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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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2022 Spring Primary

NOTICE VOTING BY ABSENTEE BALLOT

 

Any qualified elector who is unable or unwilling to appear at the polling place on Election Day may submit a request to vote an absentee ballot to their municipal clerk. A qualified elector is any U.S. citizen who: will be 18 years of age or older on Election Day and has resided in the ward or municipality where they wish to vote for at least 28 consecutive days before the election. The elector must also be registered to vote to receive an absentee ballot. Proof of identification must be provided before an absentee ballot may be issued.* Refer to www.myvote.wi.gov for more information

 

Making application to receive an absentee ballot by mail

Contact your municipal clerk and request that an application for an absentee ballot be sent to you for the primary or election or both. You may make written application to your municipal clerk for an absentee ballot in person, by mail, by fax, by email or at MyVote.wi.gov.

Your written request must include: your voting address within the municipality where you wish to vote, the address where the absentee ballot should be sent, if different from the address above, your signature and copy of your photo identification*. Refer to www.myvote.wi.gov for more information

 

The deadline for making application to receive an absentee ballot by mail is: 5:00 p.m. Thursday, February 10, 2022.

 

*Voters who are indefinitely confined due to age, illness, infirmity, or disability may not be required to provide photo ID. If this applies to you, contact the municipal clerk regarding deadlines for requesting and submitting an absentee ballot.

**Special absentee voting application provisions apply to electors who are indefinitely confined, in the military, hospitalized, or serving as a sequestered juror. If this applies to you, contact the municipal clerk regarding deadlines for requesting and submitting an absentee ballot.

 

Voting an absentee ballot in person

You may also request and vote an absentee ballot in the clerk’s office or other specified location during the days and hours specified for casting an absentee ballot in person. Refer to www.myvote.wi.gov for more information.

 

Municipality

Clerk

Phone

Location

Hours

Town of Palmyra

Laura Lowrey

262-495-2049

Call for appt.

W1125 St Hwy 106

Palmyra

Hours are by appt.

 

The first day to vote an absentee ballot in the clerk’s office is: Tuesday, February 1, 2022.

The last day to vote an absentee ballot in the clerk’s office is: Friday, February 11, 2022.

No in-person absentee voting may occur on the day before the election. The municipal clerk will deliver voted ballots returned on or before Election Day to the proper polling place or counting location before the polls close on Tuesday, February 15, 2022.  Any ballots received after the polls close will not be counted. Refer to www.myvote.wi.gov for more information.