 Welcome to Sheboygan County government working for you. My name is Adam Payne, Sheboygan County Administrator and co-host of this program with Sherman Tom Wagner. And as you know, every month we strive to focus on a different area of responsibility, different department, generally the department head. And today we're very pleased to have our Planning and Conservation Director with us, Mr. Aaron Brault. Welcome, Aaron. Thank you. We were just talking a little bit off the air about how long has it been that Aaron now has been part of the county family. Aaron, please begin by just sharing a little bit about yourself. Sure. So I started with the county in 2007 and that was for a grant specific grant funded program. The non-motorized program that I think the community is quite aware of. And then in 2010 I took over as interim director of the department and since 2011 have been the director. So going on 13 years and it's been a good 13 years. 13 years now. Yep. It's a long time. Yeah, it's a long time. We're both getting a little older. Yep, yep. I'm at the later stages in life where my kids have left the nest and Aaron's in the midst of coaching baseball and having a lot of fun with his children. Yep. Well, I'm pleased you're here, Aaron, because you have helped make good things happen. And starting back with that non-motorized program, that really was a wonderful gift to Sheboygan Gowney. Well, we are one of four communities that received 25, 26 million. Why don't you just start there and then give a little overview of some of the programs and services that are in your department? Sure. So, yep, obviously we work on special grants like the non-motorized program. We still have one or two projects out there yet. We're still trying to spend down that money, but overall that project's pretty much wrapping up. Couple other things. So we have sort of two sides of the department. Our conservation side deals with the ag community a lot. So working with the ag sector on water quality improvement types of programs, trying to essentially keep the nutrients on the field and from running off into our lakes, streams and rivers and things like that. On the other side of the office, we have the planning division which deals with, we maintain a lot of the county's mapping. So if you dial 911 and the officer, responding officer or ambulance gets to your house, it's because my staff did their job right in maintaining the address information, parcel information, environmental data, things like that are all housed in our GIS system, geographical information system. So that's maintained through our office. And just to interrupt real quick, but I hear your GIS staff and Sheboyin County just got a national shout out. Yeah, that was pretty cool. Our GIS staff was pretty psyched about that. So they used our data. We were one of the first counties in the state and Ornation to migrate to this new GIS platform. And so they showcased it at their annual meeting. The software vendor did this past week and it's in front of 10,000 people live and then there's about 20,000 people that attend the conference. Huge conference. Yep. And all the workstations where they had hands on learning sessions, they were using our data. So it was a pretty cool thing. And I think just within our organization, Tom, most of our staff don't have a real good feel for what GIS does or what are all the capabilities of it, but certainly your staff do, Erin does. And it was remarkable as I listened to just 20 minutes or so of that conference, hoping to hear them mention Sheboyin County, but talking about all the capabilities. And as you said, your staff are putting in data that helps law enforcement, health and human services. It's amazing. Yep. Yeah, there's a lot of, we're trying to branch out and get more departments to use it to do some analysis. So right now we maintain a lot of data, but we're not using it probably as best as we could into doing analytical things with it. So. Always room for improvement. But anyway, a nice compliment to you and your staff. So you mentioned the water quality side, GIS, please continue with some of the programs. Yes, so we have some regulatory functions as well through zoning. So we maintain shoreland zoning in the county. And then also, if you are in an unincorporated area, you might not be hooked up to a sewer system. So every three years you get the letter from our office saying, hey, it's time to maintain your septic system. So we oversee the installations and the maintenance of those systems in the county. And there's about 10,000 systems in the county. So. About 10,000 systems. Yep. And some of those landowners want, being one of them, you're not always real enthusiastic about getting that letter, but it is a nice reminder about the importance of maintaining your wastewater treatment facility for your residents, essentially. Yep, yep, yep. It's all goes back towards groundwater and keeping things where they need to be and safe. So how many staff do you have and what's your total operating budget? With myself, we have 14 staff and our typical operating budget falls around 2, 2.2 million. About half of that is levy and then the rest is either some state funding or federal funding or grant funding. So we actively pursue a lot of grants in the department and that also falls to that 2.2 million dollar budget that we typically have. So. A number of years ago we consolidated the Land and Water