Lac du Flambeau town board OKs December payment to Lac du Flambeau tribe

The Lac du Flambeau town board, after meeting in closed session at the end of its Nov. 15 meeting, approved another payment to the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians related to the ongoing road easement issue the town has with the tribe.

The payment approved was $34,000 for the Dec. 12 to Jan. 12 time frame and included will be another letter from the town to the tribal council asking for another meeting to discuss the matter. 

“The matter” is the expiration a decade ago of easements for four roads, Annie Sunn Lane, Center Sugarbush Lane, East Ross Allen Lake Lane and Elsie Lake Lane, that include tribal land, an expiration that led to the Lac du Flambeau tribe shutting the roads down on Jan. 31 of this year. 

The town board agreed to the monthly payments, initially $20,000, after an agreement was reached with the tribe to reopen the roads. 

That 90-day agreement, in which the town also paid the tribe $60,000, got the roads re-opened and was intended to be a period of time used by the two sides to meet and negotiate a long term resolution.

Even with the agreement in place and the initial $60,000 paid to the tribal council, along with monthly payments that began at $20,000 after the 90 days passed and before the tribal council demanded an escalating monthly payment, there’s never been a guarantee from the tribal council the four roads will stay open. 

For the past several months, the town board has asked for another meeting with the tribal council and as of Thursday, Nov. 16, town chairman Matt Gaulke told The Lakeland Times, as he told town residents at the meeting the day before, there’s been no response from the tribal council to the town’s request for a meeting regarding the roads. 

The last of those meetings was in May. 

“We want to meet with them and start trying to get things squared away,” Gaulke said. “Try to come to some conclusion to this or at least, an agreement.”

Regarding the monthly payments, he confirmed the title insurance companies for property owners involved in the road issue are paying half of each month’s amount although at the moment, Gaulke said they’re two months behind. 

There were questions from residents about the road issue during the public comment portion of the Nov. 15 meeting, which, because it was public comment, for the most part because of state open meetings law, prohibited the town board from getting into an extensive, open discussion. 

Gaulke was asked by the Times if there’s been any thought to, with winter coming up and the immediate future of the easement issue uncertain, conducting a town meeting about the road issue as the town board did in late May. 

At that meeting, in the auditorium of the Lac du Flambeau public school, the town board addressed questions about the road issue submitted by residents ahead of time as well as input from residents at the meeting.

Gaulke didn’t rule out the possibility but for now, indicated there are no plans for another of those meetings.

“No, that hasn’t come up,” he said. 

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