Oneida County public works committee adds a permit requirement

The Oneida County board’s public works committee last week added to the county highway fee schedule.

“We have a fee schedule we keep for driveway permits, overweight permits, directional white board permits and then one that was added, a new permit we started called a revocable occupancy permit,” Oneida County highway commissioner Alex Hegeman said after the April 4 public works committee meeting. “Basically, it’s if we found out someone installed a septic system or some other situation like that where they’ve got something that sticks out into the right-of-way where it’s really not impacting the roadway, we want the landowners to come and get permission to have it there or continue to have it there in the right-of-way,” he said. 

“What the permit says is the county’s gonna allow you to have it there but if, for some reason, the county needs that right-of-way for a construction project or expansion of the highway, the county can require that the septic system or whatever it may be has to be removed,” Hegeman added

In other words, he said the county will allow an revocable occupancy permit holder to “occupy the right-of-way but we can revoke that right at any time.”

“Two weeks ago, it (the permit issue) was brought to the committee to discuss,” he said. “It’s something the DOT (Wisconsin Department of Transportation) does. We basically took their form and made it our own.”

Hegeman said the addition of the revocable occupancy permit by the public works committee last week is the “first change we’ve done in awhile” to the highway department’s fee schedule.

The cost for one of the permits is $1,000. 

Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].