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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

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Letter to Residents on Fire/EMS contract process

Dear Town of Palmyra Resident,

This letter is to inform you of the current situation concerning Fire and EMS service for the Town of Palmyra.

Since January 1, 2012, The Town of Palmyra has received fire and EMS services from the Village of Palmyra under the terms of a contract called the 2011 Fire and EMS Agreement.  This agreement covered the period from January 1, 2012 through December 31, 2021.  However, the terms of the 2011 Fire and EMS Agreement provide that this contract automatically renews at the end of any 10 year period unless either party gives notice of termination 365 days in advance of such termination.  Neither the Village nor the Town gave notice during 2021 and neither party disputes this.

Therefore, as a resident of the Town of Palmyra, you will continue to receive Fire and EMS services for the upcoming year (2022) from the Village of Palmyra Fire and EMS department. 

The 2011 Fire and EMS Agreement is very specific concerning dates and procedures for notifications by either party to the other.  The Village failed to provide notice to the Town of Palmyra of an increase in the Annual Fee to be charged in 2022 according to the Agreement.   Therefore, the Annual Fee for 2022 will remain the same as in 2021.  The Village has also never presented a new contract to the Town, although the Town received a letter from the Village president at the end of December 2021 which referred to an “attached” 2022 agreement and stating “If the Town does not sign and return the 2022 Agreement on or before December 30, 2021, this letter is notice, under Section VI of the 2011 Fire/EMS Service Agreement, that the Fire/EMS Service agreement shall terminate effective midnight on December 31, 2022”.   THERE WAS NO CONTRACT ATTACHED. 

Representatives of the Town and the Village have met on several occasions in what the Town believed was to be an attempt to begin negotiations on a new contract for fire and EMS services.  However, the Village has stated that they are not interested in negotiating either the price or the terms of any contract.    Instead, in a public meeting on December 1, 2021, the Village  stated that the Town should pay an increase of over 100%  of the 2021 cost, or $219,269 which amounts to ½ half of the Village Fire and EMS budget, although the Town is responsible for 30% of the Fire and EMS calls.  This amount would mean that the Town pays $180 per resident, and the Village pays $122 for each of their residents.  

The Village has made major increases in their budget, attempted to foist them onto the Town and refused to negotiate, taking a “take it or leave it” attitude.  

The Town Board of the Town of Palmyra believes it is in the best interest of the tax-payers to consider options other than contracting from the Village of Palmyra for fire and EMS services, and to that end, we are investigating the possibility of joining or being served by one or more adjacent departments or districts where we would have a seat on a board.  We are committed to assuring you receive service at least equal to that currently provided by the Village.