Last updated: July 2026
It Took 18 Months, But Georgetown Finally Settled Road Disputes With Two Neighboring Towns
For nearly a year and a half, the Town of Georgetown was locked in a slow-burning disagreement with two of its neighbors over who maintains which road segments. The Town of Harmony and the Town of Kennan both had road sections that Georgetown had been taking care of for years, even though state maps said otherwise. It took until June 2026 to get the paperwork signed and the maps corrected.
The whole thing started with a map check.
The Discovery: DOT Maps Were Wrong
In October 2025, the Georgetown board reviewed its WISLR road certification maps. WISLR is the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s local road inventory system, and towns are required to certify their roads through it. What the board found was that the state’s road assignments didn’t match what was actually happening on the ground.
Georgetown had been maintaining road sections that DOT maps assigned to Harmony. The board realized immediately that this created a problem. If the state thinks Harmony is responsible for a road that Georgetown is actually plowing and grading, then who pays for the work? And who is liable if something goes wrong?
The board decided to revisit its shared road agreements with both Harmony and Kennan.
The harmony dispute
The situation with Harmony was the more contentious of the two. Two roads were involved: Woodlawn Road and E. Georgetown Fire Lane.
By November 2025, Georgetown had sent Harmony a bill. The town requested payment for work done on Woodlawn Road from Maple to Liberty, and for the 0.65-mile stretch of E. Georgetown Fire Lane that crosses into Harmony that Georgetown had been maintaining all along.
The board wasn’t subtle about what would happen if Harmony refused to pay. In the November 11 meeting minutes, Georgetown stated plainly that if Harmony did not approve the payment or sign a maintenance agreement, road maintenance for Harmony would end. Georgetown would stop plowing their roads. Same meeting, the board set the 2025-2026 snow removal rate at $150 per hour. The motion came from LeRoy, with Jessica seconding. It carried.
Harmony didn’t immediately cave. In January 2026, Harmony came back with a counterproposal. The details aren’t extensive in the minutes, but Georgetown’s board described it as a change that would “create inconvenience for both towns” in exchange for Georgetown taking over the northernmost portion of Woodlawn Road.
Jessica made a motion to decline Harmony’s proposal. LeRoy seconded it. The motion carried. Georgetown told Harmony they would stick with the existing arrangement: Georgetown handles winter snow plowing, Harmony handles summer maintenance.
The kennan dispute
The dispute with Kennan followed a similar arc but involved Oak Ridge Lane. In January 2026, Georgetown reviewed DOT road assignments for shared roads with Kennan alongside David Krause, Kennan’s lead road maintenance employee. They determined that the current DOT assignments did not accurately reflect which sections each town was actually maintaining.
Georgetown’s clerk was directed to contact Lynn Redfall about drafting a shared road maintenance agreement. Board member Ginny planned to attend the next Kennan board meeting to review and correct the DOT road assignments.
By February, Georgetown had submitted a draft agreement to Kennan. Kennan’s board reviewed it and wanted to add their own input. Then in March, Kennan came back with a proposed change to the existing maintenance arrangement. Georgetown’s board reviewed it and rejected it outright, deciding to continue with the long-standing arrangement instead.
In April, Kennan supervisor Jeff Premeau showed up at Georgetown’s board meeting to discuss Oak Ridge Lane. He agreed to take a signed agreement back to his board for review.
Georgetown plays hardball
Throughout the dispute, Georgetown took a firm stance with both towns. The threat to cut off Harmony’s road maintenance was the most aggressive move. But the pattern was consistent: Georgetown rejected proposals from both Harmony and Kennan, insisted on continuing the existing arrangements, and used the use of being the town that was actually doing the work.
The board didn’t budge when Harmony proposed a swap. It didn’t budge when Kennan proposed a change. In both cases, the motions to reject came from the same pair: Jessica and LeRoy.
The Resolution
By May 12, 2026, both agreements were signed.
The Harmony agreement covers the 0.25-mile Woodlawn Road section north of County J. It splits maintenance by season. Georgetown handles winter care from October 1 through March 31. Harmony handles summer care from April 1 through September 30. Each town gets half the year.
The Kennan agreement covers Oak Ridge Lane. Georgetown maintains the section from Woodlawn to County J. Kennan maintains the section from J to Fairview. The 0.48-mile section will be divided on DOT maps into 0.24-mile portions for each town. However, Georgetown agreed to pay Kennan their annual transportation aid, and in exchange, Kennan will assume full year-round care of that road section.
The WISLR Correction
On June 9, 2026, Ginny signed the WISLR road swap agreement document. The agreement re-assigns portions of Oak Ridge Lane to the sections that Georgetown and Kennan have customarily maintained all along.
The DOT maps finally match reality.
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Why It Took 18 Months
The root cause of the entire dispute was simple: nobody updated the state’s road inventory maps to reflect who was actually maintaining the roads. Georgetown was plowing and grading sections that technically belonged to Harmony and Kennan on paper. When the discrepancy was discovered, it took over a year of billing threats, rejected proposals, and board meetings to get both neighbors to sign agreements.
The maps are fixed now. The agreements are signed. But the fact that it took 18 months to resolve what amounts to a paperwork error says a lot about how small-town road disputes work. Nobody argues about who is actually plowing the road. They argue about whose name is on the form.