Mayor Al Haas and two members of the Stanley City Council met with Clark County Highway Commissioner Brian Duell, Mark Ruff from Clark Electric, Sheila Nyberg from Clark County Economic Development Corporation, two members of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and Town of Thorp Board members Bob Kodl and Jerry Jacks, on Aug. 1, to discuss the possibility of an interchange at Hwy 29 and Copenhaver Avenue on the city’s east border. The idea of the proposed interchange was previously discussed in 2004 with mixed feedback from area business owners and residents. While the intersection at Copenhaver has been deemed by many as “hazardous,” the high cost and close proximity of the interchange to local businesses has others concerned. Jacks, Chairman of the Town of Thorp, shared his thoughts on the future project. 

“I guess I’m for it. In the long run it will probably bring in more people, more homes (will) be built,” he said. 

He also remarked, “We’re probably going to lose more land to the City of Stanley then.” Jacks further mentioned that the state needs to make a quick decision on the interchange as current landowners on the northeast corner of Copenhaver and HWY 29 are in the process of bringing a house in to the area. “If they want it, they better get moving,” he said. 

Haas spoke on the possible interchange. 

“Right now the state’s figuring eight years before anything is done there. It’s a definite possibility that Clark County, City of Stanley, Township of Thorp are looking at it to see if it’s possible,” he said. 

While the proposed cost is guessed to be “in the millions,” the city of Stanley’s portion is speculated to be a little over $2 million.  

“There’s a lot to look at before we can do it,” Haas remarked, as the council would have to consider what the turnaround time would be on a city investment of that size and also safety. 

 “There’s years and years of planning to go forward with this,” he said. 

Haas added that the first initial meeting was just to see if this was something that they would want to do or even to spend time and resources to check out.  

“It’d be nice to have it. It would also be nice to have it on (Hwy) G.” He continued to explain, “There’s nothing set anyplace. The only thing the (Department of Transportation) has in the plans is an overpass on Copenhaver and again, that’s eight to 10 years down the road. So, what we were looking at that meeting was, overpass or interchange, what’s going to work and who owns the land. There is no way the state or anybody will ever allow us to have one on Hwy. G, the main entrance to Stanley, and one on Copenhaver. It’s too many of them,” he remarked.  

“What the city also has to look at is, what’s going to be the best option for Stanley? Would (Hwy) G be the best one or would Copenhaver? And can we afford either one?” said Haas. 

“It will definitely benefit the traffic,” Haas said. He personally thinks that an interchange at Hwy G would benefit Stanley more as there is more truck traffic in the West Business Park and it would keep the semi traffic from downtown Stanley. He explained that traffic at the West Industrial Park is heavy industry while the East Industrial Park is lighter, citing Ace Ethanol and Northside Elevator at the West Park. “That’s a lot of semis a day that are hitting our interchange here in town. Would it make more sense to have them at (Hwy) G?” said Haas. 
“Again, we’re a lot of years down the line,” he reiterated. “It’s all to do with the money. Who’s going to come up with the money to pay for it?”    

When asked if the DOT has a timeline, Mayor Haas speculated, “This could be 20 years from now. They’re going to start closing these side roads, the ones that are crossing. So, there’s only going to be a few of them that they are going to put overpasses on. They’re not going to put overpasses on everything. They’re only going to put an overpass every so often because they are millions and millions of dollars. If that overpass goes there and we decide to make it an interchange, then the City of Stanley has to come up with the money for the interchange along with Clark County,” he said. His theory is that if the City of Stanley puts in an interchange, then they will also have to pay for the maintenance of it.  

“I think the idea of this meeting was just to get everybody together: Township of Thorp, City of Stanley, the county, and start discussing, ‘What are our options out there?’” Haas shared that the state wants to make sure that there is accessibility to the business parks. He added that there has to be so many surveys done to see if it’s feasible and see if there is enough room there, as he mentioned the close proximity of Hixwood Steel at N14685 Copenhaver Ave. “They’re talking about moving the overpass over a little bit away from Hixwood. They have enough land to do that. But to put the interchange in, all that land has to be purchased,” said Haas. “It’s in the opening phases of talking.”  

He said the state is going to do some research, find out what land has to be acquired and who is going to acquire the land.