[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:03] Okay, we are officially live.
[0:08] Right, hello everyone. This is the Land Conservation Committee meeting. It's Monday, July 20, 2026 at 1 p.m.
[0:16] We get a roll call. The committee, please.
[0:19] Chair, Brian Holtz.
[0:20] Here.
[0:21] Vice Chair, Rick Stacey.
[0:25] Supervisor, Sheila Reeve.
[0:27] Here.
[0:28] Citizen member, Richard Kunky Jr.
[0:30] Here.
[0:30] And I have received word that citizen representative Michael Bergman will not be present and let
[0:38] the record show that Rick Stacey is not present at the moment.
[0:42] We have a quorum.
[0:44] Thank you.
[0:44] Next would be approval of the agenda.
[0:49] So moved.
[0:50] Motion by Comkey.
[0:53] Second.
[0:54] Second by Reef.
[0:56] All those in favor say aye.
[0:57] Aye.
[0:58] Any opposed?
[1:00] All right.
[1:00] Our agenda is approved.
[1:01] Next is the approval of the minutes from May 18th five of your packet. So moved
[1:07] Second. Motion by Reeve second by Conkey all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any
[1:14] opposed? Okay our minutes are approved. Next is the time period allotted for
[1:19] public comment is there anyone from the public wishing to speak or anyone on
[1:22] the phone?
[1:25] Okay we'll move on to item six this is the Potter's Lake Protection
[1:29] and Rehabilitation District. This is the county representative in interview. Pages six through
[1:37] seven. And at this point, I'll invite Christopher Ozele.
[1:43] No, it's not. I'll get it right. Come on
[1:46] up. We'll do our interview here. Yep. And then just make sure that the microphone is turned on.
[1:51] Just a single press will cross the red. You're good. Yep. You're on. Okay. Welcome. Thanks
[1:57] for coming in. Thank you for having me. Are you a resident of Walworth County? I am. And are you residing
[2:04] in the district where that you are going to be representing? Yes. Okay. Do you own property
[2:08] within the boundaries of Potters Lake? You've said yes. Do you have experience with Potters Lake
[2:13] Protection and Rehabilitation District? Mostly just by attending local meetings so far.
[2:19] I've never served in any capacity yet but try to make as many meetings as I can
[2:26] and familiar with Kathy and the board over there.
[2:29] Okay.
[2:31] What are the most important responsibilities
[2:32] for serving as Walworth County's upon?
[2:36] That's a good question.
[2:38] I read through, excuse me, the job description
[2:41] and it seems to me that the primary task
[2:44] is to serve as liaison between the county
[2:46] and the Potter Lake rehabilitation district.
[2:50] Seems like that can be anywhere from
[2:54] voting regulations all the way through waste management or anything that comes
[2:58] up that would affect the district. Then just acting simply as liaison between
[3:04] the two parties and making sure that everyone's on the same page. Great. I'll
[3:10] expand on that a little. There's several of us here that service those
[3:14] representatives and just from our experience there are it will be
[3:21] important to be tapped into what the land conservation is doing or what this committee
[3:26] is doing are just county-wide issues because when you're going to do your report monthly,
[3:32] quarterly, whenever you guys are meeting, there'll be a question, what's happening at the county?
[3:37] Sometimes that's nothing, but sometimes if there is a key initiative happening around lakes,
[3:43] it's kind of your job to make sure that that information is passed on to the district
[3:48] so that they can act on it if they choose to, including programs that are coming down from
[3:53] the DNR, etc. What I'll say in this too is that pending approval, just keep my number and Mandy's
[4:01] number around. You have any questions. Sometimes one of the main things you do is save the district
[4:08] money if they're considering doing aerial photo, talking to the Regional Planning Commission,
[4:15] those type of things there's always it's always easy enough to ask us a question
[4:19] so that we're not duplicating efforts or it's something that could fall into
[4:22] something that we're doing sure next one would be it's a little bit unique with
[4:26] you also being a member of the district to just keep in mind that you can vote
[4:32] on anything you'll be a voting member but in this case you're voting as a
[4:38] representative of the county not necessarily in your personal interests as
[4:42] So like district, I'm sure.
[4:44] Understood.
[4:45] Thanks for that.
[4:47] Yeah.
[4:48] What are the most, okay, we got that one.
[4:50] What qualifications make you a good candidate?
[4:52] That's fair.
