Q. What is the background to forming the Lake District?
A. In the past, there were efforts to study the creation of a lake district for Silver Lake. The first public hearing saw opposition. A formal effort started in the summer of 2020, with the intent to only include lakefront property owners within the defined lake district. A clear super majority of lakefront property owners (over 72% responding to a registered survey) were willing to pay incremental taxes and would be the only property owners who would pay to keep the lake as pristine as possible, beginning with the weed overgrowth, which is choking large portions of Silver Lake.
Q. What is a Lake District?
A. A lake district is a specialized unit of local government designed to manage a lake or group of lakes. Since 1974, when Wisconsin passed legislation allowing the formation of lake districts, over 200 lake communities throughout the State have formed lake districts for the betterment of their lakes.
Q. Are there Lake Districts close to us?
A. Yes, Twin Lakes, Paddock Lake, Camp/Center Lakes, Powers Lake, and Hooker Lake.
Q. What is the Silver Lake Protection Association (SLPA)?
A. The volunteer organization was created in 1987 and relaunched in 2012, when the lake was 50% covered in Eurasian Watermilfoil, an aquatic invasive weed. The SLPA created a lake management plan, raised over $90,000 in private donations, and secured an $86,000 DNR grant to pay for treatments and testing that have cost a total of $165,000 between 2013 and 2021. SLPA also held Annual Meetings to provide members with status reports on the spread of Eurasian Watermilfoil and the actions taken to control it. The SLPA does not have the resources to continue to lead the management of the lake.
Q. Why form the Silver Lake Management District (SLMD)?
A. Silver Lake needs an official organization that is legally bound and responsible to protect the lake and has a stable funding source to meet those needs.
Q. What are the benefits of creating the SLMD?
A. It enables local lakefront property owners to ensure the specific needs of the lake are being prioritized and provided for and ensures funding for these needs are shared among all lakefront property owners since they most benefit from the lake. Property owners within the district have a vote to approve the Annual Budget, the Board of Commissioners, and major strategic decisions.
Q. What else can a Lake District do?
A. A lake district can focus upon lake water quality, protecting lake habitat, enhancing recreational boating, boater safety, operation of water safety patrol, stocking fish,
etc.
Q. Who determines the boundaries of a Lake District?
A. Typically, lake districts are formed by the action of village or county boards in response to a petition from landowners wishing to form a lake district.
Q. What are the proposed boundaries of the Silver Lake Management District (SLMD)?
A. The boundaries include ONLY those privately owned parcels that border on the lake shore (riparian lakefront properties), generally the properties on the lake side of Cogswell Drive and Silver Lake Road.
Q. Who governs a Lake District?
A. A lake district is guided and operated by those who own property in the district. A lake district’s day-
Q. Who picks the Commissioners?
A. By law, there are 5 (sometimes 7 if the voters decide) commissioners: three members (or 5 if voters decide) are elected from the residents or property owners within the lake district, one is appointed by the county, and the other appointed member is selected by the village board.
Q. What powers do the Commissioners have?
A. The Board of Commissioners has the specific power to initiate and coordinate research and surveys for the lake, plan lake protection and rehabilitation projects, cooperate with other units of government in enacting ordinances as needed, adopt and carry out lake protection and rehabilitation plans, maintain liaisons with state government officials involved in lake protection and rehabilitation, control the fiscal matters of the lake district, subject to the powers and directives of the electors and property owners at the Annual Meeting
Q. What will SLMD property owners pay?
A. The budget for the SLMD would be created by the Board of Commissioners and approved by lakefront property owners. Preliminary planning estimates are based on a budget determined by Silver Lake’s past weed management expenses, likely future treatment requirements, and a limited amount of administrative costs. The final budget is yet to be determined by future events and the Board of Commissioners, with the approval of voters, but initial calculations to keep Eurasian Watermilfoil at bay are estimated at about $45,000 per year which translates to an annual tax levy of 70-
Q. What will these SLMD tax dollars be spent on?
A. The bulk of the budget will be spent on weed control treatments, annual water surveys and regular water samplings. A much smaller part of the budget will be needed for communications with lakefront property owners, insurance, legal, etc. Once the lake’s weed issues are again stabilized, the SLMD could also consider funding other projects that benefit property owners and recreational users of the lake. (For instance, wash stations at public access points, a water patrol, etc.) The DNR may provide rebates and grants to lake districts for some of these projects.
Q. What will ensure lakefront property taxes will not go up in the future?
A. By Wisconsin law, every lake district must hold an Annual Meeting for property owners in the lake district to vote their approval of the upcoming year’s budget.
Q. Why does this need to be done now?
A. According to Wisconsin Lake and Pond Resource (the company providing our surveying, testing and treatments), the introduction of an invasive species named Hybrid Eurasian Watermilfoil (milfoil) caused “an expanding problem with excessive aquatic plant growth density, choking out native species and hampering navigation, while compromising a large percentage of the lake’s surface.”
- The 2012 lake survey showed 53% milfoil coverage, choking the lake.
- Initial whole-
lake herbicide treatments in 2013 failed to eradicate the milfoil. - A whole-
lake treatment was done in 2015 that provided good results and required only a small 3- acre follow- up treatment in 2018. - After 3 years of very minimal milfoil presence, the 2019 aquatic plant survey identified milfoil in a concerning 25.6% of lake survey points (vs. 0.8% recorded in 2017).
- A 2020 lake survey showed invasive milfoil in 45% of the lake, including impassible areas in the southwest portion of the lake.
- The SLPA will spend over $15,000 for lake treatment in 2021.
