April 6, 2023 at 3:31 p.m.
Lac du Flambeau town board, tribal council meet for first time on road closure issue
The meeting was conducted in closed session in the meeting room of the Tribal Center in Lac du Flambeau and lasted nearly three hours.
Lac du Flambeau town chairman Matt Gaulke called to order a special town board meeting at 9 a.m. at the town hall and then he and town supervisors Gloria Cobb and Bob Hanson went to the tribal center.
They were accompanied by attorney Frank Kowalkowski with the law firm of Vonbriesen and Roper.
He was there in place of town attorney Greg Harrold, who was unable to attend.
The meeting was the first between the two governing bodies since they reached a 90-day agreement earlier this month that resulted in the tribe reopening four roads with expired easements on tribal land.
Those roads, Annie Sunn Lane, Center Sugarbush Lane, East Ross Allen Lane and Elsie Lake Lane, were closed off with barricades by the tribe on Jan. 31.
The town paid the tribe $60,000 as part of that agreement.
The stated intent for the 90-day agreement was to allow for time to get a longer term agreement worked out between the tribe, the town and title insurance companies.
Once Friday's meeting with the tribal council was finished, the town board and Kowalkowski returned to the town hall and met in closed session for a few more minutes.
Once that was complete, Gaulke reconvened the town board meeting into open session and made a statement before adjourning the meeting.
"We don't have any formal action to take but I do want to let everybody know that we had a very good and we feel very productive meeting with the tribal council," he told the group of approximately 15 town residents, most of whom had waited at the town hall since 9 a.m. "We have identified another date later in April to again meet with them and discuss things talked about today."
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