Lake Tomahawk board to allow lake district to adopt, enforce ordinances

By way of resolution, the Lake Tomahawk town board has authorized the Horsehead Lake Protection and Rehabilitation District to enact and enforce its own ordinances.

The action took place during the Aug. 9 town board meeting.

To open the discussion, town chairman George DeMet explained that town supervisor Lenore Lopez had asked for the item to be on the agenda “because she is our person on the Horsehead Lake district.” 

He said the lake district is looking to enact ordinances and regulations “concerning wake boats and jet skis and other such assumed nuisances.”

“The town, because this lake lies within the boundaries of the town, (has) the ability to enact ordinances, and because the district is totally within the town, we can make this resolution to give them the authority to write their own ordinances,” DeMet said. “Which I think is the way to go because they know what they want and we don’t.”

There was no discussion after DeMet’s comments. He then made a motion to pass the resolution, which passed unanimously with a 3-0 vote.

The resolution included a reference to Wis. Stat. § 30.77.  That statute states that a “public inland lake protection and rehabilitation district” can “enact and enforce ordinances applicable to a lake entirely within its boundaries” if a town having full jurisdiction over that lake adopts a resolution “authorizing the lake district to do so.”

Wake boats as a future agenda item

When asked about future agenda items, Lopez said she would like the board to consider an ordinance with regard to “protecting lakes within Lake Tomahawk’s jurisdiction that are less than 20 feet deep from the wake boats.”

She said she thinks it’s important for the board to “move quickly with something like this” to protect smaller lakes vulnerable to damage from wake boats.

Though she said more research needs to be done, she indicated that what she’s learned so far is cause for concern.

“Reading about the damage that they do, it can happen within one afternoon if one of those boats going through,” she said. “So I think it’s really important for shoreline protection. It says it brings up stuff from the bottom of the lake that creates more algae and the spread of invasive species.”

DeMet reiterated that more research will need to be done and ordinances can only be enacted on lakes entirely within the town’s boundaries.

“There’s half a dozen, maybe, that would fit those requirements,” he said. 

Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].