Plan Commission Minutes
Town of Washburn
Town Hall
Tuesday, August 5, 2025

Commission members present: Kim Bro (chair), Caroline Twombly, Seth Vasser (town board
representative).

Commission members absent: Cyndi Belanger (secretary) out of town, Tim Schwenzfeier (vice chair)
meeting conflict.

Others present (at site visit): Mike Harvey (town road superintendent).

1. Chairman Bro called the meeting of the Commission to order at 7:15 P.M. and verified its legal
notification (posted at Town Hall and Tetzner Dairy) on July 31, 2025 and on Town website on
August 3, 2025).

2. The minutes of the April 7, 2025 meeting were approved (Caroline moves, Seth seconds).

3. Prior to the meeting at 6:00 P.M., the commission conducted a site visit at James and Kari Carlson’s
property (30605 Wannebo Rd). Sand fill had been extended beyond the former glacial beach edge to
provide a granular base for a proposed shop building, the corners of which were marked with flags. A
71-foot turnaround tee was marked with flagging, but with no fill, north of the proposed building. The
proposed main driveway extends south 225 feet south from Wannebo Road. There is a 24-inch, 24-foot
long metal culvert in the Wannebo Road ditch A seep area (now dry) was visible downhill (east) of the
added fill for the proposed shop. The proposed shop is on a slope of a former glacial beach over a silty
clay confining layer (a steep transitional soil area).

4. Prior to the meeting at 6:30 P.M., the commission conducted a site visit at Seth and Angie Vasser’s
property (~200 feet west of 76175 Paulson Rd). They propose constructing a driveway 48 feet south of an
existing shared, private driveway where they propose adding a second residence. The existing sand soil
provides an adequate base that with a six-inch gravel topping will provide adequate load bearing
capacity. The proposed driveway, in conjunction with the existing private driveway, would provide an
adequate turnaround tee. Drainage on this wooded, level site is good. The issue with this driveway is the
steep, sharp turn in transitional soils where the existing driveway turns to the west. The driveway leading
north to this turn is approximately a 16% grade, exceeding the 10% maximum grade required by the
Town Driveway Ordinance. Winter access of emergency vehicles to the Vasser’s proposed long-term
rental is likely to be problematic unless the curve is widened and the turn is excavated to a more gradual
slope.

5. The commission reviewed the driveway permit application and preliminary development plan for Seth
and Angie Vasser to construct a driveway and a second residence on their 34-acre parcel in a Forestry-1
zoning district (part of SW¼SE¼ Section 32 T.49N R.5W; Tax ID #31134). The marked layout of the
driveway provides an adequate tee-turnaround for emergency vehicles but the steep sharp turn in the
existing, shared driveway could be an impediment to emergency vehicle access to the site. The
commission recommends (Caroline moves, Kim seconds, Seth abstains) that the town board approve the
driveway permit. The setback of the entire site retains the forested character of the area (Objective 8.3).
The commission recommends that the Town Board, as part of its recommendation for a County Class A
Special Use Permit for constructing a second residence, recommend providing a wider turn with a more
gradual slope in the existing, shared driveway so that buildings on the hill at the top of the driveway can
be reached by emergency vehicles in winter.

6. The commission reviewed the driveway permit application and preliminary development plan for James
and Kari Carlson to construct a driveway and a shop on their 5-acre parcel in an Agriculture-1 zoning
district (Lot 6 of Block 1, Textor’s Addition in W½ NE¼ NW¼NE¼ Section 12 T.48N R.5W;
Tax ID #31280). The Commission recommends (Caroline moves, Seth seconds) that the Town Board
approve a driveway permit with the following conditions:

● The proposed turnaround tee adjacent to a proposed shop building needs to be raised to a more level
grade.
● The fill areas extending east beyond the edge of a former glacial beach need to have either heavy soil
or geotextile and heavy rock placed to prevent slumping of the fill from spring seeps in the steep
transitional soils (Objective 8.3). ).
● The existing road ditch culvert should be replaced with a 40-foot x 24-inch diameter culvert. Because
Wannebo Road is steep where the driveway enters, a longer culvert is needed to accommodate turning
vehicles without posing a hazard to road traffic.
The marked layout of the driveway provides an adequate tee-turnaround for emergency vehicles, and the
proposed addition gravel will accommodate the roadbed requirements of the Town Driveway Ordinance.

7. Kim explained the site visit report he wrote regarding the additional maintenance required for the closed
Section 29 landfill. The three municipalities responsible for maintaining the landfill are hoping that the
East Bayfield Street road construction project in the City of Washburn will provide in 2027 clay of
sufficient quality to fill areas if subsidence and sanding water on the clay cap. The fill brought in from
the West Bayfield Street road construction filled only part of one swale on the east side to the clay cap.
Most of the fill was placed in a low area on the east side of the landfill.

