Washington Island Residents Vote to Repair Island Tower

The Mountain Lookout on Washington Island is closed.

The Mountain Park Lookout Tower on Washington Island moved closer to repair Tuesday night.

Town electors – island residents who are 18 or older – gathered for a special meeting and voted 61-24 to purchase one acre of land connected with the tower for $15,000. By a 60-25 vote, electors also authorized the borrowing of $273,100 to fix the closed tower, estimated at $100,000, with the rest going to the repair of five miles of roads. The town intends to borrow the money for both authorizations at a term not to exceed 10 years and 3% interest. 

Voters had already authorized the town in April to buy 60.75 acres of land where the tower is located for $236,925. 

“We think that this is one of our gems, one of our assets,” said Hans Lux, chair of the Washington Island Town Board. 

But the purchase isn’t straightforward. The tower is connected to three different parcels owned by three different people – a situation the town discovered in 1995. 

“So they entered into an agreement with [the property owner, Julie Nelson] for the town to pay the real estate taxes for the use of that tower,” Lux said.

The one-acre that residents agreed to purchase Tuesday night was the land upon which the stairs that lead to the tower site are located. Lux said they’ll now have to buy the final piece, which includes part of the driveway.

The town closed the tower to the public in late 2020 after discovering a damaged platform, and it took to heart a question posed in April when electors authorized the town to purchase the tower: Why spend all that money if the tower can’t be repaired?

“The electors said OK to buy it, but I didn’t pull the trigger,” Lux said. “I wanted to do more due diligence.”

The town hired Dan Tingley, Ph.D., with Wood Research and Development to assess the 60-year-old tower and indicate what was wrong and how it could be repaired. Tingley is a senior engineer and wood technologist who specializes in the restoration of old timber structures. 

“They said it’s absolutely worth saving,” Lux said. “If we just repaired the platforms, the life [of the tower] would be about four years. By doing what we’re doing [in also fixing support structures], we’ll get 60 years plus.”

Tingley is the same engineer who assessed the Potawatomi State Park Observation Tower and determined he could fix it in situ for less than $250,000. The Potawatomi tower’s repair has not moved forward because the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says it wants to make it ADA accessible if it repairs it, and doing that makes the repair unaffordable. Those who advocate the tower’s repair say it’s not necessary to make it ADA accessible to fix it, and accessibility can be done in other ways if that’s the state’s goal. 

Lux said they don’t anticipate any issues with ADA accessibility.

“We’re not changing the tower; we’re just repairing the material,” he said. “We’re not changing the format; we’re not changing the structure; we’re just taking out the old and putting in the new.” 

The town is currently finishing up the engineering for what it would take to put the tower back together.

“If everything goes well, we will bid the repair work out and hope to have it open by Memorial Day of next year,” Lux said.

That’s the proposal Lux and the board presented to the electors on Tuesday evening. The tower could be fixed for an estimated $100,000.

In addition, the town does road repairs every five to seven years when the County of Door sets up a temporary plant for county road improvements. 

“We can’t do it on our own,” Lux said. “We have to wait until all that material comes over here.”

That will happen in 2022. Lux said they’ve saved $800,000 to do five miles of island roads, but they need about $200,000 more because of increased costs. 

The amount the townspeople authorized Tuesday night should cover both the tower and road repairs. If not, Lux said he’s confident they can raise the remainder.

“We may get a small portion of a grant for roads, and we have great people on the island and can fundraise the rest,” Lux said.

Increased Levy Limit

The electors also voted 60-25 Tuesday evening to authorize the town to exceed its levy limit collected in 2022 by 7.36% over the allowable levy, or by $85,446.91. The total levy that will be collected from property owners through the property tax in 2022 will be $1,414,150.91, which includes the state-allowed levy of $1,328,704, plus the elector-allowed increase of $85,446.91.