Weekly News Blast – Town of Grant, Portage Co

Weekly News Blast: A recent email from Portage County Highway Commissioner Nathan Check stated that the CTH WW/Four Mile bridge installation has been pushed back while awaiting the contractor’s schedule. Much like the Town of Grant’s bridge projects on 95th, 100th, and 110th, their project will replace a structurally deficient culvert with a concrete slab bridge. And like our projects, the bridge, rather than culvert, will allow for a natural creek bottom and appropriate stream width. A brief July 10 article in the Portage County Gazette reported that the WDNR had issued an “incidental take” permit for a rare wood turtle that may result from the project. “Incidental take” refers to the unintentional loss of an endangered or threatened animal or plant but according to scientific estimates does not put the species’ overall population at risk. Four Mile Creek is a trout stream and as such, many plant and animal species rely on this resource. Any potential “take” may be outweighed by the health, safety and welfare to the public traversing this new structure, and the “take”, should it occur, will likely recover. It's going to be a scorcher this weekend but next week is supposed to be more agreeable. Stay cool, Sharon

Weekly News Blast: A recent email from Portage County Highway Commissioner Nathan Check stated that the CTH WW/Four Mile bridge installation has been pushed back while awaiting the contractor’s schedule. Much like the Town of Grant’s bridge projects on 95th, 100th, and 110th, their project will replace a structurally deficient culvert with a concrete slab bridge. And like our projects, the bridge, rather than culvert, will allow for a natural creek bottom and appropriate stream width. A brief July 10 article in the Portage County Gazette reported that the WDNR had issued an “incidental take” permit for a rare wood turtle that may result from the project. “Incidental take” refers to the unintentional loss of an endangered or threatened animal or plant but according to scientific estimates does not put the species’ overall population at risk. Four Mile Creek is a trout stream and as such, many plant and animal species rely on this resource. Any potential “take” may be outweighed by the health, safety and welfare to the public traversing this new structure, and the “take”, should it occur, will likely recover. It's going to be a scorcher this weekend but next week is supposed to be more agreeable. Stay cool, Sharon

Posted on December 13, 2024, Edited December 13, 2024 by webmaster

Weekly News Blast

The Board met this week for their monthly meeting. We passed the 2025 budget – yeah! However, one of the big unknowns for next year will be our legal budget. We placed $25,000 in that line item, a large sum for any Town. Unfortunately, our insurer has covered what they will from the lawsuits filed by former Supervisor Heather Grys-Luecht. At Wednesday’s meeting another $4,000+ bill was paid to the attorneys representing the Town; now totally more than $7,000 in legal fees above our insurance coverage of $10,000. We anticipate that we will continue to receive more legal bills unless/until this case is settled or goes to court. It is because the Town itself has been sued that all landowners will be paying legal fees from town taxes. This, versus the case of the utility solar project wherein all our legal fees were reimbursed.

Just in time for the holidays you’ll be receiving your 2024 tax bills from the Portage County Treasurer’s office. You’ll also be receiving our Fall newsletter. There’s lots of news to take in including special reports from both the Portage County Highway and Solid Waste Departments.

Enjoy the weekend; at least it’s warmed up a bit. Sharon