8. The next meeting will be Tuesday, September 2, 2025 at 7 PM with site visits beforehand.

9. The meeting adjourned at 8:00 P.M. (Caroline moves, Seth seconds).

Draft submitted by: Kenneth Bro, Chair, Town of Washburn Plan Commission (August 12, 2025).

Plan Commission Report
The commission recommends that the Town Board approve the driveway permit for a second residence for
Seth and Angie Vasser. The Commission recommends that the Town Board recommend creating a wider and
more gradually sloped turn in the existing, shared driveway as part of its review of a County Class A Special
Use Permit for constructing a second residence so that emergency vehicles can readily access residences at
the far end of the .

The commission recommends that the Town Board approve the driveway permit for James and Kari Carlson
with the conditions that 1) the turnaround tee be brought to a more level slope and have reinforcement at the
base of the fill, and 2) a 24-inch by 40-foot culvert be placed in the Wannebo Road ditch.

TOWN OF WASHBURN
BOARD RETREAT – July 16, 2025

Attendees: Scottie Sandstrom, Fran Rechcygl, Christina Eliason, Seth Vasser, Matt Tetzner, Dale Houdek (WTA)

Call to order 9:04AM

This is considered a public meeting. As such, Scottie verified that the meeting notice was duly posted for public review.

Pledge of Allegiance

Motion was made to accept agenda by Seth, 2nd by Matt, all aye.
Topics of discussion will be:

• Board Roles w/division of responsibilities, plus legal requirements for boards.
• Road Maintenance
• Timeline of meeting sequence and content necessary to properly prepare and properly notice when executing the fall budgeting process.
• Thoughts on updating the Town website and who will be tasked for this (could perhaps mean a few residents from our Town).

This meeting is for discussion of the above agenda items and for sharing of thoughts only. No decisions will be made at this meeting.

No virtual connection was provided for this meeting.

Motion was made to adjourn the meeting as 12:15PM by Seth, 2nd by Matt, all aye.

Respectfully submitted by
Fran Rechcygl, Clerk

TOWN OF WASHBURN
MEETING NOTES – July 8, 2025

Attendees: Scottie Sandstrom, Fran Rechcygl, Christina Eliason, Seth Vasser, Matt Tetzner, Jim Park (Remote), Trevor Schwenzfeier, Bill Bailey, Ryan VanLanduyt, Darren Nyrose (Remote), Wendy Stein (Remote), Joe Groshek, Sandy Sky, Kim Bro.

Call to order 7:00PM

Pledge of Allegiance

Public Comment Period:

• Trevor Schwenzfeier said spraying helps but that it’s starting to burn off and needs redoing again.

Motion made to accept the agenda with the following amendments:
• Discuss Forest Service contract.
• Potential additional striping costs
• Move tandem truck repair issue up to Road Crew Report
Motion to accept agenda with amendments made by Seth, Matt 2nd, all aye.

Motion to accept June 10th 2025 minutes made by Matt, 2nd by Seth, all aye.

Motion made to open public input to dust mitigation made by Scottie, 2nd by Matt, all aye.

• Ordinance sent to WTA for review. They don’t do Ordinance review. Suggested it be turned over to attorney.
• Matt mentioned that this would probably cost more than fixing the problem. He suggested sitting down with Bob re his trucks and let him know what is/will be done. Inform him of costs as they can run from $500 – $5,000. Mike will figure out cost (to incl salt, spreader, man hours, etc.) and get back to us at August meeting. Get Bob involved in price sharing twice a year.

Motion to exit public input made by Seth, 2nd by Matt, all aye.

Clerk Report: Bills paid and up to date. Voting equipment maintenance during early August. Mike and Matt to get them over there. Tried balancing the checkbook and got close. SAM reporting finally resolved. MOE submitted. WTA is working to get this unnecessary reporting removed.

Treasurer Report: Received shared tax revenue of $6K from the state. Bremer Bank CD to renew 7/9/2025. What do we want to do with it. Worked on cleaning up QB. Keep treasurer report format along with the Budget. Discontinue sending a P&L / Balance Sheet. 2nd half of tax payments should be received end of July to early August.

Road Crew Report: Cold mix repairs ongoing. Each load costs around $1,000. Tandem truck has broken down and will cost around $3,500 to fix per Zifco Auto. Road crew was asked to make sure that when the budgeting process comes around, we need to try and make sure we anticipate possible repairs/improvements to avoid future overages.

