Tomahawk council adopts resolution to put advisory water-fluoridation question before voters

Shelly Hersil of the Lincoln County Health Department told the City of Tomahawk Common Council that county oral-health data show major gaps: "42% of Lincoln County does not have dental insurance," she said, and she added the county is one of four in the state without a dentist who accepts Medicare.

Following the Health Department presentation, Councilmember Will Garske moved to adopt a resolution authorizing an advisory referendum on fluoridation of the municipal water supply; Steve "Ding" Bartz seconded. Councilmember Mickey Loka then moved to amend the resolution to delete the phrase "continue to," and Patricia Haskin seconded the amendment. The council voted unanimously to approve the amendment and then unanimously adopted the amended resolution.

During discussion, Haskin asked how the city would pay for any needed improvements if fluoridation were reintroduced, and Roxanne Consolver asked whether those costs would appear on the ballot. The council’s votes authorized an advisory referendum only; the resolution does not itself appropriate funds or commit the city to pay for infrastructure changes. Councilmember Bartz also said the city had previously paid an engineering firm to design a chemical room and that the firm had specified chemicals that the council later learned should not be stored together, which he said contributed to the city’s current consideration of fluoride. "They knew what chemicals would be stored in the room...we come to find out that they should not be stored together, and this has put us on the fluoride path," Bartz said.

The resolution passed unanimously as amended. The transcript does not specify the ballot language, the timing of the advisory referendum, or the estimated cost of implementing fluoridation; those details must be decided in later steps if the advisory vote supports action.