April 19, 2021 at 11:09 a.m.
Oneida forestry committee hears update from Friends of Townline Lake Park
Oneida forestry committee hears update from Friends of Townline Lake Park
According to the mission statement on its Facebook page, the Friends of Townline Lake Park seeks to "preserve, maintain and improve historical Town Line Lake Park for the continued enjoyment of the lake and natural area by Rhinelander, Oneida County and Wisconsin residents."
This group wants to work with the Oneida County Forestry Department and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to promote the use and care of the park for all to enjoy as well as to discover, share and highlight the historical significance of the area. Other bullet points in the mission include improving accessibility and developing programs and facilities that would increase use of the park.
There has been much turmoil surrounding the county's plan to sell Town Line Lake Park, which is what spurred the formation of the group. Should the sale pass the county board with a two-thirds vote, committee chair Jack Sorenson said, it would then have to be approved and recognized by the DNR. At this point, committee member Bob Mott said, the state would not give direction on the matter until such time as the sale was approved by the committee and passed the full county board.
The thought would be to move some of the encumbrances to another property the county was looking to purchase, creating the same recreational opportunities at that location which would be lost at the Town Line Lake location.
"Possibly the way to go forward is to take their (Friends of Townline Lake's) presentation (regarding their plans for the park) and take committee's recommendation and present it to the full county board so they can judge what the public is saying when we present the resolution to the county board, which I think we have the obligation to do," Sorenson said. "We made a commitment that we would bring that forward."
From there, it would be up to the county board to make the decision, he added.
Kelby Scheel, treasurer of Friends of Townline Lake Park, said the committee had asked the group to devise a plan for the park and to show it should be kept in the county forest lands. He stated the Friends already had 350 engaged citizens actively participating. This group, he said, drafted a list of goals complete with a first year budget, the majority of which has already been covered with pledged donations. The primary goal, he said, was to get the park cleaned up and accessible to the public.
"In regards to the sale, we realize that may take time," he said. "But we're moving forward. We're planning a couple of events."
The first, he said, would be a clean up day in May with a Father's Day picnic and kids' fishing event in June.
County forester Paul Fiene directed that Friends of Townline Lake Park would need to procure liability insurance, just as other groups have done in the past when utilizing county properties for events. He said no permits would be needed for a clean-up day such as the one planned in May, nor would they need a permit for the June event. However, as the county does not have a reservation system for Town Line Lake Park, the group would not be able to bring in vendors or entities such as that, but they would be able to bring in their own food as a potluck type of event.
Scheel asked if the county would complete the initial mowing before the May event. Fiene said the county would be able to do the initial mowing, but as far as upkeep throughout the summer, he did not feel there was enough time to complete that. A volunteer maintenance contract could be set up with Friends of Townline Lake Park, which would be similar to an agreement already in place with the Rhinelander Area Silent Trails Association (RASTA).
"In speaking with our corp counsel, that would likely require that your group become incorporated in some manner, such as a 501(c)3, have the insurance, and you folks would be signing a contract with us to do the maintenance," Fiene said.
Scheel said The Friends of Townline Lake wish to place picnic tables in the park, seeing as there were none available for use from the county and the county did not have money in the budget to purchase picnic tables for the park. They asked for the matter to be placed on a future agenda, as it could not be moved upon before that.
Garbage collection was another topic of concern, with Friends of Townline Lake offering to coordinate that. This issue is also expected to be included on a future agenda.
Development
The secondary goal of the Friends, Scheel said, was to move from maintaining the park to developing the park. He listed the goals of that section of the plan. First, he said, would be an ADA compliant fishing pier. The Friends are also looking to extend and link two area bike trails. The last goal planned for this phase would be to create and maintain a safe and clean beach area he said. Scheel said with more than 1,500 signatures on a petition to keep the park as well as 350 actively engaged citizens working on these goals, it was clear the community wanted to keep the park.
"I believe that between the public use, and public opinion, and the events we have planned and the vision of what could be with some of our long-term project, we've shown that the park is worth keeping," Scheel said. With that said, he asked if the committee could see the worth in keeping the park.
"Let's get back to something very fundamental," Sorenson said. "The proposal is not to sell the entire park. The old swimming beach area and the boat landing are going to remain. The proposal will be that the eight-plus acres is what will be sold, if the county board says yes or no."
David Walters spoke to the committee about support for keeping the park. Both the Newbold Town Board and the Crescent Town Board are in support of keeping the park, he said. The Facebook group has also been growing and the petition, Walters said, now includes over 1,600 signatures. County board supervisor Jim Winkler read a letter written by Newbold town chair Dave Kroll, who spoke to the town's support of keeping Town Line Lake Park. Winkler said he stood with the Town of Newbold on that debate and would vote against any attempt to sell the park.
"I think it's vitally important that nobody on this board, or in the forestry department ignores the wants and desires of the community," Walters said. "If a promise was made years ago to purchase a property, that was made years ago and I get the value of that and sticking by your word, but the fact of the matter is, you know, that point is moot if the community does not want that."
He said while the committee has stressed that only a portion of the park would be sold, that is the portion of the park which is usable and the Friends group and others would like to keep.
"Parcelling off the park, selling what is good and leaving us with the scraps is not acceptable to any community member that we've worked on with this," Walters said.
The committee is expected to revisit this issue at its next meeting at which time the committee's resolution, as well as the proposal from Friends of Townline Lake Park, will be discussed. If approved, the matter would be forwarded to the entire county board for a final decision.
Other business
Caity Lucas was introduced at the meeting as a new county employee. She will be a forester and snowmobile coordinator. Lucas is a UW-Stevens Point graduate with a degree in forestry recreation.
Brickner's of Antigo was the sole bidder for the forestry truck. Their bid of $26,717 included trade in of the current county forestry truck. According to Fiene, this equated to a $5,000 trade in on the current truck. The decision was made to trade in the truck rather than attempt to sell it outright due to the condition of the truck.
Another agenda item was the Timber Producers Cooperative solicitation of investment. The committee heard briefly about the solicitation of investment for the cooperative help purchase the Verso Mill in Wisconsin Rapids, which had recently closed, as well as the Park Falls Mill. The cooperative had approached several counties for investment funds to help with this purchase.
"As I understand it, the money would be used as start up money to get the thing going," Mott said. "And then they have a workers' group, a loggers' group, and then the group that we would represent as the county."
Mott said he also looked into the legality of the county investing into something like this and said it was unclear and would need to be looked into further.
"I give them all the credit in the world to try to get this mill back up and running," Mott said. "It's certainly going to be to the benefit of our county and any other counties, to have a place to sell their products as needed. But I think there's a lot that we don't know right now and a lot that we need to look at before we making any decision on this."
While it may be in the financial interest of the county to invest in the endeavor, and other counties were looking into it as well, such as Bayfield, Douglas and Washburn counties, there were many unanswered questions, including the legal aspect. The committee tabled the agenda item until June when they hoped to have more information.
Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.