Last updated: November 2026
The Town of Kennan has $285,788.66 spread across its accounts and a shooting range fight on its hands that it never asked to referee. On October 5, the three-member Town Board did something small towns rarely do. It put a lawyer on retainer and left the door open to hiring another one.
The same meeting produced a sentence that matters more than any legal fee. Discussing United Pride planting inside the right-of-way on Elm Road, the board directed that photographs be taken before any corrective work and that the dairy be billed afterward. The minutes put the reasoning plainly: “to ensure the associated costs are not paid by Town taxpayers.”
Quick Answer: The Town of Kennan Board approved a Dempsey Law retainer with Attorney Lee Turonie at its October 5, 2026 meeting and noted that engaging municipal legal counsel for the Steve Creek shooting range project had been raised. The same night the board directed Patrolman Paul Hahn to photograph conditions before any corrective work on Elm Road, where United Pride planted inside the right-of-way, and to bill the dairy for labor, equipment, and materials. It also directed that a $2,325.29 Brightspeed invoice for damaged equipment on Elm Road be submitted to Rural Mutual Insurance. The treasurer reported $285,788.66 across all accounts, and October bills totaled $66,641.46. These minutes are pending board approval.
What did the Kennan Town Board actually do on October 5?
Chairman Jerome Bieszk called the meeting to order at 5:59 p.m. at the Kennan-Georgetown Municipal Building. Supervisors Jeff Premeau and Tansy Annexstad were present, along with Clerk Lynn Redfall and Treasurer Jennifer Krell. One visitor sat in the room.
The board moved through routine business first, approving the September 1 and September 10 minutes and the September treasurer’s report. Then it got to the two items that will cost money.
The zoning budget needed an amendment
A budget amendment was required for the Zoning category, and the board approved Resolution 2026-03 without discussion recorded in the minutes. The minutes give no reason for the amendment and do not connect it to the shooting range discussion that came later in the meeting. Any link between the two is inference, not record.
Two legal engagements, one night
The board approved the Dempsey Law retainer with Attorney Lee Turonie. It also sent the town’s Open Records Request Ordinance Amendment to the same attorney for review and guidance, which means the man now on retainer will be shaping how the town answers records requests.
Then, under old business, the board reviewed an informational flyer containing proposed rules for the Steve Creek Shooting Range. The flyer may be released to the public. One line in the minutes carries the weight: “Potential engagement of municipal legal counsel to assist with matters related to the shooting range project was mentioned.”
Why would Kennan hire a lawyer over a county forest shooting range?
Because the county cannot approve this thing without the town’s permission, and the coverage so far has that backwards.
When the Price County Land Use and UW-Extension Committee postponed its decision on October 22, Zoning Administrator Evan Knoll explained the jurisdictional chain near the end of the hearing. Price County reviews the conditional use permit for one reason only. The site at N632 Steve Creek Road sits inside the 300-foot shoreland zone along Steve Creek.
The 300-foot line decides who has power
Strip out the creek and the application belongs entirely to Kennan. Knoll said as much, according to the auto-generated transcript: if the parcel were more than 300 feet from the water, the case would sit “strictly on the town of Kennan’s plate, not ours.” The applicant is the Price County Forestry Department, which means the county is asking itself for permission while the town holds the zoning authority underneath.
That is an unusual posture for a town board to be in. Kennan is not a party to the county’s hearing. It is the body whose own permit decision can moot the county’s vote entirely. The county committee pushed its decision to November 19 and asked to walk the property first, which gives Kennan four more weeks to decide what it wants to do.
What a town lawyer can and cannot fix
Municipal counsel does not vote on a conditional use permit. What counsel does is keep a town out of the two traps that sink small boards: deciding a permit on grounds that will not survive certiorari review, and conducting a hearing without a record. Kennan has been on the wrong side of a records question before. The town was one of thirteen Price County municipalities that did not answer our June 2026 open records requests, and its October minutes arrived October 29, in reply to a records request filed October 22.
Neighbors have already organized on the other side. A petition with more than 50 signatures went to the county Forestry Committee in early October, delivered by residents who live near the creek.
What is the Elm Road dispute with United Pride?
Elm Road runs through the town, and United Pride Dairy planted inside its right-of-way. The board’s response was procedural and pointed. Hahn, the patrolman, was told to document everything before anyone touches the ground.
“The Board directed that photographs be taken prior to any corrective work regarding United Pride planting inside the right-of-way on Elm Rd. Patrolman Paul Hahn was instructed to maintain detailed records of all related labor, equipment, and material costs. The Board indicated that United Pride will be billed for the corrective measures to ensure the associated costs are not paid by Town taxpayers.”
That is the entire entry. No dollar figure, no deadline, no discussion of what happens if the bill goes unpaid.
The $2,325.29 invoice nobody explained
Item 3b of the minutes records a bill from Brightspeed for damaged equipment on Elm Road, in the amount of $2,325.29. The board did not pay it. It directed that the invoice go to Rural Mutual Insurance for review and guidance.
