 Welcome to Sheboygan County Government, working for you. My name is Adam Payne, County Administrator and co-host of this program with Chairman Tom Wagner. Yes, Tom Wagner. We have a new face beside me though not new to County Government. Tom's been our Vice Chairman for a number of years now and just last night, although depending on when they see this, but at our last County Board meeting, Tom was unanimously selected our new County Board Chair. So welcome, Tom. Thank you, Adam. We will continue to co-host this program together. And as you know, every year we strive to, or every program rather, we strive to bring a different department head to our meetings and talk a little bit about their roles and responsibilities. And today, Aaron Brault, our Planning and Conservation Director is here. Welcome, Aaron. Thank you. It was just sharing off the air. It's been nine years that he's been with the County and five and a half as Director and has done just an excellent job. And I imagine you have about as many feathers in your cap as just about any Director in the state with the major programs that you've been involved in and we'll touch on that in a moment. But please start, share a little bit about your background, Aaron. Sure. Before coming to Sheboygan County, my wife and I both moved here about nine years ago. Been with the County now for nine years. I worked in the private urban planning sector for a number of years, got my feet wet there and then moved away from Wisconsin for a bit, owned my own business, had nothing to do with planning at that time. And then when we moved back here, there was an opportunity at the County and jumped at it and took it. Started nine years ago as the head of our non-motorized transportation program? I was an assistant at that time. Assistant at the time. And then the manager of that left and then I jumped at that opportunity and then soon after that, the planning director left and then went after that position. Yeah, yeah. Well, you've had a good run and how quickly time goes. Set the stage for us a little bit. What are the roles and responsibilities of the planning and conservation department? Sure, we have a variety of different roles that we play within the community. I like to think that no day is the same for me, which is one of the nice things about my position. I think we have 10 different ordinances in the County that we enforce and regulate. I think we have 16 or 17 different programs throughout the County that we are involved in. We take care of a lot of the County's recreational facilities. So like the old Plank Road Trail, the Interurban Trail, we have partial maintenance responsibilities on the Shoreland 400 Trail that runs through the city of Sheboygan, the Sheboygan Marsh, the new Amsterdam Dunes property. All falls under our jurisdiction. The ag community, our guys in the conservation division work with the ag community quite a bit, doing everything from designing manure pits to installing grass buffer waterways, primarily water quality driven types of activities on that side of the office. And then we get into zoning around our Shoreland districts and sanitary maintenance program, take care of all the County's mapping. So there's a lot going on. And with all that going on, what about your staff size and your annual budget? Annual budget's usually between two and two and a half million. The last couple of years I think it's been about 2.1, 2.2. I have 14 staff. Out of that 2.1, 2.2, it's about just shy of a million in tax levy. So the most of our, or I shouldn't say the most, but the majority of the dollars that fund our department are outside funds, not coming from the County's tax levy, so. And planning and conservation used to be just a planning department and a land and water conservation department. So we consolidated two departments into one, obviously saved some money, having one now department head. And then I also know you've done some analysis in the past comparing and contrasting our planning and conservation department to other counties. And we tend to be a little bit more on the lean side, is that right? I would agree with that, yeah. So yeah, a lot of other counties might have their own parks department or own land and water department or own real property department. And so our department's sort of a combination of all those. A lot of good people making good things happen. Yep, absolutely. I mean, you surround yourself with good people and good things happen, so. What's happened with your budget big picture over the years? Have you seen it go up? Have you seen it gone down? I know you've had good success personally in getting state and federal grants. Yep, so overall it's, I'd say stagnated. I mean, it's at least in my tenure, it's been around that two, two and a half. For I would say our normal operating duties. As you mentioned, there has been a couple of years where it's spiked up or down based on a different activity that may have been happening such as a few years ago we had the river dredging project. And I think that year it was a $7.8 million a year in our department, but a lot of that again was. Grand funds that came in. Grand funds that came in and we went back out. Right, so, right? Yeah, no, I think