LCO Roads Gives Report at Membership Meeting

The LCO Roads Maint. Dept.

Membership Report

The Road Maintenance Department (RMD) has been busy over the summer with repairs to our Tribal roads, brushing the right of ways, clearing culverts, fixing shoulders, and repairing equipment. We were fortunate to upgrade a plow truck for this winter with a salt brine tank. We have a new plow truck ordered for 2024 that will also add brine. Brine will be sprayed on the road when it is too cold for rock salt and sand to stick on its own.

Liquid brine helps the salt/sand from being blown off the road and will stick to the ice. This is our first year working with it and hope that it makes a major improvement where the trees are so close to the road that the sun never shines on them. It is our hope to trim the trees back in the right-of-way to allow some sunlight on them to help reduce the ice buildup. If you noticed, the road surface from Kinnamon through Trepania Road, the sunlight makes a big difference with helping the ice/snow melt.

A little clarification on roads and ownership: anything in a Tribal community neighborhood is likely a Tribal Road. We assist townships and they assist us when there are equipment issues. You may see a Tribal or Township Road being plowed by another entity. We all try to do our best to keep the roads safe for all travelers. Please keep the roads and rights-of­ way near your driveways clear for plows this winter. If you have any safety issues with any road, please call 715 558-7733 and leave a message. We will work with whomever we can, to address issues regarding road safety.

We are working with the Town of Radisson and LC0 Development to gravel and grade the Blueberry and Ashegon Fire Lanes. While both of these roads are entirely on the Reservation, they are still the Town of Radisson roads. We know that many Tribal members use these routes for hunting and gathering so we are partnering to make sure they are safe for everyone to use.

We have partnered with the Town of Bass Lake and were able to resurface Agency Road in Reserve this fall. This is a town road but with our assistance we were able to grade the road, lay 100 yards of gravel to provide a better base, and put down new black top all the way to the new Reserve Elderly Center.

Agency Road / New Elder Center in Background.

We are currently working with Bass Lake on plans to resurface Fromel Road. The last time this road was paved was a joint project between the Tribe and Bass Lake. We hope to have this project started in the next year or two.

LCO RMD is also working with the Sawyer County Highway Department on plans for a Roundabout at the intersection of Highway B and K. We want to see a Native American influence on the design much like the Oneida and Forest County Potawatomi have with their roundabouts. This project will be in multiple stages starting near Hayward in Stage one to Sheptic Road. Stage two would be from Sheptic past the Casino with the Roundabout. Stage three will be all the way to Frogg Rd.

We were able to work with BIA and DBS to fix the parking lot at the Country Store and Grindstone Creek Casino. To address the flooding on the eastern side, we installed a catch water basin, installed curb and gutter, and installed additional parking for employees in the rear. Removing trees in the back, building a paved parking lot will assist with melting snow off the roof of the building and driveway as well as draining melted water away from the building.

Ashegon Fire Lane prior to repairs and gravel.

Our 2024 Tribal Road projects include black topping the parking lot and driveways to Bizhiiki Wellness Center, connect the Mike on a Bike pedestrian path to the ballpark, and black topping the parking lot at the Gaming Commission Building. We have designs for Muckwa Drive, South Larsen Road, and the Big Drum parking lot to be paved but they have not been approved at this time.

We are working on RFP (requests for proposals) to start repaving or overlaying some of our older blacktop roads.

We've been working with our Grants Department to find funding for new equipment, updating safety plans, remediating safety issues, and potentially find funding to build a Tribal Road Maintenance Department building.