CHAPTER 81
TOWN HIGHWAYS
81.01 Highways; duties of town board.
81.02 Superintendent; appointment; compensation; bond; highway districts.
81.03 Superintendent of highways; duties.
81.04 Highway funds disbursed.
81.05 Waterways; maintenance by towns.
81.06 Entry on lands; purposes; road materials in highways.
81.07 Entry on lands; appraisal of damages; appeals therefrom.
81.08 Temporary highways and detours; damages.
81.11 Highway taxes; assessment; amount.
81.12 Town highway tax; emergency levy; limit of; anticipation and collection.
81.14 Highways; refusal of town to open; appeal to county board; cost of opening.
81.15 Damages caused by highway defects; liability of town and county.
81.17 Highway defects; liability of wrongdoer; procedure.
81.35 Tunnel under highway by landowner.
81.36 Engines upon highways; regulations; damages.
81.38 Town bridges or culverts; construction and repair; county aid.
81.39 Special town tax for repair of bridges.
81.42 Dams used for bridges.
81.01
81.01
Highways; duties of town board. The town board shall have the care and supervision of all highways in the town, except as otherwise provided. The town board shall:
81.01(1)
(1) Appoint in writing if it deems advisable a superintendent of highways to supervise, under the direction of the board, the construction and repair of said highways and bridges and fix the compensation and the amount of the bond of such superintendent. Where no superintendent of highways is appointed, it shall be the duty of the town board to perform all the duties that are prescribed by law for the superintendent of highways to perform.
81.01(2)
(2) Provide the superintendent of highways with necessary forms and books made in compliance with standards prescribed by the department of transportation.
81.01(3)
(3) Provide machinery, implements, material and equipment needed to construct and repair said highways and bridges, and for that purpose may acquire by purchase or by condemnation in the manner provided by
ch. 32 gravel pits and stone quarries, but the total sum spent under this subsection shall not exceed $10,000 in any year, unless one of the following occurs:
81.01(3)(a)
(a) A greater sum is authorized by the town meeting.
81.01(3)(b)
(b) The town board by resolution submits to the electors of the town as a referendum at a general or special town election the question of exceeding the $10,000 limit set under this subsection. The board shall abide by the majority vote of the electors of the town on the question. The question shall read as follows:
Shall the town of ... spend $... over the annual limit of $10,000 for the construction and repair of its highways and bridges?
FOR SPENDING ⍽ AGAINST SPENDING ⍽
81.01(4)
(4) Compel the superintendent of highways from time to time to perform the superintendent's official duties.
81.01(5)
(5) Erect and repair guideboards where deemed necessary on main traveled highways.
81.01(6)
(6) Assess the highway taxes in their town in each year.
81.01(7)
(7) Expend for highway purposes so much of the income taxes of the town as the board shall deem best.
81.01(8)
(8) Direct when and where all town moneys received from highway taxes and other available highway funds shall be expended.
81.01(9)
(9) Designate highways that shall be known as dragged roads, and divide the same into sections, and to appoint draggers for each section whose duty it shall be to drag that section under the direction of the town board, or to contract to have any section dragged, and fix the compensation therefor, preference to be given to occupants of lands abutting such road.
81.01(10)
(10) Enter any private lands with their employes and agents for the purposes of removing weeds and brush and of erecting or removing such fences as may be necessary to keep highways reasonably free from snow and open for travel during the winter season.
81.01(11)
(11) By ordinance, assign a name to each of the roads in the town under town board jurisdiction. No road name may be used on more than one road within the jurisdiction of the town.
81.01 Annotation
Mandamus will lie to compel a town board to reopen a town road which has become impassable, where no superintendent of highways has been appointed. 81.14 applies to repairs. State ex rel. Cabott, Inc. v. Wojcik, 47 W (2d) 759, 177 NW (2d) 828.
81.02
81.02
Superintendent; appointment; compensation; bond; highway districts. The town board may appoint more than one superintendent of highways. If more than one is appointed the town board shall divide the town into as many districts as there are superintendents. The districts shall be numbered and a superintendent shall be assigned to each district. The term of office of highway superintendents shall be one year from the date of their appointment. A superintendent of highways may be compensated by a regular salary or by a per diem allowance, to be paid out of the highway fund or out of the general fund of the town. In addition to a salary or per diem compensation the superintendent may be paid out of either of said funds a stated amount for the maintenance and upkeep of a horse or automobile or motor truck. Such superintendent before entering upon the duties of superintendent shall execute an official bond in such sum as the town board shall require, with sureties to be approved by the board, and file said bond with the town clerk.
81.02 History
History: 1991 a. 316.
