Last updated: September 2026
What happened at the Price County Land Use & UW-Extension Committee meeting?
We opened the Thursday, July 23 meeting with three hours of land-use business, then sat through a separate UW-Extension session. Two Solberg Lake stories dominated. One ended in a handshake. The other ended in a denial.
Quick Answer: Janke & Sons agreed to hold off on front-lot gravel work until 7 a.m. while the screener stays by Solberg Lake Road, even though its permit stays at 6 a.m. The committee denied Natalie Schuler’s cage-free dog retreat at W8802 Solberg Lake, and approved Flambo Sports General Store’s restaurant and tavern permit update. The next meeting is September 17.
Why is the Solberg Lake gravel pit back in front of the committee?
Operator Ryan Janke came to the table expecting a checkup, not a fight. Neighbors came expecting more. This was the follow-up item on the conditional use permit, and the room had no shortage of opinions on whether Janke & Sons was living up to its 16 conditions.
Maryanne Kerner of W6544 County Road H Phillips blamed the Price County Board zoning committee, saying officials “did not check things out” before approving the site. She told us her cattle feel the noise. Tammy Melbour, who lives at N9533 East Solberg Lake Road, asked the committee to shave the permit’s 6 a.m. start back to 7 a.m. until the berm and trees are in place; she surveyed other pits online and found most open at 7. John Reams of N9453 Solberg Lake Road argued the conditions were active the moment the permit was signed, and that the driveway (which moved about a week earlier) took a month too long.
What condition did Janke flag as the big sticking point?
The 100-foot buffer. Evan, the land use staffer who has been fielding complaints all month, said that was the only condition he raised with the owners. The permit gives Janke until September 1, 2027 to plant the trees, and that deadline did not move.
Janke said topsoil screening at the front should finish by the weekend, weather permitting. Once the screener moves to the woods behind the field, he said, “we can start at seven” voluntarily — no motion needed. He also promised to gravel the full road to the tree line, not just the 100-foot entrance, to cut dust, and to seed the buffer with a clover-and-DOT mix.
Is Janke in compliance while work stays out front?
Mostly, with one human asterisk. The permit allows 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and Evans said he has heard of no violations “where the screener’s running before 6:00 or after 6 p.m.” One complaint logged a 6:02 start; even the person who complained admitted it met the conditions.
Ryan Janke was candid on the clock. “That one day when there was a complaint, I was there at 6:24,” he said. He added he usually reaches the shop at 6 and the site by 6:30. DNR called him the morning of the meeting and, after he sent pictures of the lined landfill area, “they said that looks good.”
What about the 90-decibel noise limit?
The committee wrote the 90 dB benchmark into the permit, the same number it uses for the fair’s large assembly ordinance. Janke argued the screeners sit under that limit, though a neighbor’s porch may still pick up hum. “It’s tough for me living on a lake to have boats going by,” one member countered.
We pressed on the buffer itself. There is no berm requirement, only a vegetated buffer plus three rows of coniferous trees by September 1, 2027. Planting happens in spring — kill a tree now, Janke said, and you’d “kill a tree if you planted them right now.”
Did the committee formally change the hours?
No. Members wanted to pull the trigger, but the agenda item was a follow-up, not a permit review, and the parliamentarian warned against official action without public notice. Instead, the panel leaned on Janke’s voluntary word. “As long as the screener is in front, we can start at seven,” he agreed.
The gate is another condition. Janke plans to secure the road entrance by November, when the pit idles for the season. Members agreed a gate would “look really silly” before the trees establish, since a pickup could enter the field anywhere along Solberg Lake Road.
Could the gravel pit hours change down the road?
Yes, and the committee signposted exactly how. Members told neighbors and Janke alike that a two-month or 60-day hour adjustment is within the panel’s power under Act 67 — it amended conditions at the last meeting, and the operator has to accept them. One member framed the morning hour as the real pressure point, not the evening close.
Janke’s crew is baling hay and juggling other jobs, so “off and on” is the honest read on front-lot work. The goal, he said, is to get the front “green again with a blue driveway going through it” and a pile of topsoil in the corner, with 90 percent of the work shifted behind the tree line.
Why did the committee deny Natalie Schuler’s dog retreat at Solberg Lake?
The same water that drew angry gravel-pit neighbors drew a different kind of complaint. Greg Fox, who said he has owned his W8802 Solberg Lake cabin for 60 years and drove up from Vesper, argued you cannot run a dog farm on an 0.8-acre lot. He told us the business already has signs up and dogs yipping from the dock before it even holds a permit.
Paul Shanner of Marshfield, a neighbor at W8844 Solberg Lake, echoed the signs-and-dogs theme, calling it “wrong” that operations appear to have started without approval. The applicant, Natalie Schuler, defended the model as a small, appointment-only, cage-free retreat with 24/7 supervision and a screening process for every dog.
What did the committee find in the application?
Gaps. Members noted the lot is roughly 100 feet wide on a narrow gravel road, and the RR1 ordinance’s conditional-use list does not mention dog boarding. A motion to send the application back for revisions with a 90-day extension failed on a voice vote, killing the path to the September meeting.
