Meeting Preview: Little Muskego Lake District Continues to Tackle Unemployment, Grant Dilemma

The Little Muskego Lake District will meet at City Hall on Thursday night at 7pm, and much of the agenda features ongoing issues that the district is hoping to resolve once and for all.

Among those issues is the purchase of a weed harvester, which will replace a portion of the aging fleet currently in use on the lake. The district had agreed to post an ad for bids, and may review any responses at this meeting. A new truck lease is also an item that has been on previous agendae, and appears again on Thursday night's docket.

The district has also been struggling to best answer the issue of paying unemployment compensation costs from the staff it hires on a seasonal basis for the harvesting operation during the summer. At issue is current state regulations that allows employees to collect unemployment for positions held for more than 90 days.  As the weed harvesting season lasts longer than that, 'temporary' or 'seasonal' jobs offered to staff the operation fall under more regular employment.  The district is looking into working through temporary agencies to avoid the financial impact (present costs are about $800 each week) of the payout, or perhaps staggered hiring.

An ongoing debate over funding received for New Berlin property that was purchased will likely be discussed again, as LMLD members have raised concerns over grant dollars that the Muskego Lakes Land Conservancy has accepted from the Holz Foundation. LMLD members have stated they felt the $30,000 grant monies should be returned proportionately to all of the parties involved in funding the purchase of the land.

So far the conservancy has not changed its position to keep the funds and apply them to the ongoing maintenance the land will require.