Lac du Flambeau town board hears residents regarding road issue

The Lac du Flambeau town board, following a closed session during its Dec. 6 meeting, approved a payment of $36,000 to the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians for the Dec. 12 to Jan. 12 time frame.

Town chairman Matt Gaulke said also included with the payment would be a letter to the tribal council letting it know the town “was in receipt” of tribal president John Johnson Sr.’s letter to the town that was dated Dec. 1, 2023, and it would be reviewed prior to and during tomorrow’s closed session. 

That letter basically sets the terms for the resolution of the expired easement issue for Annie Sunn Lane, Center Sugarbush Lane, East Ross Allen Lake Lane and Elsie Lake Lane to the tune of nearly $10 million. 

The roads were barricaded by tribal road department workers on order from the tribal council on Jan. 31 because easements over portions of tribal land on the four roads have been expired for at least a decade.  

The roads were re-opened a few months later when the tribal council and town board reached agreement on the monthly fee paid to the tribe, a monthly payment that began at $20,000 but soon after became an escalating payment at $2,000 a month.

In his Dec. 1 letter to Gaulke and the town board, Johnson wrote that a new road permitting access ordinance approved in an August tribal referendum “applies to all roads traversing lands” owned by the tribe or by the United States as a trustee for the tribe. 

The new ordinance would allow legal access to the roads “in exchange for a fee equal to 1.5% of the state-assessed fair market value” for homes along the roads.

 Johnson wrote the town “will not be eligible to utilize” the ordinance until “the issues related to the past trespass over Annie Sunn Lane, Center Sugarbush Lane, East Ross Allen Lake Lane and Elsie Lake Lane (the Four Roads) along with past trespass over Big Thunder Lane, are resolved.”

To resolve the matter, Johnson in his letter included calculations used to reach a figure of $9,657,720 that includes $2,885,370 for a 10-year settlement at the rate of 1.5% of fair market value of the property along the four roads; $3,448,843 for a Big Thunder Road settlement including 1.5% applied to East Ross Allen Lake Lane for 31 years; $140,000 in legal fees related to negotiations; $183,807 in legal fees related to a lawsuit brought against the tribal council by property owners on the four roads and $3 million in tribal administrative fees. 

Johnson concluded the letter by stating the tribe won’t issue any permits to the town under the new ordinance until the tribe “receives payment for past trespass damages” and the tribe “will not approve” any new long-term assessments across access roads.

‘Not a local issue’

The Dec. 6 town board meeting was the first since Johnson’s letter of Dec. 1 and approximately 40 people were in attendance, most of them property owners on the four roads there to address the town board regarding the road issue. 

Gaulke made sure those present understood public comment on the meeting agenda was for comment only and the town board would be “unable to answer questions.”

East Ross Allen Lake Lane resident Dennis Pearson presented the town board with a copy of the uniformity clause of the state constitution which he said he believed “applies to the potential road fees that the tribe has proposed.”

“I think it’s a double-tax situation,” he said.

Pearson also gave the town board copies of a quick impact study for East Ross Allen Lake Road “which is the only road I know enough about to talk about.”

“The impact to the town is a devaluation of land of almost $3.5 million,” he said. “The road permitting fee would be $86,115 per year.”

Pearson said that amounts to $562 per foot. 

“That’s based on 2022 and not the 78% devaluation of 2023,” he said. 

Mary Possin, a resident of Elsie Lake Lane, said the issue has gone “well beyond anything the town of Lac du Flambeau can manage at this point.”

“It doesn’t have the resources to come even remotely close to the financial demands the tribe has made either for past trespass or for road access across the reservation in the future,” she said. “You know who does have these resources? The United States Congress and you know who started this mess in the first place? The United States Congress. Congress passed legislation at the turn of the last century for the express purpose of taking land, reservation land, out of the hands of Native Americans and into the hands of other Americans. If Congress hadn’t passed this, we wouldn’t be here tonight.”

Possin said the road dispute was no longer a local issue but a federal issue and she referred to the lawsuit the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed against the town.

“I’m pretty sure the Department of Justice made that really clear when it filed its lawsuit against the town,” she said. “So, I implore you to engage our congressional delegation ... let them know that it’s important that all parties in this dispute get something they need because this isn’t about sticking it to anyone.” 

A dispute never really ends, Possin said, until both sides feel their needs have been met and that “there is precedent.”

“The U.S. Congress has acted in the past to settle trespassing issues and we need to demand that they act now and that they act in a bipartisan manner,” she said. “And besides. What have you got to lose? I’m pretty sure you’re out of next moves.”

Joe Hunt, a property owner on Big Thunder Lane, said he and his neighbors, according to Johnson’s letter, “have been singled out for a $3.4 million fee for using a road for 31 years.”

“What I wanted to put into the record tonight is that in November of 2007, we abandoned the old Big Thunder Road,” he said. “We have signed documentation showing that.”

His neighbor, Dave Miess, told the town board he teaches photo workshops from his home and gives students directions so that they don’t use Big Thunder Road. 

“I tell them, ‘If Google maps sends you down the road, use these instructions instead,’” he said. “We’ve only been here three and a half years and we knew right away we weren’t supposed to be using that road—told not to use that road and we don’t use that road.”

Sandy Slasher, who with her husband owns property on Red Pole Lane which, like Big Thunder Lane is tied into East Ross Allen Lake Road, said when she and her husband bought the property three-and-a-half years ago, they weren’t told by anyone about the easements. 

“Not the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs), not by the tribe, not by the town, not by real estate (agents), not by the owner, no sign, no indication there was any easement issue,” she said. “I feel trapped and I feel extorted for something I knew nothing about.”

After the meeting, Gaulke told The Lakeland Times he thought another topic for the closed session would be whether or not to continue trying to get another meeting with the tribal council to negotiate the road issue. 

“To be honest, we’re in lawsuits with them so negotiations can be a little difficult now,” he said, also mentioning the litigation against the town by the DOJ and property owners. “It may wind up being something the attorneys handle from here on out.”

Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].