On Tuesday afternoon, I had the opportunity to attend a Wisconsin Department Of Transportation Workshop regarding proposed improvements to Shawano Avenue. Arguably the busiest “rough ride” in Green Bay due to the amount of cracks and potholes in the street.

While the staff was great and the different plans were exciting there was a huge problem we knew was going to be there before the workshop started.

A 2031 construction start (story HERE). And after I asked staff during the QA, the possibilities of moving that date up seemed out of reach. This is very unfortunate for you and I, and everyone else who uses Shawano everyday.

I’ve spoken before on the wear and tear a street like Shawano can take on a vehicle, and the toll of an unexpected car repair on a struggling family. I’ve also talked about how visitors are welcomed with a bump ride coming over from the restaurants off of Military near Lambeau as they make their way downtown.

But now, we’ve got these plans and we get to visualize how great Shawano will be when it eventually gets done. We’re talking about extra space on some plans, bike lanes on others, two or four lane concepts.

Anything will be better than what we have now.

But at this point, it’s an unwrapped Christmas gift that is going to be under the tree for six more years.

We must continue to kindly ask our leaders to keep pushing for the project to be moved up. This isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity and Green Bay knows it.

We just have to get our neighbors outside of the 920 to see it.