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Darlington: Change in ATV route, new DPD chief hired
silver ATV
A silver 2005 Kawasaki Brute Force 750 was one of the vehicles stolen from Mike's Engine Works over the weekend in Darlington.

DARLINGTON — A Darlington City Council meeting and Policies, Procedures and Ordinance (PP&O) Committee meeting were both held on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024.

At the PP&O meeting, City Attorney Aaron Stauffacher brought up amending the municipal code. When the city opened up Wis. 23 from Center Hill Road to Donahoe Drive to ATV or UTV traffic, they used the word “designated” instead of “authorized”. A change will need to be made to use “authorized” on state highways within the city and “designated” for streets within they city.

Another issue is when the city extended the southbound lane up to Donahoe Drive for ATV use, the eastern property (across from Darlington Mini Mart) is in Darlington Township, which is under the territorial jurisdiction of Lafayette County. The city needs the county to update their ordinance to authorize the ATV route on that portion of Wis. 23 in order to keep that road open to ATV traffic.

The city needs to change the wording from “designate” to “authorize”, get the county to update their ordinance authorizing ATV traffic on that part of Wis. 23, and get the Wisconsin DOT signage permit.

“The DOT representative I spoke with, said the likelihood of the DOT approving the signage permit is slim, because there is an alternate route,” Jeff McCarthy, Director of Public Works said. 

The committee decided to change the city’s ordinance language from “designated” to “authorized”, and to not pursue allowing ATV traffic on Wis. 23 South from Old Center Hill to Donahoe Drive. ATVers will need to take Center Hill Road to get to the uptown part of Darlington (business park, motel, school, etc.). This needs to go to city council for final approval.

This also means ATV traffic will not be allowed to go to Buena Vista Drive.

Police Chief hired

Szvon Conway was approved for hire as the new Darlington Police Chief. Conway, who is currently serving as police chief in Monticello, has accepted the position and will be beginning on March 6, 2024.

Policies, Procedures and Ordinance Committee:

●  Discussed raising the height of new commercial buildings from 45 to 50 feet and if they are going over 50 feet, they would need permission by the city with a conditional use. This will be changed in zoning ordinance and brought back for final approval.

●  Approved authorizing a renewal application fee for $175, to make Darlington a Bird City.

●  Approval Resolution 2024-03 a resolution designating an international Migratory Bird Day.

●  Approved a trade agreement between City of Darlington and Village of South Wayne. Darlington has 435 credits (per year) that offset the phosphorus discharge from the sewer plant. Darlington only uses under 200 credits per year and will sell 105 credits to the Village of South Wayne for $84,000. This is a one-time charge, but South Wayne will get the 105 credits every year.

●  Approved an engineering contract with Delta3 Engineering. The contract is for a Darlington Waste Water Treatment evaluation at a cost of $16,750. It will give an inventory and evaluation of everything in the sewer plant. WE Energy (Focus on Energy) will pay $5,000 because an energy evaluation will be done as part of the general evaluation.