Campground Workgroup Items (6) - Laserfiche WebLink

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I found an influential person with the Wisconsin DNR. They told me that they understood ACT 67 and that there was a recent action taken in Eastern Wisconsin to stop the abuses from that bill. I received all of that information and emailed it to all of the board members. My understanding is that none of them read it. The only action that they took was to forward it to the county administrator. I managed to gather as much information that I could to divert the effort on our chain of lakes. Our chain of lakes has 7 small lakes but it is very primitive and the 109 campsites that they were pushing for would have created a lot of damage to a fairly tranquil chain of lakes. I gathered many examples of local campgrounds that had violations that they had not addressed BUT were still granted approval for their CUPs. Some of these campgrounds had septic violations that had gone on for years but the county apparently didn't care.Through discussing this with many different lake associations, I was told that their group had pointed out known campground septic issues to Nate Ehalt,the Burnett County administrator(and a member of your BCDA board) and his comment was something like, "Burnett County has neither the resources to monitor these septic systems or even care about monitoring these systems." Let's face it, if septic systems fail in these mega campgrounds and the county doesn't care,this county is going to lose the last decent resource that they have —natural beauty. With my many hours of investigation and dealings with other lake groups, I ended last year with a totally different outlook toward Burnett County. I no longer see this as a place that I can retire to. I no longer want to spend any more money to improve my property. After finding out that many of the locals don't like cabin owners, I don't feel compelled to support the local economy. We are going to let the "dust settle" before we decide if we are going to sell. Burnett County has wonderful natural surroundings but if I am going to be treated like an outsider but only acceptable when I can hand out money, we will sell our place and spend our money elsewhere. I just hope that the county prohibits this wave of campground expansions. If Burnett County doesn't have the time, money or inclination to monitor septic systems,the quality of the lakes will suffer because it is apparent that campground owners will not self-regulate. If you lose water quality,then you have squandered your last decent resource. I think that it is a great idea for you to reach out to people to try to improve the business environment in Burnett County, rather than expand more and more campgrounds. As I stated earlier, when you bring in campers, many of these people bring their own supplies from home. Even if a family of four visited for a week and spent$200 taxable dollars at local businesses that would provide Burnett County with$1.00. This doesn't appear to be a sustainable path to grow the county. Good luck in your efforts.