Post Messenger Recorder -

Dear Editor,

In a four-square block section of downtown New Glarus there are, if my count is correct, sixteen flagrant violations of a state of Wisconsin statute enacted for the safety of pedestrians and motorists.

From 6th Avenue at Railroad Street, west up 6th Avenue to 2nd Street, then north on 2nd Street to 4th Avenue, hence to the east again to Railroad Street. Counting all the blocks and streets bounding and within this four-block area are to be found the above-mentioned violations.

Further, there is not a single centerline on any village street with the exception of 6th Avenue, which has a centerline painted by the state of Wisconsin. State Highway 39 runs the length of 6th Avenue through the village. Also, on a portion of 5th Avenue and 2nd Street, where Green County has centerlined those portions of village streets where Green County Hwy O is routed.

When one looks north from the hill at 2nd Street and 6th Avenue, some five blocks to the area once occupied by the Wilhelm Tell Hotel, no one sees that not one block’s centerline aligns with any other. With angle parking on both sides of the street at Small World and the former Wilhelm Tell building, the roadway is so narrow that school buses, county highway trucks and other commercial traffic is unable to negotiate that curve without crossing the double yellow centerline into the oncoming lane. All of this is in the area where parents are delivering and/or picking up their children from that child care facility.

At the intersection of 5th Avenue and 2nd Street, northbound traffic is completely unable to see whether it is safe or not to proceed. Caused by both illegally placed parking spaces which is village permitted parking within two or three feet of the crosswalk!

In order to be able to see whether it is safe to proceed into and through that intersection, one must drive more than a full car length into the intersection in order to be able to see whether it is safe to proceed or not.

I would venture to say that if one were to tally these flagrant and willful violations of the state statutes, one could easily tally upward of 100.

There are only two handicapped parking spaces that I know of in the entire village. Curiously they occur at each end of the same block of 1st Street – one in front of the bank, the other a block south in front of the New Glarus Hotel.

These spaces, marked by the handicapped logo painted on the roadway within the respective parking space, fail to comply with the requirements formulated by state and federal agencies.

Curiously there are a number of businesses within the village who have handicapped parking spaces which are in perfect compliance with the law.

The village has a greed for on-street parking. The village has willfully refused to honor its responsibility for the safety of both vehicular traffic and pedestrians.

When the inevitable tragedy does occur and as a result of the failure of the village of New Glarus….by the way, this is a flagrant and premeditated violation of the laws created for the greater public safety – there is a vehicular collision, or worse yet, an injury or death for a pedestrian, rule one is: sue the village of New Glarus, they are guilty!

Buzz Holland,

New Glarus