“Isn’t that a flood plain?” one member of the City Plan Commission asked another about a property near the Chapman Elk Park some months back. Said property had once been considered for a trailer park near the start of the twenty-first century.

“It’s not a flood plain,” the informed response came back. “It’s low.”

Well ok then. Glad to clear up that little detail.

Speaking of details, the near final draft of a new Comprehensive Plan (hereafter “Plan”) prepared for the City of Stanley by the West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (WCWRPC) is in, and the takeaways are many. Reviewed together by the WCWRPC and the City of Stanley Plan Commission on Tuesday, August 4, the draft lays out a couple key points. Among them is Stanley’s sewer system and drainage capacity.

“Operation of sanitary sewer service is provided by the City,” the Plan states. With nine lift stations throughout the city, the system designed for 1.1 million gallons per day is currently at 79 percent capacity or 850,000 gallons, sufficient for the present but not necessarily the future. Additionally, the system has a 550,000 gallon storage capacity.

Of the water drained from city toilets to the wastewater treatment plant on the City’s south side, meanwhile, the Plan states that the current sludge rate is above system capacity and that “It is critical this be addressed so as to accommodate current and future development.” The cost for new sanitary and water line extension are assessed against the property served, while no new private systems are allowed, and older independent systems must be hooked up to city water if they fail or are otherwise replaced. As to sanitary and recommendations, the draft Plan has several, arranged by Use/Capacity; short-term; and long-term categories.

Starting with “Use/Capacity,” the Plan states that “the Plan Commission recognized that there is not an abundance of water in the system,” calling for continued monitoring of capacity and needs. Additionally, the draft plan states that the conditions of the city wastewater distribution system “will change as the volume of hauled-in waste increases or decreases depending on economic conditions.” So what does that mean in the short-term?

In the first place, the plan from the WCWRPC recommends that the City “identify and undertake solutions for disposal of sludge created at the Wastewater treatment facility to ensure that the plant is designed to adequately handle the City’s sludge rates.” Additionally, it states that in the short-term the City of Stanley should continue to monitor the wastewater distribution and wastewater treatment plant “for needed maintenance and expansion.” Meanwhile, any needs identified in this monitoring should be integrated into a 5-year Capital Improvement Plan by the City. For long-term sanitary needs, the Plan states that Stanley should continue to review population growth and development and with this “the demand for liquid waste treatment from outside sources.”

Meanwhile, the majority of the stormwater now drained from local city streets is discharged into the Wolf River, with retention or detention as needed. As to stormwater planning more generally, the Plan notes that the City requires such planning for new development and also has floodplain zoning in place, as well as wellhead protection and the Stanley Mill Dam “located on the south side of Chapman Lake, once the company mill pond.

Regarding city departments, the draft report by the WCWRPC for Stanley states that the City Hall, Fire, Police, and Public Works departments “have adequate capacity for current levels of service,” with short-term needs including the need to continue to determine the needs of City department and facilities,” as well as the need “to monitor the need for addition to the police station, while the City Shop building “is deteriorating” and in need of repairs.

For long-term needs, the Comprehensive Plan as prepared by the WCWRPC calls for the integration of “a normal maintenance and replacement schedule as part of the City’s 5-Year Capital Improvement Plan.”

Neither the schools, childcare facilities, five city cemeteries, nor the local historical society were identified to have use or capacity needs of either a short or long-term nature, though it was stated by the City’s Plan Commission in discussion surrounding housing and future city growth that the Stanley-Boyd district was “very good” and should be used to promote the community, while the St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Boyd was listed as an alternative to the traditional public schools.

For other matters, the promotion of recycling and the continued expansion of broadband to a wider service area of availability were identified as needed improvements moving forward. The role of the local hospital in providing healthcare was cited, and electric and gas were touched upon, with continued tree trimming and removals “as needed” to maintain system integrity. To the extent such events are preventable, taking measures to prevent tree limbs falling onto power lines and elsewhere can avoid tragic consequences for those below. And then there was the library. “As identified in the 2009 (Plan), and by the Plan Commission, the library continues to be short on space,” the report states. The answer? A “library addition”—more on that as it (hopefully) develops post-COVID. 2020 has been a year of setbacks.

Photo by Joseph Back.