81.03
81.03
Superintendent of highways; duties. The superintendent of highways shall supervise the construction and maintenance of all highways in the superintendent's district required to be maintained by the town, and keep them passable at all times, and perform such other services in connection with said highways as the town board requires, and keep a full account of all the superintendent's receipts and disbursements. The superintendent may make such arrangement for the prosecution of the highway work as the superintendent deems necessary and appoint such supervisors as the highway work requires. When any highway under the superintendent's charge becomes impassable the superintendent shall put the same in passable condition as soon as practicable. The superintendent shall make a complete and full report of all funds received and disbursed by the superintendent whenever requested so to do by the town board, and shall also make a complete and full report to each annual town meeting. The superintendent, and in the superintendent's absence the town board, shall immediately upon notice of its existence fill or remove any depression, ditch, hump or embankment which impedes the use of any highway in the superintendent's district.
81.03 History
History: 1991 a. 316.
81.04
81.04
Highway funds disbursed. All payments for work performed and materials furnished on town highways and payable out of town funds shall be by order drawn upon the town treasurer and signed by the town clerk and countersigned by the town chairperson, but in a town where there is a superintendent of highways no order shall be drawn until the claim therefor has been certified by the superintendent of highways to be correct and due and has been entered in the books of the superintendent, showing the date, amount and nature of the claim.
81.04 History
History: 1989 a. 56 s.
258.
81.05
81.05
Waterways; maintenance by towns. The town board of any town in which there is a waterway suitable for general and useful navigation by watercraft may, by order recorded by the town clerk, designate the waterway as a public waterway of the town. The town board may expend highway funds for the improvement and maintenance of the navigability of the public waterway. No amount in excess of $500 may be expended on a public waterway in any year unless appropriated by the town meeting under
s. 60.10 (1) (d). No town is liable for damages resulting from a defect or insufficiency in a waterway designated a public waterway under this section.
81.05 History
History: 1983 a. 532.
81.06
81.06
Entry on lands; purposes; road materials in highways. The town board may enter upon any lands near any highway in the town and there construct necessary drains or ditches or embankments for the improvement or protection of the highway; and may enter upon any unimproved lands near any highway in the town and take stone, gravel, sand, clay, earth or trees for the purposes of improving any highway, but shall carefully avoid doing any unnecessary injury to the premises; and may take stone, gravel or other suitable materials within the highway of the town to improve any highway therein. No such material shall be removed from any town without the consent of the town board unless the highway on which the same is found is maintained by the county, in which case the county may use the same for any highway purpose.
81.07
81.07
Entry on lands; appraisal of damages; appeals therefrom. The owner or occupant of lands entered upon or used for any of the purposes mentioned in
ss. 81.01 and
81.06 may apply to the town board to appraise the resulting damages, and such damages may be determined by agreement. If they are unable to agree upon the damages the board shall make and file an award of damages, and the owner or occupant may appeal from said award within the time and in the manner provided by
s. 80.24, and the proceedings on such appeal shall be governed by
ss. 80.24 to
80.29.
81.08
81.08
Temporary highways and detours; damages. 81.08(1)(1) When any highway shall be practically impassable or be dangerous to travel or when it shall be deemed necessary on account of construction or repair work thereon or for other reasons to suspend travel thereon or upon any part of such highway, the town board may upon its own motion lay out and open temporary highways for the accommodation of public travel through any lands. The board may contract in writing with the owner or occupant, or both, of any land through which it proposes to lay out such temporary highways, as to the location of the same, and the damages the owner or occupant is to receive, which contract shall be filed with the town clerk. In the absence of such contract the board shall determine by a written order filed with the town clerk both the location and the damages, and may immediately open such temporary highways. Such highways shall exist only so long as needed and shall be deemed vacated and discontinued when the permanent highway is again opened for public travel.
81.08(2)
(2) The owner or occupant of any land occupied by such temporary highway may at any time after it is opened and within 30 days after it is so vacated or discontinued apply to the town board to determine the owner's or occupant's damages; and thereafter the same proceedings may be had as in the case of a claim for damages under
s. 81.07.
81.08(3)
(3) In case such temporary highway is opened in connection with or on account of road and bridge construction the damages agreed upon or awarded pursuant to this section may be treated as part of the construction cost and paid out of the construction funds in the customary manner of disbursing the same.
81.08 History
History: 1991. a. 316.
81.11
81.11
Highway taxes; assessment; amount. 81.11(1)
(1) The town board, after each annual town meeting and prior to the first day of November following, shall assess the highway taxes for the ensuing year, and certify the same to the town clerk to be by the clerk entered in the next town tax roll and collected as other town taxes are entered and collected.
81.11(2)
(2) In addition to the highway taxes voted by the town meeting, the board may assess a tax on the taxable property of the town.
81.11(3)
(3) No town containing less than 500 inhabitants shall levy or collect in any year a highway tax of more than $3,000, exclusive of the amount levied under
ss. 83.01 to
83.14; and no town containing 2 congressional townships or more and more than 500 inhabitants a tax of more than $4,000 in any year, exclusive of the amount levied under
ss. 83.01 to
83.14 and of the mill taxes levied by the town board, upon its own authority without direction from the town meeting.
81.11(4)
(4) No taxes shall be levied pursuant to this section which shall have the effect of increasing the total levy of taxes for all town purposes above the limit of one and one-fourth per cent of the assessed valuation of the town for the preceding year.
