Columbia County Board
We have encountered some hurdles in amending the county ordinance. The biggest hurdle is getting discussion to amend the ordinance onto the agenda! Please contact Columbia County Chair, Chris Polzer at 608.697.1085 or https://www.co.columbia.wi.us/ColumbiaCounty/countyboard/BoardofSupervisors/District17Email/tabid/1175/Default.aspx and request he place this on the next full board agenda. While all roads within the county are sought, we have selected a few which are priority needs at this time.
Right now, we have a minimum of three areas that are being "strangled" by the restrictions (exclusions of certain county roads).
1. Lake Wisconsin businesses from County J and County V beginning in the vicinity of Hookers Resort and continuing the entire length of County V along the Lake Wisconsin corridor. This includes access to businesses between Okee and Poynette, Okee and Lodi, and all of Okee. This is a significant scenic area of our county and should not be prevented from generating revenue from this type of recreation.
2. Access to Pardeeville, Cambria, and Randolph: Due to the exclusion of ALL of County P, access to these three communities is being hindered. In Pardeeville, Schwantz Road is the only access to Pardeeville. This means any riders from the North or West have to travel a significant distance to access fuel. While we appreciate the concern for the various types of traffic along this county road, it is unfair to the residents along Schwantz Road to bear the brunt of all the traffic seeking access to Pardeeville. By allowing ATV/UTV traffic along County P west of the Pardeeville Village Limits to the intersection of Groth Road, we can allow access to residents on the south side of Swan Lake (a large number of residents!) to travel into Pardeeville via Brenemann Road and ultimately access to the remainder of Columbia County. By opening from Groth Road to the village limits, this opens an alternative access other than Schwantz Road. This will be very important once Pacific Township opens its town roads for use. Not to mention that access for the two campgrounds to Pardeeville for fuel and groceries is important now more than ever with the transfer of ownership of the Wyocena Town Mart.
Near Cambria, it would be beneficial to be able to exit west from Cambria to Inglehart Road to the north.
Between Cambria and Randolph, we would like to have a small portion of County P to connect Fordeg Road to Krueger Road.
Altogether, we are requesting less than 3 miles total of this county road to more effectively connect and route ATV/UTV traffic.
3) The last area we would like to have is a portion of County Q/CS east from the Village of Poynette limits east to Stebbins Road and to the MacKenzie Center. This is two-fold: Stebbins Road allows access to the northeast from Poynette; and The MacKenzie Center is a valuable, under-utilized asset of Columbia County. Families can go there to see native species of animals up close, learn about good stewardship of our natural resources, and ultimately the enjoyment of the outdoors. Again, approximately 3 miles of road are requested.
At the March 16, 2022 Meeting of the Columbia County Board of Supervisors, the draft ordinance (with excluded road sections) PASSED! There is still work to be done to get all county lettered roads open to traffic but we are moving forward.
The best way for you to help is to contact the supervisors and let them know to please open all county roads (lettered highways) and encourage townships to open township roads as well (named roads). We still have several townships we need to act upon opening named roads in order to travel from area to area. Once all lettered and named roads are open, we will be able to ride throughout the county without traveling the "high traffic" areas the Traffic Safety Commission is concerned with.