Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District ready for first annual meeting
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — The Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District’s Board of Commissioners is ready for the first annual meeting scheduled August 5.
Interim commissioners are Al Brown and Jerry Porter, and one seat is vacant.
Jim Zons, Dunn County board supervisor from Colfax, has been appointed to serve on the board of commissioners until he is up for re-election as a supervisor.
Zons is a Tainter Lake resident.
Tom Bilse has been appointed by the Tainter Town Board to represent the Town of Tainter since the Town of Tainter has the largest amount of land in the district.
Electors at the annual meeting will decide if they want a five-member board or a seven-member board.
If the electors decide on a five-member board, they will elect three commissioners, and if they decide on a seven-member board, they will elect five commissioners.
State law allows all landowners in the lake district to vote at the annual meeting, which includes landowners who live out of state, and also allows all electors, or residents, in the lake district to vote.
Some landowners have complained during the public comments portion of the board of commissioners’ meetings that residents who live in the lake district but who are not landowners should not be allowed to vote because it is the landowners who will pay any additional property taxes that are approved during the annual meeting.
State law also allows all electors to vote in school district elections as well, including elections with referendum questions that could raise property taxes for those who own property.
Brown has noted that annual meetings of lake districts are unique in Wisconsin law because out-of-state landowners are allowed to vote.
The board of commissioners also have noted state law dictates who is allowed to vote at the annual meetings, not the commissioners, and that those who do not want residents who are not landowners to vote should contact state Legislators about their concerns.
State law requires the lake district to mail notification of the annual meeting, along with the proposed budget, to all residents and landowners in the district and includes requirements as well to publish the agenda and proposed budget as a Class 2 notice in a newspaper.
State law does not allow absentee voting at lake district annual meetings.
Budget
Electors at the annual meeting also will vote to adopt bylaws and will adopt a budget for 2024.
The proposed budget for 2024 is $15,731.28 and includes $4,300 for copying, postage and supplies; $1,731.28 for conference mileage and expenses; $1,000 for dues and fees; $1,200 for legal counsel; $2,500 for insurance; and $5,000 for a lake project.
The agenda for the annual meeting includes an item about applying for a surface water planning grant.
The worksheet for the 2024 budget is available on the lake district’s website, along with links to videos of past meetings and a variety of other information.
Candidates
Five people have declared their candidacy for the lake district board of commissioners: Al Brown, Jerry Porter, Grant Peissig, Peter D. Heimdahl and Chuck Tack.
Brown, who serves as chair of the interim board of commissioners, is a retired school district administrator, and according to his profile on the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District’s website, found under the link on the main page for information about the annual meeting, has more than 27 years of local public governmental administrative experience which includes grant writing, managing construction projects and working with other agencies.
Porter is a retired electrical engineer who has lived on Upper Tainter Lake for more than 25 years and says he has worked to keep costs to a minimum and to move the district forward.
Peissig states in his profile that his professional background has given him experience in using science and technology to solve complex problems and that he is a business owner who is accustomed to leading large groups of people.
Heimdahl has lived on Tainter Lake for 30 years and has served 31 years as an Army officer and a UW-Stout Associate Dean and engineering professor.
Tack has lived on Upper Tainter Lake for 14 years and has been a state Department of Natural Resources assigned water tester for four years. Since 2018, he has kept a daily Excel spreadsheet on water conditions in Tainter Lake.
The Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District’s annual meeting will take place at the Menomonie High School auditorium.
Registration begins at 12 noon on Saturday, August 5, and the meeting begins at 1 p.m.
