Land Information

TAYLOR COUNTY LAND INFORMATION COMMITTEE MEETING September 8, 2025 Rod Adams, Bud Suckow, Tim Hansen, Catherine Lemke, Darrell Thompson, Heather Dums, Justin Meyer, Sarah Holtz, Tracy Hartwig, Dan Gellert, Nicole Hager, and Kyle Noonan were present. 1. Adams called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. 2. Approve Agenda. A motion was made by Lemke, second by Suckow to approve the agenda of 9 items. Motion carried. 3. Approve Minutes of the July 14, 2025 meeting. A motion was made by Hansen, second by Suckow to approve the minutes of the July 14, 2025 meeting. Motion carried. 4. Review/act on proposed 2026 Surveyor budget. Dums stated the 2026 Surveyor budget had no changes from the prior year and a 0% increase. A motion was made by Lemke, second by Suckow to approve the 2026 Surveyor budget. Motion carried. 5. Review/act on proposed 2026 Land Information budget. Dums stated the 2026 Land Information budget also had no changes from the prior year and a 0% increase. All carryover funds are from grant monies. A motion was made by Lemke, second by Suckow to approve the 2026 Land Information budget. Motion carried. 6. Annual discussion on GPS in County Surveyor vehicle. Dums stated the procedure is to revisit the need for a GPS in county vehicles each September. The committee voted earlier in 2025 that a GPS in the surveyor van is not necessary. A motion was made by Hansen, second by Lemke to leave the GPS out of the surveyor van. Motion carried. 7. Discuss updated In Rem parcel listing. Holtz stated there are only four parcels remaining in the In Rem process. Three are the Meyer property and one is the Brunner property. Holtz informed the board that Meyers are working on getting funds to pay back what they owe before the October 27 th deadline. This would only leave Brunner’s parcel which is a thin sliver left because of a fence line issue. Holtz spoke to the Guardian ad litem who made some suggestions on proceeding to save the county some money. The options given were to contact Brunner’s daughter to see if she would sign a deed transferring the land over to the county, dismiss the case and add the property to next year’s process, or proceed as is. A motion was made by Lemke, second by Suckow to contact the daughter to see if she would deed it over to the county. Motion carried. 8. Set new meeting date. Next meeting date will be at the call of the chair. 9. Adjournment. A motion was made by Hansen, second by Lemke to adjourn the meeting at 9:13 am. TAYLOR COUNTY LAND INFORMATION COMMITTEE MEETING July 14, 2025 Rod Adams, Bud Suckow, Tim Hansen, Catherine Lemke, Darrell Thompson, Dan Olson, Heather Dums, Justin Meyer, Sarah Holtz, Tracy Hartwig, and Kyle Noonan were present. 1. Adams called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. 2. Approve Agenda. A motion was made by Hansen, second by Suckow to approve the agenda of 10 items. Motion carried. 3. Approve Minutes of the March 6, 2025 meeting. A motion was made by Lemke, second by Thompson to approve the minutes of the March 6, 2025 meeting. Motion carried. 4. Purchase of new computers for the Land Information Department. Dums stated the current version of the 3-year land information plan included replacing the department’s current computers. Usable life is usually considered 5 years and the department’s computers are now 8 years old. Meyer explained the need for hardware upgrades due to what is required by certain software used. Meyer stated that I.T. had quoted approximately $7740.00 for upgrading all three computers. Dums stated since it was in the 3-year plan, funds would be taken from grant monies. A motion was made by Hansen, second by Lemke to purchase 3 new computers. Motion carried. 5. LiDAR add-ons purchases. Meyer explained that the LiDAR project the previous year acquired the base data and add-ons were needed to make it user friendly to the public. He stated a base enhancement package was available and would include the layer to place onto the Beacon GIS site with improved hydro breaklines, which were currently about 25 years old from the DNR and inaccurate. He also stated an online viewer was available to be linked to the current Beacon site. Total costs of these add-ons and viewer would be $70,400 and would be taken out of carryover grant funds. A motion was made by Suckow, second by Hansen to purchase the LiDAR add -ons presented and online viewer. Motion carried. 6. Private and/or municipal survey work by county surveyor. Meyer stated he had been asked by a few municipalities if he could do survey work for them. He said the previous surveyor had done a few, but he wanted clarification from the committee. Thompson stated he thought this would open a door we didn’t want to open and lead to a lot of additional work. A motion was made by Suckow to allow private survey work for family and friends outside working hours and allow municipal survey work per the surveyor’s discretion as to what his time would allow. No second. Motion failed. A motion was made by Thompson, second by Hansen to allow the surveyor to do private work for family and friends but no municipal survey work. Motion carried. 7 & 8. Ordinance for In Rem parcels & 8. Chapter 17 County Code. Holtz stated agenda items 7 & 8 would be discussed together. She stated that she had made changes to Chapter 17 of county code to reflect the new ordinance. The changes and ordinance were in response to Act 207. It clarified the committee being able to set the sale price for parcels taken by the In Rem process. She stated it also clarified that the previous owner needed to pay back all money owed against a property prior to being able to purchase it back. A motion was made by Lemke, second by Hansen to amend Chapter 17 to reflect the In Rem and county code changes as presented. Motion carried. 9. Set new meeting date. Next meeting date will be September 8 at 9am. 10. Adjournment. A motion was made by Thompson, second by Suckow to adjourn the meeting at 9:40 am. TAYLOR COUNTY LAND INFORMATION COMMITTEE MEETING March 6, 2025 Rod Adams, Bud Suckow, Tim Hansen, Catherine Lemke, Darrell Thompson, Jaymi Kohn, Heather Dums, Justin Meyer, Sarah Holtz, Tracy Hartwig, Nicole Hager, & Brian Wilson were present. 