Schuler said “three to four” boarded dogs at a time, plus her own two — a small corgi and a lab. The committee wanted a hard number, a fencing plan, and clarity on overnight stays, which the permit’s 8 a.m.-to-6 p.m. hours did not match.
How did the panel justify the denial?
It leaned on scale and containment. A 100-foot building setback for structures housing more than one animal unit could never be met on the lot, members said. “Eight acres is small to do anything,” one added, comparing it to the Barking Bungalow on Tower Road, a bigger, wood-set lot approved in January 2022 with a 6-foot fence and an indoor-after-10-p.m. rule.
The motion to deny carried. Members said they want conditions that protect against barking and loose dogs, and to preserve the right to pull the permit on complaints if it were ever approved.
What else did the land-use panel take up?
The lighter part of the docket came early. Rebecca and Brett Trigg won approval to update Flambo Sports General Store’s conditional use permit to cover a small restaurant and tavern — a pizza oven on top of bait, snacks and bear bait that make up more than 80 percent of sales. Amanda Frali’s supporting letter praised “more services and choices for people in the Lugerville area.”
And a land division, plus ordinance work
Ezra Gotham, for Ralph Winter, cleared a two-lot split in the Town of Kennan with roughly 6 acres and 300-plus feet of flowage frontage. Staff called it clean since the county holds shoreland zoning jurisdiction there.
Beyond the votes, zoning staff is drafting an ordinance for battery energy storage systems and data centers with WCAA’s recommended law firm, Andy Phillips, working with partner Rebecca Roker. The target: a rough draft this September, a public hearing in October, and county board action in November, likely bundled with a junk-and-salvage amendment to save on legal publishing costs.
What did UW-Extension report to the committee?
The county’s two zoning meetings gave way to a third — UW-Extension — where Assistant Dean Jason Hoeseler, who covers northern Wisconsin, told the panel that the loss of FoodWIse and SNAP-Ed money cost the organization nearly 100 positions in fall 2025. He flagged a federal lawsuit over Smith-Lever funding, roughly 10 million dollars for Wisconsin, that 20-plus states have joined.
Hoeseler confirmed Amber is now the permanent area director for Price County, a region that gained Oneida County after Art’s retirement. The committee also revisited the idea of a second county educator; Amber described extension as understaffed at roughly a 0.5 FTE today.
What did 4-H bring this summer?
Julie Degenrock reported zero behavior problems at summer camp. She called it “the best summer camp I’ve ever been to.” Campers at Northern Lakes Impact Center in Rhinelander built birdhouses, canoed, sailed pontoon rides and ran an impromptu talent show — including one kid who spelled long words and another who took math problems on the fly.
The numbers tell the outreach story. Forty kids did food-and-nutrition lessons at Park Falls through the AmeriCorps pilot, and 47 second-graders each took home a loaf from “bread in a bag.” Chloe, Caitlyn Schult and Trinity Wesley worked as summer AmeriCorps members across Price and Taylor counties.
What about the horticulture specialist and zoning questions?
Bruce, a statewide outreach specialist on lawns and turf grass, says he is housed in Price County and lives in Park Falls. He pointed to Ask a Gardener, a 24/7 service, his weekly Wisconsin Yard and Garden column, and statewide diagnostic clinics as the modern reach of the program.
We asked Hoeseler about grant writing help for towns and townships. His answer was a “yes, and”: extension will advise and bring research to an application, but he steered clear of taking on project management for a county’s grant, calling that a capacity the counties should build themselves.
Sources
See also: our guide to free camping in Wisconsin
See also: our 48-hour Price County itinerary
See also: our complete lodging guide for Price County
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the hours of operation for the Solberg Lake gravel pit?
The permit allows 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Janke & Sons agreed to hold to 7 a.m. while the screener works the front parcel by Solberg Lake Road, then return to the permitted hours once operations move into the woods. A formal change would require the committee to amend conditions under Act 67.
When will the buffer trees be planted at the gravel pit?
The committee requires three rows of coniferous trees by September 1, 2027. Ryan Janke said planting happens in spring, when county tree orders arrive, since fall planting would kill the trees. The front buffer will be seeded with a clover-and-DOT mix this fall.
Was the Solberg Lake dog retreat approved?
No. The committee denied Natalie Schuler’s cage-free dog boarding application on July 23. Members cited the roughly 100-foot-wide lot, an unmeetable 100-foot building setback for structures housing more than one animal unit, and an application that did not line up with her overnight boarding plans.
Did the committee approve the Flambo Sports General Store permit update?
Yes. Rebecca and Brett Trigg won approval to update the Lugerville store’s conditional use permit to cover a small restaurant and tavern, centered on a pizza oven. The decision passed with no dissenting votes.
When is the committee’s next meeting?
The Land Use & UW-Extension Committee’s next meeting is September 17, 2026. The panel crossed out an August 20 date on its schedule.