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Village officials have a little more measuring to do before they have a final solution, but they appear to be closing in on placement for a public use pier at the village boat launch off of Cogswell Drive.
The village has been trying to figure out a way to put in a public pier to discourage boaters from using piers on the adjacent private property of the Wisconsin Lakeland Property Association.
Current solutions include one that emerged during discussion Wednesday night — placing a pier 12 feet from a storm drain on the east side of the launch. That would likely leave enough room for docking on only the east side of the pier. It also would not allow another boat to launch until the docked boat was cleared. Trustee Chris Willkomm will do some measuring to make sure a pier would fit there.
Another possible solution that was discussed was extending the police pier on the far west side of the launch. However, police Chief Dan Kingsley said he is concerned that the police pier is not appropriate for public use because it is narrow and slick. After the meeting, public works supervisor Bob Williams suggested moving the police pier a little to the east, widening it and lengthening it, which might allow police equipment to be docked on one side and public use on the other.
Kingsley offered to talk to the DNR about possible solutions. He also said he would investigate if some grant funding might be available if a new pier had some law enforcement use.
The board doesn’t intend the new pier to be used for long-term docking. It may have to pass an ordinance setting a limit, such as 10-minutes.
Enough progress has been made on the issue, however, for officials to be confident the launch will remain open. Last month, officials were concerned that if a pier solution could not be found the board might not be able to keep the launch open due to the trespassing issue.
“We would not close that launch,” village President Roger Johnson said Wednesday.
