November 28, 2016 at 2:36 p.m.
Suit filed to stop water pumping at Carlin Club
Carlin Lake Association also files injunction, restraining order
Suit filed to stop water pumping at Carlin Club
A lawsuit was filed in Vilas County Circuit Court Nov. 4 against Carlin Club Properties on behalf of the Carlin Lake Association by Dan Bach, an attorney with the Milwaukee-based law firm Lawton and Cates.
Eleven days later, on Nov. 15, Bach filed a restraining order and injunction against CCP.
The complaint in the lawsuit essentially contends a violation of Vilas County ordinance in that the act of taking water from the Carlin Club well and trucked to Marenisco "constitutes a new and different use of that property that is illegal under the ordinance."
The restraining order, if granted, would keep Carlin Club Properties from using the well at the Carlin Club to pump the water.
Among concerns members of the Carlin Lake Association have voiced is the amount of water that could be taken from the well.
The water bottling plant first came to the attention of most Lakeland area residents last year when plans were unveiled for its construction on the west side of the town of Minocqua on property owned by businessman Bob Rynders.
Background
The bottling plant's conditional use permit application got through the Minocqua plan commission and town board approval levels.
There had been plenty of opposition to the project voiced prior to an Oneida County zoning meeting, where the project was up for final consideration and possible approval.
The opposition at the time was not only from residents of Minocqua's Hill Lake area but also a few residents of the Presque Isle area, who wrote letters to The Lakeland Times.
By the time that meeting took place, however, the application was removed by Trig Solberg, one of the water plant's investors.
The reason for Solberg's action was the plan called for water to be taken from a well at Presque Isle's Carlin Club.
It would then be transported to Minocqua for bottling.
However, removal of the water from the Lake Superior watershed, which the Carlin Club well is part of, to another is prohibited by the Great Lakes Compact, also known as the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact.
The compact, a legally binding interstate compact that includes Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania, became federal law in December 2008.
Because the CUP application was pulled, the zoning committee sent the matter back to the Minocqua Town Board.
Because there was no longer product for a water bottling plant in Minocqua, however, it never came back to the town board.
It did, however, return as a subject for another town's planning and zoning committee and town board.
While Minocqua was out of the picture, Presque Isle became the focus, something Carlin Lake Association members had a feeling would happen.
Presque Isle
In November 2015, the Presque Isle planning and zoning committee conducted a public information meeting in which Solberg's attorney, John Houlihan, and Solberg himself outlined plans for the water bottling plant's construction in the town and near the Carlin Club.
As was the case at the Minocqua Town Board meeting and then the Oneida County zoning meeting a few months before, there were people who spoke in opposition, including members of the Carlin Lake Association.
There was no decision made at that meeting but several months later, in early May of this year, the Presque Isle Planning and Zoning Committee, in front of an audience of nearly 200 people, voted unanimously to deny a zoning change for one of two parcels of land owned by Richard DeGroot at the junction of county highways B and W in Presque Isle.
Solberg and partner Steve Kosnick had offered to buy the land from DeGroot with the intention of having the water bottling plant built on the larger piece of property.
For that to happen, however, the parcel would have to be rezoned from community business to all-purpose.
Following the zoning committee meting's vote, the matter then moved to a June meeting of the town board, where, after a brief discussion in front of another crowd, it was voted down 2-0.
Houlihan told The Lakeland Times the day after the Presque Isle Town Board meeting the action was anticipated in light of the zoning committee's denial of the zoning request in May.
He was asked if there were still plans for a water bottling plant.
Houlihan said there were but not in the Presque Isle area.
"The group, the Carlin Water Company, is looking at a different location outside of Presque Isle," he said. "We just think the town of Presque Isle missed a terrific opportunity for something we felt would be good for the community, good for employment in the community and they've voted against it. So, we'll look elsewhere."
Building in Marenisco
The water plant's "elsewhere" ended up being up the road in Michigan's upper peninsula in the town of Marenisco.
In the June 2016 newsletter posted on the home page of the town's website, town supervisor Richard Bouvette, used a paragraph to let area residents know that "it appears that the town of Marenisco will soon have a bottling plant located on its property near the former Renaissance Zone south of town."
Bouvette echoed in the newsletter what had been presented by the project's representatives during the meetings in Minocqua and Presque Isle, that being the bottling plant would "be a nonpolluting, quiet place producing bottled water for mass distribution."
"It could employ up to 30 people with good pay and benefits," he wrote. "We hope to get the ball rolling soon on this facility. It takes some time to jump through all the necessary hoops to make this project a reality. "
Bouvette soon after was reached by The Lakeland Times and asked about a timeframe.
"Soon," Bouvette said. "We got their plans today and I'm assuming they'll be starting in the next few weeks. Check back in a month. I'm sure I'll have a lot more information for you."
That was in June and in his November town newsletter, Bouvette states he hadn't heard "when the water bottling plant will be hiring, but it should be soon."
"The last I heard was a December startup," he wrote. "Hopefully, it will be the shot in the arm for our township and the area in general."
Efforts to reach Bouvette by phone this week have failed and Houlihan has not returned phone calls placed by The Lakeland Times.
In the meantime, the lawsuit Bach has filed along with the restraining order has hit a snag - he said as of Tuesday of this week, Kosnick has not been reached to have the papers served.
"We've had some problems," he said. "Our process server's had some issues locating the registered agent in Madison (Kosnick). I guess the information he was given is the man has been out of town."
Bach said Kosnick is who "we have to serve."
"He just hasn't been served yet because he hasn't been home," he said.
Brian Jopek may be reached via email at bjopek@lakelandtimes .com.
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