Town of Unity seeking legal advice over road closures

By Neal Hogden

The town of Unity board listened to concerned residents at its monthly meeting on March 11 who brought forward complaints about the town roads that were closed by the township earlier this year.

The crowd of about 40 residents of the township wanted to know what the board’s plan was in dealing with the closures that had been ordered by the Office of the Commissioner of Railroads (OCR) in part due to sight lines being blocked on Sandhill Avenue, Basswood Avenue, Badger Avenue and First Avenue in Riplinger.

Board president Wayne Hendrickson told those in attendance the board had looked into hiring a lawyer in hopes that they could challenge the OCR’s decision to close the roads. However, they had no luck speaking to the lawyer they had planned to go through in Marshfield as that lawyer said he had a conflict of interest when dealing with state railroad and highway cases.

Hendrickson also told residents in attendance that the brush had been cut down on Sandhill Avenue. At the previous meeting, the board had planned to have residents volunteer their time to cut down brush in a 330 foot triangle from the Sandhill Avenue intersection in order to clear sight lines for vehicle traffic. The residents agreed to help with this in hopes that the measures taken would help the town open up Sandhill Avenue which had been barricaded.

Despite the voluntary clearing of the right of way, the board said they would not open the road back up. Hendrickson said the board was given orders by the OCR to keep First Avenue in Riplinger and Sandhill Avenue closed.

“At our last meeting, we had here, they said we should be able to open Sandhill up, but we can’t. If we do, we will get in trouble,” Hendrickson said.

At the board’s February meeting, instead of passing resolutions to close the roads, the board decided to table the resolutions in hopes that clearing the brush would allow the board to reopen the road. Marsha Martens, clerk of the town of Unity, said now, the OCR was demanding the signed resolutions be forwarded onto the OCR. If the town were to not comply, Martens said she would be subpoenaed and forced to give the documents to the OCR.

Resident Kevin Cliver attended the meeting and said the town should not be taking orders from the railroad because they aren’t in compliance with their safety measures either.

“They’re not in compliance with having their right-of-way cleared out. It’s like, ‘OK, why are you shoving this down our throat?’” Cliver also had an issue with the fact that the board volunteered to close the intersection at Sandhill Avenue.

Hendrickson confirmed the board did volunteer to close two intersections at a November meeting. He said at the time, they felt it was their only course of action. This decision came after an inspector went to

See TOWN OF UNITY/ Page 4 Town of Unity

Continued from page 1

the town of Unity on September 13, 2023 and asked in a letter sent on September 19, 2023 that the intersection of the railroad at Sandhill Avenue be cleared of brush and trees and the stop sign at the base of Sandhill Avenue and Riplinger Road be relocated within 14 days.

After the town did not respond to the request, the OCR again reached out to the town on October 19, 2023 in which Martens said she did not receive the letter with the request. On November 6, 2023, the OCR filed a decision by the Commissioner of Railroads which stated they had adopted the investigator’s recommendations. In that decision, the commissioner noted that the town had not complied with the 14 day time period that was given to either clear brush from the railroad sight lines or discontinue the roadway.

Between October 19 and November 6, the town board did not have a meeting scheduled and thus did not make any decisions pertaining to the inspector’s notice.

The report said, “The investigator recommended closing Sandhill Road to traffic while the town moves forward with proceedings under Wis. Stat. § 66.1003, Discontinuance of Public Way, to vacate the roadway at the WCL crossing. Alternatively, the town could clear the trees and brush as required by Wis. Stat. § 195.29(6). While it may be reasonable to close Sandhill Road, unless actually closed pursuant to statute, the town has a statutory obligation to clear brush and trees so drivers are able to see the railroad warning devices and approaching trains. The investigator provided 14 days for the town to take necessary action. But as of November 3, 2023, the town had done no work to remediate the safety concerns or take action to discontinue the roadway.”

Hendrickson said at the board’s November meeting, they eventually decided to close two roadways.

“We volunteered to close those two intersections. They were the two easiest [ones to close] out of the four,” Hendrickson said. “The ones that we thought would cause the least amount of issues for people when getting around.”

“Where did that authority come from?” Cliver asked.

“Here,” Hendrickson said while pointing to the board.

“How do three people make the decision for the whole township?” Cliver questioned.

Cliver was told that there were minimal public voices in attendance at the November meeting when the initial resolution to close Sandhill and First Avenues had passed.

Landowners were told that even if they were to clear their portion of the sight lines at the intersections, it would only be a temporary measure as landowners would need to continue to clear brush and trees from the intersections.

Other crowd members expressed their displeasure at that decision and said the board should have gotten the whole township together for a vote on whether to close the intersections or not as opposed to two or three members of a board voting on the important issue.

A crowd member asked why the OCR has more say over the town’s roads than the township does. Martens said between the OCR and the DOT, there isn’t much the township can do if they wanted to shut all the railroad intersections down.

Hendrickson said a representative from the railroad was supposed to attend the board meeting that night to help explain the closures but at the last minute the representative reached out and said he couldn’t attend. The residents complained that the OCR and DOT were not attending meetings explaining to the residents why their roads were being shut down.

Hendrickson said a representative told the board that the OCR doesn’t come to town board meetings.

“Is there any way for a township to force [the OCR] to come to a meeting? They’re pushing the heck out of us, why can’t we return the favor?” a resident asked.

“If they don’t want to come to our meeting, then to hell with the railroad and to hell with the DOT,” another said.

Cliver and other crowd members wanted to know if there was anything in writing stating that the board had agreed to close the crossings. Martens said the board had the signed resolutions made up that explained the closure of the roads but had not sent them in.

A crowd member came forward and showed that signed copies of the resolutions were posted on the Public Service Commission’s website. The public member said there were copies of the resolutions for Sandhill Avenue, First Avenue and Badger Avenue.

Hendrickson agreed with the complaints saying, “This is why we want to get an attorney. They would know more of what to do than we would. This is getting to be above our pay scale.”

The crowd gave the board suggestions of lawyers they had worked with in the past and Hendrickson said he and Martens would reach out to a legal adviser the next day.