you've done a great job holding the line and it really, it's a reflection of all the departments in the county and the county board's fiscal responsibility to hold the line. Yet again, your department's been highly successful in acquiring some grants and doing some good work. So some of the primary programs that you focused on, some good things that have happened in Sheboygan County, touch on one or two. Well, as you mentioned, I started off in that non-motorized grant. We currently have a big project going on right now if you've driven down Taylor Drive, you've seen a lot of barrels. They're not all ours. So on the southern end, some of that that's a state project on the interchange at 28. But we have that project going on this summer, things got going about a couple, probably three or four weeks ago, they started moving dirt. And then a couple other things. Recently, we've been completing a watershed study out in the western part of the county. We had a test watershed and a control watershed, the test being the Otter Creek watershed of the Sheboygan River. And that was the test watershed and the control watershed was Fishers Creek up in Howard's Grove. And that was privately funded by the Kohler Trust for Preservation, along with some county dollars and nature conservancy dollars, but primarily a grant that we partnered on with the Nature Conservancy, USGS, and a couple of other partners, where we're looking at best management practices in the ag community and how that could reduce phosphorus loading to a stream or a water body. That's becoming more and more prevalent, both at the federal and state level, is trying to reduce the phosphorus that's entering our waterways to combat fish kills and algae blooms primarily, which then lead to more fish kills and things like that. Any early indications on what we're learning from that study? Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of interesting things that I guess from my standpoint. One, we're getting a good idea of what it's gonna cost to treat a pound of phosphorus based on different best management practice. And there's a lot of variables in that, but we have sort of an average cost that we've been able to glean after the six years of study. Another interesting fact, at least from my standpoint, is that the water and the creeks don't react like this. You know, it takes time for them to heal and the quality to get better. And then two, or three, the biggest thing that I think I've gleaned out of it is that the highest loading comes in probably, we've seen between three and six events, rain events or big melts or something in the year. It's not, you know, it's very pronounced where we're getting some years, we have gauges in the river that record all this. So we know when it spikes or when it's down or dips. So it tends to be, you know, again, five events throughout the year. I think last year 70% of the loading going into that system was in four events. Because of a four main rainfalls or something like that. A big rainfall or a big melt in spring where everything's running off the field and there's no vegetation to capture. The importance of having buffers, strips, and people doing good management of manure spreading all of that has to be a huge factor. Yep, absolutely. Well, nice quick overview. I'm gonna turn it over to Chairman Wagner. Thank you, Adam. Thanks, Aaron. Thanks for coming. First time. Yeah. So, Schipoen County's been a leader in holding down our taxes in particular. And just wondering, as far as the playing department, how do you keep your costs in check? It's kind of, it's a challenging environment, I'm sure. Yep, absolutely. So as Adam mentioned, over the past few years, we've been successful in getting, whether it be private or public funding to help offset some of our costs. And then, you know, we've really taken it from the big scale to the small scale projects as well. When we merged, we had, I think, four printers and we were paying for four different printers. Now we have two. So that's, you know, that's a monthly cost, not a great cost, but it adds up just like everything else. At our trailheads and boat landings, whenever a light goes out or somebody shoots them out with a BB gun, rather than replacing them with the high pressure sodium or whatever, we're moving towards LED. The upfront cost is a lot higher, but we figured, you know, you probably, it probably pays back in electricity bills because those are on all the time, you know, probably within 14 to 15 months. So, and an LED is going to last for 20 years unless again, somebody shoots it out with a BB gun. So, you know, we've been making small improvements, you know, in addition to seeking out other outside types of funding to help us operate. So, I know the status of the recreation fee I think we had more people at the county board meeting than I remember ever remember seeing then or since when that was implemented. So there was some controversy surrounding it. Yeah, how has that worked out relative to our campgrounds, et cetera? Sure, and I guess that's, you know, another way we've been able to keep taxes in check is, you know, we haven't had to raise taxes to operate those facilities because we've been, we have the fee now and that