Question and Answer on Fire/EMS contract - 12/18/2021 and 12/22/2021 - Town of Palmyra

Ordinance Restricting Certain Artificial Wake Enhancement: ORDINANCE NO. 2025-001 Town of Palmyra, Jefferson County, Wisconsin AN ORDINANCE RESTRICTING CERTAIN ARTIFICIAL WAKE ENHANCEMENT WHEREAS, in the interest of public health, safety, and/or welfare, including the public's interest in preserving natural resources, the Town of Palmyra (“Town”) has the authority to enact ordinances covering waters within its jurisdiction if the ordinances are not contrary to or inconsistent with Chapter 30, Wis. Stats., and they relate to the equipment, use, or operation of boats or to any activity regulated by Sections. 30.60 to 30.71, Wis. Stats.; and WHEREAS, Blue Spring Lake exists wholly in the town; and WHEREAS, artificially enhanced wakes can cause environmental damage to lakes and lakeshore, including resuspension of sediment adding nutrients to the water and increased risk of algal blooms, turbidity, shoreline erosion, and threats to aquatic life and waterfowl; and WHEREAS, boats with ballast systems increase the likelihood of aquatic invasive species being introduced and spread on lakes; and WHEREAS, artificially enhanced wakes can damage shoreline, lake bottom, moored boats, and shoreline structures including docks; and WHEREAS, operating boats in a stern down manner creates downward prop wash, disturbing the lake bottom far below the wave zone, 20 feet and more below the surface; and WHEREAS, artificially enhanced wakes can endanger swimmers, anglers, and other watercraft; and WHEREAS, the use of ballast and wake enhancing fins can cause unsafe operation by causing the bow to rise obscuring vision forward; and WHEREAS, the Town submitted a draft of this ordinance to the Wisconsin DNR for advisory review at least 60 days prior to passage, pursuant to 30.77(3)(d), Wis. Stats.; and WHEREAS, the Town Board, after considering public comments and any DNR suggestions, determines that adopting this Ordinance is consistent with all other ordinances of the Town and would promote the public health, safety and welfare, including the public's interest in preserving natural resources; and NOW, THEREFORE, the Board of Supervisors of the Town of Palmyra, Jefferson County, Wisconsin, does hereby ordain as follows: Section 1. Applicability and Enforcement: The provisions of this ordinance shall apply to all waters wholly within the Town of Palmyra, Jefferson County, Wisconsin. This ordinance shall be enforced by all officers of Jefferson County, Wisconsin and all other individuals empowered to enforce ordinances in this Town. Section 2. Certain Artificial Wake Enhancement Prohibited Prohibited Equipment. No person may use or employ ballast tanks, ballast bags or fins, or any other method, to cause a boat to operate in a bow-high manner, or which increases or enhances a boat's wake. Prohibited Operation. No person may operate a boat in an artificially bow-high manner having the effect of increasing the boat's wake. Such prohibited operation shall include wake enhancement by use of ballast tanks, or ballast bags, or fins, or continuous operation at transition speed (the speed below planing speed in which a boat is operating in plowing mode), and similar methods. For the purpose of this provision, “continuous operation” shall mean “operation that is not acceleration for the purpose of achieving a state of planing”. Certain Operations In no event shall any of the following operations be deemed a violation of this Ordinance, provided such operations do not use or employ ballast tanks, water sacks or wake enhancing fins: i) water skiing, ii) tubing, iii) cruising via pontoons, iv) wake boarding employing a tow rope; v) transition operation to empty a boat of bilge water, or vi) transition operation of a boat accelerating into a planing condition. Related Current Wisconsin Laws Under Sec 30.68(4)(a), Wis. Stats. No person shall operate a motorboat so as to approach or pass another boat in such a manner as to create a hazardous wake or wash. Under Sec 30.68(4)(b), Wis. Stats. An operator of a motorboat is liable for any damage caused to the person or property of another by the wake or wash from such motorboat unless the negligence of such other person was the primary cause of the damage. Under Sec 30.66(3)(a), Wis. Stats. No person may operate a motorboat within 100 feet of any dock, raft, pier, or buoyed restricted area on any lake at a speed in excess of slow-no-wake. Under Sec 30.66(3)(ag)1, Wis. Stats. No person may operate a motorboat, other than a personal watercraft, at a speed in excess of slow-no-wake within 100 feet of the shoreline of any lake. By adopting this Ordinance, the Town also adopts all of the above Wisconsin Statutes and all other state laws and administrative codes for hazardous wake and water draining/aquatic plant and animal removal. Section 3. Penalty. Wisconsin state boating penalties as found in s. 30.80, Wis. Stats., and deposits established in the Uniform Deposit and Bail Schedule established by the Wisconsin Judicial Conferences, are hereby adopted by reference, except all references to fines are amended to forfeitures and all references to imprisonment are deleted. To the extent that the penalty for any violation of this Ordinance is not provided under Wisconsin state boating penalties as found in 30.80, Wis. Stats., any person violating this Ordinance shall face a penalty of not more than $500 for the first offense and not more than $1000 for the second and subsequent offenses within one year. Deposits established in the WISCONSIN CIRCUIT COURT FEE, FORFEITURE, FINE AND SURCHARGE TABLES shall also apply to any violation. Section 4. Severability. Should any portion of this Ordinance or the affected Code Section(s) be held invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, the remainder shall not be affected. Section 5. Effective Date. Upon adoption, this Ordinance shall take effect the day after publication or posting. Ordinance introduced by Board member Martens, who moved its adoption. Seconded by Board member Sauter. AYES: Sauter, Martens. NOES: Gajewski. ABSENT: N/A ADOPTED: April 14, 2025. Enacted: April 14, 2025 TOWN OF PALMYRA By Frank Sauter Frank Sauter , Town Chair CLERK'S CERTIFICATE OF ENACTMENT I hereby certify that the foregoing Ordinance was duly enacted by the Town of Palmyra Board of Supervisors on the date indicated above. Dated: April 15, 2025 Michele Smith , Town Clerk Posted on Town of Palmyra website News and Notices: 4/17/25

