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Murray appointed to fill open seat on village board
Gays Mills
gays mills village board

GAYS MILLS - Kevin Murray wasn’t off the Gays Mills Village Board very long after losing his seat in the recent April election.

When the matter of dealing with the vacant village trustee seat on the board came up on the agenda at Monday night’s meeting, Gays Mills Village President Harry Heisz outlined what the options were going forward,

The seat has been empty for almost a year since trustee Seamus Murray moved out of the village and had to give it up.

Heisz told the board that they could legally appoint someone to fill the position, they could decide to have a special election to fill the seat or they could simply leave it vacant until the next election.

The newest village trustee Emily Swiggum immediately moved to appoint Kevin Murray to the board and Aaron Fortney seconded the motion. On a voice vote, the board appeared to pass the motion unanimously.

It was interesting political moment, when you unpacked it. Swiggum, attending her first Gays Mills Village Board meeting as a trustee, was there because she had edged out incumbents Kevin Murray and Josh Kasinskas by four votes. Swiggum received 74 votes to secure the third open trustee position on the ballot, while Murray and Kasinskas received 70 votes each.

And, Fortney, who seconded the motion, had received the most votes of any candidate in trustee election with 98 votes, seconded the motion to appoint Murray.

With the vote, Murray stepped forward and took a seat at the board table. He had lost the election, but never missed a board meeting, because he attended the April board meeting on a Monday before the election happened. Now, he was at the May meeting back on the board.

Sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same.

As for Josh Kasinskas and his term as village trustee, Heisz  made a point of giving a big thank you to Josh for all he put in during his time on the board

Kasinskas, an active force on the village development committee, had told Heisz after the election that he was willing to continue to serve on the development committee.

In a related action, Heisz asked the board to change the development committee from a village board committee to a community committee. Heisz saw it as a way to involve more people.

Village trustee Lee Ruegg, who serves on the development committee, moved to convert the board committee into a community committee. Fortney seconded the motion and board passed it.

Sewage plant

The meeting began with a brief but important presentation by Evan Chambers from Town and Country Engineering. Chambers gave the board an update and a final summary of the sewage treatment plant plans.

Chambers told the board that the public hearing and subsequent public comment period had been accomplished. He explained now it was time to approach vendors for plans that can be reviewed and submitted to the DNR for approval.

 The engineer indicated he favored submitting two distinct plans to the DNR. One for a mechanical plant, like the one the village currently operates, and the other for an SBR (Sequencing Batch Reactors) plant.

The board approved of Chamber’s plans going forward and submitting plans to the DNR. Fortney made the motion. McCarn seconded it and the board passed it

At one point in his presentation, the engineer seemed to caution the board that the DNR was taking more time than the usual 90 days to issue a decision on approval of submitted plans.

Chambers told the board that realistically 2024 would be consumed with designing the plant and the best chance for an early start on construction would be 2025.

Then, Chambers gave the board some good news. Town & Country’s Lisa Twarog worked with Gays Mills Village Clerk Dawn McCann to access grant money from the Congressional Direct Funding Resolution. As a result, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin had requested a grant of $3 million be approved for Gays Mills to use in building the sewer plant.

Chambers cautioned the board that this was just the first step in process of applying for the grant money and it was still a ways from being approved at this point.

Kickapoo Culinary Center Director Jill Riggs reported that he shared-use kitchen was ready to sign up another client. This food processor is eying the kitchen to make freeze-dried food products.

Heisz said he was happy to see more interest in the kitchen going forward.

In other business

In other business, the Gays Mills Village Board:

• learned the village had purchased a new lawn mower for $12,500 after saving $2,000 on the purchase price because it was last year’s model

• reappointed library trustees Marla Heisz and Emily Bialkowski to another term on the library board

•  approved a request  to allow the ‘Pickle Ball Cabal’ to upgrade the surface of the tennis courts and do other improvements to play pickle ball, as long as the group would be responsible to pay the expenses of the improvements–estimates for the upgrade range up from $10,000

• agreed to let Emily Swiggum help revive the volleyball court near the Log Cabin Park to meet demand

• agreed to improve the anglers’ benches on the west side of the river next to the dam

• hired two new lifeguards for the pool bringing the total to 12

• approved changing the start times for board meetings to 7 p.m. to accommodate the work schedule of trustee Aaron Fortney

• approved a Class B liquor license for the Kickapoo Exchange Chili Supper on Saturday, May 13

• learned village hydrants will be flushed on Wednesday, May 10 and Thursday, May 11, and residents are advised to open water faucets in their residences when the hydrants are being flushed in their area to help clean out the system

The next Gays Mills Village Board Meeting is scheduled for Monday June 5 at 7 p.m.

DNR announces primary results of Southwest Wisconsin CWD, Deer and Predator Study
SW Wisconsin
Tretter and Demarb
NICOLE DEMARB-MCKENZIE and Ty Tretter describe for participants at a 2024 Monroe County CWD Summit event how to use a DNR CWD Sampling Kiosk.

