It’s a small dam but it’s causing giant headaches for about two dozen Minocqua residents. They are worried about losing access to their homes when repairs are made to the 98-year-old structure, including replacing the deck of the one-lane bridge overhead.
Wisconsin Valley Improvement Company—or W-V-I-C--owns the dam and bridge. The structure on Dam Road controls water from Kawaguesaga Lake that pours into Tomahawk River. It’s part of a giant reservoir system controlled by the Wausau-based company.
The affected residents showed up in force Thursday to face WVIC and town officials at an information meeting at Minocqua. Among them was Neil Mandel, who says it was clear the bridge had to be repaired NOW, but worries about being cut off.
“We need access everyday to our homes and we also need to have access for emergency vehicles from fire to ambulance to police," he said. "And we cannot have homes on that road that are unattended in that way.”
WVIC says the dam and bridge deck repair will cost about $260,000, and it wants Minocqua to pick up a good portion of the tab.
WVIC vice president of operations Peter Hansen told the crowd he would accept a 30 percent sharing of construction costs by the town. No action was taken that evening.
Minocqua Residents Worry About Bridge Repair Cost, Timeline
