County enters agreement with Gundersen Emergency Medical Services
By Ted Pennekamp
During its regular meeting Tuesday morning, the Crawford County Board of Supervisors, by unanimous vote, authorized an emergency medical dispatch agreement with the Gundersen Emergency Medical Services Communication Center.
The Public Safety Committee had recommended that it would be beneficial to provide pre-arrival emergency medical dispatch instruction services to callers requesting emergency services through the Crawford County 911 system.
Also by unanimous vote, the board authorized fees to cover the costs incurred by the county as it pursues foreclosure tax liens on tax delinquent properties.
The guidelines are as follows:
•The title work fee will be charged to each delinquent property as soon as the title work is ordered.
•Once the foreclosure action is filed, there will be an additional $200 fee charged to each delinquent property to cover the estimated additional costs (including legal fees) of the foreclosure process.
•At such time as the foreclosure action is filed with the court, it will be mandatory that all delinquent and current year taxes plus any interest, fees and penalty be paid in full in order for the land owner to redeem their property.
•After the redemption time period is up, the county will charge a 10 percent redemption fee on the “net tax” for each property that was not redeemed during the redemption period to cover the estimated additional costs that may be incurred in proceeding with appraisal and sale of such property.
Once the default judgement is entered, the county will not allow the land owner to redeem the property without specific approval of the Delinquent Tax Committee. It will be advertised and sold either at public auction or by sealed bid.
•If a land owner files a “Homestead Credit” claim, the county will charge an additional fee of 2 percent of the sale price as an estimated processing fee together with special assessments, interest, penalty and any other fees associated with said property.
•Interest and penalty will no longer be charged to the properties after the default judgement is entered in favor of Crawford County.
In other business, the board by unanimous vote, authorized participating in a class action Payments in Lieu of Taxes Act (PILT) lawsuit.
County Treasurer Deanne Lutz explained to the board that the county will be joining numerous other counties in Wisconsin and throughout the country in a class action lawsuit (Kane County, Utah versus the United States) seeking payment by the federal government of amounts due to local units of government for underpayment under the PILT Act in fiscal years 2015, 2016 and/or 2017.
County Attorney Mark Peterson said there would be no negative to joining the lawsuit because the county would have no monetary obligations.
Lutz said the county receives PILT funds every year, but the county may not have been paid the full amount it should have. She said there is no way of knowing for sure if the county has been slighted and by how much. She said the county received $81,000 last year. The PILT funds are federal funds that are divided among all the townships of the county.
Candidate attends meeting
Near the end of Tuesday’s meeting, Loren Oldenburg, who is running for the 96th Assembly seat vacated by Lee Nerison, introduced himself to the board. Oldenburg is a Republican and a fourth generation dairy farmer from Viroqua. He said he is also a businessman and a former town board member and town board chairman.
“I look forward to working with you all,” said Oldenburg.
