Members of the DOA hold a hearing on Rib Mountain's proposed incorporation from a town to a village. MWC photo by Mike Leischner
RIB MOUNTAIN, WI (WSAU) — The State Department of Administration’s Incorporation Review Board held a hearing with the Town of Rib Mountain on Tuesday as they continue a push to incorporate as a village later this year.
Dawn Vick, the chair of the board, says their job is to take the passion and personal connections out of the process and verify that the Town has hit all statutory requirements for incorporation. “[There are] population density requirements depending on the urbanness or ruralness of the area. We also look at developable land; what does that look like between the amount of land that’s not developed, and the amount of land that is available for development.”
Vick says they also look at services and other existing factors to see if they meet the standards for a Village as opposed to a township.
“They need to meet all of those requirements in order for this to happen,” added Vick.
Incorporation has long been discussed by the Town, formally among those in Administration and informally among the residents. Administrator Gaylene Rhoden has previously cited a desire to protect their borders from annexation by Wausau or another adjoining municipality and a sense of community pride as primary reasons for going through with the process this time.
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Vick says the former is often the driving factor behind a Town’s decision to pay the $25,000 application fee to go through the process. She adds that her team will often oversee one or two requests for incorporation per year.
“It really protects their borders,” added Vick. “They wouldn’t be prone to lose their tax base which is the highly-developed east side of the Town.”
The DOA will hold at least two more meetings on the application before rendering their decision, which is expected this spring. Should the application be approved, a public vote would be required to complete the process.
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