helps offset our costs. So we pay, we've been able to upgrade some of the boat landings, the piers at Elkhart Lake. I believe this week, in fact, little Elkhart Lakes piers gonna be updated, the marsh we did some things. So I think, you know, the sentiments that were there a couple of years ago or five years ago now, you know, are starting to wane a little bit that, you know, we're not going to pay for squad cars or something with those dollars. The dollars are in a non-lapsing segregated account that are specifically there for projects at the different boat landings and things like that. I haven't heard too much about, I mean, I would think once people start to see that there's improvements going into the boat landings or the campgrounds or whatever, that really helps with those fees. I think so too, and I think people have, I mean, it, well, leave it at that. That's fine. Speaking of the erect facilities, do you have some plans out at the marsh for this year? Yep, yep, two, I'll say fun projects. And this is where some of those dollars, we also, at that time, we're doing the rec fee at the campground, every rental that our vendor out there takes, the county gets $2.50 and that those dollars go into a non-lapsing account again, a segregated account that can only be used for campground activities. One of the big complaints we get out there all the time from campers, and when we've gone through planning exercises is that, you know, there's not a whole lot to do after you get bored fishing or climb the tower so many times. So we were looking at different kind of low-cost activities that would work at the marsh, and what we came up with is we're gonna be installing the county's first foot golf course and a disc golf course. Disc golfing is the fastest growing sport in the United States. So we're gonna, I guess, ride on those coattails and install a disc golf course and a foot golf course. And for those in the audience who don't know what foot golf is, I didn't either, but with all the kids playing soccer now, it's essentially kicking a soccer ball into a golf hole. Some golf courses, they've actually put it on some of their nine holes. Yeah, absolutely, I think down in Milwaukee at some of the city courses, they can get out of a nine hole regular golf course, they can get about 18 foot golf holes and I think they're diversifying their clientele and bottom line, so. Thank you. A few years ago, your department was awarded a Brownfield Assessment Grant. Yep. Could you tell us about the redevelopment projects? Yeah, it was a county-wide assessment grant so we've done what's called phase one and phase two environmental testing and research on different redevelopment opportunities throughout the county. We've had a couple in the city of Sheboygan, so the old Boston store site, we're actively working on that one. The other apartment complex across from the old Martin Pontiac, we did the environmental work on there. We just engaged with a developer or potential developer in the city of Sheboygan Falls at a site. And a Brownfield is an old industrial site or maybe an old filling station where there might be some residual pollution left in the ground or what have you that needs to get taken care of before that site can be redeveloped. So we've been able to, I like to think, at least act as the catalyst to get some of those projects moving by paying for those phase one and phase two environmental reports. Recently, your department sponsored a hazardous or household hazardous waste. In fact, I think last year, I was out of the one I cascade that you were putting on. So I had to drop something off. Please tell us how long this program has been in place and results of it. Yeah, I think since 2001, so as many predecessors ago for me that started it, but it's been a very popular program. We started to help offset some of our costs charge a few years ago in the year before we started to charge. We had a survey and we asked everybody that came through the line. So about 1100, we usually see 11 to 1300 people come through our events and 97% of them said absolutely yes, we'd be willing to pay a fee, 2% or maybe, and then one was absolutely not. So we saw that, it's the one program where we consistently get thank yous. And I guess in my line of work, you don't get a thank you very often. So I mean, people, there's nowhere else to go with this stuff and they really appreciate it. So I think since 01, we've just properly disposed of over 1.4 million tons of hazardous waste. That's a lot. What was the fee again? Did you have one fee for? 10 bucks, if it's hazardous waste, if you bring electronics, it's 25 or if you have both, it's 25. Cost of electronics is- Per vehicle or? Per vehicle, so yeah. The cost of electronics or recycling, those has gone up because it's a direct correlation with the cost of precious metals, gold, copper, things like that. So if they coordinate with their neighbor, they can fill that trunk or back of that vehicle with as many televisions as they want. Well, we like household quantity. If you bring a car and a trailer load full of stuff, I might charge you double. Okay. Okay. I brought two things. Yeah. Great, Aaron. Yep. Earlier you mentioned the Sheboygan River Harbor cleanup