Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Comment topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Residents and Rice Lake mayor speak to the Barron County Board on community events and rural grant challenges
Summary
Public comment included Joy inviting residents to a Canton/Lehigh sesquicentennial August celebration and Janine Ryberg urging the board to support changing the federal definition of 'rural' to improve grant access. Rice Lake Mayor Harlan Dodge also opened a forum to strengthen city–county communication during his administration.
During the public comment portion of the July 22 Barron County Board meeting, community speakers highlighted local events and federal grant challenges.
Joy, a Cameron resident, outlined plans for the Canton/Lehigh sesquicentennial celebration on Aug. 10–11, including an outdoor church service, an outdoor movie and a wooden-bat tournament. "We're having chicken dinner, which is our party issue to invite the community in and and have a free lunch," Joy said, inviting attendance.
Janine Ryberg, a town supervisor and district director for the Wisconsin Towns Association, asked the county to consider a resolution urging federal representatives to change the federal definition of "rural" (which she said is currently defined at 200,000 people or less for some grant programs) and to lower minimum project caps (she cited HR 2003 and HR 55437 as legislative references). Ryberg handed county staff a Price County resolution and a blank template and asked the board to add the issue to an upcoming agenda.
Separately, Rice Lake Mayor Harlan Dodge used an open forum to describe his office’s efforts to improve communication with county officials during a search for a new city administrator and other staff changes; he asked supervisors to contact city staff with questions and described priorities including roads, housing and intergovernmental coordination. Multiple supervisors thanked Mayor Dodge and discussed partnership points including road maintenance and a local logging museum.
Clerks recorded these comments during the public comment period; the board indicated the rural-definition request would be placed on the August agenda for further consideration.