Conservation Department or that side of the house with the planning side of the house. And now, of course, it's a one-stop shop at the administration building. How's that worked out? From my standpoint, you know, I started when the merger happened so I don't have a feel for how it was before. But from my standpoint, I think things are going quite well. You know, we've been able to share resources in that regard. You know, some administrative staff, you know, once through attrition, we didn't have to hire and fill some needs where we perhaps had some stronger needs, I guess you could say. You weren't alone. There were a number of areas that we streamlined or consolidated just as we tried to gain efficiencies and keep that property tax levy in check. So Erin, as the planning director, obviously you are surrounded with key staff who implement these programs and services that you just touched on. What's been your primary focus of late or are there any new initiatives that you've been a part of? Sure, I think what's been taken up a lot of my time lately is Amsterdam Dunes. So a few years ago, the county purchased a 328 acre property in the town of Holland. And we've been trying to restore that property, applying for a lot of grants for that property. And then also trying to establish a wetland mitigation bank there. So you're working with a citizen advisory committee? Yep, we have a, it's called the Amsterdam Dunes Advisory Committee, which is made up of neighbors. There's a couple of neighborhood associations that are in that area, the local conservation club, supervisory, county board supervisors from that district, and a couple other stakeholders. And so we meet maybe quarterly, if not maybe a little bit more often and talk about some of the projects that are going on out there and get some direction from those citizen groups. And that's not the only one. We have a number of advisory groups that we deal with in our department. And you want to just briefly mention the award that Sheboygan County received due to the collaboration and the good work involving the Amsterdam Dunes? Yeah, it was a recent award came to Sheboygan County. I can't recall the name of it, but it was essentially a good government award. Salute to local government, I think. They selected what two or three counties across the state and Sheboygan County happened to be one of them because of you and former chairman, Roger Strudy, Tom Wagner, and a number of others that all worked to purchase this property. And we've since, I think, recouped our $4.2 million investment. Yep, so the entire investment was about $4.2, like you said, and through different funding sources, whether it was a state stewardship grant, we also got some dollars from a settlement fund for the Superfund site or the river that helped, those were the two big ones, and then we were able, through the purchase of that, if you recall, we were able to, there was three lake lots associated with the purchase of that property that aren't part of the preservation area that we were able to sell off, get those on the tax rolls, and recoup the remaining dollars we had outstanding. So yeah, we're fully recouped, and now any dollars here forward that we get are going into the restoration and potentially recreational aspects of the property. Trail enhancements, things of that nature. Yeah, that'll come down the road. We wanna focus on the restoration first, and then we don't want trails going through areas we're trying, or sensitive areas like that. So in the future, though, we have trails planned and outlooks and things like that. That's a wonderful accomplishment. My compliments to you and your team, Tom. Thank you. Yeah, that's quite a story on Amsterdam Dunes. That doesn't happen very often for government, and congratulations on that award long. I know you shared that with other people, but while I was there, I didn't know much I did, but that was a public policy forum, and they don't give those out just willy-nilly, and they look at good government, and that was a real compliment to Sheboyin County and all the people involved with that, so including Roger, certainly, as a former chair, and very much involved. Well, you talked a little bit about it. As you know, Sheboyin County likes to think of himself, and I think we do a good job relative to taxes, and we're also under state-imposed caps, so you talked a little bit about what your department does to help the county hold the line on taxes. You wanna talk a little more about that? Sure, like I said, through the consolidation, we've been able to change our TO, our Table of Organization, to maybe fit needs better where we had them. You know, that helped, certainly, from a salary savings over the years. Also, it wasn't very popular, but we've implemented some fees at our boat landings and things like that, and while that doesn't bring in a huge amount of money, it certainly helps as far as the maintenance aspects of those facilities, so it helps we pay for the light bill entirely out of that, the electricity bill, the pumping of the privies out there, so things like that, road maintenance or parking lot maintenance. And a number of beautiful docks that you've put in. Yep, new piers and things like that, that we didn't have that funding in the past, and the county went through a rating and ranking process a number of years ago, and unfortunately, a lot of the stuff in our office was at the bottom of