TINA L. SCOTT
EDITOR
In addition to the Pine Crest referendum issue, the Lincoln County Board of Supervisors approved several other resolutions during its Aug. 20, 2024, meeting designating the use of the County’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding. As part of ARPA regulations, all funds must be obligated (defined as having “an order placed for property and services and entering into contracts, subawards, and similar transactions that require payment”) no later than Dec. 31, 2024, or the money must be returned.
Marketing
During the meeting, Supervisors voted 13-6, based on the recommendation of the County’s Administrative and Legislative (A&L) Committee, to use $302,182 previously earmarked as Marketing Designated ARPA funds as follows: 32,500 for a 1-year contract with Placer.ai; 246,000 for a 30-month contract with Discover Wisconsin; $2,600 for advertisement in Trail Tales; and $21,082 in a reservation app and/or other related incidental costs. The County Board has previously indicated the goal of their recent branding efforts are to market tourism and bring visitors to Lincoln County to visit/stay to increase sales tax and the Board felt these expenditures working through professional marketing sources would help effect that goal. The motion to approve the resolution to obligate these funds was brought by District 20 Supervisor Angela Cummings and seconded by District 12 Supervisor and Board Vice-Chair Julie DePasse. Chair Boyd requested a roll call vote after a voice vote was too close to tally. Supervisors Elizabeth McCrank, Derek Woellner, Andrew Zelinski, Laurie Thiel, Jesse Boyd, Julie DePasse, Alan Bishop, Marguerite Lyskawa, Marty Lemke, Dana Miller, James Meunier, Angela Cummings, and Greg Hartwig (13) all voted in favor of the resolution, with Supervisors Donald Dunphy, Christine Vorpagel, Randy Detert, Ken Wickham, Joseph Dorava, and Eugene Simon (6) voting no.
River Bend Trail
Supervisors also voted to designate $75,000 of ARPA funds to the River District Development Foundation as a Beneficiary (a/k/a River Bend Trail). The A&L Committee recommended the resolution to continue to develop the River Bend Trail within Lincoln County. In April the Board approved the Intergovernmental Agreement for the Planning of Wausau to Merrill Trail Corridor Plan which will extend the walking/biking trail between the two cities. While the Trail Corridor process is still at the Master Plan Stage (final design, property acquisition, development, and capital improvements to occur later), progress on the trail is contingent on funding, and the Board supports continuing the River Bend Trail to both the east and west and believes it will draw additional people to Merrill. The motion carried on a voice vote.
Park improvements
Next up the County Board voted to designate $170,000 of ARPA funds for Forestry Park Improvement Projects to further facilitate Lincoln County’s destination branding (“Lincoln County: Where the Northwoods Start and Your Adventure Begins”) and increase tourism by improving Forestry Park Improvement projects “to highlight our unique characteristics and resources in our campgrounds, and increase attractiveness, usage, and increase fee potential.” Some of the following projects, previously identified as having significant value to increasing park usage, were already completed or begun but costs exceeded initial estimates, so the ARPA funds would be used to prioritize as many of these projects as possible: an electric pump and shower at Tug Lake, adding a kayak launch to New Wood Park, repair of the New Wood Park bridge which is heavily used as part of the Ice Age Trail, development of additional trail heads, etc. The motion to approve carried by a voice vote.
Gravel acquisition
The Board also voted to designate $250,000 of ARPA funds to aquire gravel – either through land purchase within the county or via other gravel acquisition expense – to be used for upcoming road projects in Lincoln County. The A&L Committee recommended the allocation. The resolution noted the current cost to produce gravel is $4.90/yard, in which $2.72/yard is crushing costs, and purchasing gravel from an outside entity costs $9.50/yard, and there is an opportunity to purchase land that is expected to have approximately 640,000 – 1 million usable yards of pit run to produce high quality road gravel for future use and that having multiple access locations throughout the county also reduces hauling expenses. Should the purchase of the land not occur, there are other gravel acquisition expenses that would occur. The motion to approve carried by a voice vote.
Printing equipment and systems
Finally, the Board approved designating $150,000 of ARPA funding to procure, configure, and deploy the County’s outdated print equipment and related systems and services which are 7-10 years old. “Whereas, the capital improvement fund may not be able to cover the cost of an outright equipment purchase,” the funds will be used “to offset the capital expense and labor to replace aging print equipment in the upcoming budgetary cycle and capitalization of the print equipment upfront will continue to limit the operational costs of printing and copying throughout all County departments to mirror current low costs of operation due to outright ownership.”
The “funding will be spent in its entirety on print equipment and related ancillary services in order to reduce costs by eliminating equipment needed or improving efficiencies” and could include but is “not limited to, electronic secure fax, paperless document management process mapping and solutions, backlog scanning of physical records and applying proper retention schedules, and traditional mail services” the resolution said. The motion to approve carried by a voice vote.
Board approves borrowing up to $4,030,000 for landfill
In the final resolution of the meeting, the Board voted unanimously to borrow up to $4,030,000 to pay the cost of landfill expansion projects, acquisition of equipment, and other capital improvement projects and to issue general obligation promissory notes for this expense. The interest rate on the borrowing shall not exceed 4.50% and repayment of the borrowing is anticipated to take place over the next five years, resulting in an increase in the tax levy to Lincoln County residents in the years 2024 through 2029 for the payments due in the years 2025 through 2030.
“I just need everyone to understand that this is not optional. The DNR is telling us this is what you will do,” said Angela Cummings, District 20 Supervisor and Finance and Insurance Committee member, during discussion about the landfill expansion expenses.
Board members discussed and explained that even if the County opted to close the landfill, they are required to hold money in trust in the unlikely event that the liner should fail at some point in the future, to cover cleanup costs. Solid Waste is already looking at tipping fees and adjusting those accordingly and is minimizing outside counties bringing garbage in, and they are making efforts to best utilize their resources. However, that just isn’t enough money to cover the costs of the needed equipment, closing one landfill cell, and opening a new one, and there are no other resources to tap into to generate the required funds.
“We really don’t have much choice here,” said Julie DePasse, District 12 Supervisor and Chair of the Finance and Insurance Committee.
The motion to approve the resolution passed unanimously on a voice vote.