The boards of the four towns that own the Lakeland Airport in Arbor Vitae —Arbor Vitae, Minocqua, Lac du Flambeau and Woodruff — agreed at the end of an April 29 special meeting to authorize the purchase of of land near the airport by the Lakeland Airport Commission (LAC). However, as it turned out, the manner in which that authorization was procured constituted what amounted to a violation of Wisconsin open meetings law and has prompted each town to make plans to try and correct the situation.
The Lakeland Times featured the illegal meeting in a front-page story in its May 5, 2026 issue. According to the piece:
The town boards met with the LAC for a special meeting on March 11 at the Arbor Vitae community center to discuss a possible land purchase for the airport; Donna Klenk, with nearly 8 acres on North Farming Road, had approached the airport about purchasing it for use as part of the facility’s safety zone or buffer.
If the towns were to ultimately agree to authorize the purchase by the LAC, the price would be $155,000; 80% of the cost would be covered by the Wisconsin Board of Aeronautics (BOA) with the other 20 percent coming from the towns.
How things work, it was explained by airport administrator Jesse Birginal, is Klenk would be paid the amount she was asking up front and the 80 percent would be reimbursed to the airport over the course of the next three to five years after the closing. There are, Birginal explained, a “prescribed set of channels” that need to be followed to secure the BOA funding.
A handout provided at the meeting summarized the reason the property was being considered and that is the BOA “has determined” in the airport’s ALP, or airport layout plan, “the ultimate property falls into the terminal instrument procedure safety rules” of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
“It is offered at fair market value and would be the safety gap needed to secure sight safety,” the handout read.
The purpose for the March 11 special meeting was to determine whether or not the airport commission should take out a loan if the purchase was approved.
The meeting lasted a little more than an hour and drew between 20 and 25 attendees, most of them Arbor Vitae residents who live near the airport and oppose the airport’s proposed purchase of the Klenk property for various reasons. Residents had the opportunity to ask questions and offer input on the proposal.
By the end of the meeting, the boards tabled the matter, saying they needed more information — including clearer justification for expanding the airport’s safety zone and answers to funding questions — before taking action.
Illegalities
Another special meeting of the four towns was scheduled for April 29, two days before Klenks offer was to expire. Karl Kemper with engineering and surveying firm Becher Hoppe made a presentation outlining why it was the airport was considering the purchase to add to its safety zone.
As was the case with the March 11 meeting, there were residents in attendance who expressed opposition and asking about the effect on the value of their homes and property should the sale go through but at one point, Arbor Vitae town chairman Frank Bauers, who was running the meeting, had the meeting paused so the four town boards could break off and discuss the matter before coming back to vote.
A few minutes later, Bauers reconvened the meeting even though the Woodruff town board, with all five of its members in attendance, hadn’t finished its discussion. Lac du Flambeau town chairman Matt Gaulke, also the town’s representative on the LAC, made a motion allowing the airport commission to establish a line of credit for the land purchase “to be dissolved after we’re done using it” and his motion also included subdividing the property and to sell off the portion that has a home on it; the intent would be for the proceeds of that sale would go toward paying off a loan taken out by the LAC for the land purchase.
“OK,” Bauers said. “Minocqua, how do you vote?”
Minocqua town chairman Mark Hartzheim, attending the meeting with town supervisors Billy Fried, Brian Fricke and Lance Krolczyk, spoke for the town board.
“Minocqua agrees with that and votes aye on that same … as described by Matt,” he said.
“OK,” Bauers said and he turned to his right.
“Woodruff?” he asked.
Woodruff town chair Judi Nelson, who with the rest of the town board hadn’t finished their discussion, told Bauers she hadn’t heard what the motion was. Gaulke repeated the motion, there was a brief pause as the Woodruff town board had a little more discussion among themselves and Nelson came back with the decision.
“We’ll agree to that,” she said.
“OK, Woodruff votes yes,” Bauers said.
“Arbor Vitae votes yes so it’s all four towns are in favor of it.”
Aftermath
The item was agendized as “Discussion/Possible Action: Proposed 2026 Purchase of Property” with no indication of the individual town boards convening formally into separate meetings to conduct their discussion, vote and have the meeting minutes available for the record.
The possibility that there may have been a violation of the state open meetings law was raised with Bauers after the meeting by The Lakeland Times and he subsequently consulted with attorney Carol Nawrocki, the assistant director of the Wisconsin Towns Association.
Bauers on April 30 informed the Times he’d gotten a response from Nawrocki. We have the opinion from the (Wisconsin) Towns Association attorney,” he said in a phone call. “Seems to be the newspaper’s right. We are going to schedule a town board meeting … notify The Lakeland Times, make the decision in that meeting and then set up another all towns airport meeting.”
At the time of the April 29 four-town meeting, the right of first refusal Klenk had in place for her offer to the air-port was to expire May 1 and by then, Gaulke, understanding the concerns regarding the open meeting situation as well as the time constraint, had already called a special meeting of the Lac du Flambeau town board for the morning of Friday, May 1.
Hartzheim, acknowledging the open meetings mistake as well, said the land purchase for the airport would be on the agenda for today’s meeting of the town board, which begins at 5 p.m. in the third floor meeting room of the Minocqua community center.
Bauers has called a special meeting of the Arbor Vitae town board for May 8 and Arbor Vitae town supervisor Pam Carroll confirmed for the Times that Klenk has granted an extension of the offer to Friday, May 15, which will allow the Woodruff town board to have the airport land purchase on its May 12 meeting agenda.
Hartzheim said what will be done is to “duplicate” what was done at the April 29 meeting of the four towns. “Reagendize it, have discussion, allow public input, take action on that specific property purchase,” he said. “I guess you could call it, basically, a re-do of our action (April 29) only witha meeting notice with that item on the agenda within a regular, posted town board meeting.”
Hartzheim said as he was driving home from the April 29 meeting, he asked himself if there had been a second to Gaulke’s motion at the end of the meeting.
“A call for discussion and a vote,” he said.
A review of the recording verifies there was no second as Bauers went to each town asking what its vote was.
“Everybody said what their position was,” he said, reiterating there was no second and call for discussion.
Hartzheim said when it comes to Minocqua town board meeting agendas, he goes over them “with a fine tooth comb” before they’re issued for notice by town clerk Roben Haggart.
“Our position as a town is whenever these things arise, and they don’t arise often because we’re pretty cautious about complying with open meetings law, we want to resolve them quickly and correctly,” he said. “We will do that by posting the meeting properly and taking action within a properly posted meeting.”
Getting it right was something echoed by Nelson and Gaulke and Arbor Vitae’s Carroll as well. Hartzheim went a step further by saying when it comes to how the annual airport meeting of the four towns, usually in the September or October time frame, is conducted may have to be looked at with regard to any open meeting compliance questions; the big item at that annual meeting is review and approval by each town of the airport’s budget for a given year.
With regard to how the annual four-town meeting is conducted, Bauers doesn’t agree with Hartzheim, telling the Times “that’s exactly how it works.”
“The four towns huddle together and they’re either for it or they’re opposed to it,” Bauers said.
Hartzheim maintains, however, there could be a reason to have those annual four town meetings looked at.
“It’s possible those meetings could have been in error, too,” he said, adding it didn’t occur to him the April 29 meeting of the four towns was an illegal meeting until he was questioned about it the next day.
“When I heard the suggestion that because of x, y and z that this is probably an illegal meeting, then it made sense to me,” he said. “I would agree that constitutes an illegal meeting and we need to figure it out.”
