DC Board approves Tainter Lake Rehab District
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — The Dunn County Board has approved the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District on a vote of 19 “yes” to 10 “no.”
Prior to considering whether to approve the lake district at the January 18 meeting, the Dunn County Board approved suspending the board’s rules to hear more public comments on a topic for which a public hearing had already been held.
The Dunn County Board approved an ordinance prohibiting additional public comments outside of a public hearing in October of 2019.
During public hearings, which are subject to public notice requirements, people are sworn in before they give their testimony.
When the committee closes the public hearing, no more comments can be made about the topic at hand.
If people speak during the public comments portion of the Dunn County Board meeting, or at a committee meeting, about something that was already the topic of a public hearing, they are presenting additional testimony outside of the public hearing, said Dunn County Corporation Counsel Nick Lange at the October of 2019 meeting.
Gary Stene, county board supervisor from Colfax and vice-chair of the Dunn County Board, chaired the January 18 meeting in the absence of Kelly McCullough, chair of the Dunn County Board.
McCullough attended the meeting using the online platform Zoom.
Stene initially set aside 35 minutes for public comments, although at the end of the time period, he extended the public comments for another 10 or 15 minutes.
Stene asked that people limit their comments to three minutes each and requested that the speakers alternate “pro” and “con.”
Objections
Many of those who were opposed to forming the lake district said they did not know at the time they signed the petition to form a lake district that they would be paying more in property taxes.
Some of those who objected to forming a lake district said if they had known about the time period of 10 days prior to the public hearing for withdrawing their names from the petition, they would have withdrawn their names.
The Dunn County clerk received the petitions on July 14, 2022, and the Dunn County Planning, Resources and Development Committee held a public hearing on the proposed lake district on August 9.
State law requires a public hearing to be held within 30 days of receiving the petitions to form a lake district.
Others who objected to forming a lake district said there was no clear plan for improving the lake.
Still others who objected said they did not believe a lake district would improve water quality since the lake is at the bottom of the Red Cedar Watershed and that the job of improving water quality in Tainter Lake should be up to the state of Wisconsin, or the Wisconsin DNR, or up to Dunn County, or up to Dunn County in partnership with other counties in the watershed.
In favor
Those who were in favor of forming a lake district said they wanted to see an improvement in water quality and that improvements in the lake would improve property values and would protect the health and safety of residents.
One Tainter Lake resident who was in favor of the district said he did not let his children go outside to play in August because the air quality is so bad when the algae blooms in the lake are at the peak.
If the lake district is not approved now, this level of effort to form a lake district will not be seen again, he said.
Another lake resident noted that if people “sit on their hands,” the lake will only get worse.
Sediment is filling in the lake, and residents are losing their navigable water. If residents only have a few inches of water in the lake by their properties, they will say they do not want to pay lakefront property taxes, he said.
Annual meetings
Readers should note that a lake district is governed by a board of commissioners.
The initial board of commissioners, three members out of five total, are appointed by the Dunn County Board to serve until the first annual meeting of the lake district, at which time, residents and landowners elect the commissioners who will serve on the lake district board of commissioners.
The other two members include one member of the board of commissioners to represent Dunn County who will serve until the next election for the county board, and one member who is appointed by the township with the largest amount of land in the lake district, which in this case, is the Town of Tainter.
Readers should also note that any property taxes levied to pay for Tainter Lake projects are approved by residents and landowners at the annual meeting, and specific projects also are approved at the annual meeting.
According to state law, the annual meeting must be held between May 22 and September 8, unless another annual meeting time has been approved at a previous annual meeting.
According to Wisconsin statutes Chapter 33.36, “Any person aggrieved by the action of the [county] board may petition the circuit court for judicial review. A verified petition shall be presented to the court not more than 30 days after the decision of the board, and shall specify the grounds upon which the appeal is based.”
According to Chapter 33.27, “At any time following the county board’s order establishing the district, but no later than 60 days following the expiration of time for appeal to the circuit court, or, if appealed, no later than 60 days following the final judgement in any appeal, the district board shall hold an organizational meeting, shall elect officers to serve until the first annual meeting, and may commence conducting the affairs of the district.”
Requirements
There are four requirements the county board must consider under state law about whether to form a lake district, said Tom Quinn, county board supervisor from Downing and chair of the Planning, Resources and Development Committee, which issued a report on the public hearing to the county board.
One of the requirements under state law is that 51 percent of the landowners have signed a petition to form a lake district, and that requirement was fulfilled since more than 53 percent of the landowners signed petitions, he said.
The other requirements include whether the lake district is necessary, and whether forming a lake district will promote health, safety and public welfare, and whether the property in the lake district will benefit from the forming of a lake district, Quinn said.
The water quality on Tainter Lake is impaired, he said.
State statute allows for a democratic process and relies on residents being active in the lake district and attending annual meetings, Quinn said.
The state law is flawed and the process is flawed, but the four criteria are included in state law and so is the timeline for making decisions about forming a lake district, said Mike Kneer, county board supervisor from Menomonie and a member of the PR&D committee.
The PR&D committee has documentation and has made a full record of the public hearing and based the recommendation to form a lake district at least in part on the testimony at the public hearing, said Diane Morehouse, county board supervisor from Menomonie and a member of the PR&D committee.
