By Kim McDarison
The Rock-Koshkonong Lake District (RKLD) has announced that its annual meeting of electors will be held Saturday, Aug. 5.
This year, district residents will find the names of three candidates placed on the ballot, each of whom is running for one of two board seats.
The district is governed by a seven-member board.
Candidates include incumbents Eric “Rick” Richardson and Mike Hart, and challenger Henry “Hank” Chamberlain. While a deadline for candidates to place their names on the printed ballot has expired, additional candidates for the seats may be nominated by electors from the meeting floor.
The annual meeting will be held at the Edgerton Performing Arts Center, 200 Elm High Drive, Edgerton.
District residents may begin the voting registration process at 9 a.m. A budget hearing will be held at 9:30 a.m., and the meeting will begin at 10 a.m.
According to information supplied by the district, laws governing the operation of lake districts, including its voting procedures, may be found in Chapter 33 of the Wisconsin State Statutes.
During the annual meeting, each qualified voter is entitled to cast one vote. Ownership of more than one parcel of real estate within the district does not entitle the owner to more than one vote. Corporations, governmental bodies and other organizational owners are treated as single owners with one vote.
Additionally, the meeting’s published agenda states: “Per state statutes, voting must be completed in person with no absentee or proxy voting allowed.”
A qualified voter must be a U.S. citizen who is over 18 years of age and is either: an elector, defined as a qualified voter who resides in the district, or is an owner of property within the district, defined as a person whose name appears as an owner of real property on the tax roll, a person who owns title to real property even though the person’s name does not appear on the tax rolls, with an owner’s spouse offered as an example, or a person who is an official representative, officer or employee who is authorized to vote on behalf of a trust, foundation, corporation, association or other organization that owns real property within the district.
“It is against state statute to issue a ballot after the voting commences,” the information stated.
The published agenda for the meeting includes approval of the annual meeting minutes from 2022, and an opportunity to nominate board candidates, which is followed by a 15-minute break to allow electors to cast their votes.
After the break, the meeting will resume with reports from the board’s chairman, Alan Sweeney, and its treasurer, Mark Meyer, followed by a review of the 2022-23 transactional audit report.
According to the agenda, electors will next be asked to approve a resolution adopting a budget and authorizing expenditures for the fiscal year ending Dec. 31, 2024.
Sweeney said that this year’s budget is the same as the one approved by electors last year, with a proposed operating budget for the district of $322,000.
A tabulation of votes to fill the two board of commissioner seats follows, with the two top vote-getters winning election.
The annual meeting will be followed by a board of commissioners meeting at which time the newly elected board will select officers.
Water Control Project update
Responding to questions by phone, Sweeney said all of the inside work at the Indianford Dam is completed, Some painting and landscaping needs to be finished, he added.
Five of the building’s six new slide gates are operational and available as needed to meet the DNR’s water level order, he said, noting that the sixth gate will become operational on Tuesday, Aug. 8.
Work also continues to install the dam’s new boom extension system for the management of debris. An anticipated completion date for that work is Sept. 24, he said.
In an update published on the lake district’s website in June, Sweeney noted that the project at the Indianford Dam had been on pause for nearly two months. He cited “high water resulting from late winter weather conditions, as cause for the delay. Work was anticipated to commence on June 5.
Within his update, Sweeney noted that the dam’s west chamber, which contained three newly installed slide gates, had been “fully open since the time of (the) project pause,” along with the dam’s east gates.
He wrote: “The goal was to reduce the tail water level for diver safety, which has been achieved so far.”
Further, he noted, on June 1, the gates would be closed to reduce tail water as the project resumed activity.
Sweeney wrote that he anticipated that the three gates in the dam’s west chamber would remain closed for the duration of the project.
Small adjustments, he wrote, in the east gates could be made to meet the DNR’s water level orders.
Ongoing priorities associated with project construction and water levels remained fairness to residents and safety for workers, he noted.
For more information about the lake district, its water control project and its upcoming annual meeting of electors, visit its website: https://rkld.org.
Indianford Dam, file photo/Kim McDarison.
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