the lake district, Quinn reiterated.
Diane Morehouse, county board supervisor from Menomonie, asked if all of the township and county land in the lake district would be excluded from the lake district.
The draft order stipulates that the township parcels and the county’s parcels will be excluded from the lake district, Cummings said.
Next meetings
The applications for the nominees to serve on the initial board of commissioners for the proposed Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District will be considered by the PR&D committee at the next meeting on December 13.
The PR&D committee can also consider the applications and the proposed order for forming the lake district at the December 27 meeting, and then there will be one more PR&D committee in January before the proposed order for the lake district will go before the county board’s executive committee and then to the Dunn County Board, Cummings said.
By state law, the entire process for forming a lake district operates under a timeline.
The Dunn County Board has a deadline in February for approving or denying the formation of the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District.
The February deadline would occur before the county board’s regular meeting in February, so to avoid a special meeting, the county board is expected to act on the formation of the lake district at the January 18 meeting.