Ashland County committee votes to pursue CDBG planning grant, recommends Northwest Regional Planning and elects chair, vice chair

George Bose was elected chair and Bradley Ray elected vice chair of the Ashland County Comprehensive Plan Committee during the committee meeting that also approved forwarding a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) planning grant application to the full county board and recommended hiring Northwest Regional Planning to help update the county comprehensive plan.

The committee moved quickly from leadership elections to discussion of the plan update and grant funding. Lisonbee Radke, Community Development Educator with UW Extension, described the comprehensive plan as two volumes: "Volume 1 is all of your background information" and "volume 2, your visions and goals," and reminded members that nine elements have been required by state law since 1999. Radke said the 2016 plan looks forward to 2036 and that the plan must be reexamined at least every 10 years.

Erica (staff member) told the committee that Ashland County qualifies for a CDBG planning grant because the countywide low- to moderate-income (LMI) percentage is "over 51%" and that the grant "will offer $2 of CDBG funding for every $1 that we come up with otherwise, either through county funds or in kind." She said the program will provide that match "up to $50,000," meaning a $50,000 award plus a $25,000 local match would yield about $75,000 for an update.

Committee members discussed how much of the existing plan needs only minor edits versus full data updates. Radke and members noted several data sections are markedly out of date (one housing subsection cites nursing-home data back to 2001). Radke asked the committee to decide whether to update only goals and objectives or to commission a more thorough volume-1 data update; she said a full update is a substantial effort and typically handled by outside contractors.

Dan (staff member) explained the immediate procedural steps for grant application: the county board must pass a resolution authorizing the application and the committee should act quickly because the grant window opened recently. "We can put up a resolution authorizing us to go ahead and apply for that because that's normally, a requirement of grants," he said. Committee members then made and approved a motion to forward the question of applying for the CDBG planning grant to the full county board for its Feb. 18 meeting.

On consulting support, the committee voted to recommend Northwest Regional Planning to the full county board for professional services to update the plan, an effort members estimated at about $70,000$75,000. Committee discussion outlined the consultants likely tasks: updating volume 1 (data), facilitating public outreach and chapter workgroups, preparing survey instruments, and producing editable deliverables. Radke and other members emphasized that a public participation plan will be required and that outreach should include meetings across the county, including towns such as Morris and Mellon.

The committee discussed how to treat climate and extreme-weather effects in the update. Radke said there is currently "one reference to climate impacts" in the 2016 plan and proposed convening local experts in each chapter to identify actions that explicitly address extreme weather. Members debated whether to embed climate-related actions across the nine required elements or to add a separate chapter; no final decision on chapter structure was made at the meeting.

The committee also moved to recommend that Charlie Ortman be added as a City of Ashland observer to the committee with the right to speak; the committee agreed to place that nomination on the Feb. 18 county board agenda for final approval. Members discussed inviting subject-matter experts (transportation managers, housing providers, tribal representatives) as nonvoting guests for chapter workgroups.

Logistics and timing were discussed: staff and members said the county should act quickly on the grant pre-application meeting already scheduled and that, if awarded, the grant's timeline typically requires starting activities within months and completing the plan within roughly two years. Committee members noted it is routine for consultantsand the countyto retain rights to editable deliverables (Word or similar) so the standing committee can make future updates.

Votes and formal outcomes recorded in the meeting minutes included the election of Bose and Ray, the motion to forward the CDBG application to the county board, the recommendation to hire Northwest Regional Planning, and the recommendation to add Charlie Ortman as an observer; precise roll-call tallies were not provided in the transcript and the committee used voice votes for these items.

The committee set follow-up tasks: collect current municipal comp plans from each town and the city, circulate recent comp plans written by Northwest Regional Planning as examples, finalize a public participation plan, and prepare the county board resolution authorizing the grant application. Committee members asked staff to circulate dates for the next committee meeting and to supply an editable version of the existing plan to aid member review.

Ending: The committee chair closed the meeting after setting a goal for future meetings to stay under two hours and confirming action items and next steps would be returned to the committee and to the county board as required.