CUSTER COUNTY— It may still be winter out, but the Custer County Board of Supervisors is looking ahead to the spring time and the care of the lawns for the Custer County Courthouse and the Judicial Center. The board opened two bids that were submitted from A to Z Lawn Pro and Landscaping and from Charron Lawn Care & Sprinkler Repair at the boards regular meeting on Tuesday, February 26.
In a unanimous decision, the board decided to go with Charron Lawn Care & Sprinkler Repair as they would charge $60 for each time the Courthouse lawn was mowed and $300 for each of four applications of fertilizer. A separate pricing was done for the Judicial Center where it would cost $25 for each time the lawn would need mowed and $45 for each of four applications of fertilizer. Other pricing would be applied as necessary including leaf clean-up, sprinkler repair, etc.
The board also approved a land surveyor to tie out monuments and land marks on Highway 21 from Oconto to the Custer County line south of Oconto. According to records, the state road will be improved at a later date, but the state asks the county to hire a land surveyor and will then reimburse the county up to $700 per marker within 30 days of the completion of the project.
According to County Clerk Connie Gracey, the state auditor mentioned that the county’s audit report from last year was so clean, that the county would not have to have the state audit the records for this year if the board did not want to go that direction. The board did discuss briefly on how they wanted to proceed, but in the end decided that they wanted to have more pricing for what it would cost to have their records audited for the current year.
Before leaving for the tour of the Custer County Recycling Center, the board briefly discussed the public hearing concerning the recycling center on March 12. The center currently serves approximately eight counties dealing with cardboard, paper, tin cans, and plastics. While the center has not made money in a number of years, the board is looking for the public’s opinion on the right direction to go for the center.
Talking about the recycling center, Custer County Board of Supervisors Chairman Barry Fox said, “Is how we fund it today, the best way to fund it going forward? If we are doing this, the community [needs to] understands what it costs [the county] to do this and that they still believe is still a value.”
“We have gone from profitability to costing around $10,000 a month to continue to recycle. What happens when that [cost] goes to $20,000 per month to recycle,” said Fox. “I think we need to make sure that it is out in the public and that the public understands what that cost is and that they are in support of it, because it doesn’t look like, at the moment, that things are going to get better.”
The next Custer County Board of Supervisors meeting will be held on March 12 at 9 AM. The special public hearing regarding the recycling center will be held at 10:45 AM.