and I think most of our viewers are aware of that or are bright about it, but I just see it as one of those feathers in your cap that I mentioned earlier, a hundred million dollar cleanup and Aaron and his staff and certainly the county board, the city common console. There were so many people involved in helping make that happen, but we literally pulled down a hundred million dollars to clean up our Sheboygan River Harbor and now it's obviously a jewel rather than a superfund site or black guy in the community. And then more recently, another jewel opportunity presented itself and that was the Amsterdam Dunes Preservation Area and Wetland Mitigation Bank. And there's been a fair amount of press on that. Chairman Roger Distruty certainly takes a lot of pride in that accomplishment. The county board unanimously supported it, but Aaron set the stage a little bit. What is the Amsterdam Preservation Area and more importantly, what's this wetland mitigation component that's part of it? Sure. So the property's in the southeast part of the county so it's down near Cedar Grove. It's 328 acres of preservation area and mitigation bank. And what a mitigation bank is is that anytime there's a disturbance through development whether it be a road project that the county does or let's say an area employers looking to expand and they have wetlands on the property that they're looking at developing or expanding on, state and federal law says that you have to restore one and a half times your disturbance typically, general rule of thumb. And so the county had a couple of projects where we had to buy credits on the open market just like you'd go get a gallon of milk at the supermarket. There's credits available from people who have created a mitigation bank where they've gone and taken the tile out of the farmland or whatnot and restored it back to what it once was. And then so we had to buy these credits. Current rates are up to 70,000 an acre. At the time we bought them, they're about 50 to 60,000 an acre. And we were buying them in Douglas County which is where Superior is. So unfortunately our citizens were subsidizing something up in a different part of the state that they'll probably never get to see or use. So I think that was one of the key selling points to this is that we'll have our own bank in hand that we control that will be more efficiently distributed to our developers in our county and in our area. So we're in the process of getting the required approvals for both the mitigation portion of the property and the non-mitigation portion of the property. We're working through those processes right now to be able to establish that. I think when we did some expansion out at the airport that was one of the places where we had to buy some wetland mitigation. County Highway J, a couple other projects. So far our viewers are thinking about it. Anytime the county wants to expand a county road or the city or local units of government want to expand a road that may impact a wetland, they have a situation with the credits. Our airport runaway situation with wetland mitigation purchasing credits. And then if it's a Sargento, a Johnsonville, a Kohler company, whoever it may be, if they want to expand their headquarters, the DNR or federal government doesn't just let you plow under or develop a wetland, but if you're a headquarters of a company it's not prudent or practical to move it to another area. They're probably gonna let you. But in that situation, as you said, they have to mediate that use and purchase credits. And by having this here we are gonna save taxpayers money and we're gonna be protecting and preserving a beautiful area right here in Sheboygan County rather than Douglas County as you said. So it's a win-win. And we have, I mean at the property there's beach frontage that we've protected that's been undeveloped or is still undeveloped that there's not any more of that being put on the market. So. And the county board, as you know, took a bit of a leap of faith here when we presented this proposal. And I wanna thank Chairman Wagner and at the time Chairman Tostruti for supporting us and doing that. But they took a leap of faith because it was a $4.2 million purchase for the property. But Erin, we both shared with the board that we really think we can recoup this investment. Where are we at with that? Well, so far out of the 4.2 original outlay we've received I think around 2.44 in reimbursement on that. We have another 1.3 or so sitting on the table which leaves us about 460,000 short. We also have three lots that we can sell or up to three lots on the lakefront that are sort of an offshoot of the main part of the property. So, you know, with the prices on those we're working on another deal with a neighbor where we might do a little swap. And I feel, and that's not including any of the credits we sell down the road, you know, we'll be, I think, well taken care of. And the 2.4 was one of the largest state. Stewardship. Stewardship grants ever provided. And the 1.7 is through the Natural Resource Damage Assessment process. Yep, 1.3. 