Pine Lake eyes city’s water and sewer extension plan

A potential development’s impact to Shepard Lake Road’s right of way made for a lively discussion at the Pine Lake town board meeting on Wednesday, March 18.

With chairman Jim Flory absent, the meeting at the Pine Lake Community Building was chaired by Tim Oestreich.

Mark Barden of Town and County Engineering was on hand, along with Rhinelander public works director Tom Roeser, to discuss a proposal by the city to extend utilities to the site of a potential development south of Shepard Lake Road as part of its TID 10 project. Barden said he expects June would be the earliest start date for construction, which awaits DOT and DNR approval.

“Just to be clear, all we’re talking about is utilities,” Barden emphasized. “As far as the planned development, we’re not here on behalf of the developer. We don’t know what those plans are going to be. They’re going to have to come and talk to you guys. We just want to get utilities for a future development.”

After distributing large printouts of plans he’d sent the town supervisors earlier, Barden explained, “The initial plan is just to serve the new development on the east side of US-17, just south of Shepard Lake Road. So to do that in the plans that you have there, you see there’s a lift station on the west side of US-17 by Shepard Lake Road. The city will be tying into that lift station and going under the highway to the east towards Shepard Lake Road.

“The intent right now is to cross at the east side of the road, where there currently is no sanitary sewer on that east side. And we would run the sanitary sewer up Shepard Lake Road to that access point where that large parcel meets Shepard Lake Road. And we’d extend it into the parcel at that point. 

“We’re also going to stub in water main. There currently is water main on the east side of US-17. We’d be tying into that at Shepard Lake Road. We’re running that along with the sanitary sewer to that same access point. With the water main, we will also be connecting to that existing water main at Crossover (Drive) and extending that east into that parcel as well, with the intent that when that development is fully developed, they’ll have a water main loop that they can tie into.”

He added that at the intersection of Shepard Lake Road and Hwy. 17 is a culvert pipe that the Wisconsin Department of Transportation had wanted the town to replace during improvements to 17.

“Because of this utility work, we will be removing that culvert, and the city will replace that at city cost, so we can take care of that for you,” he said. “As far as the road, all improvements are at city cost. So the Shepard Lake Road, as far as we tie into, we will replace that to town standards.”

Town supervisor Brian Gehrig questioned him closely on the city’s plan to run the sewer and water beneath the road rather than in the ditch (“If we were tun run it in the ditch line, we wouldn’t have enough cover for it,” said Burden), the length of time the work would require on Shepard Lake Road (“about a week”), and whether the road would be completely closed (“typically what we do during construction is, we make a contractor keep one lane open,” Burden told him).

Oestreich asked why the plans aren’t to run the water and sewer down East Cherokee to reach houses there too. “That may be in the future,” said Barden. “…Future plans would be extending that sanitary sewer to the north to Birchwood, and to the south back towards Stevens Street, to serve everything on the east side of the road.”

The city will need Pine Lake’s approval to enter Shepard Lake Road. “With the city working with the town to get the work that we need to get done, if we can keep you happy trimming stuff down, replacing culverts, widening the road, whatever we need to do, we can certainly do that,” Barden assured the board. “… We’ll certainly do everything in our power to satisfy you, particularly when we’re on your right-of-way.”

The drawing up of an agreement between the town and city was discussed for the board’s next regular meeting on April 15. In the meantime, the board agreed to allow the city to take soil borings on Shepard Lake Road, with a four-inch diameter and 25 feet deep, in early April to determine the water level and types of soil prior to construction.

Among other highlights of the meeting, the board:

• Adopted, at what town clerk Cindy Skinner noted was the request of the Wisconsin Towns Association, a resolution urging the Governor of Wisconsin and State Legislature to “enact a comprehensive, sustainable transportation funding solution that provides adequate and reliable revenue growth for the efficient long-term planning and execution of state and local transportation programs; includes responsible and prudent use of General Purpose Revenue and bonding; adjusts any new and existing transportation user fees and other revenue mechanisms to sustain purchasing power in order to maintain and improve Wisconsin’s transportation infrastructure; and ensures transportation continues to deliver for Wisconsin by adequately funding reconstruction, preservation, and safety investments on the state and local systems.”

• Heard in the fire report from Gehrig, who is also Pine Lake’s fire chief, that in February the department had 28 EMS calls and four fire calls, as well as a well-attended appreciation dinner, and that nine members completed a 16-hour Emergency Medical Responder refresher class;

• Denied a claim for $6,820 for a two-car accident by Alizah Johnson on Nov. 26 at the intersection of North Bay Road and Trails End Road, with Oestreich observing the police report noted “too fast for conditions” and no insurance. 

• Heard from Skinner that an audit conducted by Dave Minch of KerberRose at the town’s request has been completed and went “very well,” with town supervisor Jennifer Cordy adding of the “proactive” audit, “We’ve not had one done in quite some time. There was nothing that we saw within the books or preparing of our budget or balancing of our books that required us to do an audit … (but) fiscally, it was time to do it … we want to make sure our best practices are being upheld.” The results will be discussed at a future meeting.

• Heard a Rhinelander District Library update from representative Pam Winchell, with high points including the federal government reinstating grants to libraries; the library planning to start phase one of its expansion construction, its front steps, this spring; distribution of 50 laptops a day from the Northeast Digital Equity Program on March 26 and April 10; and the library’s family night at the Hodag Dome April 15.

The next regular monthly meeting of the Pine Lake town board will be April 15 and its annual meeting will be held April 21, both at 6:30 p.m. at the Pine Lake Community Building.

Ardith Carlton may be reached [email protected].