By Anne Trautner
Assistant Editor
Three small children played in the foyer of the Walworth Municipal Building on April 14, their voices carrying over into the room where the village board was meeting.
Safety for those children, as well as all Walworth children, was the main topic of Monday’s meeting. The meeting room was packed, as community members voiced their safety concerns about bringing Highway 14 closer to Walworth Joint School District 1.
“I would ask the village board to reconsider their stand concerning the proposed highway 14 project,” said Peter Kahl, a teacher at the school. ” I am hoping that you would reconsider your decision about the proposed Highway 14 project and try to work positively to try to come to a more mutual agreement about the future of Highway 14, and the future of our school and of our village.”
The village 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.
“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, said.
Until Monday’s meeting, the village board understood there would be a new drop-off area at the school under the proposed plan. However, when community members at the meeting said this was not the case, Rasmussen agreed that would be a problem.
“The drop-off situation needs to be addressed, and for five years the school did not address drop-off,” Village Board President David Rasmussen said. “If the DOT is saying there is not going to be a drop-off on the east side, that’s wrong. I agree with you on that. The drop-off needs to be addressed.”
The board did not agree with school parents on many other issues Monday, though. Discussion went on for almost an hour, debating the pros and cons of different proposals.
Toni Pieper, a school parent, said she was surprised that none of the village trustees were at the March 14 meeting between the Wisconsin DOT held at the school.
“We found out about this meeting after it happened,” said Donna Schut, clerk treasurer for the village. “I emailed Julie Jenks at the DOT and asked why we weren’t notified.”
However, Rasmussen said at the board’s March 10 meeting that the school board and would be meeting with the DOT on March 14.
“That was intended to be a working meeting for the school board and the DOT,” Rasmussen said.
“I just assumed you guys would have been there,” Pieper said. “We found out that it was not the DOT that we were hung up on, it was more rather our village board that has proposed the current plan. I am just curious how you came upon a plan that you picked, and it seems like the craziest plan.”
“Has no one ever given you history on this for the past five years?” Rasmussen said. “When you say, ‘How did you arrive at that,’ we’d have to spend another hour. We have no heat in here tonight. we will have to spend another hour to go through all the history on that. I’m happy to meet with you some time.”
That gave Larson hope.
“What I’m happy to hear, David, is that you are saying that you are open to talking and listening to our rationale because I think that is what we are looking for, to feel heard,” Larson told Rasmussen. “I would love to talk about the plan. One point that the Department of Transportation made very clear is that they said this is not the final plan, and that there is an opportunity to still work together. And that is what I would love to have happen, is working together, because I really believe there could be a win-win solution.”
Village Trustee Kent Johnson suggested holding a referendum in November to gauge public opinion on the subject.
However, Rasmussen said that would be advisory.
“I can’t accept the idea of a referendum unless first someone can actually bring and show us there is a safety issue, that the trucks really are going to pollute and that’s going to be a problem,” Rasmussen said. “See, we’ve been listening to that stuff coming at us, and it’s not believable.”
Pieper said she was worried about the air and noise pollution the new route would cause for children in the school.
Village Trustee LeRoy Nordmeyer said that emissions is not a valid concern because of the Diesel Emissions Act the Environment Protection Agency passed in 2006, which will limit emissions to 10 percent by the year 2030.
“Smog is not the issue,” Nordmeyer said. “I’ve heard this come up several times about a hazardous environment. You can’t use it as an argument when it goes away.”
Parents are also concerned about loss of parking and playground space, Pieper said.
“The negatives that have come to us on this one really aren’t safety,” Rasmussen said. “They really are loss of parking. There is no net loss, I don’t believe, in the amount of parking. There probably is going to be an increase because there will probably be additional parking along the east side of the road. So parking will be just a little further from the multipurpose room and require some exercise to get there.”
“My idea is that we take the edge of the square off of the other opposite side of the square, keep the route going the way it is going,” Pieper countered. “If exercise is your thing, they could park on the other two sides of the square and exercise over [to Sammy’s].”
Rasmussen said everyone agrees that a bypass would be the best solution, but it is not an option.
“[The DOT] won’t pay for that,” Rasmussen said. “It’s just a matter of money, that’s all. The state won’t spend it and they told us from the get-go five years ago, back in 2009. The transportation budget is in trouble and they don’t have the money. We are not a priority for them. If you want to provide us with something, I’m happy to sit down and go through it again.”
Rasmussen said that DOT representatives said there could be signage for an alternative route to go around the village, but they could not compel trucks to use it.
“I grew up in this town, moved away and actually brought my family back. I love the community now,” said Valerie Bereckis-Gibbs, a school parent.
As elected officials, the board needs to represent the needs of all the village constituents, Bereckis-Gibbs said.
“If you’d like to put something in writing, that would be wonderful. We have asked the school to get a safety engineer instead of hiring an attorney, do something, bring us something, showing why. I mean the DOT insists this is a safe plan. It’s kind of tough , there’s no one actually coming and saying this is an unsafe plan. I mean the public comes in and says it is close to the school, that means it’s unsafe. No, automatically closer doesn’t, by umpteen feet, doesn’t automatically make it dangerous.,” Rasmussen said.
There must be a better plan, Pieper said.
“You are probably saying that with your interest as a parent for a few years in mind and we don’t tend to get a lot of people whose children were in the school who are now out of the school contacting us at all,” Rasmussen said. “If you’re interested in safety, I’m not saying yours, but a person’s interest tends to be accelerated or greater if they have young children in the school who are approaching the village.
“Absolutely. I don’t want my children to be one of the statistics on that,” Pieper said.
