Preserving Walworth’s historic downtown
By Rumasa Noor
Staff Writer
Issues regarding Highway 14 have been the subjects of heated debates in Walworth County and Village of Walworth Plan Commission members discussed the issue at the June 15.
The newest member of the plan commission, Tom Connelly, presented arguments in favor of the bypass, truck route, and preservation of the antique mall and the village square.
Connelly brought up the original proposal by Department of Transportation from 2009 that included a maintenance plan but “did not include the moving of the road, changing of the flow of traffic or destroying the downtown buildings.”
The Village Board President Todd Watters and a member of the commission pointed out that the DOT changed their original plan later on.
“I object to the west alternative; that’s the wrong way to go just from a historical perspective,” Connelly said. “That is and it always has been the epicenter of Walworth and I think it could be again.”
Earlier in the meeting, Watters mentioned the Plan Commission originally passed a resolution to the DOT stating it wanted a bypass. DOT officials refused and said that there was no funding for it.
“There are all kinds of town squares around the country and around the state that are reinvesting in their downtown districts, investing in pedestrian friendly places, and especially if there was a bypass, that would be a huge selling point,” Connelly said.
He added that the “the square remaining a square could be a huge asset to future generations of Walworth.”
After exploring several different aspects of the reconfiguration of the square, Watters asked Connelly what would he propose the Plan Commission do? Connelly said he would like to go after the study on bypass, and push the DOT for an alternative truck route.
An audience member pointed out that the total expense of tearing down the antique mall is about $1 million.
She asked “where is the benefit to the village for that kind of expenditure?”
Trustee David Rasmussen told her it might be the “luckiest” thing to ever happen to the village.
The antique mall could have stayed there, with no one purchasing it, no property tax paid on it, and eventually the cost of it would fall upon the village, Rasmussen said.
“It could be of number of benefits to us to have that building gone,” he said.
He added that this type of big and antique buildings are often “difficult to repurpose.”
Village Secretary Joyce Pagel pointed out that the antique mall was eventually going to be demolished by DOT, and they had no control over it.
The audience member objected to it and said that the village’s Comprehensive Plan “dictates to preserve the square.”
Connelly also mentioned that someone at a public informational meeting he attended said that “it’s because the state is involved, the potential buyers are turned off by the downtown.”
In other business, the board approved an open-air market at Meggy Moo’s Dairy Ripple, 100 Highway 67. The market will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sundays, June 21 through Sept. 20.
The market will sell homemade goods including produce, nuts, bakery, jewelry, eggs, seafood and more.
