Lake district’s tie vote fails to advance project
By Erik Buchinger
The Pigeon Lake Protection and Rehabilitation District’s proposal to clean Pigeon Lake was voted down.
The vote was held during the district’s meeting on Feb. 20 at Fox Valley Technical College in Clintonville.
It was a tie 3-3 with yes votes cast by Dennis Kussman, Rick Waite and Jerry Honish, and no votes from Jim Prickette, Tammy Strey- Hirt and Myron Radtke. Drew Lundt was absent from the meeting.
Originally, the public voted to move forward with a $2 million dredging of Pigeon Lake during the ongoing drawdown, but the plan was canceled due to improper notices sent out to the public.
“There isn’t going to be the dredging,” Attorney Keith Steckbauer said at a November 2018 meeting. “That is going to be my recommendation to the board. There isn’t going to be dredging, and there isn’t going to be the $2 million project. It’s unfortunate to not take advantage of something during that draining – that’s the board’s position – but at the end of the day, it’s not going to happen.”
With the $2 million project canceled, the district looked to use $150,000 of its funds allocated to cleaning up metal and garbage from Mathews Bay, but only one bid came in from Haas & Sons, which was $634,000.
Prickette said the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources did not direct the lake district to clean up Mathews Bay, but some members and residents feel it should be a priority before the lake fills back up.
“But at what price?” Prickette said. “The junk that is buried has been there for more than 50 years and some people think we should leave it alone and not open up a can of worms because if anything is found that may hold liquids and spills, we now will have to clean it up according to current regulations. It will be very expensive and we could potentially use up all the funds we set aside for dredging without actually accomplishing any dredging at all.”
According to Prickette, The Pigeon Lake Protection and Rehabilitation District hired Ayres Associates to test three areas in the lake and the disposal site near the municipal airport and oversee the entire project for $56,000.
“We have $150,000 allocated from years past to dredge either mechanically or hydraulically,” Prickette said. “So our spending limit was $150,000. Because of the time constraints and limited funds, the dredged material was to be piled out at the disposal site to be seeded and dewater over the next year, then it would be necessary to sift it to remove any metal and junk before it was to be spread out and seeded according to DNR guidelines.”
Prickette said an engineer at Ayers said the sifting could cost anywhere from $10,000 to $60,000 depending on the amount of time it would take.
A large screen would sift out large objects whereas a smaller screen would take out smaller objects and be more time-consuming.
In addition to the $56,000 cost for engineering, the district would have spent $150,000 on dredging and cleaning out 1 acre that was known to have metal and junk, and $60,000 for sifting costs. The total would have been about $266,000.
Prickette said in the past he has asked the DNR if it is necessary to remove the metal and junk that has been buried the last 60 years, and the DNR told him it was not required.
“As protectors and rehabilitators of Pigeon Lake, it is always at the forefront of our members’ minds to do what’s best for the lake,” Prickette said. “We really wanted to clean up the metal and junk, but the prices and potential cost in the event something hazardous was dug up was just too great for some members on something that has been buried there for 60 years.”
Prickette said he did not believe spending this amount of money was necessary especially because it would take a lot out of the district’s funds.
“I guess if money were no object and we knew exactly how much and what was out there, it could have been a unanimous decision,” Prickette said. “But spending that much on only 1 acre and in turn, emptying our bank account and extremely limiting doing anything toward the big picture of helping the lake would have to be put on hold for a very long time, possibly over 10 years.”
Prickette said the goal remains to clean the lake.
“We are not giving up on cleaning up the lake,” Prickette said. “The last thing we want to happen is ignoring the lake and have it turn into a swamp and hit everyone residing in the lake district with property values dropping, not just lakefront property owners. We have a lot of work to do to get there, and we have a lot of good ideas from the public and will be looking into all of them to see what is feasible and practical and most of all, DNR-approved and recommended.”