By Kim McDarison
The Rock-Koshkonong Lake District (RKLD) Annual Meeting of Electors will be held Aug. 27 at Race Track Park, 900 Stoughton Road, Edgerton.
RKLD Board of Commissioners Chairman Alan Sweeney said the meeting will follow a format similar to the one used last year, with registration tables for electors opening around 8:30 a.m.
The full agenda calls for a budget hearing beginning at 9 a.m., with the annual meeting following directly thereafter. Attendees are advised to bring lawn chairs.
Agenda items include: approval of the annual budget and tax levy, including the consideration of an amendment to a borrowing resolution approved by the district’s electors in 2020, with additional consideration given to a lending proposal made by National Exchange Bank, and an additional proposal made by RKLD board members to apply a portion of the water control project grant money, which was facilitated through the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, to improvements begun this summer and currently underway at the Indianford Dam.
The annual meeting will be followed by the board’s regular monthly meeting, during which time the board will welcome any new members and elect officers.
During a recent phone interview, Sweeney said procedurally, all things about the meeting will mirror last year.
Directions to the park are here: https://rkld.org/event/rock-koshkonong-lake-district-annual-meeting/.
Board elections
Board members whose seats will come due for election this year include Mark Meyer and Susan Shearer. An election will be held during the annual meeting and is scheduled to take place as one of the first orders of business on the annual meeting agenda.
Sweeney confirmed that both incumbents have indicated they are running for reelection during the annual meeting.
Following a nomination process, which allows electors to make nominations from the meeting floor, an election will be held.
A 15-minute recess will take place to allow electors to cast ballots.
No ballots will be handed out after the voting process begins, information on the RKLD website states.
As of July 27, Sweeney said no other candidates for the two open seats had come forward.
Operational funding
“The (operating) budget is the same as last year,” he added.
According to information supplied on the district’s website, the approved operating budget in 2021 was $322,000. The district, in 2021, had actual expenditures of $348,260.
In 2022, the approved budget was $322,000, with expenditures-to-date noted at $237,043.
In 2023, the proposed budget is $322,000.
Dam improvements/water control project funding
This year, Sweeney said, the electorate will be asked to make choices concerning the payment structure for the Indianford Dam project. The project was not begun until this summer, he said, so no payments have been made to any lending company or institution for a loan to support the work.
Still, he said, the district has been collecting $190,000 from its taxpayers for each of the last two years to repay a loan which was anticipated to cover some of the project’s costs and was approved by the electors two years ago.
RKLD electors approved funding the project during their 2020 annual meeting, in part, through entering into an 8- to 10-year loan agreement in the amount of $1.5 million. Another $400,000 was anticipated, coming through a reimbursable grant facilitated through the DNR’s Municipal Dam Grant Program. The full cost of the project was approximated at just over $2.2 million.
Said Sweeney: “The question that will be posed to electors will offer a choice as to whether they would prefer to shorten the repayment period or leave it as a 10-year term.”
Responding to questions by phone, RKLD Treasurer Mark Meyer said the proposed plan would shorten the term of the borrowing by four years.
“We can shorten the term because two years of $190,000 could be used, and there is the Dam Fund, and if you put that together, you basically pay in more cash than was initially anticipated, or you could continue with the schedule as previously anticipated. When we were not able to proceed with the project (which was initially slated to begin in March), we did not draw any money and no loan agreement with any institution was signed,” Sweeney said.
According to information supplied on the RKLD website, in 2021, the Dam Fund had a balance of $711,318.
In the meantime, Sweeney noted, interest rates have gone up.
According to information supplied on the RKLD website, the 2020 borrowing resolution approved a process allowing the board to seek funding of up to $1.5 million through a 10-year loan, with an interest rate of 3.25%.
Funding of $2.275 million for the project was achieved by borrowing $1.5 million and using $700,000 from within the district’s Dam Fund.
The document presented by the board online further notes that any grant money received by the district was to be deposited in the district’s Dam Fund, along with an annual allocation of $30,000 transferred from the general (operational) fund, to help replenish the Dam Fund.
According to the online document, the board is proposing to amend its 2020 resolution. A proposed payment structure would provide for a borrowing of up to $1.1 million, with an 8-year term, and an interest rate of 3.9%. The loan would include a $1,500 fee.
The proposal further includes a provision allowing $400,000 of the anticipated grant money to be applied to project costs. Monies would be applied to the project in two payments: a $200,000 payment made prior to completion of the project, and $200,000 applied after the project is completed.
The document states that approval of the proposed changes to the resolution, as outlined in the document, would reduce overall interest costs to the district by 60%.
Looking at the Dam Fund, a spreadsheet shows the fund holding $711,318 in 2021. That same year, the money was earmarked internally to support costs associated with the Indianford Dam improvements, also referenced as the “water control project.” Some $30,000 was moved from the general fund into the Dam Fund to begin to replenish the account. In 2022, another transfer of $30,000 was placed in the Dam Fund. According to the spreadsheet, some $71,717 exists in the fund to-date.
According to the proposal, the savings plan for the Dam Fund would continue payments made from the general fund to the Dam Fund in the amount of $30,000, until after the loan is paid, at which time the allocation from the general fund to the Dam Fund could be increased to $60,000, which would return the Dam Fund to its earlier 2021 balance of $710,000 by the year 2035.
Silt, invasive species presentation
This year, Sweeney added, the meeting will include a presentation from the Rock River Coalition on invasive species and other environmental concerns within Lake Koshkonong.
“Silting is the big issue,” he said.
The presentation will be made by Addie Schlussel, stream monitoring and aquatic invasive species program coordinator with the Madison-based group.
According to its website, the coalition is a basin-wide nonprofit organization. Its mission is to “educate and bring together people of diverse interests to protect and improve the economic, environmental, cultural and recreational resources of the Rock River Basin in Wisconsin.”
An RKLD annual meeting packet, including the meeting’s agenda and budget information, can be found here: https://rkld.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/RKLD-Annual-Meeting-Packet.pdf.
An earlier story about the Indianford Dam improvements/water control project, is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/wicket-gate-replacement-underway-at-indianford-dam/.
Participating in last year’s annual meeting, a Rock-Koshkonong Lake District elector asks several questions of the board revolving around use of district funds. File photo/Kim McDarison.
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