Cassian town board doubles down on opposition to proposed rehab center

The proposed adolescent recovery and wellness center (ARWC) the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council, Inc. (GLITC) is hoping to build on land it purchased on North Pine Square Road continues to dominate meetings of the Cassian town board, which remains resolute in its opposition to the project.

In an update offered during Monday’s regular board meeting, town chair Patty Francoeur stressed that the town board’s concerns about the proposed facility are not related to race.

 Francouer began by reporting that she met last week with Green Bay attorney Frank Kowalkowski who has sent a letter to county and state representatives outlining the town’s reasons for opposing the project and urging Oneida County to deny GLITC a conditional use permit (CUP) to build the facility.

As previously reported, Oneida County planning and zoning director Karl Jennrich has told The Lakeland Times that he has taken the position that “this facility is an allowed use upon issuance of the conditional use permit within residential and farming zoning district because there have been people who have said they don’t believe it is allowed.”

He also acknowledged that he asked for more information from GLITC and the CUP application will have to be reviewed by the Oneida County board’s planning and development committee. 

In September the town board passed a resolution formalizing its opposition to the project. The reasons cited included concerns about the loss of property values for neighboring landowners, that “subsequent reduction in property values and economic activity will reduce the revenue and further diminish the town’s ability to meet its obligation to the citizens” of Cassian and the potential for the proposed 36-bed facility to add a burden to the town’s infrastructure which the resolution states “is not designed to and (is) unable to support the construction and maintain the day-to-day demands” of a new center. 

During Monday’s meeting, Francoeur also reported that a copy of the town board’s resolution has been sent to “all the local towns, state and county officials making sure they understood our opposition and they would see that.”

She also noted that the Little Rice town board also passed a similar resolution. 

Francoeur also said the town received the Oct. 31 letter from GLITC chief executive officer Bryan Bainbridge in which he responded to several of the concerns stated in the Cassian town board’s resolution.

“There is communication as far as that goes,” she said. 

As for next steps, Francoeur said she asked town supervisor John Schaub, the chair of the town planning commission, to put together a meeting so planning commission members “can review (the CUP application) and have some input on it and then bring it to the board also so we get some more eyes that are actually looking at it.”

Schaub indicated the planning commission meeting will take place next week. 

“We’ll look over the CUP (application) and we’ll discuss some of the things we may need to change or ideas we need to add or whatever,” he said. “Once we look at it, then the town board will have a separate public meeting and everyone is invited to that.”

Schaub said any input gathered from those meetings will be forwarded to the Oneida County planning and zoning department. A public hearing will also be scheduled by the county board’s planning and development committee. 

He said he’d talked to Jennrich earlier in the day and was told that the planning and development meeting would take place “at a neutral site.”

“It will be at the Woodruff town hall,” Schaub said. “That’s where the meeting is actually going to be. There’s no date or time set as of yet.”

He stated that Jennrich told him Bainbridge was “sort of pushing” and emails were sent to contractors regarding the start of clearing the land because GLITC has received approval from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to do so. 

 “They want to start doing that,” Schaub said. “Karl said he sent them emails saying ‘You might be a little early on this even though you’ve got the permission.’” 

Later in the meeting, he urged nearby landowners who see that sort of activity occurring before the CUP application moves forward to let the town board know. 

Not a race issue

Francoeur advised that Kowalkowski told her that what is needed is “a lot of support from our local towns, from our county supervisors.”

“So when everybody’s talking about it, for or against ... I know there’s a lot of interviews that have been going on with the media and I just want to state very clearly that the town board of Cassian, in no way is this anything a racial type of disagreement of why we don’t want the facility here. We don’t believe it belongs here, doesn’t really fit into the town of Cassian,” she said.

Francoeur said the town board would like to see town businesses located along U.S. Highway 51 or County Highway K.

“A lot of reason is in the spring, when we put on load limits, where it (the ARWC) is located, there would be load limits,” she said. “We’re not gonna make an exception except for emergency vehicles.”

Francoeur said she couldn’t state what anyone’s “personal views are on anything.”

“I’m saying from the town board and the town of Cassian, that this has nothing to do with any racial type of opposition,” she reiterated.

‘Not crazy about it’

At one point a question was asked about the county planning and development meeting being conducted at the Woodruff town hall. Toward the end of the discussion, Oneida County board supervisor Tony Rio, the District 12 representative that includes Cassian’s Ward 2, said the facility, if it’s built, won’t be in District 12.

“So, don’t yell at me,” he said, a comment that drew a few chuckles.

(According to the county website, supervisor Ted Cushing represents the area where GLITC hopes to build the facility).

Rio advised people who plan to make comments to Oneida County about the proposed ARWC, “the best bet is to show up whenever that meeting is scheduled” at the planning and development committee. 

“You can also send emails,” Rio said. “All the addresses for all the supervisors are available on the county site along with meeting schedules and agendas and that sort of thing. It’s been my experience that, and I’m going to say this very carefully, I’m one of the few supervisors who reads their email regularly and responds to that.”

He said he knows there a few other supervisors who do read their mail.

A Cassian resident, he also suggested a push to have the planning and development meeting held somewhere other than Woodruff. 

For a matter in the Three Lakes or Rhinelander area, for example, Rio said planning and development will often hold a meeting at the Oneida County courthouse in Rhinelander.

“Because it’s convenient to everybody,” he said. “If it’s something that’s going to be a smaller issue, they will do it at the Minocqua planning and development office. If it’s something they feel will have more public participation, which, I’m hoping there will be, it would be at Woodruff.”

Part of that, Rio opined, is because “the guys that are on planning and development are mostly Minocqua guys.”

Committee member Bob Almekinder is a county board member from Minocqua and Woodruff town chairman Mike Timmons, also a county supervisor, is on the planning and development committee.

“So, it’s convenient to them,” Rio said. “I would certainly push for (the meeting) to be somewhere other than that.”

A Cassian resident asked Rio to share his feelings on the proposed ARWC and how he would vote on it.

“There’s two ways,” he said. “There’s the diplomatic way and the Tony Rio way. The diplomatic way is I don’t have all the information because I haven’t seen the CUP (application) yet and that sort of thing. I don’t want to promise anything to any one group.”

Rio acknowledged it’s difficult for him because he sits on the county board’s social services committee and he understands there’s a need for the type of services the ARWC would provide not only in this part of Wisconsin but “across the state.”

“As a Cassian resident ... I have some pretty significant concerns about it,” he said. “Infrastructure, police support, ambulance  support. I would much rather see this closer to town because of those things.”

Rio said he’s talked to Oneida County sheriff Grady Hartman about the planned ARWC “and he said he didn’t have a whole lot of concerns.”

To wrap up his comments, he repeated that from a supervisor point of view, he doesn’t have all the information.

“From a Tony Rio point of view, I don’t like the idea,” he said. “I’m not crazy about it.”

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