Brian Roebke photos
Town of Wrightstown Chairman Bill Verbeten (right) talks to Gov. Tony Evers about the village hall building that was converted from a church during the governor’s visit to Greenleaf last week to talk about a $1.2 million grant the state gave the town to reconstruct Fair Road.
By Brian Roebke
Editor
Gov. Tony Evers and Wisconsin Department of Transportation Deputy Secretary Joel Nilsustuen visited officials from the Town of Wrightstown and Village of Greenleaf on Thursday, May 29. The town is a grant recipient of the Agricultural Roads Improvement Program, which was created by bipartisan legislation and signed into law by Gov. Evers in 2023. The town was awarded more than $1.2 million through the ARIP to support improvements along Fair Road, which serves multiple local farms. The governor is proposing to continue funding for this successful program in the 2025-27 Biennial Budget currently under consideration.
The town is using the ARIP funding to rebuild 2.5 miles of Fair Road from the town limit with the Village of Wrightstown that’s currently 20-22 ft. wide
The plan is to widen to town standards for safety that includes 22 ft. wide with a 2-ft. gravel shoulder, provide a wider access for farm machinery and handle truck traffic for a Class A roadway.
The town applied previously for the grant and were not successful, so they beefed up the application with more information and received it the second time.
“There is quite a bit of truck traffic out there so we really tried to show that trucks are using this Class B roadway,” Ryan Trzinski of Robert E. Lee & Associates said.
The topographic survey is currently being done, design will be done during the year, permits secured during the winter, and the town hopefully will do construction in 2026.
Town Chairman Bill Verbeten told Evers and Nilsustuen the town has replaced several bridges on the route and they are wide enough to handle an upgraded roadway.
Evers asked about the high water on the road and Verbeten quipped that was the next road over, which drew laughter from those in the room.
The town cost is around $175,000, which is split with the village according to the percentage of the road that’s in the town and village.
Town Clerk Donna Martzahl believes they will be able to cover the cost in the budget without increasing the tax levy.
Town Supervisor Jesse Juedes told Gov. Evers every year they talk about the condition of the road while they are on their road inspection tour but there’s always something else that takes precedence.
“Big projects like this, without that grant program, are really hard for small municipalities to make happen,” he said.
The town and village have a combined 58 miles of roads and it’s a never-ending quest to make them all in good condition.
“We are committed to continuing this program, that’s for sure,” Gov. Evers said.
Nilestuen said this is a nice project that affects many producers, with farms having a lot of milk and silage coming in and out.
“This program really here really hits that first and last mile,” he said. “Milk needs to get off the farm and fertilizer and inputs need to get onto the farm.”
He said we need to work on interstate systems to keep traffic moving but town roads like this are important as well that before this program weren’t prioritized often.
Verbeten noted farms used to spread manure only in the fall but now it’s almost all year long, which added traffic to the road.
“It’s the constant use of our roads that were built for that small of traffic,” he said. “Now we one farmer might have 36 semis hauling manure at one time.”
Evers said the good news is he thinks the state will be able to continue the program since it’s one of the things Democrats and Republicans agree on.
Gov. Evers claims to have made historic investments in Wisconsin’s transportation infrastructure, improving more than 8,600 miles of roads and 2,000 bridges statewide since 2019. In fact, Wisconsinites could drive from Wausau, Wisconsin, to Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and back three times on the number of miles of roads fixed.
During his time in office, Gov. Evers has secured some of the largest investments in the state’s transportation budget in years. In 2023, Gov. Evers also secured historic increases in shared revenue for local communities, including a 20 percent increase for most municipalities statewide that will enable local governments to invest in community needs like local and agricultural roads.