February 27, 2024 at 5:40 a.m.
Lake Tomahawk town board awaiting attorney’s input on wake ordinance
The Lake Tomahawk town board is waiting to hear from its attorney, Greg Harrold, regarding a draft enhanced wake ordinance.
At the board’s Feb. 14 meeting, the first time a proposed ordinance addressing enhanced wake was on an agenda, town supervisor Lenore Lopez said she distributed copies of a draft to town board members and Harrold prior via email. She said the board hasn’t heard from Harrold yet, but expects him to offer comments or suggestions.
After the meeting, DeMet told The Lakeland Times Lopez approached other town boards with regard to drafting an enhanced wake ordinance and submitted a copy of it to Harrold “a couple of weeks ago just to see if it would pass muster, that’s all.”
The board never authorized Lopez to draft an ordinance and send it to Harrold, he said.
He did note that Lopez had previously mentioned she was researching the topic of enhanced wakes and would like the topic of regulating it on a future meeting agenda.
Further, DeMet mentioned a presentation he and Lopez attended regarding enhanced wakes, though he couldn’t remember when it took place. He said he and Lopez didn’t speak about enhanced wakes at all outside of a publicly posted board meeting.
The point of the ordinance, DeMet said during the meeting, is to regulate enhanced wakes on all lakes entirely within the town’s boundaries.
DeMet also acknowledged state legislation addressing enhanced wakes may be coming in the future.
He said his understanding is that a state law wouldn’t be as restrictive as “something we would have.”
There also wouldn’t be room for any local control either, DeMet said.
“So as soon as we hear back from Greg Harrold, we can (forward it to) the DNR (Department of Natural Resources),” he said.
Road projects 2024
DeMet also provided an update on town road projects for 2024.
He said a list of possible projects has been compiled.
DeMet said a project the town would like to complete “for sure” is with regard to one-mile of West Blue Bird Road, from approximately Big Doe Road to Kildeer Road.
“And that’s the one that I applied for (a local road improvement) grant for,” he said. “So we’ll be getting $28,000 for that, which is about a drop in the bucket for the overall cost, but it does help.”
Another road project DeMet mentioned is with regard to the road that goes through the middle of the cemetery.
“It’s in the wrong place,” he said. “Don’t ask me how it happened. I wasn’t in charge of anything when that took place. But anyhow, it’d probably be a good idea to get that moved before someone who owns a plot there decides to put it to use.”
He said the approximate cost of that project would be $20,000 to $25,000.
“Some of the other projects that we were looking at are chip-sealing South Bluebird, Robin Road, Finch Road … Downey (Drive),” DeMet said. “What I would like for the board to do is allow me to have, put out for estimates for all these projects, and then we can come back and make a decision on which ones we wanna do other than West Bluebird, which we’re kind of committed to.”
The board agreed to have DeMet obtain estimates for the road projects he listed.
Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].
No quorum notice issued for Lake Tomahawk town board at impromptu presentation on enhanced wakes
by Trevor Greene
of the Lakeland Times
Lake Tomahawk town chairman George DeMet has confirmed that two town board members attended an impromptu presentation on the subject of enhanced wakes a few months ago without properly posting a quorum notice.
The enhanced wake presentation, he said, was conducted in either late summer or fall of last year following a town board meeting. Joe Steinhage of the Oneida County Lakes and Rivers Association was the speaker.
“Joe wanted to … give his presentation and we had already made up an agenda for that particular month,” DeMet said. “And so I said ‘I’m sorry, you can’t present it at a town board meeting, but if you want to have a little informational, educational whatever presentation, you can do it at the town hall after the board meeting is over.’ So we adjourned our town board meeting (and) some people left, some people stayed, and he gave his little spiel on that subject.”
Besides himself, DeMet said town supervisor Lenore Lopez stayed after to attend Steinhage’s presentation.
Because two members of the three-person town board convened outside of a publicly posted meeting, a quorum notice should have been issued, according to state law.
Because a quorum notice wasn’t issued, it was likely the presentation the two board members violated the state’s open meetings law.
DeMet took responsibility for a quorum notice not being posted, saying it was “on me.”
At the board’s Feb. 14 meeting, the topic of enhanced wakes was on the board’s agenda for the first time.
Lopez updated the other two board members, saying she sent copies of a draft enhanced wake ordinance to them and town attorney Greg Harrold prior to the meeting.
After the meeting, DeMet told The Lakeland Times Lopez had been researching the topic of enhanced wake for a little while now and submitted the draft ordinance to Harrold to see if it would “pass muster.”
According to the meeting minutes posted to the town’s website, the only mention of enhanced wake, or “ordinance regarding wake boats” and “Wake Surfing,” occurred during a meeting in October, 2023 and a meeting last month, both under the topic of “future agenda items.”
Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].
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