Shoreline Committee — Minutes

Town of Onalaska Shoreline Committee Meeting Tuesday, June 24, 2025 The Shoreline Committee meeting was called to order at 7:04 pm, Tuesday, June 24, 2025 by Chair Marcou at the Town of Onalaska Town Hall, with a publicly-noticed Zoom teleconference call option. Members attending: Fritz Funk, Steve Wage, Luke Marcou and Marc Schultz. Also attending in person: Mike Wellik. Agenda: Motion to approve the agenda by Marc Schultz, seconded by Steve Wage, passed unanimously. Minutes: Motion to approve the minutes of the April 29, 2025 meeting by Marc Schultz, seconded by Steve Wage, passed unanimously. Public Comment: None. Review, discussion and possible action of shoreline structure permit process for 2026 cycle including but not limited to application fee, application review prior to issuance and inspections. The committee reviewed the new information distributed by Fritz Funk about Guttenberg Iowa’s similar shoreline lease with ACOE and permit application, as well as information from Buffalo City previously distributed, including the fees charged by each municipality. Guttenberg charges $8/foot and Buffalo City charges $3.75/foot although committee members noted that the very small (20-30 feet) typical length of those leases were a very different situation than the much longer typical Brice Prairie lot sizes and that charging per foot would likely be problematic on Brice Prairie. The committee discussed what seems to be the priority immediate issues to address for ACOE: making progress with gross violations and initiating an inspection process. Chair Marcou will ask the Town Administrator about the status of gross violations and report back to the committee. The committee agreed that we need to get an estimate of the cost of the inspections before the permit fee can be established. No action taken on this item. Discussion and possible action making recommendation to Town Board regarding development of inspection process relating to land leased from ACOE as related to Shoreline Structure permitting including but not limited to fee structure including but not limited to contracting for an inspector. Chair Marcou will ask the Town Administrator if the Town’s building inspector, or other building inspectors could perform the inspections, and what some specific inspecting services might charge. Marc Schultz estimated that there were approximately 150 properties and that it should take 1 to 2 days to do the inspections. No action taken on this item. Review of shoreline ordinance. The committee was still unclear what the final action taken by the ordinance committee and town board was, because the shoreline ordinance revisions are not online. Chair Marcou will get the current adopted version of the shoreline ordinance from the Town Administrator for review at the next meeting. Discussion regarding draft of revised shoreline operation plan The committee is still reviewing other comparable shoreline operational plans. Fritz Funk will obtain a copy of the Guttenberg Iowa plan to supplement the other information about Guttenberg’s permit process that the committee reviewed. The committee expressed reluctance to develop a new operational plan at the present time, given that ACOE has a draft of a new Shoreline Management Plan that has not gone out for public review yet, and it would be important for the town to know the planning framework into which our operational plan will fit before working on it. No action taken on this item. Update on Lake Onalaska Lake and Rehabilitation District Marc Schultz reported on the Lake Districts May 20 social and June 5 meetings and noted that there would be another meeting this Wednesday, June 25, at the Brice Prairie EMS & Rescue building at 6pm. Adjourn. Motion to adjourn by Marc Schultz, seconded by Steve Wage, passed unanimously. Meeting adjourned at 8:00pm Submitted by Fritz Funk, secretary.