Routing a third-party damage claim to the town’s own carrier is the move a board makes when it is not sure who is liable. The minutes never say what damaged the equipment or when. What they do show is a board treating two Elm Road problems as separate matters: one it intends to bill out, one it intends to insure.
Could Kennan just order the planting removed?
Yes, and the statute is blunt about how. Wisconsin Statute 86.04(1) lets a town board order the occupant or owner of land to remove an encroachment from a highway right-of-way within 30 days. The order has to specify the extent and location of the encroachment with reasonable certainty and has to be served on the owner.
What the statute requires before a town can act
Three things, in order. A written order. A stated location. Service on the landowner. The statute authorizes the town board to order removal, not a patrolman and not the clerk.
The 30-day clock
The owner gets 30 days from service. The minutes of October 5 contain no order and no service date, so that clock has not started on Elm Road.
The $1-a-day penalty
Under 86.04(2), if the encroachment is not removed within 30 days of service and the owner has not denied it under sub (3), the owner forfeits $1 for every day it continues. The town can sue in any court of record in the county, and if it wins, the judgment orders removal. Fail to obey that judgment and the town may remove the encroachment itself and recover the cost.
One dollar a day is not the point. The court order and the cost recovery are.
What the board chose instead
Photographs, cost tracking, and a bill. That is a collections strategy, not the statutory sequence. It is faster and cheaper than litigation, and it avoids the paperwork a 86.04 order demands.
It also has no enforcement mechanism behind it. A bill from a town board to a dairy is a request. The 30-day order is the thing a court can act on. Whether Kennan ever serves one depends on whether United Pride pays, and the minutes leave that unanswered.
Why this one matters beyond Elm Road
United Pride is Price County’s largest dairy operation, and it is currently inside a five-year DNR permit renewal and a proposed 2-million-gallon concrete-lined manure pit in Kennan Township. That permit file runs through the same township roads the board just voted to bill for. A town that starts documenting labor, equipment, and material costs against a permitted CAFO is building a record, whether or not it says so.
What else came out of the October 5 meeting?
Money and dates, mostly.
Treasurer Krell reported $285,788.66 across all accounts for September. The board approved October bills totaling $66,641.46. It reviewed the preliminary 2027 budget draft and took no action, which means the real decisions are still ahead. The 2026 Budget Hearing and Electors Meeting was set for Monday, November 2 at 5:30 p.m., with the next board meeting immediately following.
The board also approved the assessor contract renewal, registration for the October 30 virtual Town Law Conference, and a zoning special exception permit for N1434 Ranch Road.
The IT grant that depends on a quote
Kennan is looking at the Wisconsin Elections Commission Cybersecurity Subgrant as a way to pay for managed IT services. Nothing was approved. The minutes say consideration is pending a quote from Sprinter IT Business Solutions. For a town with three board members and a clerk-treasurer handling elections, that is the least glamorous item on the page and possibly the most consequential.
What happens next?
The Price County Land Use and UW-Extension Committee meets November 19. Its agenda will carry the Steve Creek conditional use permit again, this time after members have walked the site. Kennan’s own permit decision has no scheduled date in these minutes.
If you want the machinery behind these decisions, our guide to how the Price County Board works covers the committee structure and where town authority ends. For the legal standard the county is applying to the range itself, the conditional use permit explainer walks through what a county can and cannot weigh.
See also: our guide to free camping in Wisconsin
See also: what makes Price County communities special
See also: our guide to Price County public records
FAQ
Did the Town of Kennan hire a lawyer for the Steve Creek shooting range?
Not specifically. The board approved a Dempsey Law retainer with Attorney Lee Turonie on October 5, 2026, and the minutes state only that engaging municipal legal counsel for the shooting range project “was mentioned.” No separate engagement for the range appears in the record.
Who has final say on the Steve Creek shooting range permit?
Both the Town of Kennan and Price County have to act, on different grounds. The county’s jurisdiction rests on the parcel sitting within 300 feet of Steve Creek, which triggers shoreland review. The town holds general zoning authority. A denial by either body stops the project.
How much money does the Town of Kennan have?
The treasurer reported $285,788.66 across all accounts as of the September report approved October 5, 2026. That figure covers every town account combined, not a single checking balance.
What is the Elm Road right-of-way issue about?
United Pride planted inside the town’s right-of-way on Elm Road. The board ordered photographs before any corrective work and directed that the dairy be billed for labor, equipment, and materials so taxpayers do not absorb the cost.
Are these minutes final?
No. The document is marked pending approval and is subject to correction or amendment at a later board meeting. It was provided by Clerk Lynn Redfall on October 29, 2026 in response to an open records request filed October 22.
Sources
- Price County — Town of Kennan municipal information and meeting records
- Wisconsin State Legislature — Wis. Stat. § 86.04, Highway encroachments
- Price County Agenda Center — Land Use / UW-Extension Committee agenda, October 22, 2026
- Price County WI Government — committee meeting recordings
- Price County Fun — Steve Creek Shooting Range Permit Postponed to Nov 19