1. Adams called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. 2. Approve Agenda. A motion was made by Suckow second by Hansen to approve the agenda of 13 items. Motion carried. 3. Approve Minutes of the October 31, 2024 meeting. A motion was made by Lemke, second by Hansen to approve the minutes of the October 31, 2024 meeting. Motion carried. 4. Carryover Funds. Dums explained that after the last finance committee meeting, the departments were asked to discuss carryover funds. She stated that all of the Land Information Department’s carryover funds were from grant monies designated for land information projects. Hansen stated if they are grant funds, no more discussion was necessary. 5. Discuss/Act on Purchase of GPS & Data Collector for County Surveyor. Meyer discussed purchase of new data collector and GPS using SIG grant money which is designated for remonumentation purposes. He gave features of the new equipment such as better operation in low service areas and tree cover. He stated the total cost would be approximately $33,000.00. Meyer thought the county could sell the current GPS and data collector for between $10,000 to $12,000. Hansen asked if any software upgrade purchase would also be necessary. Meyer stated the current software would be transferred to the new unit. Adams stated through recent county code updates, disposal of county property needs to go through Buildings and Grounds. A motion was made by Hansen, second by Suckow to purchase both a new GPS and data collector and for the county surveyor to work with buildings and grounds on the sale of the old units. 6. Discuss/Act on GPS in County Surveyor Vehicle. Dums explained each department with a vehicle was asked to have their oversight committee determine if vehicles within their department should be equipped with a GPS tracker. She stated she did not think it was necessary on the county surveyor van as Meyer always informed their department what area he would be in when out in the field and that he could be miles from where the van is actually parked. She stated in winter months, the van does not get much use and the county would still be paying a monthly fee to have the GPS. Meyer agreed the GPS wouldn’t add anything in terms of safety due to his usual distance from the vehicle while out in the field. Adams agreed that a GPS was unnecessary on a vehicle only used by one employee. A motion was made by Hansen, second by Suckow to not put a GPS on the county surveyor van and save that money for use elsewhere. 7. Discuss/Act on Purchase of Plat Sleeves for Register of Deeds. Kohn explained how original 36”x24” plats are stored in plastic sleeves and how the sleeves are getting old and the plastic is starting to break down. She asked to replace 200 sleeves for a total of $6,470.00. Dums stated the project was part of the three-year land information plan and funds would come from base budget grant monies. Suckow asked how old some of the plats were. Meyer stated some dated back to the 1800’s when Taylor County was created. Kohn stated there may be some additional costs in handling the old documents once they start removing the old sleeves, depending on their condition. A motion was made by Suckow, second by Lemke to replace the plat sleeves. 8. Review/Act on 2025 In Rem Parcels. Holtz handed out packets on the 2020 & 2021 delinquent tax parcels. She stated the ROD’s office is still working on finishing up the abstracts for some of the parcels. Holtz gave an update on the contact she’s had with the landowners of these parcels. She stated she just needed a motion to move forward with the In Rem process for these properties. A motion was made by Lemke, second by Hansen to move the In Rem process forward. 9. Discuss/Act on Ordinance for In Rem Parcels. Holtz handed out sample ordinance templates to comply with Act 207, along with the act itself and guidance from the WCA. She explained that prior to the act, the county allowed the previous owner to purchase the property back for what was owed to the county. Act 207 now requires the owners have another title search completed and all liens be paid back in order to purchase the property back. Holtz said they would work on an ordinance for the next meeting. Holtz also stated that when Act 207 was passed, it was understood that properties could only be sold starting at the assessed value. When re -reading the act and guidance from WCA, everything actually states appraised value. She stated under that, the committee could set the appraised value to start bids out. The act change really just appeared to change the process of the owner buying the property back. Holtz stated her and Dums would meet with Corp Counsel to clarify prior to the next meeting. Holtz also informed the committee that Taylor County along with all the other counties are now in a lawsuit regarding the Tax Deed/In Rem sales and the money made by the counties. She stated counties have always followed state statute on these sales and that Corp Counsel was gathering more information on this lawsuit. 10. Discuss/Act on Chapter 17 County Code. Holtz handed out Chapter 17 County Code and explained due to Act 207 some changes were needed. She believed Ordinance 410 should be amended or possibly removed. Hansen asked if Corp Counsel could look it over. Holtz agreed and stated she would bring changes back to the next meeting. 11. Discuss Act 235. Kohn let the committee know that Act 235 would be going into effect on April 1 and that it would affect multiple departments. She stated that all county departments would need to be able to respond to a request to shield identifying information for any federal judges and explained how that could affect public access to records going forward. Meyer added the concern is that this could be expanded beyond just federal judges to include many different employment classes, as has happened in other states. 12. Set new meeting date. Next meeting will be in May at the call of the chair. 13. Adjournment. A motion was made by Suckow, second by Hansen to adjourn the meeting at 9:59 am.