Anthony Sleck opened Facebook on Saturday afternoon to find yet another Worcester meeting notice with no details. On Tuesday, July 21, the town’s electors will vote on whether to sell a strip of public land at Musser Lake – and the agenda tells them almost nothing about what they’re voting on.
Quick Answer: The Town of Worcester has scheduled a Special Town Meeting of Electors for July 21, 2026 at 6:30 PM to authorize selling a 0.21-acre public lake access parcel (Tax ID 22220) on Woodland Lane at Musser Lake. Price County GIS records describe the parcel as “MUSSER LAKE DEVELOPMENT PUBLIC ACCESS.” The meeting agenda provides no buyer name, no sale price, and no terms – electors are being asked to vote blind.
TLDR: Worcester wants electors to authorize selling public Musser Lake access land to benefit private island buyers, but won’t release details before the vote. The parcel is recorded as “public access” in county GIS records, and residents say it was donated to the town for that purpose.
⚡ UPDATE: Vote Results (July 22, 2026)
Resolution 26-07-21 PASSED unanimously, 9-0. Nine electors voted in favor, zero opposed, zero abstentions. The resolution authorizes the Town Board to dispose of approximately two acres at N9848 Woodland Lane — the Mussel Lake public access parcel.
What the town gets: Easement rights to continue operating the boat landing and dock. The property owners pay ALL costs — survey, attorney fees, and recording. The land returns to the tax rolls.
What the property owners get: Legal recorded access to their islands via the boat landing area, and title to an unbuildable strip of town land they’ve been using for parking and dock access for 75+ years.
Key details from the meeting:
- Chairman Jim Michler explained the family bought 80 acres including islands in Mussel Lake in the late 1940s. They donated shore land to the town for a public boat landing, with verbal permission to use the access for their islands.
- The unbuildable strip — narrow with wetland behind it, unable to meet any setbacks — has been used by the family for parking and dock access for 75+ years. Adverse possession (Wisconsin’s 10-year rule) was cited as a factor.
- Anthony Sleck raised questions about shoreline ownership boundaries, citing Dan DeVal (owner of the old resort) who said property lines in the area don’t touch the shoreline. The chairman acknowledged inconsistencies in town property records and said the attorney and surveyor will sort out boundary questions as part of the deal.
- The exact boundary has not been set — the yellow line shown at the meeting was indicative only. The surveyor must follow state rules to determine the final line.
- The resolution cites Wisconsin Statute 60.10(2)(g), the same statute referenced in our original article, which authorizes electors to approve disposal of town real property.
Discrepancy noted: The resolution states “approximately two acres” while Price County GIS records show Tax ID 22220 as 0.21 acres. The resolution’s property identification number (50-034-4-38-022-32-302-000-0900) differs from the article’s originally cited PIN. This may indicate the sale covers a larger area than the single GIS parcel, or the figures reflect different measurement methods. We’re verifying with the town clerk.
The full 96-minute meeting transcript (10,568 words) is available in our research files. The meeting also included a regular board meeting covering the Red Pine subdivision sale results ($275,361 — $50K above estimate), ARPA road construction starting August 3, crack sealing, a $25,886 L-RUP grant for East Solberg Road, and a heated public comment session about road crew accountability and speed limit enforcement.
The Parcel: Public Access, Not Surplus Land
Price County GIS records tell a story the meeting agenda doesn’t. Tax ID 22220 covers 0.21 acres on Woodland Lane in the Town of Worcester, Section 31, T38, R02E. **The official parcel description reads “MUSSER LAKE DEVELOPMENT PUBLIC ACCESS” – this land was platted as a public access corridor, not as surplus town property.** The town owns it, pays no taxes on it (municipal exempt), and it’s zoned RR1 Recreational.
The parcel is small. At 0.21 acres – roughly 9,150 square feet – it’s not a buildable lot. It’s a strip of land that provides road and walking access to Musser Lake from Woodland Lane. Selling it means the public loses a lake access point so private island buyers can use it for parking. That’s the core issue, and it’s not mentioned anywhere on the agenda.
The only transaction in the GIS sales history is Document 320534, recorded as “CREATING NEW SUBDIVISION.” No donation deed appears in the digital records, which means the original transfer – if it was a donation as residents claim – predates the county’s digital index. Price County deed records are behind a paid portal (Tapestry/fidlar.com), and the Register of Deeds office at 715-339-2515 would need to be contacted to trace the full chain of title.
What the Agenda Actually Says
The meeting notice, emailed by Clerk Regina Damjanovic on July 15, 2026, lists two meetings on July 21: a Special Town Meeting of Electors at 6:30 PM, followed by the regular Town Board Meeting at 7:00 PM. Both take place at W6895 Springs Drive, Phillips.
**Agenda item 8 for the regular board meeting reads, in its entirety: “Musser Lake/Woodland Lane boat landing.”** No supporting documents. No resolution text. No mention of a buyer, a price, or which parcel is involved. Electors walking into the meeting have no way to research the issue beforehand, no documents to review, and no way to make an informed decision.
The meeting will be livestreamed on the town’s YouTube channel (youtube.com/@TownofWorcester, which has 18 subscribers). The livestream URL is https://youtube.com/live/LXVO0UXi9ic.