[4:52] I think on my resume over there,
[4:54] I mentioned that for the last 10 years,
[4:57] I served as a secretary treasurer for my pilot union.
[5:01] I'm a pilot right now for American.
[5:03] I was formerly with spirit,
[5:06] but I was the secretary treasurer.
[5:07] So I oversaw 32 committees
[5:09] and $7 million of dues income a year and allocated funds back and forth. How
[5:15] that's relevant is to your point that you just mentioned, I was responsible for
[5:22] making sure that that the vote or the will of a bigger body was represented,
[5:30] not just my own. Sometimes that came with an education piece and sometimes
[5:36] that that just was simply a straight vote. So I come with a parliamentarian
[5:42] background with Roberts Rules of Order and kind of more of a we'll call it like
[5:48] a servant style leadership background where it's not necessarily me doing
[5:55] something directly with a large body but more in a listening capacity and
[6:00] education capacity. Well great when you're done being a pilot you can run
[6:05] for local office.
[6:08] Are you currently receiving any salary compensation or fees for services
[6:12] that could be considered a conflict of interest with your appointment?
[6:16] No.
[6:16] Okay. Do you have any other perceived conflicts of interest with the Lake District?
[6:21] No.
[6:22] Do you have any restrictions that represent times or days that you could not attend
[6:26] district meetings?
[6:29] My schedule is fairly random, but that being said, if I know about something the further
[6:34] out I know about it the easier it is to maneuver around it but there will be times I don't know if
[6:40] you've traveled recently but I'll get stuck somewhere so does the district offer a virtual
[6:47] option yes I'm pretty sure that they do I don't think I've actually witnessed it but I think
[6:53] that they do I know that this body does correct yeah okay that's all the questions I have any
[6:59] any other questions from the committee?
[7:01] No, thank you for coming in.
[7:03] Very good, thanks.
[7:09] Do you want us to entertain approval or denial now?
[7:13] Yes, you certainly can if you're ready to move forward
[7:16] with that.
[7:17] Great, a motion from the committee.
[7:18] I'll do a motion to approve.
[7:19] A second.
[7:20] Reef and then Konke, any other discussion?
[7:23] All those in favor say aye.
[7:26] Aye.
[7:27] Any opposed?
[7:29] All right, congrats Chris.
[7:30] Yep, it'll move on to the County Board meeting Monday August 10th for approval
[7:38] and then would be finalized at that meeting.
[7:42] Information from your office will go out to the Lake District about your
[7:46] appointment. Correct. If there's a meeting between now and then I would just
[7:53] attend in a non-official capacity. Yeah and then if you have any I guess detailed
[8:01] questions on like yeah communication back and forth and stuff like that we
[8:05] can certainly
[8:09] yes sure
[8:18] yeah I I imagine she'll let you know everything and and
[8:23] it yeah I'm sure it'll be accurate but yeah if you have any questions let me
[8:27] know. All right, thank you. Okay, we'll move on to Mid-Year Item 7 Mid-Year
[8:32] Progress Report for the Water Quality Specialist Intern.
[8:38] Good to see
[8:40] everyone again today. So this is just a mid-summer update kind of what I've
[8:44] been up to so far this summer. So first I just wanted to highlight both our June
[8:51] and July newsletter. So our newsletters are posted to our Facebook as the
[8:57] county website. So they all include just kind of the general first slide. So this
[9:02] one on the left is the exit from June and then an informational one as well. So
[9:09] the one for July highlighted those cleaning stations around Wallworth
[9:14] County that have done a great job and so we have a variety of different ones.
[9:19] There's homemade ones, there's the DNR removal ones and then there's also
[9:25] the CD3 stations that are at Geneva Lake as well. And then additionally in those
[9:31] newsletters we have a species spotlight so that's different for each month. For
[9:36] June that was Purple Loose Drive and then also just a page going over the
[9:42] upcoming events as well. Can I ask a question on? Yeah go ahead. Is there
[9:49] still signups available and then what's the finest go to the county website and
[9:56] click yes so there is still signup available signup closes noon August 7th
[10:02] so that's the day before and the county website there's a link on there and then
[10:06] also there's a direct link and then where is where it's the meet up
[10:12] happening that is we're starting here outside and then we're going to
[10:18] different locations across the county. So we have White River, we're going to White
[10:23] River County Park to do some there, Comis Lake, and then maybe if we have enough
[10:29] people and enough time, then what is it Baymen Lake? Bayman Park? Bayman Park, and
[10:37] then as well as a station off of Geneva Lake, there's like a creek that runs
[10:42] that way as well. So how many people is too many people? Because I could get
[10:47] at the Elkhorn Rotary Club, most likely to show up
[10:49] to bateman to manage that park stand,
[10:52] or I should at least invite them.
