Group working to form Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District gathers enough signatures to move forward
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — Friends of the Red Cedar Basin have gathered enough signatures to move onto the next step toward forming the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District.
The group has had several campaigns to gather signatures for the petition, and so far, they have signatures from 540 eligible landowners, said Chase Cummings, county conservationist, at the Dunn County Planning, Resources and Development Committee’s July 12 meeting.
Signatures for 540 parcels is 58 percent of the total of 921 parcels, he said.
In order to move onto the next step in forming a lake district, signatures were needed for 51 percent, Cummings said, noting that the land and water conservation division’s role is to help facilitate the submission of the petition to form a lake district.
Lake districts are included under state statute in Chapter 33.
The 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.
Two representatives for Friends of the Red Cedar Basin spoke to the PR&D committee in March about the lake rehabilitation district.
There are more than 700 properties around Tainter Lake that are divided into 29 neighborhoods. The Town of Menomonie has one neighborhood in the southwest corner, the Town of Tainter has 25 neighborhoods, the Town of Sherman has two neighborhoods, and the Town of Red Cedar has one neighborhood, the representatives told the PR&D committee.
At the March meeting, the representatives for the group said their goal was to get signatures from 65 percent of the landowners.
County clerk
The group planned to turn the signatures into the county clerk by July 15, Cummings told the PR&D committee at the July 12 meeting.
After the signatures are turned into the county clerk, state statute sets a timeline for forming the lake rehabilitation district, he said.
The county clerk must first review the paperwork to make sure that the proper landowners have signed the petitions, Cummings said.
No more than 30 days after the signatures are submitted to the county clerk, the committee selected by the Dunn County Board — which would be the PR&D committee — must hold a public hearing on the petition, he said.
If the signatures are turned into the county clerk by July 15, then the PR&D committee would have to hold a public hearing on the matter August 9, and in order to hold a public hearing on August 9, a Class I notice must be published in the newspaper by July 27, Cummings said.
According to state law, notices must also be mailed to all 921 property owners before the public hearing, he said, noting that there may be a request for money from the contingency fund to pay for mailing the notices.
Within three months of the public hearing, the PR&D committee must report to the Dunn County Board, so if the public hearing was held on August 9, the report to the county board could be no later than October 19, Cummings said.
Within six months of the PR&D committee reporting to the county board, which would be February 9, the Dunn County Board must issue an order to establish the lake rehabilitation district or to deny establishing a lake district, he said.
Since the county board would not be meeting until the middle of February, the Dunn County Board would have to make a decision about the lake district at the January 18, 2023, meeting, Cummings said.
After the Dunn County Board makes a decision, there is another 30 days to appeal the decision, he said.
The deadlines, based on turning the petitions into the county clerk on July 15, are “drop dead” deadlines, Cummings noted.
The Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District would be a taxing authority, he said.
Criteria
Does state statute include criteria for approving a lake rehabilitation district? asked Diane Morehouse, county board supervisor from Menomonie and a member of the PR&D committee.
According to the statute, the Dunn County Board’s decision must be based on four criteria: is the petition signed by the required number of landowners; is the district necessary; will the district promote public health and public welfare; and will the property in the district benefit from establishing a district? Cummings said.
UW-Stevens Point has information available about developing and understanding lake districts, he said.
Is it difficult to dissolve a lake district since it is a taxing authority? asked Gary Bjork, county board supervisor from Colfax and a member of the PR&D committee.
A lake district board would operate the district, but dissolving the district would have to come back to the Dunn County Board for approval, Cummings said.
The Dunn County Board initially appoints the board for the lake district, which would include one member from the PR&D committee, or two members, one from the PR&D committee and one from the Dunn County Board, depending on the size of the lake district board, one from the municipality with the greatest valuation in the district, which in this case would be the Town of Tainter, and then members who live in the lake district, he said.
The Friends of the Red Cedar Basin have said they would want a seven-member board of directors, Cumming said.
Clarification needed
Dick Lamers, a member of the Tainter Menomin Lake Improvement Association, told the PR&D committee that he had talked to people who have signed the petition for the lake rehabilitation district.
When Lamers asked the people how the projects in the lake district would be paid for, they said “the government will pay,” he said.
The people that Lamers talked to did not seem to understand that the lake rehabilitation district would be a taxing authority, and that as landowners, they would be paying for the projects, Lamers said.
The PR&D committee should also review the validity of the Friends of the Red Cedar Basin group and the projects that are being proposed, he said, noting that dredging of the lake could be one of the projects.
Lamers said he has studied the issue of the blue-green algae blooms on Tainter Lake for 15 years.
The impact of water run-off from the watershed into Tainter Lake has a much greater impact on creating the blue-green algae than anything that could be done by the much smaller lake district to mitigate the blue-green algae problem, he said.
Tom Quinn, county board supervisor from Downing and chair of the PR&D committee, pointed out that if a lake rehabilitation district is formed, certain projects may require approval by the state Department of Natural Resources and that the DNR would assess the appropriateness of the projects.
The Red Cedar Watershed is 1,900 square miles. Phosphorus run-off from the watershed fuels the algae blooms in Tainter Lake and Lake Menomin.
The soil in this part of Wisconsin is naturally high in phosphorus.
The Dunn County Planning, Resources and Development Committee meets next on July 26.
