The Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa passed a referendum approving a new Tribal Code for its Road Access Permitting Ordinance.
This stems from the issue of expired easements on four roads that give access to private homes within the reservation owned by non-tribal members.
An agreement reached this summer between the Lac du Flambeau Tribe and the Town of Lac du Flambeau has the town paying thousands of dollars to the tribe to keep four road open.
Under the agreement, the town will pay $5,500 per road, and that fee increases by $500 per road each month.
This month the town paid $26,000 to the tribe.
Last week, the Tribe voted on a new ordinance for road permits. According to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, there are several more roads that have easements expiring in the next few years.
The Lac du Flambeau Town Board met Monday night to discuss a response to the Tribe’s ordinance.
“We have seen a draft of it. We don’t have a final copy of it. And we don’t have a dollar amount for those access permits,” said Town Chair Matt Gaulke.
The six-page draft of the ordinance the town received lays out the Tribe’s policy and conditions for issuing road access permits to the Town.
The draft has dashes where dollar amounts would be for both the application and permit fees.
The Town Board voted to have supervisor Bob Hanson reach out to the Tribal Government to try and get the cost of the permits.
WXPR has left a voicemail with Supervisor Bob Hanson and emailed the Tribe’s Public Relations person to try and get more information.
We’ll update you as we learn more.
