A rebid to remove trees for a Minocqua road project saved the town a bundle of cash. Minocqua supervisors Tuesday approved a bid of $12,500 by Foley Tree Service of Tomahawk to remove 20 trees along the road in advance of it being repaved. The only other new bid was by Custom Caretaking & Landscaping of Arbor Vitae for $16,500. The board also approved the $118,625 bid of Pitlik & Wick of Eagle River to repave Dr. Pink Drive. Their original bid include a subcontract bid of nearly $22,000 to remove those trees deemed too close to the pavement for safe snowplowing. The board balked at that cost and ordered a rebid of the tree cutting.
Director of Public Works Mark Pertile says Foley will begin tree cutting within a couple of weeks, with repaving taking place either in September or by mid-October. The repaving is needed because the road has major water ponding and it doesn’t meet the town’s minimum standards, such as for width, Town Chairman Mark Hartzheim said. There will still be a large number of trees along Dr. Pink Drive once the roadwork is done, he added. Last month the board was looking at a $31,250 deficit in the road budget for this year if they repaved both Dr. Pink Drive and Camp Pinemere Road. The Foley bid now puts the deficit at $22,000. The board will tap the transportation fund to cover the overage.
In another, unrelated road matter, the board learned that town board action some 25 years ago to set the right-of-way of Old Highway 70 to 50 feet was not properly done. The town usually requires a 66-foot right-of-way on its roads. While it’s not clear if the right-of-way is owned by Oneida County or the state, it’s clear that the town doesn’t own it – then or now, according to town attorney Greg Harrold. Thus, the town at that time had no right to reduce the right-of-way width. Too, the town board at that time did not follow the town’s ordinance that purportedly gave the adjoining property owners the land. Among the procedures supervisors overlooked: a public hearing on abandoning the land. The board acted only by passing a resolution to that effect. Town officials will now contact both Oneida County and the state Department of Transportation to clear up the matter by having the right-of-way of Old Highway 70 from U.S. Highway 51 to State Highway 70 West conveyed over to the town.
Pertile said the town should maintain the 66-foot right-of-way, partly because of the planned bike route along that stretch.
• The board also went on record with the state Department of Natural Resources that it was still interested in purchasing a 3.1-acre parcel of state land on Manhardt Road. The DNR has apparently agreed to reserve the parcel until the April 2017 annual town meeting. The electors will be asked then to authorize its purchase. The parcel is being eyed for trailer parking as it’s near a UTV/ATV trail. The delay would also give the Lakeland ATV Club time to possibly raise money to help purchase it. The DNR wants $5,890 for it.
• The board is recommending to the county that it issue a conditional use permit to Erik Johnson to create a 20-unit multi-tenant office space in two existing buildings on U.S. Highway 51 south of the Minocqua (across from the 13th Colony).
