STEPHENSON — The Menominee County Board of Road Commissioners on Thursday put the brakes on a proposal presented by Aquila Resources Inc. to realign River Road for mining purposes and to create a truck route to the mine.

About 50 people attended the special meeting on this proposal. Those in attendance included members of the Menominee Nation Tribe, representatives from Lake, Holmes and Daggett townships, and those in opposition to the mine.

Tom Boerner, a landowner near the proposed mine, said Nelson was trying to minimize the amount of trucks by saying seven.

“You can’t physically move the road, so you are actually abandoning it. You are also asking to have that road 28 meters from the river. How close is the new road to the river?” he asked.

Nelson said 70 feet.

Boerner said pictures he has taken of that area in the last 12 to 15 years at times showed water on both sides of the road.

“There’s a danger of flood there,” he said.

Following about 50 minutes of comments, Anthony Kakuk, board chairman, said, “From my understanding, Aquila doesn’t have all its permits, and I don’t think, I am not going to make a decision on the realignment until we know all your permits are intact for the mine. That’s when we get down and really discuss the realignment deal.”

Board member Joe Skrobiak said he felt the same way. “This is just free-jumping into the lake,” he said.

Board member William Anderson also agreed. The board voted unanimously to hold up the realignment.

The other two board members were also against going through state land.


Skrobiak and Kakuk said they had received a lot of phone calls about this and not one person was in support.

A few members of the public commented they would like the board to have an attorney review this issue.