County staff seeks Executive Committee input on draft Marathon County comprehensive plan update

Marathon County planning staff presented a draft update to the county’s 10-year comprehensive plan to the Executive Committee on Oct. 9 and asked supervisors for feedback ahead of a public survey and standing-committee review.

Lori Kimmins (Community Planning Director, referred to in the meeting as Miss Kimmins) said the draft plan and a summary of issue statements, goals and objectives for chapters 3 through 12 were in the committee packet and on the county website. “What we really wanna do is go out to the public and survey them on the things that are really gonna guide the next 10 years of work,” Kimmins said.

Supervisor Robinson raised specific edits and additions. He asked staff to expand language on PFAS—particularly landfill-leachate management and land-spreading practices that affect groundwater—and to add the county administrator’s work plan and committee work plans to Chapter 13 (Implementation) as discrete implementation tools. Kimmins said staff would collect additional written comments from the Executive Committee and then revise the draft before distributing a public survey this fall.

Why it matters: the comprehensive plan sets long-term county priorities and informs strategic planning and capital budgeting. Committee members emphasized that technical issues (PFAS treatment and land-spreading) and implementation instruments (administrator and committee work plans) be explicitly referenced in the draft so that they appear in the public survey and final plan.

Staff will incorporate Executive Committee feedback, solicit additional written comments from supervisors, and then circulate the revised draft to standing committees and the public for survey responses.