The Backstory: A Year of Unused Land Sales
This vote didn’t appear out of nowhere. On July 21, 2025 – exactly one year before this meeting – the Town of Worcester published a blog post titled “UNUSED TOWN LAND” identifying five parcels for potential sale. All five have Musser Lake frontage, and several were originally intended as boat launch sites that were never developed.
The town argued that Musser Lake already has two public boat launch sites, making these additional access points redundant. **The board recommended selling at its June 17, 2025 regular meeting, and the original elector vote was scheduled for August 19, 2025.** What happened between that initial plan and the current July 21, 2026 vote is unclear – the town blog hasn’t updated the status of those sales, and no meeting minutes covering the intervening year have been provided to our municipal records tracker.
The five parcels identified in July 2025:
- Tax ID 22220 – 0.21 acres, undeveloped Musser Lake access from Woodland Lane (the current controversy)
- Tax ID 22278 – partial, undeveloped Musser Lake access from Musser Heights Lane
- Tax ID 22256 – 0.1 acres, landlocked on Musser Lake
- Tax ID 28384 – 0.90 acres, undeveloped Musser Lake access from Shady Hollow Lane
- Tax ID 28385 – 0.50 acres, undeveloped Musser Lake access from Wundrow Shores Lane
Parcel 22220 is the one now at issue. It’s one of the smallest of the five, barely a strip of land – but it’s the one with a resident willing to publicly challenge the sale.
The Transparency Pattern
This isn’t an isolated incident. Worcester has a documented history of withholding information from residents. In May 2026, we reported on the Anthony Sleck case and Worcester’s open records crisis, where the town failed to respond to public records requests within statutory timeframes. Five clerks have resigned in five years, all citing harassment. The current clerk, Regina Damjanovic, was appointed in April 2025 after yet another resignation.
Sleck, who administers the “Voice of Worcester – 2.0” Facebook group, posted about the boat landing on July 18. He wrote that Chairman Jim Michler told residents the town may “SELL” part of the property and “give them a great deal” – referring to the new buyers of an island property on Musser Lake who want the access strip for parking. Sleck says no details have been made public ahead of the meeting.
**The core complaint is the same one we heard in May: electors can’t make informed decisions without prior information.** Wisconsin’s open meetings law requires that meeting notices include the “purpose” of special meetings. Whether “Musser Lake/Woodland Lane boat landing” – four words with no supporting documentation – satisfies that legal standard is an open question.
See also: Worcester gravel pit approved 4-1 and 13 Price County towns ignored our public records requests
What Wisconsin Law Requires
Selling town land in Wisconsin isn’t simple. The process is governed by Wisconsin Statute 60.10(2)(g), which requires that a town board obtain authorization from electors before disposing of real property – with a critical exception: the statute excludes “property donated to and required to be held by the town for a special purpose.” If the Woodland Lane parcel was donated for public lake access, as residents claim, this exception may directly apply. The electors must vote at an annual town meeting or a duly called Special Town Meeting – which is what the July 21 meeting is.
Wisconsin Statute 60.12 governs Special Town Meetings and requires Class 2 public notice that includes the purpose, date, time, and location. **The legal question is whether the agenda item “Musser Lake/Woodland Lane boat landing” meets the statutory standard for informing electors of the purpose.** Residents argue it doesn’t. The Wisconsin Towns Association’s own fact sheet on town meetings emphasizes that electors need adequate information to make decisions.
The process has three steps: the board recommends selling, electors authorize the sale, and then the board decides to sell at a separate meeting. The July 21 vote is step two – electors giving the board permission to sell. But if electors don’t know what they’re authorizing, the vote becomes a blank check.
What Happens Next
The July 21 electors meeting starts at 6:30 PM, with the regular board meeting following at 7:00 PM. Both are livestreamed on the town’s YouTube channel. If electors authorize the sale, the board would then vote at a future meeting to finalize the transaction.
For residents who want to be heard, the electors meeting is the only opportunity to vote on the sale authorization. Show up at W6895 Springs Drive at 6:30 PM on July 21, or watch the livestream at https://youtube.com/live/LXVO0UXi9ic.
For the full deed history – including verifying whether the land was donated and by whom – the Price County Register of Deeds can be reached at 715-339-2515. The parcel’s PIN is 50-034-4-38-02-31-5 15-176-15000. Document 320534 (the subdivision creation) is available through the county’s paid records portal or by calling the Register of Deeds directly.
See also: our guide to free camping in Wisconsin
See also: our guide to Price County public records
See also: our full coverage of the Worcester gravel pit controversy
The Bigger Picture
Worcester’s boat landing controversy fits a pattern that’s been building for over a year. A town with five clerk resignations in five years, a chairman residents call a “wanna be comedian,” and an open records crisis documented in our previous reporting is now asking electors to vote on selling public lake access without telling them who’s buying or for how much.
**The parcel description in county records – “MUSSER LAKE DEVELOPMENT PUBLIC ACCESS” – is the fact that should anchor this debate.** This land wasn’t set aside as surplus. It was set aside for the public. If the town sells it to private island buyers for parking, that access is gone. And once it’s gone, it’s not coming back.
Updated July 22, 2026 with full vote results and meeting transcript analysis. The resolution passed 9-0.