Town of Minocqua to place boulders along right-of-way adjoining Minocqua Brewing Company

The Minocqua town board at its June 6 meeting agreed to take steps in limiting damage done to its right-of-way that adjoins land owned by the Minocqua Brewing Company (MBC). The right-of-way parcel at the corner of East Front Street and Chippewa Street has also been referred to as the “pork chop” because of its shape.

“When he (MBC owner Kirk Bangstad) first went in there, he was supposed to have parking in certain places, he was supposed to put grass there, he was supposed to close one entrance off to make a new entrance; he has done none of that,” town supervisor Sue Heil said while filling in for town chairman Mark Hartzheim. 

Heil said Hartzheim had spoken with the town’s director of public works Mark Pertile about placing boulders along the right-of-way’s border to protect the grass she said had been ruined by customers who parked on it. She pointed out to other town supervisors pictures from the spring showing tire tracks in the muddy parcel. 

“The grass is pretty much gone that was planted,” she said. “That’s not what we want in that area.”

Town supervisor Brian Fricke agreed with Heil. He noted how (Bangstad) said at previous meetings how he wanted as much green space on the island as possible.

Fricke not only was in favor of placing boulders along the border of the right-of-way, but also suggested landscaping it and “dressing it up.” 

“We kind of got to stop waiting for him, it seems like, because otherwise this will never get resolved,” he said. “So yeah, I think we should put the rocks there and do what we did over here by the police station for the farmers market.”

Improving the appearance of Chippewa Street, Fricke said, is something he’s been wanting to do. 

Fricke also asked Pertile about the unauthorized Chippewa Street curb cut at MBC and the concrete barriers the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT) had placed there in November of 2022, after the company created access without obtaining DOT permits.

“Those highway markers are ugly as hell,” Fricke said. 

Pertile responded and said he will follow-up with DOT staff about the two concrete barriers.

“As long as it’s in the schedule so we can get rid of those,” Fricke said. “We want to make the whole northbound look nice and we got these Oneida County highway markers sitting there because we gotta deal with him (Bangstad).”

The motion to direct Pertile to place boulders along the town’s right-of-way adjoining MBC and regrow grass in the damaged area passed unanimously.

Other matters
The town board at its June 6 meeting also approved:

• Another six month moratorium on the placement of portable shipping containers in the town. 

• A request by Pertile to seek funding to repair a Price County Road culvert.

• The extension of the Minocqua adhoc committee’s work on labor and housing for an additional six months.

Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].