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Board amends nuisance rules

Waupaca County supervisor resigns after vote

By Robert Cloud


Supervisors amended Waupaca County’s public health and nuisance ordinances when the board met Tuesday, July 16.

Sections of Chapter 10 regarding health hazards were repealed and replaced with a new Chapter 52 that deals with public health.
Sections of Chapter 10 concerning public nuisances were also repealed and rewritten.

One supervisor questioned the changes, then resigned from the board after a 20-6 vote approved them.

Supervisor John Smith asked why the revised ordinance removed “noxious fumes and odors” from the list of nuisances.

“There’s no way for us to measure that or determine that,” according to county Planning and Zoning Director Ryan Brown.

“That alarms me because we all know that there’s certain pits in Waupaca County that get complaints about noxious fumes,” Smith said. “So now these people don’t have a leg to stand on. There’s nothing in the ordinance that can enforce that.”

Smith suggested Brown visit the properties along Bear Lake where residents are coping with the fumes of an asphalt plant.

“You can smell it and you know you don’t want to live there,” Smith said.

“The way it was written before, a substantial number of people, a substantial portion of the population would have to be affected by those odors,” Brown said, adding that the county could not determine the portion of the population that would be affected.

Smith noted there were complaints coming “from all across Bear Lake.”

The language about noxious odors and fumes was taken out “because it was unenforceable,” Brown said.

“It’s unenforceable because we choose not to enforce it,” Smith said. “It’s enforceable.”

County defines junk

Supervisor Pat Craig questioned the restrictive nature of what the county considers a nuisance.

“This is … wow … strict,” Craig said. “Junk is defined as five days within any 30-day period.”

“Scrap metal, glass, paper products, metal alloy, wood, perishables, refuse, aluminum, steel, tires, concrete, synthetic material, including but not limited to tanks, barrels, cages, pallets, wire/cable, furniture, culverts, bricks, appliances, electronics, plastics, batteries, hot tubs, bathroom fixtures, plumbing products or bottles,” are among the items that the ordinance lists as junk.

If these items are visible from the road for five days within a 30-day period, county zoning officers can begin to take legal action.

If the junk is screened from public view, there is no violation.

“Screening could include a solid fence, an evergreen planting of no less than eight feet in height, behind or inside closed buildings, or in natural depressions,” according to the ordinance. “Covering junk with tarps or like materials is not considered screened.”

Craig said Waupaca County modeled its nuisance ordinance after Shawano County’s, but left out some important language.

Shawano County says its “ordinance is not intended to prohibit the orderly storage of firewood for fuel.”

“As I drove here, there are many places that have wood sheds that do not have sides,” Craig said. “It’s not in an enclosed building where people keep it. Rather it is placed outside where people cover it with a roof.”

Craig said she was concerned because a large number of people store firewood outdoors, and it could be considered a public nuisance.

While county supervisors voted unanimously to approve creating Chapter 52 dealing with public health, the vote in favor of Chapter 10 changes was 20-6.

Voting against the amendments were Jim Smith, Dick Rohan, Joe McClone, Sue Golding, David Morack and Bernie Ritchie.

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