Brian Roebke photo
Whoa! Technology has reached the Wrightstown Town Hall, with a new sound and video system that allows town board members to participate virtually, like Bill Verbeten did for this meeting. Funding came from the federal pandemic funds.
By Brian Roebke
Editor
When the curve on Highway DDD in the town of Wrightstown was shortened a couple decades ago, the portion of the road that was left over became a town road, known as Town Road 5.
Town Chairman Bill Verbeten said Brown County wants to eliminate the road when it reconstructs the road next year because there are two access points and only one is really needed.
There is presently one property the town road feeds, and they can use the northern end of the road to exit north or the southern end of the road to exit south. The property owner would prefer to leave the road as is.
A potential safety problem is drivers have a restricted view of the oncoming traffic from the other direction because of the sharp angle.
An idea pitched was to eliminate access to the north portion of the road and reconstruct the intersection on the southern end with Autumn Blaze Court.
“It would probably be our expense,” Verbeten said. “The property could be deeded back to the owners that are there.”
The county’s preference appears to be creating a single driveway midway through the curve and completely eliminating the town road, but the property owner thought that could make it less safe.
Verbeten noted the road is concrete and in good shape and the town may cause more trouble than they have now, which is none.
Supervisor Ron Diny thought the county wanted to square up roads for vision purposes when they rebuilt roads.
Supervisor Jesse Juedes thought it was unnecessary for the town to maintain the road but Verbeten said the town hasn’t done any work on that road since he became part of town government.
Verbeten said the county told him the decision was up to the county and he offered to make a call asking if there would be any expense to the town and if they would do the survey work to deed the land to the adjacent landowner.
Another issue could be the cost of removing the concrete road base.
The board tabled the issue and may have a meeting at the site with the property owner and county representative.
The town board went into closed session to discuss the possible incorporation but no action was taken when they reconvened into open session.
The board decided to hold a public hearing for an ordinance change regarding commercial electric inspections being done by the town’s building inspector, Marty Johnson.
Plan Commission Chair Richard Gerbers said other towns have adopted this and it’s up to the town to follow through.
Martzahl ordered some replacement street signs and she’s concerned about spending almost $900 to replace signs that went missing since spring, and what it would cost to have the county install them.
“It’s frustrating,” she said, noting insurance would not cover unless all of the signs disappeared on the same day.