Town Of Bell
Harbor Commission Meeting Monday, April 15, 2024
1. Call To Order – The meeting was called to order by Chuck Perry at 7:04 pm. Members present were: Chuck Perry, Matt Lazorik, Doug Becker, Jessica Resac, Dave Tillmans. Others present were Harbor Master Michael Thorson and Harbor Secretary Nancy Thorson.
2. Minutes – Matt made motion to approve the minutes from the January 2024 meeting. Doug 2nd. Passed unanimously
3. Conflict Of Interest – None 4. Citizen Comments – None 5. Public Hearing – None
6. Reports
A. Harbor Dredge Committee – Dave gave report. There is no word on the
congressional add on from the Corp budget, but it should be coming any day. They just told Dave and Will on Thursday that MCM out of Sault Ste. Marie has the contract to do the dredging here in Cornucopia. Their plan is to come and do the dredging July 14 through July 28. Dave wants to see if they can change that plan because it is the peak of our boating season. They will be dumping the spoils material in our submerged land lease area so it should not be going directly on the beach.
Will and Dave “sticked” the river. It is their conclusion that the river has held up good since the last dredging in June of 2023. There is some shallow area on the west side. Dave can reach with his crane and they will get it done and take care of the cost to do so.
The Corp sent a “guy“ from Buffalo to do sampling on the disposal sites. Will met with him and when he knows the results he will let us know. They sampled 3 disposal sites: the town recycle center area, Klemik Road off site (Sam Tillmans owner), and Hwy C off site (Evan Bole owner) The dredging costs from last year was submitted to Wisconsin Emergency Management and they are reimbursing $12,445.00 for the cost of the dredging. Will stated that the current five year maintenance dredge permit is for 3000 yards for storage of material. With the environmental report and the chemical analysis done on the material, the material came back clean, but it is the grain size distribution as to why it can not be hydraulically dredged. Will is going to submit that on our current maintenance dredge permit, and that will allow for additional yardage on the permit. Dave stated that it could be allowed on the permit that we could use the material for anything the town might need. On the current permit, that is not allowed.
B. Green Shed Committee – No update
C. Marina Grounds – Chuck is asking for volunteers to join. Because we do not have a chairman or anyone on the committee.
D. Harbor Master – Michael Thorson reported. We only have two finger docks and one wall slip available to date. The WI DNR Hack Noyes is coming next week and he is going to be fixing a broken post before they come. The Wi-Fi box has been installed and is ready for Norvado to come and install/hook-up. Michael asked for a picnic table for by the boat launch upon request from boaters. Doug stated that Parks and Land is going to be putting two new tables in the Swenson Pavillon and he stated that the marina can have two of the tables that are there to put by the launch. Dave asked if the Hack Noyes is going to be paying a fee to
dock? Michael stated no. Historically, the marina has never charged them to dock. Chuck agreed with not charging them to dock, adding that the WI DNR is/ can be beneficial to our harbor.
E. Secretary – Nancy gave report that she posted the new prices down at the launch. She changed the launch envelopes to state $10. Three people have already bought season boat launch passes at $50/ season launch pass.
7. Old Business
A. Ten Year Plan – Nothing new
B. Wi-Fi – Jesse Kaseno will look at the wiring and make sure it is up to code, Nancy will call Norvado to have them come and install.
C. Future Siskiwit River Dredging Shared Cost Proposal – Will reported that if half the river needs to be dredged, Siskiwit Bay Marina will give around $5,000 towards costs, and if the whole river needs to be dredged they will give around $10,000. The amount proposed to give towards dredging by Siskiwit Bay Marina will go up as Town of Bell Marina rates go up, as Will’s proposal is based upon the bulkhead wall space Halvorson Fisheries leases from the Town annually. Jessica asked Will how he came up with doing it based on bulkhead wall space that is rented out by the town. Will stated that he figured that if the Town had it dredged to fit boats in if there was dockage there. Jessica stated that we do not make money off of that and that it should be a percentage how much they make off of that space. Will stated that is not applicable he thinks it’s a fair offer that they will help pay for the dredging. Matt stated that it’s a shared benefit to dredge the river so why not split the cost equally. Discussion followed. Will stated that the next time we dredge the river we will revisit the contribution from Siskiwit Bay Marina.
