COUNTY OF DUNN MENOMONIE, WISCONSIN
NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING
In accordance with the provisions of Section 19.84, Wisconsin Statutes, notice is hereby given that a public meeting of the DUNN COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS will be held on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. in Room 54 of the Dunn County Government Center, 3001 US Highway 12 East in Menomonie, Wisconsin. The building entrance for public meetings is on the lower level of the Government Center and will be open 30 minutes ahead of the meeting start time. A video recording of the meeting will be available for subsequent viewing on the Dunn County YouTube channel at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/@dunncounty1854. Persons wishing to provide public comment may do so at the meeting or may submit written comments by sending an email beforehand to [email protected] Items of business to be discussed or acted upon at this meeting are listed below:
AGENDA - COUNTY BOARD
1. Call to Order
2. Pledge of Allegiance
3. Call of the roll
Supervisor Story was not present, Supervisor Herton perhaps joining online.
4. Approval of the Minutes from July 31, 2024 and August 28, 2024 Meetings
Minutes were approved unanimously.
5. Presentations of Petitions, Memorials, and Other Communications: Petition for December 2024 County Board Meeting
December 18th- date on petition
6. Public Comment
Melissa Neeland, Director of the Dunn County Historical Society, came forward on behalf of the Dunn Co historical society. NASA's moon trees, which orbited the moon, planted on museum grounds and is the only NASA tree in Wisconsin. October 4th at 4pm a celebration for the acquisition of the trees by the museum will be conducted.
2025 is 75th anniversary of Dunn co historical society, and they will be launching an app for walking tours.
7. Appointments- no appointments this month.
8. Report of County Manager
A. 2023 Audit Report – KerberRose
Greg Ptel, joining online, came forward to address the audit results. He listed five material weaknesses, all repeat findings from the 2022 report. Two preparation of federal and state awards, one was lack of segregation of duties, ideally, financial duties would be handled by separate entities. One was lack of timeliness of cash reconciliation process, which could expose the county to fraud.
The county used to work with the Klifton Allen auditing firm, which has since indicated they would no longer be able to serve the county. KerberRose, the new firm, recommended cleaning up of highway fund allocation.
Supervisor Hagan requested an update when the plan to address segregation of financial duties, however the county is resistant to adding new positions, which would be necessary to segregate all duties in compliance with the audit.
B. Introduction of Adam Accola – Greater Dunn County Economic Development Director
Mr. Accola is a new hire for the Greater Dunn County Economic Development Director, a new position created from an amalgamation of various economic development agencies in Dunn County. He gave a synopsis of his experience serving the communities of the Chippewa Valley. He touched on some points of his plan for the future, including:
Business expansion and retention
Entrepreneurship
Housing, the most complex pillar of the plan. New businesses with new employees means housing is needed.
He mentioned that he would be making visits to various municipalities over the next weeks, and asked the public to connect him with any business owners they think he ought to know.
C. Purchase Orders Over $40,000 No questions on the list of purchase orders.
D. Update on 2025 Budget Development: Kris & Beata
The current gap is 7.3 million. The recommendation is to borrow 3 million. 1.6 million in decreased operation, mostly due to a canceled highway project due to unsurity of if the project was feasible.
Supervisor Hagan asked about time it would take to refill the county's coffers. Generally historical precedent serves, unless in an event of a natural disaster or everyone ceasing to pay taxes, neither of which are likely.
The nursing home still owes about 2 million, which would go into the unassigned fund balance.
Beata came forward to give a presentation on the current debt situation. The county has an outstanding debt of 28 million. The payments for the debt are slated to remain at 5.3 million. The plan is to borrow 3 to 4.1 million. At the 2027/2028 mark, the possibility opens up to take on additional projects, as under the current plan that will be the point the debt starts to recede.
Essentially, under this debt reduction plan, there will be no net increase in taxes.
E. Identify the County Services Scenario – Andrew Mercil
A scenario was read about a resident named Krissy and her day, and supervisors were to identify where her life, the life of a normal resident, intersects with county services.
Supervisor Byrek asked about property tax increases across the county, and if it was comparable to other counties.
9. Reports of Departments: District Attorney & Treasurer
The beginning of the presentation went over the district attorney's staff and the facilities. The district attorney went over a child sexual assault case where the county prosecuted a predator. She also went over a fentanyl case discovered by a traffic stop, and both passenger and driver were jailed.
Supervisor Laffer asked who doles out punishments for those convicted, and besides some mandatory jail time for certain crimes, the judges themselves determine the punishment
The Treasurer began her presentation by going over the treasury staff. 2023-2024 changes to the Treasury included new staff, the decision to remove personal property taxes, revision of the electronic lottery credit process, and the tax bill format was revised in 2023 in order to streamline the process and make it easier for residents.
