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TOWN OF LINN STEPS UP
On Monday night, in the small downtown nexus of Town of Linn called Zenda, the board that rules Wisconsin’s most quietly prosperous township, moved to table a controversial item that was set to be passed and approved without much in the way of comment. The item that was almost assured to be approved, because of weak decisions by the town’s consulting attorney, was to be in support of a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources decision to allow a second one-hundred-thirty-foot pier to be built out from the country club estates complex that has sat on the banks of Geneva Lake since the Town of Linn became an unincorporated entity so many years ago.
For the last few months, the initial decision to approve of pier limit length beyond what was formally allowed by a compact of communities surrounding the lake with waterfront access has been under fire. By approving of the Lazzaroni 130’ pier a few months earlier the DNR seemingly ‘broke’ the compact wherein the maximum length of any pier could only be a hundred feet and began a smoldering controversy. Wisconsin has riparian (water) rights issues of ownership, stewardship, and authority issues when it comes to who can do what on or beneath the enclosed waters of public lakes. By making the decision to allow Lazzaroni the exception a precedent was being set, soon to be used by the country club to apply for its own longer pier, with likely more waterfront property owners watching closely to follow suit and build their own longer extensions of ownership out onto the surface of the water.
That all stopped on Monday night. The DNR, because of a year’s old court ruling, may well be able to determine how long a pier can be but there is absolutely no question that the place on land where pier must be built out from has been, and remain, the province of the community its located in. That issue was not raised on Monday night. No issues were raised. Jim Weiss, the masterful political player, and very bright and adroit leader of the board simply pulled the controversial issue from the agenda and tabled it until further notice. He also went on to call for a moratorium on the construction or approval of any and all piers that might extend beyond the compact agreements until further notice. That decree also covers the Lazzaroni pier’s construction.
Since winter is coming that pier wasn’t set to be built until next spring. For now, there will be no 130’ piers built or approved by local communities anywhere around Geneva Lake. It was interesting to also note that two members of that Town of Linn board, Maureen Zimmerman, and Jim Livingston, had given ‘under the table’ suggestions that they would vote to oppose the approval of the country club pier if it was presented as planned. There is little doubt that Jim Weiss didn’t want to sit as the deciding vote of the five-member board, one way or another. Weiss has given no indication about whether he supports backing the DNR’s authority usurping position about pier lengths or not, although his conduct on Monday night would seem to indicate that his position, if called upon to vote, would be like those of Livingston and Zimmerman.
Both of those board members are extremely bright and caring board members, with Zimmerman actually living on Geneva Lake’s waterfront edge in a wonderful estate…with a pier. The issue of extended-length pier construction and approvals is now to be ‘kicked on down the road’ a bit. The town will have to examine the law, its relationship with the DNR and quite possibly face straight into the twisted mess of enclosed body of water authority that’s been laying there for over a hundred years. Congratulations are in order when it comes to local leaders’ personal risk and responsibility to do the best things for the citizens they serve. Nice work.