The PR&D committee received 10 applicants to serve on the initial board of commissioners, and by ballot, selected three to recommend to the county board for approval, Quinn said.
Changes
The changes to Tainter Lake to improve water quality will cost money, said Larry Bjork, county board supervisor from Menomonie.
What flows into Tainter Lake cannot be changed, and the effects of the excess phosphorus and nitrogen are evident in the water quality, he said.
The changes will be paid for by the county or a lake district, and when revenue is included from property taxes, the residents should benefit. But the residents on Lake Menomin also will benefit from improved water quality in Tainter, although Menomin residents are not being asked to pay, Bjork said.
Bjork said he had seen advertisements for the Tainter Lake Ice Fishing Contest, and the ice fishing contest is an opportunity for economic development, he said, adding that he would like to see the changes made to Tainter Lake.
People like to have a good road past their house, and people who own property on the lake want to have clean water in front of their place — the property value versus the cost of change, he said.
The money spent will come back in increased property value, Bjork said, and noted that he would vote to form the lake district.
No consensus
Carl Vandermeulen, county board supervisor from Menomonie, said he would not support the forming of a lake district because there were no consensus among lake district residents.
Patrick Breslin, county board supervisor from Boyceville, said he would not support forming a lake district because the issue of a lake district had been sent back to the PR&D committee for detailed plans, and there are no detailed plans.
The Dunn County Board referred the holding of a public hearing on the proposed Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District to the Dunn County Planning, Resources and Development Committee at the county board’s July 27 meeting.
Forming detailed plans for the lake district is a task that it is up to the board of commissioners and the electors at annual meetings and not the PR&D committee.
Sean Breslin, county board supervisor from Menomonie, noted that lake residents had reported the Friends of the Red Cedar Basin had placed flyers on mailboxes pertaining to the forming of a lake district and that putting flyers on mailboxes is illegal.
Breslin asked if the county would be at any liability for approving a lake district when illegal means had been used to distribute information.
Dunn County will not be at any liability. The county has no control over those who gathered signatures, and there is no liability to the county for violations of law by others, said Nick Lange, corporation counsel.
County rep
Jim Zons, county board supervisor from Colfax, was recommended by the PR&D committee to serve as the county’s representative on the lake district board of commissioners.
Zons noted that he is the only member of the Dunn County Board who lives on Tainter Lake and that he has been a lake resident for 31 years.
Zons said he was not totally in favor of a lake district but that he trusted the PR&D committee for their recommendation to form a lake district.
There was a process to withdraw from the petitions, and maybe people did not know about it or found out later, he said.
Zons said he had been approached three times about signing the petition to form a lake district and that the people who approached him were maybe not as informed as they could have been. As citizens, however, people must also do research, he said.
Zons said he wanted to serve on the board of commissioners for the lake district as a Tainter Lake resident and as a skeptical person to be on the board who would approach the position skeptically.
Gary Bjork, county board supervisor from Colfax and a member of the PR&D committee, said the decision about forming a lake district is a difficult decision.
The water quality problems in Tainter Lake are a watershed problem, but on the other hand, at least a lake district is “something” to start addressing those problems, he said.
Monica Berrier, county board supervisor from Menomonie and a member of the PR&D committee, said she was going to vote against forming a lake district.
The process “stinks,” and it is not clear all four criteria have been met. In addition, other organizations are doing the work that a lake district would do, she said.
Necessary
Mike Kneer, county board supervisor from Menomonie and a member of the PR&D committee, asked if there was any case law that defined “necessary.”
Lange said he has spent a fair amount of searching and has not found any case law that defines “necessary.”
There is case law pertaining to “benefit” and interprets benefit by looking to the future and whether properties would benefit in the future, he said.
The question is — will the properties benefit going forward? Lange asked.
Signatures are a concrete measurement, but necessary is not defined, he said.
Chase Cummings, county conservationist, said there are 251 lake districts in Wisconsin.
How they voted
Approval to form the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District required a two-thirds vote in favor by the Dunn County Board.
Two-thirds of the 29-member county board is 19.
The 19 who voted in favor of forming the lake district were Michael Rogers (Menomonie), Gary Stene (Colfax), Mark Thomas (Menomonie), Ann Vogl (Menomonie), Luke Wilsey (Boyceville), Jim Zons (Colfax), Kelly McCullough (Menomonie), Larry Bjork (Menomonie), Andrew Hagen (Menomonie), Jerry Joe Hartung (Elmwood), Vaughn Hedlund (Boyceville), Brian Johnson (Colfax), Michael Kneer (Menomonie), Donald Kuether (Menomonie), Tim Lienau (Menomonie), Diane Morehouse (Menomonie), Randy Prochnow (Menomonie), Tom Quinn (Downing) and Hilary Robinson (Menomonie).
The 10 Dunn County Board members who voted against forming the lake district were Ron Score (Boyceville), Carl Vandermeulen (Menomonie), Korlee Witzel (Menomonie), Robert Bauer (Mondovi), Monica Berrier (Menomonie), Gary Bjork (Colfax), Patrick Breslin (Boyceville), Sean Breslin (Menomonie), John Calabrese (Menomonie) and Tom Gilbert (Elk Mound).
The three people included in the Dunn County Board’s order to form the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District who will serve on the initial board of commissioners are Gerald R. (Jerry) Porter, Al Brown and Zach Raff.