1.3, thank you. Natural Resource Damage Assessment. So when it's all said and done, we're gonna not only recoup our 4.2 but as we sell the credits, garner enough revenue to be able to continue to maintain and enhance the property. Yep, maintain and help restore the property. And on that note, Chairman Distrudi at the time appointed an advisory committee made up some folks from the community. I know you're on it. They're providing advice to now Chairman Wagner and the county board on how to enhance this property. What are the some of the things they're considering? Sure, well Chairman Wagner's on that committee as well. Well that's right, that's right. I'm on that committee as well. Yeah, so we're looking at, you know, from a restoration aspect, what do we want the property to look like from a restoration aspect? As well as also, you know, it's a new public facility. So how do we engage people and let them see it? So really it's always been about low impact, maybe a low impact trail development around certain portions of the property. An interpretive type of trail system where, you know, there's some great ravines and bluff overlooks there where we might put a little platform or something like that. But for the most part, it's low impact. Let's leave it alone and preserve the area. And cross country ski trails. No, we won't be developing that. We, per some of the requirements of the stewardship grant, we can't not allow that. But I don't think we'll actively be developing cross country ski trails. Just more low sort of, this wide of hiking trail. Kind of like the Sheboygan County Marsh. Yep, yep, very good essentially. Only a few minutes left. You fit on two big areas, the river harbor cleanup. Obviously the Amsterdam Dam Doon Preservation Area, wetland mitigation bank. But I know another issue you're working on or an opportunity is with the friends of the Sheboygan County Marsh and an environmental center. Just give us a little snapshot of what's in mind there to further improve our Sheboygan County Marsh. Sure, the friends of the Marsh obviously, they helped build the tower. That was their first feather in their cap. And now they're engaging on a new multi-purpose building. Camp Waikota's been in a donated trailer that's served its purpose early on, but they're programming out at the Marsh. Environmental programming pretty much every school district in the area sends kids out there for some hands-on learning experience out in the Marsh, getting their feet wet and getting to see critters in real life and under microscopes. And they've essentially outgrown their donated trailer. And then I guess from an aesthetic standpoint, does, you know, could we do something a little bit better out at our county park? So they're setting off to build a new multi-purpose building. We got the plans in place. We got estimates. We got one large, very large donation, sort of set the stage, and we'll be starting sort of a silent campaign, going to other foundations in the area and things like that soon. And then we'll be going out and actively seeking the remainder of the dollars. So we're well on our way. And I would hope that looking at 2017, we can start putting a shovel in the ground and making that a reality. So we're looking at it being a lead platinum building, the first in the area, from an environmental standpoint. The net zero building is the goal. It's going to be awesome. If you haven't gotten out to the Sheboygan County March for a while, drive on out there. We've got the, still the March Lodge, where you can get a beer or a refreshment with your family. It's a nice family environment. And if you're looking to go camping, because you haven't done that in a while, you don't have to drive far. So I encourage you to check it out. There are so many beautiful areas in Sheboygan County. And sometimes I think we need, we feel like we have to drive up north to enjoy the outdoors. And we've got the kettles and just like Michigan, there's just so many beautiful areas here. Aaron Brault, thank you so much for your leadership as our planning and conservation director. Thank you to your staff who don't hear thank you enough, but do a tremendous job for this community. I hope you learned a little bit about our Sheboygan County Planning and Conservation Department today. If not, or you want to learn more, or if you have suggestions for improvement, don't hesitate to contact Aaron directly. In fact, we'd like all phone calls to go to Aaron for every issue, no, no, contact Aaron Brault because he does nice work and there's a lot going on, particularly this non-motorized transportation program that's starting to wrap up and all the good work that's been done there. So again, thank you, Aaron. Thank you. Next month, rather than the department head sitting across from me, you're gonna see newly elected County Board Chairman Tom Wagner. And I'm gonna be pleased to ask a few questions of him, put him on the hot seat so you can all learn more about the chief elected official of Sheboygan County. Tom now oversees an organization with a $128 million budget, 19 departments, 827 staff operating over 207 programs and services. So he has a lot of responsibility as County Board Chairman. He is my direct supervisor and I am looking forward to working with him as I did with Chairman Distruty. So until then, thank you for joining us and we'll see you next month.