Proposed roundabout a no-go for Nokomis

The Nokomis town board last Monday approved sending a letter to the state Department of Transportation (DOT) opposing a proposed roundabout at the intersection of U.S. Highway 51, County Highway K and Swamp Lake Road.

Russ Berg of the Nokomis Volunteer Fire Department said, from the department’s standpoint, it was a safety issue.

“The DOT rep at a previous public meeting said there will be less serious accidents, but there will be more accidents overall,” he said. “And every time there’s an accident, we get paged out — any day or time or whatever. Personally, any time I’m out on the highway, I’m in danger.” 

He spoke about a previous experience where a driver sped through an accident scene, almost clipping him with their rearview mirror. He added that, while the DOT had called it a “dangerous intersection,” every intersection is inherently dangerous. In discussing alternatives to alleviate accidents at that intersection, there had been no signage, rumble strips or any other measures proposed. 

“You’re going to have logging trucks and large fuel semis sharing a roundabout with ATVs and UTVs,” Berg said.

“And I just believe that on heavily-traveled weekends, it’s going to be ridiculous,” said town supervisor Cheyann Wilke. “You’ll never get off of Highway L. The passing lane, actually, from both directions not that far ahead of it, and everybody’s flying from both directions trying to get ahead of everybody else. I think there’s going to be more accidents and traffic.”

“I don’t want to jinx us, but since Sunday of last Labor Day, there has not been a serious accident at that intersection,” Berg said. “We have had serious accidents at (Hwy.) L and (Hwy.) 51. They aren’t addressing L and 51 at all.”

Hazy Bay town property parking issue

Another issue taken up by the Nokomis town board was that of visitors and part-time residents parking on the Hazy Bay subdivision center circle, a 1/3-acre plot which is owned by the town. Residents there cut the grass and take care of the property, according to Chas Suski, the town shop foreman. 

Residents of the subdivision said there used to be a flower garden there, tended by one of the former residents. There were also picnic tables where residents would gather on weekends. They likened it to their own Sara Park, referencing the park in downtown Tomahawk. Since then, however, part-time residents and visitors had taken it upon themselves to park campers and boat trailers there, sometimes permanently.

One of the issues with his parking, other than the aesthetics of the situation, was the liability to the town with having those vehicles parked on land owned by the town. A complaint had come in to the town about a camper parked there, which was the impetus for the item being on the agenda. In more than one instance in the last 10 years, people have even cut trees and cut trails into the circle to park their trailers or vehicles.

The issue is not confined to summertime, however, with vehicles with snowmobile trailers often parking on that circle of land in the wintertime, leaving no room for the town plow crew to remove snow from the road properly. 

The issue is exacerbated when multiple visitors come to visit vacationers in one residence, with, at times, up to 10 vehicles visiting one address needing a place to park over a busy holiday weekend. The road in the subdivision is a 15-foot side road, according to Suski, making parking on the road a serious safety concern. 

According to multiple residents of the subdivision, the trailers had been moved once it was known the town could possibly take action. Wilke said she felt that a good place to start was to install signage on that piece of property stating that it belonged to the town of Nokomis and no parking or dumping was allowed. There was some discussion of other options, but the board voted to start with the signage and address the issue further if there were continued issues.

Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].