The Lac du Flambeau Tribe says it will restrict access to four roads again if the town doesn’t pay permit fees by next Friday.
The letter was sent to Town Chairman Matthew Gaulke from Tribal President John Johnson Senior this week. It was posted to the town website.
After 10 years of unpaid easements, the Tribe barricaded four roads for several weeks starting in January of 2023.
The roads are on tribal land but give access to private homes.
The roads reopened after the town paid permit fees to keep them open.
The town has been making monthly payments to keep those four roads open.
According to payment receipts posted to the town website, the payments started at $5,000 per road and increased by $500 per road each month.
The first payment was $20,000. The last one the town paid was $48,000.
On August 9th, the Town shared a meeting agenda that said in part “the Town is unable, not unwilling, to pay the permit fees for August 12th through September 12th.”
It states: “After meeting with the Tribe, the Town pursued numerous suggestions from the Tribe. In most cases, the Town lacks the statutory authority to accomplish the requested actions. After repeatedly reaching out to contacts with greater authority than the Town, still no assistance has been provided.
At the most recent meeting with the Tribe, they were clear as to what their desired resolution would include. More specifically, a contribution of real estate from local, state and federal entities. Again, outside of the ability of the Town to fulfill these requests, Town officials and town residents have continued to contact those with the power to contribute to a resolution.”
That agenda also lists more than a dozen local, state, and federal officials it was sent to with the request to "Please send
delegates that have the ability to make decisions. This needs to be decided and not simply a discussion of what could be accomplished." The agenda called it a plea for some form of assistance.
The main action item on the agenda is to discuss/take action on the "Ability to Secure Land of Tribal Choice to Mitigate and End Road Easement Issue".
The Tribal President responded saying the Tribe considers the town to be in default.
The letter stated, “The town has until Friday, August 23 to pay all outstanding Temporary Access Permit Fees to the Tribe, failure to pay will result in restricted access over the four roads.”
The town board has a special meeting previously scheduled for that day at 11:00 a.m. at the Woodruff Town Hall.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misquoted the agenda saying "unable, not willing" regarding payments. It's been corrected to state "not able, not unwilling".
