Thanks in part to the Wisconsin State Bureau of Aeronautics, Madeline Island is receiving nearly four million dollars worth of gravel. 

The Madeline Island Ferry dock is a beehive of activity, with bargeloads full of gravel for road and sanitation and airport projects being delivered daily.  Every time the crane swings from barge to the giant hopper on the ferry dock, you hear the sound of money being poured onto the Island.

Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle presented the Town of La Pointe with a check for $1.2 million on August 11.  That portion came from the Bureau of Aeronautics, to pay for 21,500 tons of gravel needed for future airport projects.

The Madeline Island Sanitary District will be using about 2,000 tons.  That leaves nearly 65,000 tons to be used by the Town of La Pointe over the coming decade for road improvements and annual repairs to town roadways.  And the total cost of the gravel will come to $3,651,600.

Ashland County is helping to pay for the gravel, contributing nearly 40% of the required funds.  The County, in turn, received a grant from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to rebuild Highway H on Madeline Island.

Upcoming road projects will include the re-paving of half of Main Street, Big Bay Road, Middle Road and Black's Shanty Road.  Northwoods Paving of Ashland, Wisconsin, will be the general contractor for the gravel and blacktopping contracts.