Dunn County planning committee prioritizes workforce and natural-resource management; approves $184,820 budget amendment

At its May 21 meeting, the Dunn County Planning, Resource and Development Committee identified workforce capacity/specialized knowledge and natural resource management/environmental resiliency as its top two priorities in a service-prioritization exercise led by staffer Jenna. Members discussed five candidate issues — technology and public records access, workforce capacity, growth and land use, natural-resource resilience, and regulatory/legal complexity — and used a ballot/quarter exercise to reach consensus for follow-up work.

Jenna said the exercise is intended to guide a worksheet and service catalog review so the committee can recommend where to invest or accept lowered service levels during upcoming budget deliberations. "This next phase is just intended to set the stage to get you thinking about ... how that service change with the knowledge of that threat," Jenna said.

Separately, Chase (Land & Water staff) presented a budget amendment resolution totaling $184,820 to account for additional grant funding and project reimbursement (including producer-led watershed grants, a surface-water implementation grant near Lake O'Malley, a multi-discharger variance program, and funds for two snowmobile bridges). The committee voted unanimously by voice to forward the budget adjustment to the county board.

Land & Water staff also noted the county was assigned nine NR 151 assessment points for 2026 work under a DNR-led project (split between livestock and cropland sites); staff said CAFOs were excluded from the random points. Committee members asked for the service-catalog worksheet as homework and agreed to continue prioritization in upcoming meetings.

Next steps: committee members will complete the worksheet and return in June for deeper prioritization; the budget amendment will be transmitted to the county board for final action.