Salem revives incorporation study group

It will distribute information regarding possible annexation

By Gail Peckler-Dziki
Correspondent

The Salem Town Board has asked study group chairman Mike Ullstrup and committee members to spearhead a public education campaign regarding the recently proposed boundary agreement between Salem and the Village of Silver Lake.

The group, consisting of Carrie Mueller, Jim Woodtke, Darren Hull, along with Town Chairwoman Diann Tesar and Town Administrator Pat Casey, met on May 10 to modify to the team charter. Member John Roberts was absent.

Those modifications were slated to be presented to the Town Board of Supervisors at the Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday.

Ullstrup said much of the information has already been collected and the group will be tasked with disseminating it as widely as possible to Salem residents.

All information will be open and available to any who wish to access it.

The plan is to collect and disseminate all necessary information to Salem residents prior to a July 6 joint hearing. Residents of both communities would then be able to ask more questions and begin giving feedback to both boards.

“This (boundary agreement) would be the least expensive way for Salem to become a village,” Ullstrup commented.

The group discussed methods of getting out the information via the town newsletter, on the town website and through news media.

The committee was scheduled to meet May 18 during which members planned to compile information regarding the boundary agreement, which would annex Salem into the Village of Silver Lake.

The boundary agreement will be, in essence, the annexation of the entire Town of Salem into the Village of Silver Lake.

Currently, both municipalities have authorized a resolution for the cooperative boundary plan, which allows both to work on what that plan might be. Neither has actually approved the plan.

Also, all neighboring governmental bodies within a five-mile radius have been informed of the move.

There is a 2006 boundary agreement between the Town of Salem and Village of Paddock Lake that ends in 2026. At the end of that time, $19 million of assessed value will become part of Paddock Lake.

When that agreement expires, Paddock Lake can declare another extra-territorial zone on the town for one and a half miles from the border inside the town. Paddock Lake took on the county authority for zoning changes or conditional use permits in the town during that time.

Prior to the current boundary agreement being put into place, Paddock Lake declared an extra-territorial zone.

The duration of an ETZ is either two or three years, with one or two years off when that authority reverts back to the host county.

In addition to the ETZ, Paddock Lake also placed a land division ordinance on the area. That ordinance stated that agricultural land could not be divided less than 30 acres per dwelling. There was no sunset on that ordinance.

Village President Dave Buehn was asked if that ordinance would still apply to property that is annexed into the village.

His said the ordinance would not longer apply in that circumstance.

It was then that some adjacent property owners decided to annex from Salem into Paddock Lake and the boundary agreement, granting even more land to Paddock Lake, took place.


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