Lake Tomahawk to receive DNR funding for Bass Road improvements

The town of Lake Tomahawk has up to $150,000 in funding waiting for improvements to a little more than a mile of Bass Road. 

Town chairman George DeMet informed town supervisors Stephanie Sowatzka and Lenore Lopez during the Dec. 11 meeting of the town board he’d received an email in early December from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) regarding an email exchange he had with the agency in February of 2023.

“I got an email from the DNR looking for road projects through state forest land and it was like, due the next day,” he said of the 2023 inquiry by the DNR. “So, I quickly filled out this application and sent it in. Never heard anything. Last week, I got an email ... they’ve got $150,000 for us to work on Bass Road. Surprised the heck out of me.”

DeMet said the money will be available in July of 2025. 

“The town doesn’t have to put any money into it,” he said.

The town road is a gravel road used for access to the Wind Pudding Lake State Natural Area which is part of the DNR’s Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest.

DeMet said after the meeting whatever improvement to Bass Road will be primarily graveling. 

Beth Feind, a division of forestry property manager for the DNR, told The Lakeland Times after the meeting the money for the Town and County Road Aids program comes from the DNR’s conservation fund. 

As for why it took some time for the town to hear anything from the DNR after DeMet submitted the application form in February 2023, Feind said this year, the Bass Road project was rated high enough on a list of different projects to approve the funding. 

“We have a state forest property manager’s group that gets together each year that determines which project will get funded,” she said. “Unfortunately, in 2023, Lake Tomahawk wasn’t awarded the funding but we keep all those applications on file.” This year, the Bass Road project in Lake Tomahawk rated, or ranked, high enough in priority for the agency to award up to $150,000. 

“We make sure the town is still interested in improving the road,” Fiend said. “That’s why it took so long. The Bass Road project wasn’t approved in the first cycle but was ranked high in the next cycle and got approved.”

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