GLITC CEO attends Cassian planning meeting

Bryan Bainbridge, the chief executive officer of the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council, Inc. (GLITC), did not have to attend the Nov. 20 meeting of the Cassian planning commission.

However, during the course of the 80 minute meeting, Bainbridge expressed his belief that he needed to be present to answer questions about a conditional use permit (CUP) application GLITC has submitted to Oneida County to build a 36-bed adolescent recovery and wellness center (ARWC) on property it purchased on North Pine Square Road.

“The ARWC is a 36-bed residential facility centrally located in Wisconsin to best serve all Member Tribes and urban Indians,” according to information on the facility posted on the GLITC website. “It will provide culturally relevant services and responsive residential substance abuse treatment for Native American youth, ages 13-17, who are suffering from Substance Use Disorder (SUD) and any co-occurring mental health conditions. Priority will be given to Native American youth, but the facility would be available to non-Native adolescents as well.”

Since plans for the proposed facility were made public earlier this summer, and despite Bainbridge maintaining he wants to work with the town of Cassian and Oneida County, there’s been plenty of opposition from the town board as well as some town residents.

 In September, the town board approved a resolution outlining the reasons for its opposition, largely centering around concerns about infrastructure, public safety, property values and the impact on taxpayers. 

The town has hired an outside attorney, Frank Kowalkowski of Green Bay, who sent a letter to the Oneida County planning and zoning office explaining in greater detail the reasons the board believes the CUP application should be denied. 

Bainbridge, in turn, sent a letter to the town on Oct. 31. In that letter, he responded to the board’s concerns as listed in the resolution approved in September. 

The Nov. 20 Cassian planning commission meeting was the first town meeting Bainbridge has attended since July 24 when he gave a presentation on the ARWC and the reasons for it. 

Town supervisor John Schaub, planning commission chairman, noted at the beginning of the meeting that it “is actually an informational meeting.”

“We won’t be voting on anything tonight,” he said. “We’re gonna go over the CUP (application) and then once we decide what we’re gonna do, we as a planning commission will present stuff to the town board. We’re here to go over the CUP, some of the issues (with) the facility that don’t fit in our comprehensive plan. The next public meeting, we’ll allow you to speak and express your concerns.”

Schaub said if people had “real concerns” they could send them to town chair Patty Francoeur who, along with the town board’s third member, Dick Herman, was in attendance along with approximately 40 other people. 

Schaub also explained that the town is required by the state to have a comprehensive plan approved every 10 years. 

Later, he clarified that the plan is essentially advisory in nature. 

He said Oneida County planning and zoning department director Karl Jennrich, who also serves as a town board member in Conover, had planned to be at the meeting but “had some concerns” in Conover and was unable to attend. 

“He said if we had questions, he would answer them,” Schaub said. 

For the next several minutes, he and planning commission member Chip Bromann went over the CUP application submitted by GLITC. Schaub read the questions asked by the county zoning office and Bromann read GLITC’s responses. 

Jennrich previously told The Lakeland Times that the proposed ARWC project appears to meet the requirements of the Oneida County zoning ordinance but the decision as to whether to issue the permit would be up to the county board’s planning and development committee. 

Despite Schaub advising that the meeting was “informational,” there were several questions from Cassian residents for Bainbridge, among them whether there were other facilities like the proposed ARWC and if there was a business plan to see how such facilities operate. 

“Part of the reason we’re doing this is lack of facilities,” Bainbridge responded, adding that he spoke talked to someone who started a similar facility for adolescents in Oconomowoc. 

“It’s a private firm,” he said. “I’ve never seen their business plan.”

Bainbridge was asked if GLITC had other facilities like the proposed ARWC. 

“No,” he said. “This is the first one.”

There were other questions posed by those in attendance about items tied to infrastructure, which Schaub said is the town’s greatest concern; whether or not the land GLITC purchased in Cassian would ever be in federal land trust status, which Bainbridge said he didn’t see ever happening, and questions about news reports that the facility wasn’t to be just for adolescents but for adults as well.

Bainbridge, who mentioned misinformation about the project has been circulating over the past few months, assured those in the audience the facility is for 13 to 17 year olds only.

Others present raised concerns as to where the Oneida County planning and development committee would conduct its public hearing on the GLITC CUP application. 

That meeting is scheduled to take place at the Woodruff community center, something both Schaub and Francoeur told the audience was under control of Oneida County and not the town. 

‘I feel pretty good’

After the meeting, Bainbridge said he felt the planning commission meeting “went better than the last meeting” he attended on July 24.

“At least, there’s willingness to listen,” he said. “I feel pretty good. This is the reason I took the time to come here, to answer the questions because there are so many false statements going on and making it out to sound like a bad facility or bad idea but I think it’s important. There’s still that need and there’s that need for information.”

Bainbridge referenced what he described as the “book” of documents Schaub showed the audience during the meeting, documents that comprise the CUP application submitted to Oneida County. 

“There is a pretty good stack of documents that explains operations and what it’s about and everything else that a lot of people were asking about,” he said. “We just progress and move things forward. It’s something that’s needed and it was stated here at the meeting.”

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