[10:54] Yeah, yeah, it all depends on the size sometimes.
[10:59] And, you know, we have about three hours or so
[11:03] to complete it.
[11:04] So if we get a large enough group,
[11:07] it will be Hannah and I,
[11:08] participants will split up and each take a group
[11:12] and kind of do a divide and conquer situation.
[11:16] situation. Let me see if I can get some interest from the club on Wednesday and I'll let you know.
[11:21] Yeah, that'd be great. Sure.
[11:24] All right. And then also something new that I decided to do this year
[11:29] was also make a kids newsletter. So these are just three examples of what the pages are looking
[11:35] like. I also had a couple of other pages with more activities, but these were handed out to
[11:42] some of our local libraries. So Elkhorn, Williams Bay, Fontana, East Troy, Tuxam, and so those
[11:49] were offered and they're also going to be on the website as well. And so first our first
[11:55] page here just kind of highlighting what aquatic invasive species are. And then I made a variety
[12:00] of activities. So we have an I spy page as well as a coloring page. And then there's
[12:06] also. A maze, a quiz as well. So yeah.
[12:16] And then I figured since I was going around to the local
[12:18] libraries anyways, that I'd make an informational bookmark for them as well. So this is just kind
[12:24] of highlighting some invaders.
[12:30] And then we had our clean boats, clean waters training. So we had
[12:34] one here at the county as well as with Lake Biola. So in total we had 29 volunteers between
[12:41] the two events so trained a whole bunch of people a lot of people were engaged
[12:45] and came with a lot of questions which and
[12:49] then lastly here if it changes to the
[12:54] next slide there we go so I've also been doing some early detection monitoring
[12:59] trainings I assisted Amanda from Waukesha County as well as Scott who
[13:04] works for WC grant he does Kenosha County's aquatic invasive species so
[13:10] So this trained me on the protocols for early detection monitoring and how to do them myself.
[13:15] So now I'll be doing some around our county in the upcoming weeks, which I'm super excited
[13:19] about.
[13:20] So yeah, those were just some of the things that I had so far.
[13:27] And yeah, so let me know if any of you guys have any questions.
[13:31] Well, Lake Beulah is finally doing it.
[13:33] Yes.
[13:34] I know they're they're running just kind of like a whoever volunteers for it this
[13:39] year and then seeing how it goes next year. They want to actually hire people to
[13:44] go and do it. It also seems pretty glad I got you to connect with him. Yes, yeah. Yeah,
[13:50] he attended our event when we did it here upstairs early in the season. I'm really
[13:57] glad to see you took the initiative to move forward on it. See one of the pictures
[14:02] was that this year?
[14:04] Yes, that was this year.
[14:05] When was that?
[14:06] That was, I think it was in like June, mid-June, I want to say.
[14:10] Okay.
[14:11] Thank you.
[14:12] Yeah.
[14:13] Any other questions?
[14:15] All right.
[14:16] Thank you for the report.
[14:16] Yeah, thank you.
[14:18] Our next item is 2027 budget ideas or considerations.
[14:24] This is, again, it's our open-ended discussion about stuff that the
[14:27] committee would like to see on the budget or questions.
[14:30] Correct. Yes. So I don't have anything specifically to talk about, just an open dialogue if there
[14:39] was anything. I guess the one thing I will mention, the annual SWARM grant the county
[14:47] receives for staffing costs with the governor's biannual budget in 2026. Each county did
[14:56] see an increase in allocations so that
[15:00] We'll carry forward into 2027 as well. It may be slightly more than we saw in 2026,
[15:10] but yeah, we'll get that again in 2027, and then I guess we'll see what happens with the next budget.
[15:23] Thank you for that. Our next meeting date is going to be Monday, September 14th, 2026.
[15:30] That meeting will be here in this room at 1 p.m. I'll entertain a motion to Jane.
[15:38] So move.
[15:39] We got a motion by Reef, second by Stacey. All those in favor say aye.
[15:44] Any opposed? All right. We're adjourned. Thank you everybody. Thanks for coming and Chris.