Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties

Board votes to set Saxon Harbor to pre-storm state

By RICHARD JENKINS

[email protected]

Hurley — The Iron County Board of Supervisors saved the best for last Tuesday night, voting 14 to 1 to restore Saxon Harbor to the state it was in prior to the flooding during the July 11 storm that destroyed the harbor.

Brad Matson was the lone no vote. Prior to the vote, Matson said he thought the board needed more information regarding its alternatives before voting to return to the pre-storm design.

“I think we need to look at putting that creek where it used to be, and where it wants to be,” said Matson, “There was major flooding just now. (Iron County Emergency Management Director Stacy Ofstad) told us a couple weeks ago, that a couple times a summer the campground is flooding to some extent or the other. We’re not ever going to get money to fix it again, so this is our one shot.”

Matson advocated approving the plan for returning the marina back to the pre-storm state, but suggested getting additional engineering cost estimates on the possibility of rerouting Oronto Creek for the campground project.

While he acknowledged it may turn out to be to expensive to reroute the creek, it was worth at least exploring.

“Maybe (rerouting the creek) is too cost prohibitive for us to take on, but if we talk to the engineers — we pay an engineering firm $10,000-20,000 to get answers on million — I think that might be worth our time and investment,” Matson said.

Other board members argued the county already had a general cost estimate from work done in the immediate aftermath of the storm, with Scott Erickson saying costs could be as high as $5 million to reroute the creek.

A decision on the rerouting of the creek is key, as changing the path would likely impact the funding the county received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

FEMA only issues funds to return disaster-hit areas to the state they were in the day prior to the disaster.

County Forestry and Parks Administrator Eric Peterson has previously told the board this means while the county will be reimbursed for 87.5 percent of the actual costs of rebuilding the harbor — 75 percent from FEMA and another 12.5 percent from Wisconsin Emergency Management — the county will be on the hook for any additional costs that result from significant changes to the existing design.

Further, changes to any of the remaining three categories the rebuilding project has been broken down into — campground, marina and dredging — would designate that category an “improved project.”

“With an improved project, funding is capped. The total cost of the project is unknown at this time. So what they do is, FEMA caps the project and FEMA will give us 75 percent of the estimated cost,” Peterson said at the board’s Dec. 6 meeting. “If the project costs the county $4 million, these are our two reimbursements and the rest is ours. So if we decide to move (Oronto Creek), we will bear that cost entirely.”

The county can expect approximately $2,198,178 in assistance from FEMA and the state for the marina and dredging parts of the rebuilding effort. Numbers are still being discussed for the campground portion of the project.

The concern about the capped funding was echoed by several board members Tuesday.

“Now it’s an improved project, and now you’re on the hook for all of it and you’re capped on what you’re going to get from FEMA,” Erickson said. “Once it gets to be an improved project, I don’t know if we can afford it.”

Several board members expressed the idea of examining the possibility of creating an emergency flood outlet for the creek at a future date, once the county has secured the necessary FEMA funding.

There was also a debate on what the creek’s natural route is and how much the pre-storm route forced the creek from its natural path, with several people saying the change was minimal as it originally flowed into the south basin.

Ofstad did tell the board disaster mitigation funding may be available for changes to the creek in the future, whereas the county wouldn’t be eligible for these funds now.

Given that negotiations regarding the campground location were continuing, Matson suggested breaking the motion into three parts, but this didn’t happen.

Larry Youngs — who made the motion — said he intended his motion to apply to the marina, the campground and the road.

“(The motion is to put all three) exactly the way they were. The least amount the county has to pay,” Youngs said. “It was that way (July 10), that’s the way we want it back.”

Despite the wording of Tuesday’s motion; Peterson told the Daily Globe after the meeting that the campground may still need to be moved, depending on the result of continuing negotiations between Iron County, FEMA and the state of Wisconsin.

At issue is a state law prohibiting campgrounds from being constructed in flood plains, unless a 72-hour warning can be issued prior to floods — something the old campground’s proximity to Oronto Creek would obviously make impossible.

The three parties are continuing to negotiate regarding what changes could be made to make the campground comply with state law, without becoming an improved project.

Among the possibilities would be raising the campground’s elevation so it was above the flood plain, or relocating the campground to high ground east of the marina.

In other action:

— The board approved reducing the speed limit on County G to 35 mph between U.S. 51 and Pine Lake Road. The current speed is 55 mph, according to information presented at the meeting. The number of houses and businesses along that stretch of road, along with the number of curves in the road, were cited as reasons for reducing the speed in the name of safety.

— The board voted to extend the county highway commissioner’s term from two to four years, and then appointed Mike Swartz to a new four-year term beginning Jan. 1, 2017.

— The board passed several resolutions. One authorizes the Department of Human Services to apply for funding from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to assist with transporting the county’s elderly and disabled residents. Another resolution supported additional state funding for efforts to control and prevent communicable diseases. A third resolution says the county will follow federal procurement regulations when awarding contracts on FEMA-assisted projects.

— The board also approved the county’s 2017 Forestry Work Plan and a grant application for funds to administer the county forest.

— The board approved amendments to the county’s 2016 budget to allocate funds for a disaster loan for the towns of Gurney and Saxon, various upgrades to the county courthouse, new flooring at the Iron County Memorial Building, the Upson communication tower and a plow truck for the courthouse. The total added in the amendments is $828,874.

— Following a closed session, the board authorized Peterson to explore the purchase of land east of Saxon Harbor that is necessary to access county land already owned on the high ground next to the harbor. This elevated property would be considered either as an alternative location for the harbor’s campground, or a second camping site.