Vilas County board denies Presque Isle ATV/UTV request

The Vilas County board Tuesday took action on two resolutions to amend its Motorized Recreational Trail Ordinance, both requesting the use of sections of county roads in those towns for all terrain vehicle (ATV) and utility task vehicle (UTV) use.

It voted to approve an ordinance amendment pertaining to the town of Plum Lake and voted down by the slimmest of margins a resolution that was another request from the Presque Isle town board. 

The vote on the Plum Lake resolution, after discussion that included a failed amendment attempt by county supervisor Mike McKenzie, was approved 15-4.

Like the Plum Lake request, Presque Isle was seeking to open sections of county highway but instead of it being for Presque Isle it was for the town of Winchester. 

Plum Lake resolution

First up was the Plum Lake resolution, county board chairman Jerry Burkett asking if there was anyone from the Plum Lake town board present. 

As the town board was in session at the same time, there wasn’t and highway committee chairman Pat Weber said the resolution for the Plum Lake request had been approved and forwarded to the county board at the Oct. 15 meeting of the highway committee.  

There were two amendments presented, one from McKenzie regarding a change in wording regarding Hwy. N after he’d had discussions with Plum Lake town chair Jackey Postuchow and Boulder Junction town chairman Dennis Reuss. 

During the course of the county board’s discussion, another amendment was made to table the resolution, something McKenzie said he wasn’t in favor of doing. 

It wasn’t and the Plum Lake resolution was approved. 

Committee work

The town of Winchester, at the moment, doesn’t have an AT/UTV ordinance in place; it did briefly for about a month in April, 2021, before new town supervisors John Grimmer and Jeff Whitney, along with town chairman Joe Discianno, voted to rescind the ordinance in May of that year. 

In June of this year, Presque Isle town chairman John MacLean sent a letter to Vilas County highway commissioner Troy Schalinske requesting the county open County Highway W to Hwy. J to the Vilas/Iron county line.

“We ask for you to please continue your efforts to support linking all of Vilas County and beyond to a positive future where all types of vehicles and modes of travel can share the road,” he wrote to Schalinske.

The Vilas County highway committee took up the Presque Isle request but after input from committee member Richard Logan, a county supervisor who represents both towns on the county board, sent it back to the town boards to give them an opportunity to work together. 

Logan’s position was, and has been throughout, a request like this should be submitted by the town with the stretch of county highway in question, which has been the case for most of the rest of the towns in Vilas County over the course of the past few years. 

At the highway committee’s October 15 meeting, a resolution for approval of the Presque Isle request was approved and forwarded to the county board for consideration at its Oct. 22 meeting. 

Logan, who has acknowledged at different times there may be a day when all county roads will be open for ATV and UTV use, voted against the resolution and that vote was based on what Vilas County policy has been.  

“My point here is this is one town imposing their will on a neighboring town and it’s not to get somewhere that they can’t already get to,” he said at the committee meeting. “They can get there. There’s a state line trail, there are national forest roads and so on. It’s just really disheartening to me to see this get this far because of how dysfunctional this is and it really is concerning to me that we’re going down this road.”

Vilas County supervisor Joe Muelbach, also a member of the highway committee, understood where Logan was coming from but had a different take. 

“I think where the county took the wrong turn was years ago,” he said at the committee meeting. “They should have enacted this as a countywide policy or not because it’s very confusing to our residents and very confusing to our visitors when they come here.” 

Muelbach told the committee he wanted this matter before the county board “because these are county roads.”

No usurping

At the county board meeting Tuesday, Burkett first gave the floor to Discianno, who Burkett thanked for attending the meeting, a reference to there being no members of the Plum Lake town board in attendance for the previous agenda item.

Discianno had sent emails letting county supervisors know the town was, at this time, opposed to the Presque Isle request. 

He’d also attended highway committee meetings over the past few months when the matter was discussed. 

