PLOVER, WI (WSAU) -- A ribbon cutting ceremony was held in Plover Wednesday afternoon. A stretch of road on Business 51 near Post Road was opened at the celebration. This is phase one of a project that the village and the Department of Transportation began having discussions about back in 1998.
Wisconsin Department of Transportation Secretary Mark Gottlieb was in attendance for the ceremony and spoke about how important partnerships are for projects like this.
"We could not be successful as an agency without partnerships and collaboration, and I think that those partnerships become really most important on a project like this," Gottlieb said. "The reconstruction of an urban street to a business area. They're not the most expensive projects that we do but in many ways, they are the most challenging and complex."
State Representative Katrina Shankland was another one of the officials there for the ceremony. She spoke about the partnership between the state and a local community.
She said, "I really do think that this is a prime example of a public partnership between the state and the local communities. And I understand that this project was really developed in close partnership in the village of Plover, so everyone could really determine what's best for them. And it wasn't just about state mandates this time, but the village really got to decide some of the things that they wanted. And I really appreciate that."
Three more phases of the project are expected to get underway in 2018 and 2019 with the hopes of wrapping the project up totally by 2021.