Posted on December 28, 2021

Question and Answer on Fire/EMS contract – 12/18/2021 and 12/22/2021

Q. To the Town of Palmyra Board members and the Fire/EMS committee people. In respect to the town board meeting re: fire/ems services and in reading the response to the question that was posed on this website, I now have more questions than before regarding the board and committee looking into other public/private options. Here are my questions: What is the ISO rating of each of your other” options”? Are these “options” 5 driving miles or less from us constituents? Where are their water sources? What types of equipment is owned? Who owns them? Who maintains them? Where is this equipment stored? Is there 24/7 coverage? Who pays the personnel? How many full and part time personnel are employed at each of your “options”? Who pays for the training of said personnel? And the most important question I have is what is the average response time on a fire/ems call of each of your “options” to us constituents? Is the response time 4.5 minutes or less? As we all know, in the case of a medical emergency, such as heart attacks or strokes, seconds count and with structure fires, a fast response time can mean the difference between losing little or losing everything.

Q. Could you please provide the ISO (Insurance Services Office) ratings for any options you are considering in lieu of the Palmyra Public Safety Department contract.

A. At this point, the committee has not gathered all of the information you request. The committee has begun by investigating the possibility and efficiency of splitting the Town into separate parts and joining districts which already serve our community via MABAS. The committee has also considered the efficiency of becoming part of a single other district and providing space for emergency vehicles within the Town. There has been no thought given to any service that does not provide 24/7 coverage. As I am sure you are aware, many constituents in the Town do not currently receive 4.5 minute responses, nor does the Village claim that they do.

Should the Town board wish the fire and ems committee to continue investigating options for service other than service from the Village of Palmyra, the committee will continue doing so in 2022 and report that information to the Town board.