the list from a priority standpoint, boat landings being one of those, so we implemented that fee-based program, that was one of the first things that fell on my desk when I took over as the director of the department, and that has certainly helped. And two or three, I guess, like I mentioned too, we strive to apply for a lot of grants in the department to help offset some of our costs in that regard with wages and things like that, so. Yeah, well unfortunately, in your department like that, some of those things relate to enhancing the quality of life and their wonderful things, but they aren't quite the immediate needs, say as something that occurs in law enforcement or something like that. When you're competing against health and human services in the sheriff's department or the highway department. Yeah. But that enhances those parks to the user too, by putting in better boat landings and things like that. Oh absolutely, quality of life visitors, yeah. Absolutely. They're getting something back for some of their fees. So I guess you did kind of already talk about the recreational, controversial, recreational fee when I was spending a more time on that or not. Well overall, I think from my standpoint, it's been going well. The first couple of years after we implemented that, there was some consternation, but I think that's pretty much died down. I think the user groups have seen that, hey, we're doing good things with the money that we've collected, and again overall, it just gives us a little more flexibility on getting things done that need to get done from a maintenance standpoint. It has to be one of the most modest boat landing fees in the state. How much is it again? Oh yeah, so I mean a daily pass is four bucks and then a yearly pass is 16 bucks. I'm not gonna name names, but there's a county down to the south of us, it's $80. So I mean, ours is pretty modest compared to other counties that have implemented fees in the state. But we didn't have one, but I think the fact that when those people can see what's being done to enhance their experience too, that's why it's died down also, I believe. I think so, yeah. So good. Also talking about county rec facilities, what's planned out at the Marsh now? I know there's a lot going on out there. Yeah, so the Marsh, you know, obviously pretty, I mean, we have a number of county facilities, but the Marsh is probably the most popular, being that it has the campground and the tavern and state's tallest wooden observation tower. This year, we're focused on the bypass tube of the dam. So the bids are being advertised as we record this here today. And then by the end of July, July 31st, we'll have the returned bids in and the bypass gate failed after 50 years in 2018 and needs to be fixed. So we have that going on this year. And then we're also working on a new dam in the future. It'll be a couple of years from now, if we can get some funding lined up. But we're looking at a new dam to hopefully pass more water that'll help alleviate the cattail issue that we have out there. And then I guess another thing, we have our disc golf course out there now. I think two years ago, we put that out there and our foot golf course out there. So with soccer taken off the way it has, that's one of the fast growing athletic or recreational activity is foot golf. And as far as I know, we're still the only one in the county to have a foot golf course. So it's nine hole, it's pretty small course, but it gets a lot of use. I got a call the other day about it. Somebody's coming from Illinois and visiting somebody in Appleton and wanted to stop at our foot golf course. Good, that's great. Just recently you received the US EPA Brownfield Assessment Award. Did you talk a little bit about that? Yeah, so we just, about a month ago, it was announced that we were awarded our third Brownfield Assessment Grant. And what a Brownfield is for the folks that are viewing that might not know what that is, that's typically an old industrial site that has some residual contamination, whether it be in the groundwater or in the soil or in the floor of the building for that matter, concrete staining, things like that, from the chemicals or the solvents or lubricants that may have been used in the industrial process. Old filling stations might be another one. You have those underground tanks that nobody really wants to deal with. So the EPA has a Brownfield Assessment Grant. So essentially it'll do a historical review on the property and then allow you to do the sampling to figure out, all right, what needs to get cleaned up? What's there and what's the extent of the cleanup that needs to take place? So we've been, thankfully, awarded three of these now. The first two have gone quite well. A number of the sites that we reviewed with the dollars have now been redeveloped. And over $60 million in new redevelopment in our area has taken place on sites that we have done the background sort of due diligence environmental work on. And then we have a number of them still in the hopper for this new round of funding as well. So yeah, I think overall it's been a great success story for Sheboyin County and the communities in Sheboyin County that have been able to capitalize on those dollars. So I mean, it's really a small investment has gone a long way into. And if you think about a development project, that's upfront cash then that doesn't have to be used by the developer. So