“In listening to the last item, there just seems to be a lot of confusion,” Discianno said in reference to the Plum Lake resolution discussion. “Because some places the roads are open and some places, the roads are not. The town of Winchester did not request that these roads be opened. I was here two years ago and it was decided then that a town had to put in this request.”

He said he has sent emails and expressed “concerns of our town board.”

“It was sent to the highway commission several times over the last couple months,” Discianno said. “We don’t allow ATVs in our town.”

He said what the county would be doing by approving the Presque Isle request is forcing the town to allow use of ATVs and UTVs on roads. 

“I’ve been dealing with this for six years ... we have looked at both sides, we’ve listened to questions and answers and everybody’s opinion on this.”

Discianno said his intent was to do an advisory referendum on the issue because “it had been four years” but can’t now because state law regarding that type of referendum question changed in 2023. 

“It wouldn’t have been binding but it would have been a way for us to see what the people’s thoughts were,” he said. “Then we thought maybe we should do what Plum Lake did.”

He was referring to a poll conducted by the town of Plum Lake in May of this year that ultimately led to the development of an ATV/UTV ordinance for the town and its request access to county roads within the town.

“We kind of realize there has to be some give and take with this topic,” Discianno said. “It is very controversial. There are people who are super compassionate about it on both sides.”

As for the request itself, though, he said it should, as has been Vilas County policy, “come from that town.”

“Do you want us to pass this ordinance (amendment) or do you want us to fail this ordinance?” Burkett asked.

“The town of Presque Isle would ...” MacLean, sitting in the audience, began. 

Burkett interrupted. 

“Excuse me,” he said. “I’m talking to the gentleman from Winchester.”

Discianno asked Burkett to repeat the question and he did. 

“This is your chance,” Burkett said. “You’re from Winchester. This has to do with Winchester.”

“Yes, it does,” Discianno said. 

“What would you like us to do?” Burkett asked again. 

“My suggestion ... my request is you don’t pass this,” Discianno said. “Like I said, I think the town board ... if we’re going to do this, we’d like to do it the right way and develop routes for the town, what’s legal, what’s not legal. I think you have to get it to the town board to determine that. I just feel if these roads are opened, it’s a free-for-all. No one’s going to care what the town boards decided.”

MacLean spoke and then former Winchester town supervisor Sulo Wainio, who was on the town board when the Winchester ATV/UTV ordinance was approved in April, 2021. 

He indicated he was in favor of the Presque Isle request primarily from a commerce standpoint as he said he and his wife, Joan, Winchester’s town clerk, own the last tavern in the town. 

Manitowish Waters town chairman John Hanson also spoke briefly, letting the county board know that at this time, Manitowish Waters is, like Winchester, Boulder Junction and Lac du Flambeau, among the last towns in Vilas County that don’t have an ATV/UTV ordinance. 

Burkett began the county board discussion.

“A few years ago, we were faced with this discussion and I made a statement at that time that I would not usurp the authority of the townships,” he said. “I would not bend them to our will. That I would respect their governance and work with them and I urged everybody that wanted a change, that in my opinion, the best way to change is through an election. The town board’s not doing what the public wants, elect somebody who will. The county board’s not doing what the public wants, elect somebody who will. Lord knows there’s not a lot of people going after our seats and they’re probably not after yours, either. You know why? There’s ugly days like this!”

The county board discussion was extensive, with Muelbach and Logan reiterating their positions, county supervisor Holly Tomlanovich saying in her opinion, “we’re ceding power that belongs to the county” and county supervisor Carolyn Ritter, who ultimately voted no, providing a history lesson going back to a county board meeting at the high school in Phelps in 2014 when the county’s shift to ATV/UTVs was brought on after a major change in the county board in the election that year. 

The resolution was defeated, 10-9. 

After the meeting, Discianno said he’ll take the ATV/UTV issue back to his board.

“This is coming,” he said. “There’s no stopping it. Last time, the vote was 14 to 7. This time, it’s 10 to 9. What happens next time?”

Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].