D. Long Term Dredging Plan – Matt reported. He is writing up different plans for different types of issues that the marina might encounter with dredging depending upon the need or cause. He is working on guidelines for how to go about the different issues that could happen. Dave stated to take the dredge permit and read it and it spells out what is required. Matt countered that he wasn’t speaking about the permit guidelines, but more so how to deal with different dredge scenarios that could/will arise, including estimated costs that need to be bid (or not bid out), a list of contractors and numbers at the ready should, the Marina need them, etc…
Jessica asked for a copy of the WI DNR permit that Dave spoke about earlier. Will emailed it to both Chuck and Nancy. Nancy will email it out to the commissioners. Matt will email out what he has been working on before the next meeting.
8. New Business
A. Election Of Officers – Chuck did not know which Commissioners terms are up this month. Matt will do the research to figure that out. Matt has to get appointments from the next town meeting. Then we will have elections at our next regular meeting in July.
B. Financial Statement and Treasurer’s Report – Nancy stated that she billed the Fisheries for $1400 and it should have been for $1440. She will be sending out a bill for $40 for the shop lease of 2023. The commission received an email that was compiled from MaryBeth and Janice in regards to Halvorson Fisheries payments for Dockage and and storage for 2023 and electricity bills. MaryBeth, Janice applied payments made on December 31,2023 for dockage and storage to year 2024 and then claimed in the email that they didn’t pay for 2023. There is confusion as to how the lease is worded, and if Halvorson Fisheries should be paying
for the upcoming year or the current year on January 1st. Nancy quoted from the Halvorsons Boat Slip Lease “Halvorson Fisheries agree to pay for their electric use” she stated that per the email from Marybeth that The Fisheries only paid for three months of electricity from May 2022 to January 18, 2024. Nancy contacted Maurine Halvorson and Maurine said that she only received one bill from from the town for $636.21. The bill included December 2022, January 2023 and February 2023. Maurine paid it without issue. Nancy then questioned how the fisheries could pay for electric bills that they never received. Chuck requested in October of 2023 that Halvorson Fisheries put the Xcel meter in their business name and that was done in January of 2024.
A special meeting will be held on May 6, 2024 at 7pm to discuss the shop leases. MaryBeth is requested to attend to explain how/why the billing procedure was applied Halvorson Fisheries in 2022 for Dockage and Storage. Nancy will send out a bill to Halvorson Fisheries for the electricity bills that were not billed by the town.
Harbor Secretary Nancy presented a spread sheet showing her deposits made from January through March of 2024. She found that there was a discrepancy of $2,000 from her program’s Profit & loss report compared to the Marina Monthly Detail Report provided by MaryBeth, Town of Bell Clerk. Dave said that Nancy should go over all this with MaryBeth and Janice, Town of Bell Treasurer. However, Chuck had previously asked Nancy to look over the reports sent out by MaryBeth and compare them to her own report totals. Nancy then stated that she would not give reports that are not hers, but would compare them to her own, as requested. She suggested that Marina reports received from MaryBeth should be given by MaryBeth. Nancy stated that her job is to report her findings to the commission and that the commission should discuss and handle the missing $2000 dollars. Chuck asked Doug and Nancy to speak with Marybeth on Tuesday (4/16/24) to ask about the $2000 discrepancy. Jessica made a motion to not approve the financial statement. Doug 2nd. Passed unanimously
9. Communications – Will was contacted by the ACOE to install a GPS Base Station near the southwest corner of the launch ramp parking lot. Dave is going to speak with Xcel and the ACOE to see if this instal will interfere with Xcel’s new transmission lines and poles. Chuck will put it on the agenda for the special meeting on May 6, 2024.
10. Adjournment – Matt made motion to adjourn. Will second at 8:44 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Nancy Thorson
Town of Bell Harbor Commission Secretary