Skinner brags about failed Lake Altoona project in campaign ad

Wisconsin Republican state Senate candidate Michele Magadance Skinner is running a campaign ad bragging about a local environmental fix she supposedly implemented for free as a local official.

But county records show the project failed to launch, with Skinner eventually voting to scrap it a year ago in 2025. And if testing proved successful, the project would have cost over $1 million to implement.

Skinner is an Eau Claire County board member running to represent Wisconsin’s 31st state Senate District. She is currently running a campaign ad that greatly overestimates the value of a failed project she oversaw as the chairwoman of the Lake Altoona District Board.

“When sand choked and local officials failed to act, I found a 40-ton machine to clean it up for free,” Skinner says in the ad.

The project Skinner referred to involved the board acquiring a 30-foot bedload sediment collector, a machine to help combat Lake Altoona’s ongoing sand buildup problem. Sand brought into the lake from the Eau Claire River is threatening to transform the lake into a marsh in the coming decades. The sedimentation buildup is also preventing locals from enjoying the lake and is projected to drive down property values by as much as 10 to 20% if the issue goes unmanaged.

Records show that the machine was never installed in Lake Altoona and that Skinner herself voted to sell its parts for scrap last year.

The failed sediment collector project

Skinner spearheaded the project and routinely touted its potential to the media. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) purchased the $1.2 million machine and donated it to Lake Altoona. Despite Skinner claiming the machine was “free,” a pilot project document from 2023 says the machine would have cost an estimated $1 million to install. The board used an $800,000 grant from the U.S. Congress, $500,000 from the state and funding from Eau Claire County to help pay for the project’s costs.

According to the Lake Altoona District Board’s meeting minutes and media reports, the project suffered multiple setbacks before it was scrapped:

• Jan. 18, 2023: WQOW reports that the USACE purchased a $1.2 million bedload sediment collector and donated it to the Lake Altoona District.
• Feb. 13, 2024: Process Engineers, a company that specialized in sediment projects, reported that the amount of sand collected by the machine would not justify the cost. They found that the system would not work well with the type of sand in the area, would run at a slower rate and need a replacement part. The machine was originally insured for $600,000 with a $5,000 premium (the minutes do no specify if the premium was monthly).
• March 17, 2024: Despite Process Engineers’ findings, Lake Altoona partnered with the USACE to conduct several tests on smaller versions of the sediment collector.
• Oct. 21, 2024: USACE tests were proven inconclusive. The risks and return on investment concerns lead to a straw poll among attendees, who “overwhelmingly” indicated district members no longer support the collector.
• March 12, 2025: USACE rescinds offer to cover costs to repair the collector ($50,000). Bedload collector is “on a shelf” due to support system collapsing
• July 2, 2025: A motion to scrap parts of the bedload collector for salvage is seconded by Michele Skinner.
• Oct. 20, 2025: Parts of the collector deemed “old technology and unusable” set to be sold for scrap. The rest of the equipment was described as “in poor repair and has been vandalized.”

According to Lake Altoona board emails obtained and reviewed by Heartland Signal, Skinner did not mention the inconclusive USACE tests or the results of the October straw poll in her “2024 recap.”

When asked by Heartland Signal about the sediment collector project and its cost, Skinner contested the idea that the project was a failure.

“Yes, I found this machine and it’s a part of the solution we are in the process of completing,” Skinner told Heartland Signal via email.

The Lake Altoona District Board also collects an additional property tax that is partially used for special projects like addressing the sediment issue. In 2023, Skinner oversaw an increase in the mill rate to the maximum $2.50 for every $1,000 of property valuation.

Skinner’s second bid for state office

Skinner previously worked as a journalist, a medical device representative and as a recruiter before retiring in 2017.

Wisconsin’s 31st state Senate District encompasses Eau Claire County and portions of western Wisconsin’s Chippewa Valley. Skinner is seeking to unseat Democratic incumbent Jeff Smith. The seat represents a key swing district in the state Senate, where Democrats are hoping to obtain a majority for the first time in 15 years.

Skinner unsuccessfully sought the Wisconsin 91st Assembly District seat in 2024, when she lost to incumbent Rep. Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Claire) in the general election.