Motion to repair tandem truck made by Seth, 2nd by Matt, all aye.

Work to begin on the big culvert. All homes involved have received notification of work to begin. They will need additional gravel for shouldering. Crooked Lake Dr – $21/ton for shouldering – need 252 ton @ $5,292; $22/ton Crossroad Brevak @ $21,010; Maple Hill N – 238/ton – $5,236 AND 2” minus $23/ton – $5,520.

Motion to approve $15,000 of gravel and 2” rock but retain the ability to discern when purchased based on budget made by Matt, 2nd by Seth, all aye.

They will be purchasing one (1) filter at a time.

Chair Report: Forest Service sent an agreement for forest rock for their use. We will order the rock and they will reimburse us.

Motion to order forest rock made by Matt, 2nd by Seth, all aye.

We were informed by Washburn County that we must mark the center line of the roads. If we don’t do it, they will, at an additional cost of $2,250, over and above the $15k+ for striping.

Motion to spend up to $2,250 to mark roads if Mike can’t do it made by Matt, 2nd by Seth, all aye.

Recognize the 4 previous board members with $35 gift certificates paid for by town.  WISLR & PASER training is to happen next week. We are eligible for a free series because of SNAFU with CD. Mike feels that Matt Lippo should take the class. This will allow him to fulfill WISLER/PASER reporting online. Clerk will need to set up a training session for Matt L.

Motion to accept reports made by Seth, 2nd by Matt, all aye.

Bill Bailey & Ryan VanLanduyt indicated that the solar system is scheduled to install next summer. If construction begins before July, we will get a tax credit of $26,000. Money must be paid upfront.

Planning Commission Report: Landfill clay added last fall is to be re-graded by the City of Washburn to utilize current clay for more effective coverage, and the Public Works director is to come up with a plan going forward, including using more fill which would be available with the 2nd phase of the City of Washburn paving project in 2027. Important to prevent spreading of invasive weeds. Suggested that the Town board confirm there is an emergency address system in place. The gravel portion of Sky Rd has been noted as being a private driveway, so Resolution 2025-1 was crafted, read, and signed, which confirms that status of that portion of the road, and will be sent to WisDOT, for removal from the Gas Tax Role of the Town roads.

Motion made to move ahead with the Resolution was made by Seth, 2nd by Matt, all ayes. Motion carried.

Darren Nyrose with Delmore Consulting gave a presentation on how his firm could provide the PASER road rating service for all blacktop roads in the Town, and placing them on the state WISLR system for $2500. This reporting is due to the state this year, and will get our ratings back on track. They will also add all of the gravel road ratings into WISLR at the same time, but those will be rated by Mike and Matt and provided to Delmore to add at the same time as the blacktop roads at no additional charge. Delmore will drive every road in the township and assign each section a PASER rating based on surface condition. This will then allow them to submit the data into WISLR and to update PASER ratings.

Motion made by Matt and seconded by Seth to contract with Delmore Consulting on this service for $2500. All ayes. Motion carried.

5 Year Road Plan – road repair priority to be discussed at August meeting. Mike to review priorities and have report for 8/12/2025 meeting.

Motion to authorize bills made by Seth, 2nd by Matt, all aye.

Motion to adjourn at 9:33PM made by Seth, 2nd by Matt, all aye.

Respectfully submitted by
Fran Rechcygl, Clerk

TOWN OF WASHBURN

06/10/2025 Meeting Minutes

Meeting was called to order by Chair Scottie Sandstrom at 7:00PM.

Attendees were Scottie Sandstrom, Seth Vasser, Matt Tetzner, Christina Eliason, Fran Rechcygl, Jim Park, Trevor & Nori Schwenzfeier, Matt Lippo, Tom & Connie Cogger, Wendy Stein, Deputy Jonathan Kroll  – Mike Harvey absent from meeting due to a death in the family.

Chair requested that all stand to say the Pledge of Allegiance.

Motion to accept the 6/10/2025 agenda was made by Matt Tetzner and seconded by Seth Vasser.  All ayes.

Motion to accept 5/13/2025 minutes was made by Seth Vassar and seconded by Matt Tetzner. All ayes.

Chair opened the meeting to the public comment:

Tom Cogger had questions regarding stop signs and requested an update on the replacement of them.  Scottie Sandstrom said the top half of signs is chipped off by the birds and that Mike Harvey had ordered a sheet metal bender to create a ‘sign canopy’ to prevent the birds from doing this.  Matt Lippo said that they had completed an inventory of damaged signs.  A solution should be available by the July 2025 meeting.

Deputy Kroll was expected to speak at this point but he had not yet appeared at the meeting due to other meetings.