Last week, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) presented the primary results of the Southwest Wisconsin Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), Deer and Predator Study to the Natural Resources Board (NRB).

The figures from the study indicate that CWD is substantially reducing the annual survival probability of both male and female white-tailed deer. Reduced female survival lowers the growth rate of the population, and when sufficiently suppressed, may result in population decline.

Specifically, results from the study indicate that when the CWD prevalence rates of females surpasses about 29%, deer populations are expected to begin declining.

Counties already edging up in percentages of positives of deer tested include:

• Richland County – 12%

• Sauk County – 10%

• Iowa County – 8%

• Columbia – 7%

• Lafayette – 7%

• Grant – 6%

• Green – 6%

• Dane – 5%

Crawford County is now at 4%, Vernon at 3%, and Monroe at 1%.

Results presented

Daniel Storm, WDNR Deer Research Scientist, presented the results of the study to the NRB. Storm said that key research contributors to the study included:

• Dr. Daniel Walsh, U.S. Geological Survey Montana Wildlife Research Unit

• Dr. Wendy Turner, U.S. Geological Survey Wisconsin Wildlife Research Unit, UW-Madison

• Dr. Marie Gilbertson, UW-Madison.

The purpose of the study was to determine how CWD impacts deer populations.  This involved estimating deer survival rates, and how they were influenced by CWD. The disease has now been detected in wild deer in 48 of the state’s 72 counties.

Fieldwork for this project took place in northern Iowa, Dane, and Grant counties. This area was selected for study as it is the region where CWD was first detected in Wisconsin in 2002, and has maintained a high CWD prevalence in the years since.

As part of this study, over 1,200 animals (adult deer, fawns, coyotes and bobcats) were captured, 766 GPS collars were deployed on adult deer, and 323 radio tracking collars were placed on deer fawns. There were 400 cooperating landowners in Iowa County, and 1,000s of fawn capture volunteers. The study employed 26 seasonal DNR field staff, and five full-time staff annually.

“From 2017 to 2020, 799 deer were captured and collared with GPS Trackers,” Storm explained. “In addition, 323 newborn deer were collared.”

Scientists working on the study monitored a large sample of deer for size, and tested them both at capture for collaring, and at the time of death, for CWD. The fates of the animals in the study were monitored for how, when and where they die.

Based on the results, DNR scientists are able to model deer dynamics as a function of:

• annual survival rate of CWD-negative females

• annual survival rate of CWD-positive females

• proportion of CWD positive and CWD negative females (prevalence)

• recruitment (the process by which fawns survive to become part of the fall deer population. It involves the number of fawns born and the number that survive to around six months old).

Study results

Scientists analyzed data from the sample of collared adult white-tailed deer in order to estimate the differences in annual survival (the probability of surviving from one year to the next) between CWD-infected and uninfected deer.

CWD infection rates in the highest prevalence areas show 44% prevalence in adult females and 55% prevalence in adult males.

“The primary issue is the survival of adult female deer,” Storm told the NRB. “CWD in adult females chips away at population growth, but there is still growth potential in the deer herd – it crosses the threshold at 29% prevalence in adult female deer. When it reaches 30%, then we’ll see the populations decline.”

Storm said study results revealed survival rates of uninfected deer at 83% of females, and 69% of males. This contrasts with the survival rate of infected deer at 41% of females and 17% of males.

Study implications

The key takeaways from these results are:

• CWD substantially reduces deer survival rates and suppresses population growth

• where CWD prevalence is high, deer populations are likely declining

• CWD will eventually impact deer populations elsewhere if it continues to spread and increase in prevalence.

If CWD continues to spread and its prevalence continues to increase, populations will likely face further declines. The exact degree of these declines, however, will depend on local harvest and recruitment rates. It is important to note here that researchers do not expect CWD-affected deer herds to become extirpated (completely eliminated in a given area), as deer populations have a strong ability to increase reproduction when deer abundance is lower, due to less competition for food, space and other resources.

“Will there be more research for live testing?” NRB member Marcy West asked.

“Yes,” Storm responded. “There will be a further study to determine if life is ending early, and we will look at Richland County where prevalence is high. Now, 20 years after our first detection, we see that we aren’t losing all of the deer herd, but we are increasingly seeing CWD infection occurring at a younger age.”

Storm said this will require ongoing monitoring for the herd, and by the public in general.

“The importance of the study is seeing how our understanding of how the impacts of the disease are changing,” Storm explained. “It used to be that the disease was impacting the big bucks, and now we’re seeing the disease even in juveniles. You should expect fewer deer in high prevalence areas. Support for our studies is crucial, not the least to protect human health.”

“We need to see more messages to the public about managing the population of does,” West responded.

Looking forward

It should be noted that the results presented here are the primary findings of the Southwest Wisconsin CWD Deer And Predator Study. Although the scope of this study provides us with a rich dataset from which we can continue to learn about our deer herd and CWD’s impact, there are sure to be more results to come as analysis continues. Additional findings will continue to be released to the public as completed.