Section NR 47.955 - Eligible and ineligible costs(1) ELIGIBLE COSTS. Under this subchapter, the applicant's cost of removing, repairing, and replacing trees in an urban forest that have been damaged by a catastrophic storm event shall be eligible for reimbursement so long as those costs are not otherwise reimbursed by federal disaster assistance or other funding sources. To be eligible for reimbursement, the applicant shall have incurred eligible costs within a 365-day period beginning on the date on which the governor makes the declaration of emergency. Eligible costs includes: (a) Rented, leased or applicant supplied equipment and facilities.(b) Purchased equipment. For equipment whose useful life is one year or less, the full purchase price is an eligible cost. For equipment whose useful life is greater than one year, eligible cost is equal to one year's useful life as determined by dividing the purchase price by the number of years of useful life of the equipment. Useful life of equipment shall be determined by the department. Regardless of the useful life, equipment costing more than $5,000 per unit is not eligible for reimbursement.(c) Salaries and fringe benefits associated with applicant personnel engaged in removing, repairing and replacing storm-damaged trees.(d) Contractor and consultant service agreements to remove, repair and replace storm-damaged trees.(e) Marshalling yards and their operation.(f) Tree removal, stump grinding, cleaning and filling holes left by tree removal, tree repair, replacement tree purchase and planting, soil amendment and mulching, and tree guards and other protective devices for new tree establishment.(g) Disposal of wood and brush from tree removal and repair.(h) Processing wood and brush for other uses from tree removal and repair.(i) Applicant personnel mileage.(j) Necessary supplies. Supplies may include but are not limited to maps, fuel, computer software or devices for storm damage assessment and response, photocopies, photography, postage and other supply costs determined by the department to be reimbursable. Supplies do not include rent, personal computers, office printers or capital expenditures.(2) COST CONTAINMENT. Applicants shall control costs using the following methods. Failure by the applicant to demonstrate cost containment efforts at the time of reimbursement request may result in refusal by the department to issue reimbursement payments. Cost containment methods include the following: (a) Heavy equipment costs shall be calculated on an hourly or mileage rate, not to exceed the hourly or mileage rates established by the Wisconsin department of transportation for highway equipment. Note: The county highway rates for equipment are formulated under s. 84.07, Stats., and can be found in chapter 5 of the State Highway Maintenance Manual published by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, 4822 Madison Yards Way, PO Box 7910, Madison, WI 53707.
(b) Applicants shall implement cost-effective best management practices. All tree care operations shall meet standards established in all parts of the most current editions of ANSI A300 American National Standard for Tree Care Operations - Standard Practices and ANSI Z133.1 American National Standard for Arboricultural Operations - Safety Requirements. Note: The ANSI standards are available at www.isa-arbor.com International Society of Arboriculture, PO Box 3129, Champaign, IL 61826.
(c) Costs for removing, repairing, replacing or planting trees may not exceed local market rates.(d) All applicants receiving a grant under this subchapter shall comply with the state procurement law under ss. 59.52, 60.47, 62.15, 66.0131 and 66.0901, Stats. Note: So that applicants may better comply with state procurement and cost-containment requirements, the department makes available the document titled Procurement Guide for Local Governments Receiving Grants. This document is available from the department upon request by writing to: Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry, 101 S. Webster Street, P.O. Box 7921, Madison, WI 53707-7921, DNRUrbanForestryGrants@wisconsin.gov, or on-line at: http://dnr.wi.gov/aid/documents/procurementguide.pdf.
(3) INELIGIBLE COSTS. The department may not reimburse costs not directly associated with the implementation of this subchapter. Those costs include, but are not limited to the following:(a) Costs incurred before or more than 365 days after a governor's declared state of emergency for the applicant's area.(b) Costs for the repair of structures, vehicles, fences, sidewalks or other objects damaged by damaged trees or their parts.(c) Legal or settlement costs due to storm-related litigation.(d) Costs of routine urban forest management to trees unaffected by the storm.(e) Fines and penalties due to violations of, or failure to comply with, federal, state or local laws or regulations.(f) Ordinary applicant operating expenses, also called indirect costs, such as salaries and expenses of elected officials that are not directly related to urban forestry management.(g) Costs incurred in a contract which creates a real or apparent conflict of interest.(4) CONFLICT OF INTEREST PROHIBITION. An apparent conflict of interest arises when an official or employee of an applicant participates in the selection, awarding or administration of a contract supported by the grant and either: (a) The official or employee, or his or her spouse or partner or children, has an ownership interest in the firm selected for the contract.(b) A person identified in par. (a) receives a contract, gratuity or favor as a result of the award of the contract.Wis. Admin. Code Department of Natural Resources NR 47.955
CR 08-062: cr. Register May 2009 No. 641, eff. 6-1-09; correction in (2) (d) made under s. 13.92(4) (b) 7, Stats., Register May 2010 No. 653.Amended by, correction in (2) (a), (d) made under s. 13.92(4) (b) 6, Stats., Register January 2019 No. 757, eff. 2/1/2019