Posted: Dec. 23, 2009 |(0) Comments

River Hills — Village Manager Tom Tollaksen expected village insurer EMC to answer a summons and complaint on Monday filed against the village by the Nicolet School District and Glendale.

The city and district object to a plan to close Green Tree Road to most eastbound traffic, the exceptions being emergency vehicles, school buses and village vehicles such as plows. The city and district say closing the street would violate state law and prevent the school district's "free and unobstructed use" of the street. The district owns two houses on Green Tree and school buses serving the district as well as the three elementary feeder districts use the street during the school year.

The so-called half closure, sought by a group of residents living on the street, would be for six months, an effort to determine if it would be feasible on a permanent basis.

The residents seeking the closure claim speeding motorists have made their street dangerous. Their concerns became focused on limiting traffic on the street after an accident in April in which a motorist suffering a medical problem struck a pedestrian. Both died.

The residents hired their own traffic engineer who suggested the half closure. Those residents would pay for the costs of the temporary closure, according to Tollaksen.

A second group of residents, most of whom live on nearby River Road, have objected to the plan, bringing a petition signed by 21 residents to the Village Board on the same evening the board approved the closure.

Glendale hired a traffic engineer to do a comprehensive study of Green Tree Road traffic, doing counts of traffic both during and after construction on nearby Good Hope Road.

City Administrator Richard Maslowski said the Common Council reviewed a preliminary draft of that study at its Dec. 14 meeting. The final draft will be shared with River Hills, he said.

The case has been assigned to Circuit Court Judge Timothy Dugan.