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Committee backs grant applications, LIDAR enhancements; water‑study budgeting to follow
Summary
The Land & Resources Committee authorized staff to pursue a regional planning grant, approved use of land‑information funds for LIDAR enhancements, and discussed adding a water‑study to next year’s budget pending cost estimates.
Richland County’s Land & Resources Committee on March 1 authorized county staff to pursue a regional planning grant, approved moving forward on enhancements to existing LIDAR data and discussed budgeting for a county water study in the next budget cycle.
Staff said a regional partner (Southwest Regional) will provide planning services for about $20,000; with a 50% match, the county’s share would be about $10,000. Staff indicated they would add $2,500 in staff time/mailing costs as a county match and planned to submit a grant application requesting roughly $12,500 to cover consultant work and outreach. The committee approved forwarding the grant application to the county board for submission.
The committee also discussed enhancements to the 2021 LIDAR/orthoimagery dataset to make it more user friendly for county departments (land conservation, land use, highway, emergency management). Staff explained the work does not require a new aerial flight but upgrades to processing, pyramids and user interfaces through the Wisconsin Regional Orthoimagery Consortium (WROC). Members asked for a brief finance report on the retained fees fund (funds from recording fees) that would cover the county match; staff and finance agreed to return to the next meeting with the retained‑fees balance and an explanation of allowable uses.
On water‑study planning, staff asked the committee to endorse pursuing a water or well study as a budget request for next year and to request cost estimates for potential sampling and shared‑cost arrangements with neighboring counties; the committee asked staff to return with cost estimates to inform the budget process.
Committee members approved the grant application motion and a motion to proceed with the LIDAR enhancements project and asked staff to return with detailed cost and funding options prior to committing retained funds.
