Crescent board OKs wake rule requiring 300-foot buffer, 20-foot depth

At last week’s town of Crescent regular board meeting, the board took up the subject of their enhanced wake ordinance. 

At the June meeting, after a lengthy discussion and input from several town residents, chair Grady Hartman asked for the ordinance to be completed and brought back to the board for approval at this meeting. The ordinance at that time asked for those creating enhanced wakes to stay 300 feet from shore and in a depth of at least 17.5 feet, which was a compromise between the depth desired by each of the other two town board members, with Mike Pazdernik wanting 20 feet and Jonathan Jacobson asking for only 15 feet. 

Hartman offered that compromise at the last meeting, but then said that individuals on the lake organizations who would be responsible for creating maps of their lakes showing areas where wake boaters should operate used maps that only delineated depth by five-foot increments. With that said, he asked the position of the board as to what they felt would be appropriate.

“This is just a suggestion, and there’s no way to thread the needle and make everyone happy,” he told the board. As in many towns across the Northwoods, the topic of enhanced wake sports is contentious in the town of Crescent. Many residents came to last week’s meeting to again voice their opinions, concerns and thoughts on the matter. Some were in favor of an ordinance and others said they would rather not have one.

“We’re all neighbors, for God’s sake,” Mindy Slaminski said. “Are we going to let Last Wilderness Alliance come in here and tell us what we should do, when they don’t even live near us?” She also posed the question of where regulations might end if wake boats were banned. She asked whether it would be ATV/UTVs next or snowmobiles.

She said she felt signage at the boat landings would go a long way toward education and helping people better understand the ways they could still recreate and enjoy the lake.

This sentiment was echoed by others in the room as well. Resident Terry Goldbach asked the board to simply delay the ordinance altogether, a sentiment with which Hartman agreed. He said he would like to put off any ordinance until the lawsuit in Burnett was settled and/or until the state decided whether or not it would put a regulation in place.

Resident Jim Altenberg said wake boats are only 3 percent of all boats registered in the state, but they were being viewed as 100 percent of the problem. 

“It all comes down to respect, respect, respect,” he said. He also agreed signage at the landings for visiting boats was a good idea. “It just talks about education, kindness, respect. If there’s a problem, call the warden. They will come out there.” 

Fishing boats, Altenberg said, which account for the other 97 percent of boats, were not a battle people wanted to take on because they would lose, but that was where invasive species have been coming from for many years.

He said he felt town residents could work together and come to some community-based agreement. He works in the industry, he said, and would still accept the recommendations of the ad hoc committee but asked that everyone work on respect as the first line of action.

The board had four different options to consider, or, potentially, to mix and match. The first option was exactly as it had been stated in the June meeting, with a restriction of 300 feet from shore and a depth of 17.5 feet. 

The second restricted hours of operation in enhanced wake mode, allowing that activity only between 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. 

The third option would call for all boats and watercraft to be disinfected and decontaminated before launching into any town waters.

The fourth option combined option one and three, with the 300 foot from shore and 17.5 foot depth restriction as well as the decontamination provision.

Pazdernik originally said he would opt for a combination of the first and second option, but the board eventually settled on the first option, amending the depth to the 20 foot recommendation of the ad hoc committee, at Hartman’s behest. That potential ordinance will now go to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for their approval.

Road projects

The board also opened bids for several road projects in the town. The decision was made to hold off on the North Wausau Road project contingent on getting a survey of that road. Jacobson said he would look to get that done before the next meeting. American Asphalt was awarded the Sunset Lane and Birch Lane project with their bid of $77,517. Northeast Asphalt landed the Hixon Lake project, coming in at $25,673. Pitlik and Wick’s $11,600 bid won them the Peninsula Road project. 

The board decided to defer the grant awarded to the Airport Road project to another road, and voted down awarding any bid on that project. 

Volunteer fire department training center

Lieutenant Randy Frahm presented the plans for a volunteer fire department training center to the board last week as well. This project had been floating around for a while, and had community backing, but Frahm told the board without a firm approval from the town, it was difficult to solidify donor support for the project.

Currently, the fire department utilized the training facility at Nicolet College. However, Frahm stated, there are issues with that set up. While the facility can handle all of the training needs of the Crescent fire department, it could be difficult, with the work schedule of all of the volunteers, to find a time where the facility was open to get in enough training for all of the department to hone their rescue and firefighting skills.

There was also the expense of using that facility, he said. While he understood the reasoning, as an employee of the college, he said that money may be better spent training in their own facility, working on the skills they will need.

Another benefit of the fire department having its own training facility would be the ability to also educate the public. With this building, Frahm said, the department could take videos of a couch catching on fire in a room, for instance, and post that to Facebook, thereby showing people how little time it actually takes for that type of fire to overwhelm an entire room and, potentially, a person trying to put it out without calling the fire department. 

The road was already run into the site where the building would be, meaning the trucks could easily get in. The storage units were already on the property as well, Frahm said. He was just looking for board approval for the project so he could lock down potential donations of goods and materials.

Fire chief Keven Mahner said he would email the zoning permit and the letter from the DNR that OKd the placement of the potential training facility to Hartman. Hartman also asked that the exact placement be staked out so he could go to look at where the facility would be.

He said the board could not make a decision on the training facility without the matter going to an annual town meeting. While the board was in favor of having better trained and prepared first responders, it would be something that would have to wait a few months and go to a town meeting. As such the matter was set aside until that time and Hartman said he would tour the potential site in the meantime.

The Crescent town board meets on the second Wednesday of every month at 6 p.m. Residents are encouraged to attend the meetings and contribute their thoughts during the public comment portion of each meeting.

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