A home owner in the Peninsula Subdivision at Lake Brownwood is seeking permission to lease out her home for weekends to people wanting a place to stay at Lake Brownwood.

Vivian Auldridge, who owns property located on Spillway Road at Lake Brownwood, made her request at Tuesday’s Brown County Water Improvement District’s (BCWID) monthly board of directors meeting.

Currently, deed restrictions prohibit using property in this manner according to BCWID General Manager Dennis Spinks.

“No lot shall be used for business purposes of any kind or for any commercial or manufacturing or apartment house purposes,” said Spinks citing the restrictions.

Spinks said that the owner has been advertising the property as a weekend or short-term lease.  One complaint to the district brought the issued to the board of directors.

Auldridge’s attorney Ray West was present and told the board that they would like to get the BCWID’s approval as well as other property owners to change the deed restrictions to allow her to continue to lease the property on weekends.

“The deed restrictions do specify that if 75% of the property owners of the peninsula wish to change these deed restrictions, it can be done,” Spinks stated.  “But otherwise we have to follow the deed restrictions.”

West pointed out that the BCWID owns 12 of the 29 existing lots in the area and wanted feedback about the request before approaching other property owners.

“We would also like to hear comment on what you each individually think about the proposal,” said Spinks.

Several directors said that they would not object to the change if other property owners in the area were agreeable to reach the 75% requirement.

West said that they would contact the other property owners and revisit the issue with the board next month.  The board of directors tabled the issue to be addressed at the next meeting.

In other business:

*The board approved payment of $182,198 in additional service fees to the engineering firm Freese & Nichols, Inc. related to the district’s microfiltration water treatment plant project.  Spinks said that the plant has been in operation for about 3 weeks.  They are waiting for another part to arrive to bring it fully online.  The plan is to have the new plant take on 100% of the water treatment load so repairs can be made to the older west plant.

The board also approved $287,780 in fees to be paid to Freese & Nichols, Inc. for service fees for the related to the rehabilitation of the west plant.  These fees are for initial engineering work.  Officials estimate that total repair costs will approach $2 million.

*General Manager Dennis Spinks reported that Lake Brownwood is now 10.0 feet below spillway level.   Spinks said that the lake will have to drop another 2 feet for the BCWID to move into their stage 2 drought contingency plan.  Spinks noted that he doubts that will have to happen, but wanted to make the board aware.