MORRISON (WLUK) — Governor Tony Evers is hitting the road, supporting projects that aim to help farmers.
Governor Evers visited the town of Morrison in Brown County Tuesday after it received more than $2 million to make improvements along Hill Road.
The money comes from nearly $50 million in state investments through the new Agricultural Roads Improvement Program (ARIP) to help support 37 projects across 28 Wisconsin counties.
The projects are aimed at helping support Wisconsin’s farmers, producers, and agricultural industries by improving rural roads and bridges that are critical to moving and transporting products, crops, and livestock, among others, efficiently and effectively across the state.
“It allows people who have farms in the area around here to get to the market better, safer and also quicker. All those things are rolled into our state’s economy so I’m very happy about this project, we’re obviously going to need to do more in the next budget so the legislators need to be prepared to discuss this issue again and hopefully there’s more resources to continue to do this work,” Evers said.
In June 2023, Gov. Evers signed 2023 Wisconsin Act 13 to expand the Local Roads Improvement Program to include agricultural road improvement projects by creating the ARIP. Weeks later, in July 2023, Gov. Evers signed the 2023-25 biennial budget, which provided $150 million for the ARIP to improve transportation infrastructure that provides access to agricultural lands or facilities.
An additional application period for the remaining $100 million in ARIP funding will open later this summer. WisDOT will notify municipalities regarding the availability of application materials, the schedule of informational meetings, and other important dates and deadlines. WisDOT staff will also contact applicants who were not awarded to allow for the opportunity to easily advance their application for consideration in the next cycle. Projects awarded in round two are anticipated to be announced by the end of 2024.