Town wants to see legislative action
By Scott Bellile
The town of Caledonia is working to keep its roads in shape with heavy truck traffic traveling to five quarries and a cooperative.
The challenge comes in keeping the heaviest traffic on the fewest routes possible to preserve the town’s underfunded road system.
Half of Caledonia’s annual budget goes toward roads, and 83% of the town’s tax revenue is generated by residents.
That means Caledonia’s inhabitants can get upset if their roads are not maintained properly, Town Supervisor Bill Abba said.
Caledonia’s businesses actually support the town’s efforts to protect its roads from illegal truck traffic, Abba said. The violators tend to be nonresident, independent truckers.
“The concern is they pay no taxes here, yet they run illegally on town roads, which causes damage for the people that do live here to then have to repair,” Abba said.
Large trucks also pose safety risks to other motorists when they take narrow country roads illegally.
To take weight off the back roads, the town designated a commercial truck route primarily on portions of U.S. Highway 45, State Highway 96 and County Trunk W.
The town also has marked class B roads on County Trunks H and W, Letzke Road, Guhl Road and Brehmer Road.
Recently the town upgraded its signage along these routes, and town officials communicated the approved routes with business owners and truckers.
Actually enforcing the weight limits can be tricky, however.
The town budgets $10,000 to $12,000 per year to hire off-duty Waupaca County sheriff’s deputies and pay them overtime to patrol the roads and catch lawbreakers. Hiring the attorney to prosecute the violators in Waupaca County Circuit Court carries additional costs.
While the fines against someone driving a fully loaded dump truck on the wrong road can total $7,000, Caledonia sees little of that money.
That revenue goes to the state, and the state does not reinvest the money in maintaining the Caledonia roads that the trucker may have damaged.
Caledonia boosted its law enforcement presence in 2017 and cracked down on five truckers during that fall harvest season, according to Caledonia Town Chairwoman Paula Pagel.
But after the expanded patrolling began, town officials learned Caledonia can only collect $150 per citation while Waupaca County can only earn $7, even if the fine totals thousands of dollars, Pagel wrote last year in a letter to state lawmakers and lobbyists where she asked for this practice to be changed.
“We thought that we would probably get at least half of the proceeds, if not more. … The real surprise was that the rest of the proceeds went to the State of Wisconsin and spent on obscure programs unrelated to road improvements and maintenance,” Pagel wrote in the January 2018 letter.
“The state does nothing and gets the proceeds to spend however they wish,” Pagel further wrote. “This is absurd, makes absolutely no sense, and must be changed.”
Pagel asked lawmakers to redirect the proceeds to Caledonia and Waupaca County to help them repair their deteriorating roads, arguing the town and county already provide the funding, staffing and law enforcement to keep their roads in shape.
Fewer violators, but no change in law
On July 3, the Press Star asked Pagel for an update on Caledonia’s battles with illegal truck traffic and its quest to recoup the fines.
Pagel said the town is seeing less illegal heavy truck traffic compared to when the crackdown began in fall 2017. She recalled just one citation being issued during this past spring’s seasonal weight limits.
Truckers appear to be acquainted with the weight limits now, which means Caledonia can hire off-duty sheriff’s deputies less often, Pagel said.
However, Caledonia has not seen any action at the state level on Pagel’s request to have revenue from fines directed to the township.
“I think it’s fallen on deaf ears,” Pagel said. “We have contacted our local representatives. And we tried to pursue the issue through Wisconsin Towns Association, but I think they’ve got bigger issues that they’re working on.”
The Press Star contacted the recipients of Pagel’s letter for comment: State Rep. Kevin Petersen, R-Waupaca; State Sen. Luther Olsen, R-Ripon, and the Wisconsin Towns Association.
“We have talked to several key legislators about this issue,” Mike Koles, executive director for the Wisconsin Towns Association, said in an email on July 3. “There is currently not any movement (due in) large part to any revenue/funding related discussion being 100% focused on state budget related initiatives. As the dust settles on the budget and the fall portion of the legislative session begins, our hope is that this issue rises to a greater level of importance for the legislature.”
Petersen and Olsen did not respond to requests for comment.
Koles added that the state and counties lack the resources to send officers to patrol these areas, so Wisconsin towns’ only choice to enforce weight limits is to hire off-duty patrols, which comes with two drawbacks.
“First, towns don’t receive much from the fines resulting from violations,” Koles stated. “Second, circuit court judges have been very generous in amending both the nature of (e.g., changing a weight limit violation to a noisy muffler violation) and the fine amount associated with violations, likely due to a misunderstanding of the undeniable physics of the problem. Until both of those hurdles are addressed, violations will likely increase and road lifespan and public safety will decrease.”