She also explained the process for property tax delinquency, in which there is a two year period in which to pay. Pandemic assistance for delinquency is now being repealed.
Walmart- no surprise- is the biggest taxpayer in the county.
Supervisor Lyon asked about tax credits which were explained and additional explanation via email was promised.
10. Consideration of Reports, Resolutions, and Ordinances to the County Board from the Executive Committee:
A. 2024 Budget Adjustment – ENS, Sheriff, IT, CJC, DHS
The budget adjustment passed unanimously.
B. Resolution Appointing Corporation Counsel
The appointment passed unanimously.
C. Ordinance Amending 2.055 (Land Information Counsel) – First Reading
D. Resolution to Amend 2025 Capital Improvements Plan for Solar/Geothermal
Supervisor Bjork raised a concern that the solar panels would not be American-made, but was assured that that will be a priority. The resolution passed unanimously
11. Consideration of Reports, Resolutions and Ordinances coming to the County Board from the Standing Committees:
A. Planning, Resources & Development: Rezone Friedenfels GA to R1 12.
The motion passed unanimously.
Announcements:
Next Meeting October 16, 2024
13. Adjournment
Kelly McCullough, Chairperson
By: Kristin Korpela County Manager Upon reasonable notice, the County will make efforts to accommodate the needs of disabled individuals through sign language, interpreters or other auxiliary aids. For additional information or to request the service, contact the County Human Resources Manager at 715-232-2429 (Office), 715-232-1324 (FAX) or 715-231-6406 (TDD) or by writing to the Human Resources Manager, Human Resources Department, 3001 US Hwy 12 E, Suite 225, Menomonie, Wisconsin 54751.
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You may have noticed a slowdown in local content lately. We're gearing up for some new things here and it has taken away from time to be out and about. Also your editor (that's me) came down with COViD a few days ago and is sitting quarantined at home and trying to stay out of the way of his partner so at least one of us remains healthy. (Update - we're both sick now). Thanks to modern medicine and Paxlovid I am recovering fairly quickly.
Some new things you can look forward to in the upcoming months include more reporting of government meetings and local events. We now have two freelance reporters who you will be seeing more of here - Grace Horan and Roy Humlicek-Spindler. This will be in addition to work from me, the monthly outdoor column from Jim Swanson, and occasional submitted articles from other community members.
Lastly, an Eye On Dunn County resources directory will soon be available, listing community resources, groups, restaurants, and more. This is a big project and at some time we will be asking you for suggestions on what else should be in the directory.
As always, let us know what other things you would like to see from us. We've taken a little break from doing a lot of original reporting, but are back in growth mode.
We will take a little time off at Eye On Dunn County for Christmas. It's time to be with family and I hope all of you will be doing the same for whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year.
Of course if something truly important happens, you will hear from us, but likely there will be very little activity for the next few days. We are giving some thought to things that will happen in 2025, and doing planning for that. Some things you can expect:
- At the end of the year, our participation in the Associated Press experiment with small publishers will end. I'd like to thank LION Publishers, Associated Press, and all the other folks for making this happen. In the new year we will stop carrying AP articles. I'm sure some of you will miss them, and others will be relieved to get a higher percentage of local stories.
- We will have more stories by more people. Look forward to more local coverage by our freelance reporters Grace Horan and Roy Humlicek-Spindler. We will also continue to have outdoor stories from Jim Swanson and some new stories from local organizations and nonprofits.
- I'm looking forward to more cooperation between us and Menomonie News Net - check out their new website.
- We are building a community directory, which will be many different things - a database of local organizations, restaurants, businesses, and whatever strikes our fancy. Look for this some time in January.
- I am working on some new reformatting of the displays on the website. It will be more handsome and easier to read. And, I hope, faster.
- We are having a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Chamber of Commerce in January - and you're invited. There will be more information on that soon. It will be a time for us to talk about your community news needs and how we can do better at filling them.
- Leave a comment if you have ideas for what we could be doing better and how we can better serve the community.
We're looking forward to a new exciting year.
Roy Humlicek-Spindler is a recent graduate of the University of Minnesota Morris where he studied English and Creative Writing. He was part of the English honor society there and loves writing, academics and philosophy, and has published a modest handful of academic and creative works. During the day he works as a paraprofessional helping students at a charter school in Minnesota (where he was born and raised). He firmly intends to remain in the Midwest for the duration of his life and wants to become more and more attached to it. One of the was he did that was working for the Conservation Corps of Minnesota and Iowa helping maintain state parks, a life changing experience he will never forget. He visits the city of Menomonie frequently and loves spending time there. He intends to continue writing professionally as best he can.
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