Riverside Park sign. Image courtesy: WAOW TV
WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — Should the City of Wausau’s Parks and Recreation Committee exist?
That was part of Monday’s discussion as the Committee met for the first time since the April elections. City Attorney Ann Jacobson said it came from a recent question about what powers the committee holds given the partnership with Marathon County when it comes to running the city’s parks facilities.
In researching the issue she said it seems that in 2002 the City Council brought the committee back with very little fanfare after a different council tried unsuccessfully to bring it back in 1992. “They just slotted it into the council rules, added it to the list of standing committees,” said Jacobson. “There’s no report on what the function, the purpose of the standing city Parks and Recreation Committee is.”
Jacobson says she and City and County Parks, Recreation, and Forestry Director Jamie Polley seem to agree that it would be best for the two governing bodies to draft some sort of agreement to better define the roles of the city and county in the partnership if the city wants to keep the committee intact. “We either come up with a contract for services with the County so we are all clear on what it is we are paying the[m] to do. So we are not overlaping services or getting into a situation where we are wondering ‘who has the authority?'”
None of that means the Committee has to go away. Jacobson says options for keeping it would include withholding some powers from Marathon County or shifting it into an advisory role to the County.
Many on the committee including Alders Tom Kilian and Lou Larson said they don’t want to see the committee go, adding it’s important for the city to protect its interest in the parks.
Polley says for now she plans on putting more city park items on the County Park Commission agendas, meaning the three members of the City’s committee will get the information twice. Previously. she had been trying to keep city items on the city agendas, and county parks items on the Commission agendas such as things about Marathon Park or Nine Mile Trail.
No action was taken during Monday’s meeting regarding the issue, though the committee did schedule a July meeting and elect Alder Dawn Herbst as Committee Chair.
RIVERSIDE PARK DECISION
The Committee also learned Monday that the Wisconsin DNR is recommending that dioxin-infested soil from Riverside Park be dug up and landfilled, either in the County Landfill or another hazardous material landfill somewhere else in the state.
Public Works Director Eric Lindman said the project could be completed this year depending on how the bids come in for the job. The exact cost of the project remains unknown at this time.
The DNR would then require testing on the new soil to confirm that the dioxins are no longer present. More information on the project is expected later this summer.
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