Clerk Notes:  All new board members now entered into QuickBooks as well as reporting them to the state; QuickBooks does NOT have quarterly P/R options.  As all board members are now paid quarterly, this could become a bookkeeping problem.  All bills have been paid in full with the exception of the Engoe Rd project and are included on the activity list.  Chair will begin paperwork for reimbursement on Engoe Rd.  It was discovered that we are paying $300+/- per month during the summer for grass cutting around the town hall.

Garage Notes:  Engoe shoulder completed, fixed Larson’s driveway, brush-raked Nat’l Forrest Rd so that Mike can grade it.  Cutting of ditches was done along with some shop maintenance.  There is a trailer on Rustic Rd owned by Tom Cogger that he has agreed to move.  Some culverts have been completed and they’re slated to bring 2 big ones in on Church Corner Rd, along with ditching to control road runoff.

Planning Commission:  No activity.

Treasurer Notes:  We should have enough funds to operate through August 2025.  Snow plowing invoices went out.  It was suggested that we waive a $70.00 plow fee for the St Germain property.  She does not recollect calling for a plow and we have no proof that the plowing was done. It was also suggested that a better way to keep track of those services requests be developed.  This can be discussed with Mike Harvey at the next meeting. There are two savings accounts and 1 checking.  Suggests we should condense savings into one account and a checking account.  Will be addressed in the near future.

Mike Harvey phoned into the meeting.  Sheet metal bender not ordered yet, but will be shortly.  He will be getting cost on replacement stop signs along with some other state forest signs.  He’s got the Fahrner bid for crack sealing in his office.  Scottie will send Matt over to get it.

Sheriff’s Deputy, Jonathan Kroll, entered the meeting late. He introduced himself, and let us know that he is the liaison with the Town of Washburn, and that if there are any concerns or needs that we can contact him.

Chair Notes:  There will be an informational retreat on Wednesday, July16 with with Wisconsin Towns Assoc representative, Dale Houdek.  The meeting will be held at the town hall and will be considered a public meeting, so the agenda must be posted.  Solar update should be provided by July meeting.  Maple Hill landfill was visited.  A plan should be made to repair this as well as keep it mowed.  Road tour to be held 6/13/25.  Met with Delmore Consulting.  Should we use their services to help rate our roads.  Invited to virtual July meeting.

Motion to approve reports:  Seth Vasser motioned, Matt Tetzner seconded, all aye.

Discussion about records retention.  Bremer Bank to shred?  Ask for volunteers to go through existing records to review for destruction.

Open bids for Crack sealing:

1 – Fahrner Asphalt, Eau Claire, WI               $58,632.00

2 – Seal-Tech, Cambridge, MN                      $37,400.00

Motion to approve Seal-Tech bid was made by Seth Vasser and seconded by Matt Tetzner.  All aye.  Seal-Tech was awarded the bid.

Striping – .08/foot x 4 lines = .32/foot – amounts to approximately $15,300.  This would be for the new Wannebo Rd, the 251 west of Pajala past Long Lake, Ondossagon Rd from Wannebo Rd to Engoe Rd, Church Corner from C to Wannebo Rd, and Engoe Rd in conjuction with Barksdale.  They do ½ and we do ½.  No need to bid out.  Washburn County will do the striping.

Motion to accept striping made by Matt Tetzner, seconded by Seth Vasser.  All ayes.

Review of website and Facebook posting policies.  Jim Park to add Dog Tags, Snow Plowing.  He asked for $50.00 for doing same.

Motion to move to Open Floor made by Seth Vasser, seconded by Matt Tetzner.  All ayes.

Trevor & Nori Schengfrier created a Dust Mitigation Ordinance and brought it before the board.  It was decided that the dust issue on Hove Ln be resolved sooner than later and that resolution would be made by the July 8, 2025 meeting

Motion to move out of Open Floor made by Seth Vasser, seconded by Matt Tetzner.  All ayes.

Seth Vasser recommended an efficiency review of all buildings go on July agenda.  A pest control discussion should be tabled until Mike Harvey returns next month.

Mowing needs to be addressed for the landfill.  Buzz Raspotnik will do the job for $400.00.  Motion made by Seth Vasser, seconded by Matt Tetzner.  All ayes.

Cristine requested that we move the dust ordinance after the reports at the July meeting.

Motion to pay transactions made by Matt Tetzner, seconded by Seth Vasser.  All aye.

Motion to dismiss made by Seth Vasser at 9:05PM, seconded by Matt Tetzner.  All ayes.

Respectfully Submitted by

Fran Rechcygl, Clerk – Town of Washburn