AREA LEADERS CONTINUE TO PUSH FOR FOUR LANE HWY 10
Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006 -- 10:21 AM
Audio - 1:30A meeting with Wisconsin Department of Transportation and Commerce officials has Neillsville's Mayor feeling more hopeful Highway 10 might be upgraded to a four-lane highway from Marshfield to Osseo - someday.
Mayor Diane Murphy, attorney Tom Harnisch, Neillsville Planning Commission member Jana Marden and Osseo Mayor Bob Twesme recently traveled to Madison to bend the ear of state officials. The meetings were prompted by a S.O.S. Murphy sent to the Governor in the wake of the Fleetguard plant-closing announcement.
"We met with two representatives from the Department of Transportation and one from the Department of Commerce," Murphy explains. "We just wanted to tell them what our problems are here in Clark County and Neillsville and see if we could get some help."
The ideal form of "help" in Murphy and Harnisch's eyes would be the enumeration of Highway 10 as a four-lane highway from Marshfield to Osseo.
If you've followed this story, you know Harnisch - a former state senator - has warned current state plans call for the "orphaning" of that stretch of U.S. highway. Current plans would steer traffic to Highway 29 and away from Neillsville, Harnisch has said.
DOT officials have scoffed at the notion of upgrading Highway 10 to four lanes west of Marshfield. They've said traffic counts simply don't support an expensive construction project - but Murphy feels their recent meeting was a breakthrough of sorts.
"We felt very positive when we left that meeting. They said they were going to check into it and revisit it," Murphy says. "Now they're saying 'maybe' - that's a good step for us. At least we have them thinking."
Murphy plans to continue her efforts to organize the leaders of communities that fall on Highway 10 west of Marshfield; another meeting could be held within a month.
Meanwhile, construction of a 4-lane Highway 10 from Stevens Point to Marshfield will begin this summer. The much-anticipated upgrade is projected to be complete by 2012 and will make the highway four lanes from Marshfield to Appleton.
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