Last updated: November 2026
County Trunk J in Kennan is not scheduled for construction before 2029, according to the village board, and trustees are worried they’ll be left out of decisions about the road’s reconfiguration.
The Village of Kennan board recorded the status in its minutes for the November 9 meeting. Trustee Jill Arndt, who reported back on contact with the county, said:
Jill contacted county about status of County J construction. Still looking at 2029 before starting. Told them to keep us informed as we need to be in on the planning for the changes on the corner previously discussed.
The minutes do not say who at the county gave that timeline, whether the project ever had an earlier schedule, or what the work was originally expected to cost. The Price County Highway Department did not have a County J construction page posted as of November 10, and the county board’s November 10 agenda carried no County J item. The department’s commissioner is Roger Petrick, whose office is in Phillips.
What “the corner” means
The minutes reference “the changes on the corner previously discussed” without saying which corner. That phrasing signals an ongoing planning conversation. Price County Fun holds Kennan board minutes back to January 2025, and a review of those records found no earlier discussion of a County J corner redesign — so the conversation happened somewhere other than the board’s recorded sessions, or predates 2025. The village’s concern is straightforward: County J runs through Kennan, and a redesign at an intersection inside the village limits changes drainage, sight lines, and how trucks move through town.
County J is also a road the board already hears about. At the June 8 meeting, a resident asked whether brush along County J and West Road could be cut back, saying it was hard to see and dangerous.
The 2029 date matters less as a construction schedule than as a window. If the county is still in a planning phase, there is time for the village to weigh in on the corner design and on how traffic is routed during construction. If the county moves faster than the village expects, that window may be shorter than it looks.
Why a 2029 start is plausible
Price County’s highway department maintains about 221 miles of county roadway and 345 lane miles of state roadway under Wisconsin Statutes Chapter 83. That is a large surface area for a rural county’s budget, and county trunk projects compete with state aid formulas, bridge inspections, and winter maintenance for the same dollars. A start date years out is not unusual for a county trunk project. What is missing here is any stated cause, because the minutes record a timeline without one.
What’s next
Kennan’s board meets the second Monday of the month. The village has no website; it relies on the clerk to distribute records by request. Price County Fun obtained the 2026 minutes directly from Clerk Brenda Jones.
The practical question for residents is whether the county treats the corner work as part of the road project or as a separate design effort. If it is separate, the village’s use over the design is different — and the village may not learn which it is unless it asks.
There is also the matter of what “before starting” covers. A county trunk project can mean reconstruction of the roadbed, resurfacing, a bridge or culvert replacement, or a realignment at an intersection. Each carries a different cost and a different level of village involvement. The minutes use one phrase — “County J construction”, for all of it.
How this compares with the village’s other road work
Kennan’s board spends a visible share of its meetings on road matters, in ways that show how small the margin is for a village this size. In July the board agreed to pay Joseph Voss half the annual mowing amount after he requested it. In August, trustees voted to send Wingert a bill for half the cost of removing dead trees on their property, after a certified letter to the owners came back unclaimed. Street repairs by Jensen, discussed in July, were reported complete by the August meeting.
Those are not County J items. They are the kind of item a village of 143 handles in the same hour it handles a county highway project. When the county sets a start date years out, the village’s ability to plan around it depends on knowing the scope early, not on being notified once a contractor mobilizes.
What the record supports, and what it doesn’t
The 2029 date rests on one sentence in one set of minutes. That is a real limitation, and it cuts both ways. It means the village’s account is the only public one available: the county has not published a County J schedule, and a search of the county’s site turns up no project page for the road. It also means readers should treat the date as the village’s understanding of what the county told it, not as a county commitment.
The more durable fact in the minutes may be the last clause. “Told them to keep us informed as we need to be in on the planning” is the village asserting a seat at the table. Whether that seat exists in practice is the thing to watch.
The Village of Kennan’s account is the only public record of the 2029 timeline that Price County Fun has been able to locate. The county has not published a schedule for County J construction. Readers with information about the project can reach the newsroom at [email protected].
Sources
- Village of Kennan, Regular Monthly Meeting Minutes, November 9, 2026 (obtained from Clerk Brenda Jones, November 10, 2026)
- Village of Kennan, Regular Monthly Meeting Minutes, June 8, 2026
- Village of Kennan, Regular Monthly Meeting Minutes, July 13, 2026
- Village of Kennan, Regular Monthly Meeting Minutes, August 10, 2026
- Village of Kennan, Regular Monthly Meeting Minutes, September 14, 2026
- Price County Highway Department, department overview (co.price.wi.us)