County approves spending for ARPA funds

Questions raised over cost of Miller Dam boat landings; funding tied to getting state DNR grants

A plan to use federal COVID relief money to help pay for upgrades to the boat landings at Miller Dam drew debate at the July 15 county board session.

The federal American Rescue Plan Act awarded states, counties and municipalities with funds to be used to help communities regain ground lost during the pandemic. The county has a limited window of time to spend the money and is limited in how it can be spent with the preference for larger one-time projects.

The county dedicated a large portion of its funds toward the broadband expansion project to accelerate those efforts and reduce the need for borrowing. Other funds have been allocated for projects including water drainage work at the fairgrounds and purchase of radio repeaters for the highway department.

Under county rule, spending over $100,000 must come to the full county board for action. On Friday’s docket were four resolutions requesting a total of about $713,000 of the federal ARPA funds to be spent on radios, parking lots and boat landings.

Of the four requests, three passed with little discussion and unanimous votes, a proposal to use up to $150,000 for replacement of boat landings sparked a lengthy discussion and raised questions as to the project expense.

Board member Rollie Thums echoed concerns he first raised at the July 7 finance and personnel committee when the proposal was initially presented. He said he felt the estimated cost of $200,000 to replace the two boat landings was “a little excessive.” The existing landings were installed about 15 years ago, He noted that he has been working on the replacement of boat landings at South Harper Lake and that they got their Department of Natural Resources approvals and Corps of Engineers approvals without needing to work with an engineer. He said replacing the South Harper Lake boat landing totaled about $15,000 and objected to spending $200,000 for ones at Miller Dam.

“I think that is excessive,” Thums said, noting that he does not oppose replacing the boat landings or question the need for replacing them, just that he feels it can be done for much less cost.

“I don’t think the director of buildings and grounds did his homework,” Thums said. He said the dollars spent on engineering could be used elsewhere. “I don’t think the homework was done. I know it wasn’t done,” Thums said, noting he had directed buildings and grounds supervisor Joe Svejda to talk with the contractor on the South Harper Lake project to see what options there are to replace existing boat landings.

Thums noted that while Miller Dam (Chequamegon Waters Flowage) is the county’s largest lake, it is “not a miraculous body of holy water that you can’t desecrate.”

“With all due respect to the disrespect, I don’t feel spending foolishly was the intent,” Svejda responded. He said he did his homework by speaking with the Wisconsin DNR and getting their feedback. “I did spend quite a bit of time on this,” he said, noting that in his position he has many areas to look after.

“I have not designed or engineered a boat ramp in the past,” Svejda said, citing why he spoke to engineers about the project. He said that as the county’s most heavily used body of water he wanted to make sure it was done correctly.

Thums said the landing needs to be replaced, but noted that while it is federal money, the $150,000 in ARPA funds proposed is not free money.

Svejda said that in speaking with the DNR, there is the possibility of tapping into state grant funds. “If I go for state funding, the engineering needs to be done,” Svejda said, noting the goal would be to do this without needing local county funds.

“What do you think the odds are to get funding for our portion?” asked board member Scott Mildbrand.

Svejda said his DNR contact said she was excited by it and had felt it was a great project for either the ARPA or DNR grant programs. He said he has not moved forward on it because he wanted to wait until he knew he had the funding covered before moving ahead.

Mildbrand suggested tying the ARPA funds to if the county was able to get a DNR grant. An amendment to do that passed.

Supervisor Lester Lewis also objected to the use of the ARPA funds for the project echoing Thums’ concerns that not enough work had been done before bringing it to the board.

“I voted for this in committee, right now I am going to vote against it,” Lewis said. He said he was under the impression that Svejda would contact Thums and the contractor Thums is working with on the Harper Lake project.

“We only got the engineer’s estimate, I don’t think that is enough,” Lewis said, noting that he felt the county could save money.

“The longer he waits, the more it is going to cost,” said supervisor Lori Floyd. She said there would be value in having the survey done by an engineer to determine what was needed to keep the ramp useable.

Supervisor Mike Bub questioned if there was a critical timeline for applying for state DNR grant funds.

Lewis said that based on his past experience, he didn’t foresee the boat ramps going in this year. “If we took a couple months to reevaluate this, it is not the end of the world.”

Bub made a motion to table the request to give more time for studying it, but it was rejected on a vote of 7 -10.

Thums stated that for the record he is not saying the county shouldn’t do anything, he just objected to a cost of between $254,000 and $325,000 for a boat landing.

“I think there is ample time to look at cost savings,” Mildbrand said.

In the end, the board voted 14-3, with Bub, Thums and Lewis opposed, to approve spending up to $150,000 of ARPA money to replace the boat landings at Miller Dam provided the county is able to secure a grant from the DNR for the remaining portion.

Other ARPA funding requests passed without opposition including: Spending $195,000 for the replacement of radio equipment at the sheriff’s department.

Spending $165,787.50 for radio equipment for the county’s fire departments, representing 75% of the estimated cost.

Spending $102,000 to cover the cost of having the county highway department replace the parking lot at the Taylor County Education Center.

Miller Dam is Taylor County’s largest body of water and is heavily used for fishing as well as general recreation. The existing boat landings are in need of being replaced.EMILY GOJMERAC/THE STAR NEWS