County gets ball rolling on 2023 Camp 8, Chelsea Dam projects

Taylor County is hoping to build back better the Camp 8 recreation area as part of the dam replacement project slated to take place next year.

The county received a state grant which will cover half the construction and engineering cost of the Camp 8 and Chelsea Lake Dam projects. At Friday’s meeting of the Taylor County Forest and Recreation committee, committee chairman Scott Mildbrand reported on discussions with a local sportsmans group looking to make habitat and recreation improvements including fishing piers and structures in the lake bed.

The Camp 8 dam project includes a draw down of the 13 acre lake to the original stream bed. The county is working with a fishery biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to determine existing fish species and what the body of water is able to sustain and establish goals for the future of the fishery.

Forest administrator Jake Walcisak reported that he would be assisting the DNR with an electroshocking survey in the evening of Sept. 6. He said it was his anticipation that it would be a pretty traditional warm water system. One of the areas they will be looking at is if there is trout regeneration occurring beyond what is being planted in the lake each year. He noted they will also be looking at populations of bullheads and that if there is too large of an abundance of bullheads they may take steps to reduce that population to allow other species to have less competition.

In related dam action, committee members reviewed and approved contracts with the Ayres Associates for the bidding and construction oversight of the two dam projects.

The county will hire Ayres for $23,028 to do the bidding and oversight for Camp 8 dam project and $24,740 for the Chelsea Lake dam project. According to Walcisak, the county had previously contracted with the engineering firm to do the design work for the dam projects and assist in applying for the state grants. He said this is the next step that will allow the county to move forward with the project. The contracts were approved pending review by the county’s attorney.

According to Walcisak, the projects are slated to be put out to bid in December with selection in February. Construction could take place in 2023 or the first half of 2024.

Road signs

Navigating in the county forest could get easier, at least for now. Committee members directed the department to install road signs on the county forest road intersections.

According to Walcisak, there are seven major intersections on 17 miles of county forest roads. He estimated the cost of the signs and posts at between $1,800 and $2,600 to install. The signs themselves run about $45 each.

According to Walcisak, signs in the forest are routinely damaged with people shooting them or are stolen. “Every time a sign gets shot, it is $45,” he said.

Committee member Gary Beadles said he felt there was a value in having the signs particularly with emergency responders such as ambulance.

“The ambulance service is going backwards with personnel,” Beadles said of the switch from having local volunteer drivers to having ambulance crews staffed by people who live outside the area. “We have people from Marshfield, Wausau, etc. who don’t know the roads,” Beadles said.

Walcisak noted the county has also had issues with people needing wreckers in the forest due to breakdowns and difficulty in finding them. While the county forest roads show up on GPS programs, there is limited cellular phone reception in the area making technology options unworkable. In addition, Walcisak noted in some of the online maps intersections have the wrong road names.

“I agree with Gary that it will be money well spent,” Mildbrand said.

Walcisak said that hopefully when people shoot up the signs they will still be able to be read.

“Hopefully people grow up over the years, but some of them never do,” Beadles said.