- This treatment and the costs of a Kenosha County Lake District approval process will exhaust the SLPA funds.
Q. What happens if the Lake District or Salem Lake Village Board wants to expand the properties in the Lake District?
A. Wisconsin statute 33.33(2) states there are two ways a property can be added to a lake district:
- By the property owner’s request, or
- By a County Board (not the Lake District’s Board nor the Village Board) and only after required notice and hearings.
Even then, the county must prove that the expanded properties benefit from being included, as well as the “public health, comfort, convenience, necessity or public welfare will be promoted by attaching it to the district”. Historically, an attachment has been rare in Wisconsin, due in part to the significant burden of proof required concerning the benefit to the property being attached to the district. Expansion of the tax base to increase the lake district tax levy would not be sufficient justification for later attachment of properties. Typically, once a lake district is formed, there is not any expansion unless an individual property owner requests to attach to the lake district. For a property to attach, they would have to have direct economic benefit from the tax on the property.
Q. Why can’t the SLPA just continue to treat the lake without new taxes?
A. The DNR grant program is not being renewed so that assistance is no longer available. Lakefront property owners are no longer willing to privately fund the costs of future lake treatments, tests, and surveys.
The most important question would be -
Q. What happens if the SLMD is not formed?
A. Without adequate funds to treat the Eurasian Watermilfoil and continually monitor and manage Silver Lake’s water quality issues, our lake will return to, and degrade even further than the condition experienced in 2012/2013.
And the most important answer would be -
SILVER LAKE MANAGEMENT DISTRICT
SALEM LAKES, WISCONSIN
Legal Description No. 1
That part of the Southwest 1/4 of Section 9, the Northwest 1/4 of Section 16, the Northeast 1/4, Southeast 1/4,
Southwest 1/4 and the Northwest 1/4 of Section 17 and the Southwest 1/4 and Southeast 1/4 of Section 8 in
Township 20 North, Range 17 East in the Town of Salem Lakes, Kenosha County, WI, more particularly
described as follows:
Commencing at the Northeast corner of Northwest 1/4 of said Section 16 ; thence Westerly, on and along the
north line of said Northwest 1/4 to the west right of way line of 272nd Avenue; thence Southerly, on and along
said west right of way line to the northeast corner of Rustic Shores Condominium Plat and the point of
beginning; thence continuing Southerly on and along said west right of way line to the north right of way line of
Sliver Lake Road (CTH F); thence Westerly, on and along said north right of way line to the westerly right of
said Silver Lake Road; thence Southwesterly, on and along said westerly right of way line to the northerly line
of a parcel with the tax key no. of 70-
line to the east line of said parcel and the west line of Lot 1 of Certified Survey Map (CSM) 2546; thence
Southerly on and along said east line and said west line of Lot 1 to the south line of said parcel; thence
Westerly on and along said south line to the west right of way line of Silver Lake Road; thence Southwesterly
on and along said west right of way line to the east line of a parcel with the tax key no. of 70-
thence Southerly, on and along said east line to the north right of way line of the Canadian National Railroad;
thence Northwesterly on and along the north right of way line to the west line of said parcel; thence Northerly
on and along said west line to the southeast corner of a parcel with the tax key no. of 70-
thence Westerly on and along the south line of said parcel to the west line of said parcel and the east line of
(CSM) No. 2478; thence Northerly, on and along the west line of said parcel to the north right of way line of
Silver Lake Road; thence Northwesterly on and along said north right of way line to the east line of a parcel
with a tax key no. of 70-
east line to the southeast corner of said parcel and the north right of way line of the Canadian National
Railroad; thence Northwesterly on and along said north right of way line to the north right of way line of Silver
Lake Road; thence Southwesterly, on and along said north right of way line to the southerly corner of a parcel
with the tax key no. of 70-
parcel to the western most corner of said parcel; thence Northeasterly on and along the northwest line of said
parcel and it's extension the southern shore of Silver Lake; thence Southeasterly and Northeasterly on and
along the easterly shoreline of said Silver Lake to the Northwest corner of Rustic Shores Condominium Plat;
thence Northeasterly on and along the northern line of said Plat to the northeast corner of said Plat and the
southwestern line of an abandon railroad right of way; thence Southeasterly on and along the east line of said
plat and said southwestern abandon right of way to the northeast corner of said Plat and the northern most
corner of a parcel with the tax key no. of 70-
along the east line of said Plat and the westerly line of said parcel to the west right of way line of Silver Lake
Road and the point of beginning.
Except from the above description are 2 parcels with a tax key no. of 70-
70-
Legal Description No. 2
Also, commencing at the southwest corner of Northwest 1/4 of said Section 17; thence Easterly on and along
the south line of said Northwest to the east right of way line of Cogswell Drive and the point of beginning;
thence Northerly on and along said east right of way line to the northerly corner of Lot 3 of CSM 1711; thence
Southeasterly on and along the easterly line of said Lot 3 to the southerly shore line of Silver Lake; thence
Southwesterly and Southeasterly on and along the shore line of said Silver Lake to the Northeasterly right of
way line of the Canadian National Railroad and the southernmost corner of a parcel with the tax key no. of
70-
corner of a parcel with the tax key number of 70-
said parcel to the east line of said parcel; thence Northwesterly on and along said east line to the south line of
the Northwest 1/4 of said Section 17; thence Westerly on and along said south line point of beginning.
Except from the above description all land of DeWitt Park.
November 25, 2020 Drawing No. 168313-
Kenosha County Board of Supervisors approved the establishment of the
SILVER LAKE MANAGEMENT DISTRICT
On Aug. 17, 2021
