By Dave Fidlin
Correspondent
Members of the Union Grove Village Board and Raymond Town Board offered different viewpoints this week as they discussed their community’s relationship with the Yorkville/Raymond Farm Drainage District.
Heads of the drainage district are requesting its three member municipalities collectively contribute $50,000 annually for the next three years to assist in the district’s operations plan.
Union Grove and Raymond boards each met March 23 and took different courses of action as the drainage district’s funding request came up on their meeting agendas. The Yorkville Town Board has yet to take up the proposal.
Alan Jasperson and Alvin Wilks are among the commissioners serving on the circuit-court appointed Racine County Board of Drainage Commissioners, which oversees five drainage districts across the county, including the Yorkville/Raymond district.
Jasperson and Wilks had presented their funding request to members of the Union Grove Water, Wastewater, Storm Water, Streets and Parks Committee a week earlier, on March 16.
Village Trustees Chris Gallagher, Adam Graf and Michael Younglove serve on that committee and recounted their discussion with Jasperson and Wilks at the regular Union Grove Village Board meeting held March 23.
“There are a lot of things we didn’t like,” Gallagher said of the meeting with the drainage commissioners. “It didn’t quite pass the smell test.”
The Union Grove Village Board did not make a decision Monday night on whether or not to provide the requested funds, in part because of some outstanding concerns, which include questions about the commissioners’ spending priorities and a perceived high amount of money spent on attorney’s fees.
Several Union Grove board members, as well as Clerk-Treasurer Jill Kopp, said the commission’s meeting notices frequently arrive late to village hall — if they arrive at all.
Despite the concerns raised, the Union Grove board said they would like to work effectively with commissioners on the county’s drainage district board.
“We need to have a long-range plan with them,” Village President Michael Aimone said. “There’s no way around it.”
Raymond pledges funds
Later Monday evening, Jasperson and Wilks appeared in person at the Raymond Town Board meeting, where they received an annual $10,000 pledge from the community for the next three years.
Jasperson and Wilks outlined some of the projects they have planned within the Yorkville/Raymond Farm Drainage District, including replacing larger-sized drain tiles that range in size from 18 inches to 20 inches.
The entity also has been involved in cleaning portions of the Root River.
“You’re going to get your money back in the next three years,” Wilks said as he recounted how Raymond would benefit from the district’s work.
In addition to the farm drainage district, Raymond residents are served by a local storm water utility created in 2007. One resident inquired whether the two overlapped with one another.
“It’s very difficult to get out of the drainage district,” Raymond Town Chairman Gary Kastenson said, in response. “We haven’t talked about leaving (the drainage district). It’s not on the table.”
Jasperson said the local drainage district serves a vital purpose to Raymond, Union Grove and Yorkville.
“I don’t see any logic in getting rid of it right now,” Jasperson said.
In addition to the Yorkville/Raymond Farm Drainage District, the other districts under the auspices of the Racine County Board of Drainage Commissioners are:
- Waterford Farm Drainage District No. 1 (portions of towns of Norway and Waterford and Village of Waterford)
- Eagle Creek Farm Drainage District No. 4 (portions of towns of Burlington and Dover and Village of Rochester)
- Hoosier Creek Farm Drainage District No. 5 (portions of towns of Burlington, Dover and Brighton in Kenosha County)
- Norway/Dover Farm Drainage District (portions of towns of Norway, Dover and Waterford and Village of Rochester).
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