it really helps, yeah, it really helps them get over that hump of the due diligence to be interested in a property like that that may have some, you know, it's not a green field, a farm field, you know, with no contamination or something like that. Yeah, because it becomes economically impossible for them to develop otherwise. Yep, yep, so a lot of the times those numbers won't work. Yeah. I know you also had recently and you've done this over the years, household hazardous waste collection days and I know I've brought stuff out different times. That's, I think that's such an important program. Yeah, I think that's probably, at least in our department, probably the most popular thing that we offer. You know, unfortunately a lot of times in government you don't get a lot of thank you's, but I mean, consistently on that project or program we get thank you's that, hey, I wouldn't know what to do. I want to do the right thing. I don't want to throw it in the ditch or throw it down the drain. I just don't know what to do with it. And some communities don't have anything like that. Some have full-time things and we sort of offer a hybrid. You know, we have a number of events throughout the year and we try to space them throughout the county. So, right, South side, North side and then in the Southwest and Northwest part of the county. We host them at our highway facilities. So, and that's where they're based in the four corners essentially. So, yeah, I mean, we collect, I mean, we get DDT every year and that was banned in the late 60s, mid 60s. So, I mean, there's a number of things that come in. A full kerj are of liquid mercury. I mean, you name it, there's some weird stuff that comes in. So, it's a good thing that we're doing because again, we're either picking it up in the ditches or at the boat landings, regardless, so we're doing the right thing. So, it's a very, very popular program, so. I could ask you the question. I know you played high school basketball on tours for my brother. I could ask you how as a coaching was, but we'll leave that on, all right? All right. Here's a hall of fame coach, I will say that. So, what can I tell you? He was an excellent coach, he was a great coach. At the beginning of this, Aaron Charity's been with the county now 13 years and we all know how quickly time passes, but if you look at the track record that the county has established in those 13 years and part thanks to Aaron's leadership as good staff, obviously the support of the county board, we don't make good things happen without the board support, but in the last 13 years, you just mentioned non-motorized transportation program. You started cutting your teeth on that program that's over a $25 million investment in our transportation system. Then cleaning up the Sheboygan River and Harbor, we didn't touch on that, but that was a $100 million investment in our community that we leveraged predominantly funding from the EPA, the DNR, the responsible parties, but we had county dollars, city dollars, $100 million to clean up the Sheboygan River and Harbor. And then Aaron's been such an effective grant writer that these Brownfield grants have come in. Now with the cleanup of the river, $60 million in economic developments occurred in just the last few years with these Brownfield grants, helping spur that development. It's remarkable. And just this morning, and I haven't even looked at it yet, so I presume it's there. I was in a meeting this morning and they assured that our Sheboygan County Economic Development Corporation sent out their weekly newsletter talking about how Sheboygan County is leading the state, leading the charge with economic development with all that's happening in our community. And these things don't just happen. Good things have to occur. People need to get engaged. And really the mantra that certainly Tom leads and former chairs have led, and I think the culture of our organization, collaboration makes a difference. Yeah, absolutely. You can't do it without the help of, like you said, the county board support or your support or probably most importantly, the support of your staff to help make you look good essentially at the end of the day. Yeah, help implement and get it done. So it's remarkable you've had such a, I mean, 13 years have gone by and I've been here 21 years now and I can't believe how the time has gone. But I always say this to my coworkers, I think we all can really look in the mirror and feel good about what we've been a part of, the role we've played to help Sheboygan County become even a better community. And we started off talking a little bit about Amsterdam Dunes and I wanted you to spend a few minutes explaining to our viewers, well, what is a wetland mitigation bank? We talk about preserving this jewel of a property and we've talked about how we've helped pay for it and recoup our local investment, but we have this wetland mitigation bank in the works. Why is that important? How will that benefit our community? Sure. So, I mean, you never wanna fill wetlands but sometimes it's inevitable, whether it be for a road expansion project or even sometimes a road betterment project, you have to buy, if you're gonna disturb wetlands let's say it's a new headquarters for a local company. If you're gonna disturb wetlands, you have to mitigate that disturbance and it's usually at the ratio and this can change, but rule of thumb is for every, let's say, acre