By Anne Trautner
Assistant Editor
The Walworth Joint School District 1 School Board is reaching up to those in high places for help as it seeks to squelch the latest plan to redirect Highway 14.
The Walworth Village Board has been working with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation for five years to develop a reconstruction plan for Highway 14. After considering about 10 proposals, the plan that the village board currently favors brings the highway 53 feet from the school.
School officials argue that the plan puts students’ safety at risk. Among the public officials the school board has voiced concerns to are U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Sen. Neal Kedzie and Rep. Amy Loudenbeck.
Baldwin wrote a letter to the Federal Highway Administration on the school board’s behalf, and School Board President Kelly Freeman said she was pleased with the administration’s response.
Because the Federal Highway Administration is still in the midst of the environmental evaluation process, it does not yet know the outcome or what the selected alternative will be. However, the Federal Highway Administration wrote to Baldwin that the environmental process will be followed and that the Walworth School District’s concerns will be heard, Freeman said at Monday night’s school board meeting.
The National Environmental Policy Act requires that all comments, including any from the Walworth Joint School District 1, be considered during this process and taken into consideration for the final environmental document, Freeman said.
“So we are going to have a say in this, so I think that is very good news to know,” Freeman said.
Once the environmental assessment is completed, it will be submitted to the Federal Highway Administration for review, Freeman said.
“In other words, that has to go to the national office first, which we were never made aware of,” Freeman said at Monday’s meeting. “It is interesting because Rep. Paul Ryan and Tammy Baldwin both said to me right away, ‘Well, you know, it’s a state project.’ Well, 70 percent of this is funded by the federal government. And they say lots of money comes to Wisconsin and they don’t have any control over it.”
A public information meeting will be scheduled in May, followed by a formal public hearing, Freeman said.
According to Freeman, Loudenbeck was surprised after reading minutes from the March 14 meeting between Wisconsin DOT and school representatives because Loudenbeck didn’t expect the meeting to be an open public forum. Loudenbeck thought that the DOT was going to discuss what changes would be made to the physical building and the impact upon the school, Freeman said. Because it was a public forum, those items were not addressed, Freeman said.
Freeman said school representatives followed Loudenbeck’s advice to stay in contact with the village board. At the April 14 village board meeting, parents and teachers voiced their concerns to village trustees.
“I’m just hoping that we can work together, instead of feeling like we are working against each other. I just want you to know that I’m very open to that, and I am hoping that we can work together to come up with a win-win plan, where everyone feels satisfied, and you can feel confident that your needs have been met and we can feel confident that our children will be safe,” Pamela Larson, interim school district administrator, told village trustees at the April 14 meeting.
School parents told the village board in April that they are worried about noise and air pollution, as well as the loss of parking, playground space and a drop-off area at the school.
The school district has contacted its insurance company and is waiting to learn what impact the Highway 14 project would have on insurance rates and coverage, Freeman said Monday.
Both the village and school boards agree that a bypass would be the best solution, but that is not an option because the DOT will not fund a bypass.
“It is an ongoing challenge,” Freeman said. “I sincerely feel this current plan would be a travesty for our school and for our village.”
