Oneida County land and water conservation committee reviews 2025 budget

At the September meeting of the Oneida County land and water conservation committee meeting, county board supervisors were presented with the proposed 2025 fiscal year budget for the land and water conservation department. The 2024 budget was $88,196, according to department head county conservationist Michele Sadauskas. The 2025 budget would be $96,897, an increase of $6,201. Part of that increase is tied to a discussion during the group’s previous meeting where $2,500 was approved for travel reimbursement for Wisconsin Conservation Congress delegates. That reimbursement would be for delegates to attend the annual Conservation Congress meeting.

Ed Choinski of Newbold, a long-time Conservation Congress member, attended a previous meeting to ask for that reimbursement to be given to delegates once again. He said the reimbursement had been in place for approximately 40 years but was stopped for some unknown reason this year. 

The Conservation Congress works in an advisory capacity to the Department of Natural Resources on a variety of natural resources issues. Delegates from each county represent the interests of the people in their county. In light of that, the county has covered the cost of attendance, and the current committee approved adding that $2,500 to next year’s budget. The remainder of the budget increase would be staffing-related.

Grant approvals

Sadauskas also looked to the committee for approval to forward to the full county board a resolution for a Lake Monitoring Protection Network grant for funding for the county’s Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) program. Some language was added to include an AIS Education Grant. There would be no cost to the county in attaining either of these grants.

Another grant resolution to be forwarded to the full county board was the Clean Boats Clean Waters grant. The county has applied for, and received, this grant in the past. Likewise, the Surface Water Grant resolution before the committee is a grant the county has applied for previously. This grant application, Sadauskas said, would be just under $50,000. The full impact statement was not complete yet, but all of that would be finalized before going to the full county board next month.

The department is also working with the Town of Newbold to get a full-width culvert in for one of their priority stream crossings, she said. This resolution was also forwarded to the full county board for consideration. 

Sadauskas also gave an update on the Urban Forestry Grant award which the committee had approved for the department to apply for in partnership with the City of Rhinelander. The City of Rhinelander was awarded the grant in the amount of $30,000, she said.

That money will fund the project, which take place over the next 2.5 years. The project, Sadauskas said, would focus on tree species and would work also with pollinator tree species.

She also offered an update on the Lincoln County Stream Crossing Partnership. With a previous Stream Assessment Grant, the county worked with the towns to prioritize stream crossings for work all across the county.

Lincoln County heard about this three-year project and asked if the staff person from Oneida County who worked on that project could help Lincoln County as  it implements its own assessment. 

The next meeting of the Oneida County land and water conservation committee will be on Monday, October 14 at 1 p.m. in the Oneida County Courthouse county board room.

Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].