Room Tax Funds will be Placed in Separate Account

Welcome to the Notes from the Grove, providing Liberty Grove residents and visitors with tid bits of information about goings on in Town Government.

• The board has accepted the Finance Committee’s recommendation to segregate room tax revenues into a separate account. The monies generated from the town’s share of room tax revenue will be allocated to activities, programs, projects and marketing that encourage visitors to stay in Liberty Grove and enjoy the various activities, shops, restaurants, galleries and lodging facilities that the town has to offer. The town office has sent a letter to various non-profit organizations explaining the process they need to follow to request funds. The town will need to receive their requests by September 30th along with the proposed expenditures and budget. The Finance Committee will review the requests and pass along their recommendations to the Board for inclusion in the 2013 budgeting.

• Due to the cap placed on municipal budgets by the state, mid-year requests for funds have become very difficult, if not impossible, to approve. The Finance Committee recommended that the bills sent to the town for the commode in Ellison Bay by Door County North be returned to that organization. It further recommended that the organization include those bills in their request for 2013, and they would be reimbursed. The board approved the recommendation.

• The Green Bay office of Schenk SC has been retained to do an audit of town finances.

• Jim Brandt was appointed to the Liberty Grove Plan Commission pending his becoming a Wisconsin resident and acquiring a Wisconsin drivers license. He has an architectural background and has volunteered to serve on the commission.

• Wisconsin DOT has informed the town that it no longer conducts speed studies on non-state trunk highway roads. They also have provided clarification on the requirements to lower speed limits below 45 mph. Clarification was provided regarding building/driveway spacing in regards to fixed limits for town roads compared to fixed limits for semi-urban limits. Fixed limit building/driveway spacing criteria is based on who is the maintaining authority of a roadway. Thus, any roads that your township is the maintaining authority of must meet the 35 mph – Town Road (1,000 ft minimum) with 150 feet driveway spacing. So, if a town road meets the 150-foot driveway spacing criteria and a speed study (conducted by town) finds that a 35 mph speed zone is warranted, the town could post a town road segment with a 35 mph regulatory speed limit.

The Highway Committee has been looking into requests for lower speed limits on a number of town roads and is studying speed limits on all town roads. Wisconsin DOT website has additional information on setting speed limits in municipalities.