Volunteer to Help Manage Nasewaupee’s Short-Term Rentals

A volunteer has come forward to help manage the Town of Nasewaupee’s short-term-rental (STR) ordinance.

Town chair Steve Sullivan announced at the town board’s monthly meeting in August that Nasewaupee resident Jacob Schartner has volunteered his time without pay to go through reports online that determine who is not in compliance with the town’s ordinance.

Schartner, who works full time at Veolia in Sturgeon Bay, said he has experience using Excel spreadsheets and also has an associate’s degree in diesel technology from Northeast Wisconsin Technical College.

Nasewaupee contracts with Granicus, a company that searches online to identify STRs being offered in the town, so that the town is able to determine whether those rentals have complied with the town’s ordinance.

Though town clerk Jill Lau has been handling the permit applications – which she called “extremely time-consuming” – she told the board this summer that enforcement was “beyond being manageable by just me.” Nasewaupee has no full-time employees, and Lau, who is also the Door County clerk, suggested the town either hire an external employee or have the three town board members come up with a plan about how to enforce the ordinance.

“You have to have somebody who’s going to log in on a regular basis, run the report to see who’s noncompliant, send out the letters, do the follow-ups, all of that,” she said.