Road woes

A group of town of Medford property homeowners could see road woes ahead as the private road they live on is set to be taken by the county for nonpayment of property taxes.

Pine Road was among 14 parcels that have delinquent taxes going back to 2020 and 2021 and are eligible to be taken by the county through the in rem process and sold to recover the taxes.

Red Pine Road is a private road located in the town of Medford connecting to Center Ave. There are 10 parcels that have road access from the private road. At the time the area was developed, the developer retained ownership of the road with the property owners paying a road maintenance agreement, but there is no agreement filed between the property owners to share in the taxes owed.

See COUNTY on page 3 At the March 6 land information committee meeting, it was stated that tax bills were sent to the daughter of the owner of the road as the owner’s heir. Taxes on the road, which totals 1.34 acres, were last paid in 2020. According to county tax records, the amount owed on the parcel from the past four years of non payment is $65.60.

It was noted that if this was sold to some other party things could “get messy” with the potential for access being cut off. It was suggested the town could potentially tax the road over and get it enrolled for state road aids.

Red Pine Road is the largest of the three parcels set to be taken for back taxes, the others are long, narrow slivers of land between existing properties.

The town of Chelsea has the largest area of land with delinquent taxes eligible to be taken by the county with three parcels totaling 90.81 acres.

In the town of Cleveland, one property owner is delinquent on three parcels totaling 41.28 acres.

In the town of Westboro, one property owner has two tax delinquent parcels totaling 39.57 acres in size.

The village of Gilman has two parcels totaling .23 acres in size that are eligible to be taken by the county due to tax delinquency.

Committee members voted to start the in rem process on the tax delinquent parcels.

In related action, committee members reviewed proposed changes to Chapter 17 of the county code in response to a change in state law that allows the former owners or their beneficiaries to purchase a property tax deeded land back from the county by paying the delinquent taxes, any other liens and the county’s costs in the process.

In addition there is a shift requiring the county to attempt to sell property based on its appraised value rather than its assessed value.

“It is not that we set anything at an astronomical price,” said county treasurer Sarah Holtz.

She noted Taylor County, as well as all the other counties in the state, is being sued by a group going back 10 years to get a refund to the property owners for the amount the property was sold for in excess of taxes owed. Holtz said that in her time with the county the most that she believes the county made was about $40,000 on one parcel. However she said other counties in the state have made hundreds of thousands of dollars of profit from the sale of tax deed land.

There was some discussion regarding personal items left on the properties when they were taken. Historically, the county has sold the parcels as-is with the purchaser responsible for disposal. “As far as we were concerned, it was all garbage,” Holtz said of a recent sale in the village of Rib Lake.

The ordinance changes will be reviewed again in May and brought to the county board for approval in June.

Judicial privacy act

Taylor County is taking a wait and see approach and hoping for additional guidance from the state of Wisconsin when it comes to compliance with the state’s new judicial privacy act.

The law is patterned off of one in New Jersey that was passed after a federal judge’s adult son was killed by someone posing as a delivery driver to her home. Wisconsin’s law was signed last year, but finally goes into effect on April 1.

The law allows “judicial officers” who wish to, to file a formal request to have their names and identifying information removed from online government websites and land records.

Register of Deeds Jaymi Kohn noted the law was pushed through without the state having a handle on what it would require on the back end in regard to compliance. The law could impact even what is printed on the tax bills that would be mailed to those who requested the additional privacy protection.

The request would be in place for 10 years and the information would again be public if it expires or if the individual dies. The law makes “judicial officers” as well as immediate families members and others in their households eligible.

Committee member Tim Hansen questioned if this infringes on the public’s right to know and freedom of information.

Kohn said it would not change the records available in her office or limit access to those. She noted there is a cleanup act in the works that she said she hopes will address some of the issues.

She also cautioned the county to expect to have more to come anticipating more groups will be added to the privacy protections.

In other business, committee members:

• Received word that the carryover funds in the land information department are all grant funds that can’t be used for other purposes. “End of discussion,” Hansen said, noting the committees were asked to discuss it to see if they were needed.

• Approved authorizing county surveyor Justin Meyer to purchase new data collector and global positioning system equipment for his office at a price of just under $33,000 using grant funds. He was directed to work with buildings and grounds supervisor Joe Svejda to sell the existing equipment which was purchased four years ago. Meyer estimated it has a value of between $10,000 and $12,000. According to Meyer, while the equipment is relatively new, the technology in it was old when it was purchased and they are running into issues with not being able to keep up with software updates. The new units have more processing power and will work better in areas of tree cover and lowlands. The grant funds being used for the purchase are for the re-monumentation of survey markers.

• Rejected having GPS tracking in the surveyor’s vehicle. It was noted that it would be an ongoing cost despite the fact that through the winter and spring months the vehicle is seldom used as the county has historically done field work in summer and early fall. “It moves about once a month,” Meyer said. He also noted that when he is out in the field, he is often not near the vehicle and could be 2.5 miles into the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest marking corners. Being able to track employees locations for public safety was a major justification for the GPS tracking devices. “A coworker in the field would be better than a GPS tracker,” Meyer said.

• Approved spending $6,500 to replace plastic sleeves used to store the original plats in the register of deeds office. The cost will come from grant funds. The original plats go back 150 years to when the county was founded. The sealable plastic sleeves help protect them from degrading, but the existing sleeves are older and are gelling and beginning to stick to the documents. “I don’t know that the sleeves have ever been replaced,” Kohn said.