By Gail Peckler-Dziki
Correspondent
Silver Lake Village President Bruce Nopenz reported at the May 18 board meeting that he has been meeting with representatives from Ehlers and Associates about the Lake Street issues that Silver Lake faces.
“There is a building on Lake Street that the state has condemned,” he said, and we can finally address the deficiencies on Lake Street.”
“Fire and electrical inspections done in late winter this year uncovered numerous violations and the building has been found to be a safety threat to life and health and unsanitary and unfit for human habitation.”
There are issues with other buildings located on Lake Street, including a former grocery store that has been empty for years.
“I met with Ehlers and SEWRPC (Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission) and representatives from both organizations will make a presentation to the board at the next meeting,” he said.
It will take two or three years of planning to properly address the issue and Nopenz said the village might qualify for a blighted TIF district.
A TIF is tax incremental financing district that involves all groups receiving taxes from an area and it takes approval from all to create a TIF.
Representatives meet to discuss the issue and must agree to freeze the amount of taxes received by each group from that particular area for a certain time period.
Then, as the area is improved and property taxes rise, that additional money is used to help pay for the improvements. Those improvements should attract businesses and others to the area to then take up ownership or residence in the improved area.
When all improvement loans are paid off, the full tax benefit will be returned to all taxing bodies.
Those bodies include grade and high schools, Gateway, Kenosha County and the village.
“We need to take the time to make sure things are done correctly,” Nopenz said. “The grant writing process is very involved.”
The plan is to appoint a citizen ad hoc committee that will work closely with the Village Board, Ehlers and SEWRPC.
Silver Lake approves new library contract
State law changed since the Community Library was formed involving Silver Lake, Paddock Lake and Salem. Even after Twin Lakes and Randall joined the Community Library, each municipality had two representatives. State law now requires that the number of representatives on the library board be apportioned according to the population of each participating municipality.
If the agreement had not been changed, the state could have withheld money not just from the Community Library but the Kenosha County System, of which the Community Library is a part.
The new agreement states that Salem must have four representatives; Twin Lakes two and Paddock Lake, Randall and Silver Lake will each have one.
As of press date, Paddock Lake, Silver Lake and Twin Lakes have all signed the agreement.
Once all the communities have signed, the municipal boards will need to appoint representatives.