A stormwater job on Lake Mary in the Village of Twin Lakes was finished before the state permit for the work had been issued. The Knobes Avenue project, put at $67,485, called for replacing about 222 feet of 30-inch corrugated metal storm sewer pipe with new high-density polyethylene pipe, plus a metal end wall and riprap where the line outlets into the lake.
The work was one piece of a larger package. Village records put four stormwater projects together at $173,895, and the Village Board approved the work on July 20, with Bradford Construction holding the construction contract. Village Administrator Laura Jager said building started around Sept. 22 and was largely finished around Oct. 9.
State review was still open while that building went on. Engineer Frank Brey had asked the Department of Natural Resources in June whether the larger pipe needed a Chapter 30 individual permit, and DNR official Sonya Ponzi confirmed that it did. The agency logged the application on July 27, put it on hold on Aug. 5 while asking for more detail, and on Sept. 29 told the engineer the file could advance but public notice steps still remained.
The public notice ran in the Oct. 9 edition of The Report, around the date the village says the job was substantially complete, inviting comment on work that was already in the ground. Resident Dr. Bryan Neal, who had been tracking the permit, pressed the questions that brought the issue out. In an Oct. 29 email, Ponzi told Neal she had not known the project had started or finished, called the placement of structures on the Lake Mary bed a violation of section 30.12 of the Wisconsin Statutes, and said she would work through enforcement with the village and its consultant.
On Nov. 3, Jager said the village had relied on its contracted engineer to handle permitting and oversee building, that the engineer acknowledged starting before the permit issued and accepted responsibility, and that the engineer agreed to pay a $1,500 after-the-fact fee and other costs tied to the early start. She said the DNR expected to issue the permit and to let the structures stay, though final confirmation was still pending. Who directed the contractor to begin, and what village officials knew at that point, was not identified in her response. Trustee Kevin Fitzgerald said officials would look at steps to keep a similar violation from happening again.
