Water and sewer extension plan progresses at Pine Lake board meeting

A proposal by the city of Rhinelander to extend utilities to the site of a potential development south of Shepard Lake Road, impacting that town road’s right of way, moved forward at the Pine Lake town board meeting on Wednesday, April 15.

The potential development site is on the east side of State Highway 17, just south of Shepard Lake Road. As part of its TID 10 project, the city proposes installing sanitary sewer and water main to the site, and would also remove and replace two culverts on Shepard Lake Road along the way.

At last month’s meeting, the town requested the drawing up of a detailed agreement between Pine Lake and the city. Mark Barden of Town and Country Engineering provided that agreement to the town.

This month, as at March’s meeting, Barden was on hand to continue the conversation with the board.

“With the agreement, the intent is, the city’s going to put all these utilities in,” Barden said. “…The city would be replacing all that roadway, all the utilities underneath, all the culverts … the city will pay for all these upgrades …

“The roadway … will be built significantly better than typical town road. Also in intent, as you see in the agreement, is the maintenance of that road. As far as repaving 20 years down the road, that will be on the city; the city will pay for that. If there’s any utility breaks, if we have to get in for water, for sewer, anything like that, if there’s any breaks that the city is responsible for, the city will pay to repair that road. That is not the responsibility of the town ... that’s in the agreement. And I don’t know if you had a chance to have the town attorney take a look at that.”

“I called him on Thursday, and I called him yesterday, and he finally got back to me today about noon,” said Pine Lake board chairman Jim Flory, “and I emailed over to him, and I got no response. So I would like him to take another look at it before we sign it, and hopefully that’s tomorrow.”

Barden encouraged making tweaks to make the agreement’s language even more specific.

“It does say maintenance is perpetually on the city of Rhinelander … that is the intent with the people in this room right now,” he said. “You know, by the time you get a water main break, we might all be gone. So the intent with this agreement is that a new board, a new public works director, new engineers, all sitting here, they know what the intent is. So any tweaks in that language, I think, would be very appropriate.”

However, the city plans to open bids May 5 and award the project on May 11, with construction to start in mid-June at the earliest, Barden said. 

“So what we’re really looking for now is if you guys are OK with the intent of this agreement … knowing that we may have to make some tweaks,” he said.

Barden cautioned that with the replacement of the culvert crossing Shepard Lake Road, sanitary sewer running down the middle of the road, and manholes going in, “we’re going to have a big enough hole there where it’s going to be very difficult to keep traffic going by there.”

As a result, a detour onto County Road C is recommended, rather than trying to keep one lane open. At the end of each workday, though, “the road is put back in place; there’s no holes open … so fire, EMS, they can get through there … And we’ll always try to maintain emergency access, even throughout the day. If a contractor is digging right in front of your house, and there’s no realistic way to get into your driveway, if EMS is coming they will fill that hole up.”

Barden added that there would be no construction during the July 9-12 Hodag Country Fest. 

“If (contractors) start beforehand, they’ll have to get the road put together and passable,” he assured the board. “It might be gravel if they were to start it and they don’t get it paved, but it’s not going to be closed down.”

He said a completion date of Oct. 15 is in the specs. “We’re hoping this is a rapid-fire project, at least for shutting down Shepard Lake Road.”

The board unanimously agreed to approve the presented plans, contingent upon the town’s attorney looking over and agreeing to the agreement between Pine Lake and Rhinelander.

Flory noted the agreement requires only one signature, which he could easily do. 

“I’m hoping I know something by Monday,” he said.

Later on the agenda, the board heard from fire chief Brian Gehrig, also a town supervisor, that in March the town’s fire department had 25 EMS and five fire calls among other activity. On Saturday, April 25, the department is sponsoring a heavy rescue class. 

“It’s how to work with wreckers, how to deal with bus semi-type accidents,” he reported. “We have approximately 40 fire department members throughout the county coming.”

Town clerk Cindy Skinner had some news of note for the board. 

“Just to kind of give you a heads up, because you guys will be circulating nomination papers in the fall, that the state of Wisconsin has, in all their wisdom, changed the laws again regarding elections,” she said.

Anybody circulating papers to run for office — for themselves, or even for somebody else — must be a resident of Wisconsin. 

“They have to be a qualified elector, U.S. citizen, (at least) 18 years old, have to have resided in Wisconsin at least 28 days, not serving a felony conviction, is not adjudicated incompetent, and has not placed a bet on an election,” Skinner explained.

Among other highlights of the meeting, the board:

• Received hard copies of the audit recently completed by Dave Minch of KerberRose, who will meet virtually with the board at its May meeting.

• Heard from Skinner that notification was received from the state that Pine Lake did not receive any of the TRID (Town Road Improvement Discretionary) or TRIS (Town Road Improvement Supplemental) grants it applied for.

• Heard in town representative Pam Winchell’s Rhinelander District Library report that Pine Lake has 986 library card users, which would be 36 percent of the town’s population.

The annual meeting of the town of Pine Lake will be today (Tuesday), April 21, at 6:30 p.m. The town board’s next regular monthly meeting will be Wednesday, May 20, at 6:30 p.m. Both meetings will be held at the Pine Lake Community Building.

Ardith Carlton may be reached at [email protected].