Pelican residents hear some details about proposed Nicolet College well

The city of Rhinelander will host a public information meeting at Nicolet College on Monday, May 12. 

The meeting will be in the college’s Northwoods building to address questions and concerns people may have regarding the proposed installation of a water well by the city on Nicolet College property.

The college is in the town of Pelican and during a meeting of the Pelican town board on April 23, residents, as well as town chairman Nick Scholtes, expressed concerns about only recently hearing about any plans for a well. 

“Once it was in the paper was our first opportunity to see anything about it,” Scholtes said at the April 23 meeting, referring to an article about the subject in a recent edition of a local newspaper not associated with The Lakeland Times or its sister newspaper, The Northwoods River News.

At that meeting, he assured residents he would investigate the matter further and provide additional details at the town board’s May 5 meeting. He said the issue would be added to future agendas if necessary. 

The steps

The water well issue was a topic of discussion for nearly an hour of the town board’s May 5 meeting and, as Scholtes promised two weeks before, he had plenty of information to update the townspeople with. 

Also at the meeting was Mark Barden with Town and Country Engineers, who was hired by the city of Rhinelander to design the well should the decision ultimately be made to proceed. 

That the project was in a very initial phase at this point was a message delivered throughout the discussion. 

City administrator Patrick Reagan told the Times after the town board’s April 23 meeting while city staff members and representatives with Nicolet College have been “talking,” no land has been purchased by the city. 

As of Monday’s Pelican town board meeting, Scholtes reported that was still the case. 

Having visited with Reagan since the April 23 meeting, Scholtes said he was told the annexing of any land in the town of Pelican by the city of Rhinelander, a concern raised at the previous town board meeting, wasn’t going to happen. 

He said he’d been in contact with attorney Carol Nawrocki, the assistant director of the Wisconsin Towns Association. 

“She had stated there wasn’t a lot the town could do to take and stop it,” Scholtes said.

Even so, he said Nawrocki told him property owners with wells that might be impacted by the new well “could pursue legal means.”

“That was something I kind of already knew,” Scholtes said. 

His next contact, he said, was with Aaron Webster, a water supply engineer with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) based in Rhinelander. 

Scholtes said he asked Webster what the procedure was to get a new well installed. 

“He wrote it all out for me,” Scholtes said. “Number one, the system decides it needs another well for whatever the reason may be (and) decides to explore for water by drilling test wells.”

Webster wrote approval of the test wells doesn’t require DNR approval “but most municipalities will send us a quick approval request to do so out of habit for the rest of what they do and as a courtesy notice.”

“The test well process can take a few wells or many to find good water quality and quantity,” Webster wrote.

The second part of the process is “when the requirements really kick in.”

“They are required to provide us with the site investigation report,” Webster wrote. “This a full report on the site to  (determine) how well it can meet requirements for a new drinking water well as well as can the area handle a new municipal, high capacity well.”

Once site approval is achieved, the third step would be the “system,” in this case, the city of Rhinelander, would have to submit another report to the DNR “detailing the intended construction of the new well with pump house and typically any treatment systems for the water along with sample results showing the well meets all the Safe Drinking Water Act requirements for a potable water supply.”

Step four, should the project get to this point, is the actual construction phase and the fifth step is overall inspection once construction is complete “to ensure everything was constructed as approved in the previous steps.”

“Also this is the time final operational sampling will be completed for bacteria,” Webster wrote.

Step six has to do with approval of well operation “on a daily basis or as needed by the municipality.”

“Lastly, the well becomes subject to all operational requirements ... that are inspected every few years along with the entire rest of the system and will continue until either the municipality disbands or the well is abandoned,” Webster wrote, adding the well could offer “100 years of potential service.”

“That is what I received from the DNR,” Scholtes said. “Just to give you an idea of the process.”

He said he then met with Reagan, Barden and city wastewater foreman Curt Johnson.

“I conveyed to them our surprise at hearing about a proposed well in the newspaper,” Scholtes said. “I told them the communication of being transparent was essential when dealing with something like this.”

He said Reagan explained the city is “struggling to keep up with water demand” due to the shut down of two city wells in 2019 because of PFAS contamination. 

“He said the shortage of supply has been getting kicked down the road for 10 years,” Scholtes said. “They stated the city is at a critical junction right now. Due to the shortage, they haven’t been able to do their hydro-flushing for the past five years and if any other wells go down, it’s going to be a crisis. I told them it was extremely important that they conduct an open meeting for the public so the public can ask questions.”

The Monday, May 12 public information meeting at Nicolet College, which Barden later indicated he would try to have a DNR representative in attendance, was the result. 

“It isn’t just the town board asking questions,” Scholtes said. “This public meeting would involve the city administrator, I will be there, Nicolet College will be part of this ... that’s the time when you’re really going to be able to get into the nuts and bolts of this situation and you’re going to be able to talk to the people who are really in charge of everything along the way.”

Speaking volumes

Over the course of the rest of the discussion during the May 5 Pelican town board meeting, there was plenty the town board heard from residents, from questions about the need for the well to what its impacts might be on area lakes and private wells. 

That the project has been discussed between the city adminstration and representatives of college staff while apparently leaving the town of Pelican and its residents out of any of that discussion also did not sit well with most of the nearly 40 people at Monday’s town board meeting. 

Barden, during his comments, said the public information meeting Monday at Nicolet College, while scheduled to start at 3 p.m. and last until 4:30 p.m., would go as long as was needed.

Near the end of Monday’s discussion, Scholtes told the audience he was opposed to the project and as far as he knew, so were town supervisors Jim Cates and Walter Dahlquist, Jr.

Both men were there but didn’t say anything. Scholtes said he was informed by city staff even if the two city wells closed in 2019 were treated and reopened, the city of Rhinelander would still need another water source “which surprised me.”

“So, that’s kind of what we’re dealing with right now,” he said. “All I can say is, those that can attend the meeting next week, please attend. It speaks volumes to come together as a community to speak out against this and that’s the only thing we have for us right now.”

Public information meetings

Regarding Monday’s public information meeting, Jenna Allen, the college’s chief of staff and public information officer, Tuesday said that meeting will be in what’s referred to as “Northwoods 207.”

“That’s the city by itself,” she said. “We’re just providing the facilities.”

Allen said plans were finalized Tuesday afternoon for another public information meeting on May 20 she called a “neighborhood listening session” the college has scheduled from 3 to 4:15 p.m. 

“It’s really for our neighbors just to come by and talk to college leadership,” she said. “Just to have an informal conversation with folks so there can be more of a dialogue and conversation.” 

The board of trustees, which meets at 4:30 p.m. that day, will also take input from people regarding the proposed well. 

“People will be able to make statements but the board of trustees is not allowed to engage in dialogue or answer questions because of open meeting laws,” she said.

Allen said people are welcome to come to one or the other of the meetings and have until 2 p.m. on May 20 to submit questions and comments regarding the well issue to Kris Peeters at [email protected]. 

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