Calling out the DOT

Village trustee unhappy about plans for Highway 20

By Tracy Ouellette

SLN Staff

Village of East Troy Trustee Matt Johnson expressed his frustration with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and its plans for Highway 20 in East Troy.

“We should have a DOT representative come here to answer questions,” he said.

The item that got Johnson riled up was an email from Crystal Strait, DOT Southeast Region Project Development, which was part of the administrator’s report at Monday night’s meeting. The email stated the DOT was proposing milling and repaving the existing pavement from Highway 67 to Emery Street along Highway 20. Johnson said he wanted to know why that was all the DOT was planning, considering how much work needed to be done on Highway 20 in the village.

“I find it ridiculous that they have this section the priority when we know the section in the village should be the priority,” Johnson said Tuesday afternoon.

He said it was the thing he got the most complaints about as a village trustee and he has to keep telling the residents that it is a state-owned highway and the village can’t do anything about the road, or the intersection at highways 20 and ES, and he wanted a DOT representative to come to a Village Board meeting and explain why the much-needed work on Highway 20 isn’t getting done.

“I’m going to read them the riot act,” Johnson said Monday night. “If the DOT is not going to listen to us, we need to talk to our state legislators.”

Trustee Forty Renucci said he thought the reason for the delay to fix the intersection could possibly be because the DOT still wanted to put a roundabout at ES and 20, which the village had already told them it didn’t want.

Village Administrator Eileen Suhm said it was her opinion that the lack of real repair/replacement work on the highway was because of the cost of the project.

Johnson said Tuesday, he understood there were issues with funding road repair across the state, but the DOT has been putting off repairs to Highway 20 in the village for years and something had to be done.

For other news from the Village Board meeting, see the Aug. 9 edition of the East Troy Times.

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