The Presque Isle Town Board held a special meeting on Oct. 23 to primarily discuss preparing a resolution in order to ask electors to exceed its levy limit by over $1 million.
However, board members indicated there will need to be another special meeting to handle that and discussed a few other items instead — such as an open records request made by The Lakeland Times in February that hasn’t been satisfied by the town. The meeting was covered in detail in a Oct. 28, 2025 story in The Lakeland Times.
The records request concerns an investigation commissioned by the town and conducted by Madison-based Special Investigations and Forensic Technologies (SIFT) into allegations that former town clerk Lorrine Walters and her son, Jim, may have destroyed town property, among other accusations.
Walters was involved in a contentious battle for the town chairman’s seat on the town board when she took on former town chairman John MacLean in the spring of 2023. At the time, Walters was accused of many things, one of which was misuse of town computers, and her son, Jim, who occasionally completed IT work for the town free of charge without ever getting board authorization, was accused of some wrongdoings as well, one of which involved one of the town computer’s hard-drives going missing.
The Times, on Aug. 29, requested the Vilas County Sheriff’s Office investigate why those records haven’t been turned over. Now, nearly two months later, the board has decided to talk about it again. One town resident said the town should ask its attorney Steve Garbowicz who the board can appoint to properly review the records and prepare them for release — up to 40 hours if needed.
But town chairman Al Eschenbauch said the question that needs to be asked to Garbowicz is who the board can legally appoint. Eschenbauch proposed the board inform Lakeland Times publisher (and WNA Board member) Gregg Walker and the Times the town is “looking at a $1,000 fee” and the newspaper will have to pay it.
The board agreed to do that unanimously.
