Inland Lakes Protection and Rehabilitation District 1 was recognized Aug. 22 for 50 years of work to preserve the water quality in the Townsend Flowage.
Ken Dolata, head of the Oconto County Land and Water Conservation Department, said the state of Wisconsin in 1974 created Chapter 33, allowing local groups to apply to be lake districts — government bodies with tax authority to do conservation work.
The Townsend group was among the first ones in the state to be approved, and the first in Oconto County, Dolata told the Oconto County Board of Supervisors at its Aug. 22 meeting.
He introduced Jim O’Neil, the current chairman of the seven-member commission that oversees the district’s conservation efforts on Horn Lake, Little Horn Lake, Explosion Lake, Upper and Lower Reservoirs and a portion of McCaslin Creek.
O’Neil told the board that the owners of about 700 parcels along those lakes are currently assessed $200 per parcel a year for the effort, which is primarily concerned with combating milfoil and other invasive species. The seven-member commission includes five elected commissioners and one each appointed by the Town of Townsend and Oconto County.
The district’s annual budget of about $90,000 includes care and maintenance of about $500,000 worth of equipment — three weed cutters, O’Neil said.
“Those weed cutters are typically in action five days a week throughout the summer, put in the first week in June and probably first or second week in September they’ll be taken out. We have a part-time employee who maintains that equipment,” O’Neil said.
Townsend has 17-19 lakes that represent the town’s greatest assets, he said.
“Our waterways in Townsend are the second highest tax levy in Oconto County — we have no industrial parks, no factories. There’s no high rise buildings, offices, those type of things,” O’Neil said. “What we do have is the waterways, and that’s what we’re protecting, and that’s such a valuable asset to Oconto County.”
O’Neil told the county board it’s an honor to be recognized as the first lake district in Oconto County and one of the first in the state.
The district’s work is an important duty for the county’s sake, he added.
“If these weeds were not harvested and were not treated, these waterways would literally shut down from a boating standpoint, from a recreational standpoint, which means also from a revenue standpoint. The revenues and property values would go down,” O’Neil said. “So, it’s an important task that we’re duty-bound to do, to protect and preserve these waterways.”
wbluhm@newmedia-wi.com
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