of disturbance, you have to mitigate an acre and a half somewhere else. And what that means is taking old farm field, essentially, that's been tiled over the years. It used to be a wetland pre-settlement and reverting that back to what it once was. So in the case of Amsterdam dunes, about half the property has been designated a wetland mitigation bank and we're currently working through that process right now. It's a long process. It's sometimes a frustrating process because again, you don't wanna fill wetlands. I mean, they're nature sponge. They soak up pollutants, they soak up runoff, they soak up stormwater. We wouldn't have some of the flooding problems we have currently if the wetlands were still there. In Wisconsin, about 50% of them have been filled is what they figure. So they're an important ecological, they serve a good function in that regard, an important function. So yeah, so half of the property at Amsterdam dunes, we're trying to establish a wetland mitigation bank. So if we want to, the county wants to extend the county road or extend an airport runway and as you said, in some cases you just, it's practical to do that. You're not gonna build a new road or move your airport or Sargento as a headquarters if they want to expand and there's a wetland next to it. You don't want them to move their headquarters. They then have to mitigate the loss of that wetland. How does our wetland mitigation play in? Yeah, so our county board, when we looked at purchasing the property, thought, well, let's take care of our own first, whether it be our own municipalities or a county project or like you mentioned a local employer looking to buy credits on the open market. Right now in Southeast Wisconsin, there's not a lot of credits available. So the price forum is quite expensive as well. And from an environmental standpoint, you wanna replace something that you affected in your backyard or as close to it as you can. In the case of the county at one time for doing a road betterment project, we were buying credits in Douglas County, which is as the crow flies probably 350, 400 miles away. So from an environmental standpoint, it wasn't doing it any good. And it was costing us 50, 60, $70,000 an acre. An acre. So I think over a two or three year period we spent almost $300,000 buying credits in a county that's 400 miles away. So at that time, we started scratching our heads saying, hey, there's gotta be a better way. We're subsidizing the taxpayers of Sheboygan are subsidizing hunting or fishing land up in Douglas County. That's great for them, but it's not good for us. So yeah, we started looking at another option or a better option and that was one of the impetuses for the purchase of Amsterdam Dunes. Good for the environmentalists and good for the business community and good for the taxpayer. Yep, I think overall, a lot of times you don't get those groups supporting the same thing and this, they did. So yeah, yeah, I know we're all pleased to have a part of it. We only have a couple of minutes remaining. Aaron and I have both participated on the Friends of the Marsh in the past. I was one of the original members. Aaron continues to be on the Friends of the Marsh. We built, as you said, the tallest wooden observation tower in the state through fundraising. Now the county owns it and has to maintain it and you're real busy right now raising funds and very close to being able to proceed with a new enhancement at the Marsh. What do you have in mind? Yeah, so the Friends of the Marsh have been working on their second project is a multi-purpose educational facility and the main goal is to replace the old trailer that was donated about 20, 25 years ago for the outdoor education that nearly every school district in the county and some in the surrounding counties go to for hands-on looking at critters under a microscope and learning about wetlands in the natural environment. So that's currently housed in a trailer. While at the time it was donated, it certainly served its purpose but now it's been outgrown. So they're looking at raising funds for a new building and as you mentioned, we're very close to making that a reality. Part of the county board's five-year capital plan. The county will have some skin in the game but we have some wonderful generous individuals and companies that have contributed as well and Aaron and Lil Pipping, or is it Lil Mirstein? It used to be Lil Mirstein, right? Lil Pipping and Keith Obbler and others have been real engaged with that and appreciate your work on that. Well, I hope you had a good 30 minutes to learn just a little bit more about our planning and conservation department. If you have any questions or wanna talk to Aaron more about program services or opportunities for improvement, don't hesitate to contact us. The county just updated our website. Real easy to get ahold of people or get more information and thank you for joining us today. Next month we're gonna have Crystal Fieber here who is our new corporation council. She has been with us for a couple of years. We had a smooth transition but she took over for Carl Bissing who retired so looking forward to Crystal being here. But until then, thank you for joining us and Aaron, thank you for a very nice overview. Appreciate the work that you and your staff do. Thanks. On behalf of Chairman Tom Wagner and myself again, thanks for joining us. Have a safe summer, we'll see you next month.