On Thursday, May 15, the Clark County Board met in Neillsville at the County Courthouse for their May meeting. After the Call to order, the Pledge of Allegiance was said and then Roll Call was taken. 26 members were present with only three being absent. The first order of business was to reappoint Arlene Kodl, Jill Hoff, and Scott Jalling to the Community Department Board. This was followed by appointing Kerry Kirn to replace Scott Haines and Brent Leech to replace Paul Skibbbie on the Local Emergency Planning Committee, as well as confirming Ken Gerhardt to the Neillsville TIF District Ward 2.
The majority of the meeting was taken up by annual reports from the Planning, Zoning, and Land Information Department; the Veterans Services Department; and the Health Department. First up was Derek Weyer, the Zoning Administrator/Land Information Officer for the Planning, Zoning, and Land Information Department. He walked through the report, explaining certain points and the financial and permit numbers associated with each. He spent the most time explaining the different permits that they issue. Weyer also explained that they set up the grid system for professional surveyors to be able to do their job and to analyze the surveys, but they don’t actually do the surveys. He also explained the Next Generation 911 grant that helps to clean up the data systems that they use for emergency management. After he went through his report, Scott Johnson asked for clarification on the Renewable Energy Ordinances and what the county can dictate. Currently there are three solar projects planned for the next few years, with the largest being 44 acres. Leonard Stoecker, with some questions from Brandon Hasz, was curious on the privy permits that were mentioned and if the county had a plan for the ‘failed septics’ sanitary management in the county. The county is coming to the end of its ‘unknown systems letter’ program where they asked anyone with unknown sanitary systems to self-declare what they have and to possibly get them started on updating their systems to something that is legal. The report was approved by the board.
Next up was Aaron Greisen for Veterans Services. He explained that the majority of veterans in the county are from the Vietnam War era and the support that they seek are often related to Agent Orange. Another sector of veterans are from the Gulf War where they have to deal with the after effects of burn pits. He walked through each section of the benefits at the federal, state, and county levels and how much each veteran gets on average. He finished up with talking about outreach and events, including a library tour planned later in the year and a possible fishing contest next spring. The board approved the annual report.
The last annual report was the Health Department that was gone through by the Department Director, Brittany Mews. She went through what they focus on, the programs and outreach that they cover. This included child safety programs, emergency preparedness, vaccines, Seal a Smile (which they are in danger of losing because of federal funding cuts to Medicaid), Health Hub vending machines, helping municipalities to set up recreational drug ordinances, as well as working with schools on various health programs. Fred Schindler voiced concern about some vaccinations and Mews restated that all vaccinations within the county are voluntary. Anybody with any concerns can look up the 2024 Health Department Annual Report on the county website. The board approved the Health Department’s annual report.
The board approved a three year agricultural lease agreement for property in Green Grove with Dennis Martin. The rent to be paid is $20,724.70 per year for 124.1 acres of land. They also approved the county policy for processing judicial privacy protection requests. The policy allows judicial officers to request that their personal information not be included in any records requests that the county may receive. The Board ratified the Authority of Opioid Litigation Counsel to add certain defendants. This will allow the law firm handling the case on behalf of Clark County and other Wisconsin counties to add additional defendants.
This also marked the second reading of amendments to the Clark County Code of Ordinances Chapter 34 in regard to tax delinquent property that was approved and passed.
The meeting ended with the approval of the March minutes. There was no public comment to be made before the meeting adjourned.