PUBLIC PARTICIPATION:
Public Participation Community Forum #1 Survey Results Stakeholder Interview


SURVEY RESULTS

ISSUE IDENTIFICATION

2. How do you want to describe Holmen in the year 2025?

• There is nothing wrong with being a bedroom community to LaCrosse. If the cities, villages and townships of LaCrosse County would stop fighting over “turf” we’d all be better off. It’s dumb for a county of 100,000 to have so many political fifedoms.
• Upgrade industrial pursuit to become a better work environment
• Retail job will not preserve a prosperous life style
• Quiet neighborhood! Hard to find!
• Raise taxes to reduce class sizes. Improve schools. Fix middle school or replace – Reduce class size, too big

TRANSPORTATION

3. How do you rank the following in Holmen:

Other:
• During snow removal, curbs are destroyed and way too much sand is thrown onto lawns
• Bus service to and from LaCrosse and Onalaska badly needed!
• Subdivision Signage
• Bus service to Onalaska-LaCrosse needed badly
• Subdivision signage (ie Georgetown)

• Small bus to and from LaCrosse mall
• Would like the village population signs larger
• No sand during snow removal
• Litter removal – especially in the industrial areas
• Street sweeping – never saw one or evidence that one came by

• Traffic circulation – do not increase speed limits
• Speed limit on McHugh Rd should be reduced to 25 MPH due to school zone
• Accessibility to local bike routes will be better after new trail is established in town
• Replace old signs with new - consider a logo style implementation like what Onalaska has done
• Consider a street light on Anderson St halfway down.
• I walk in Holmen. There is no sidewalk in front of the fire station and either way for a block.

4. Please identify dangerous intersections in the Village and explain why they are dangerous:

• Holmen shopping area onto Hwy – speed limit not obeyed
• The only one I can think of is D and Main St, but it’s really not that bad
• Ponderosa Division on Hwy too busy, too active
• Hidden Valley Rd. Residents do not obey spec limit. Very dangerous driving especially by minors.
• Hwy 35N by Kwik Trip. Very hard to access Kwik Trip to/from when traveling northbound

• Gaarder Rd & Main St. – not everyone has to stop.
• Every intersection along Pinecrest St – cars travel too fast
• Gaarder Rd/Main St
• Every intersection on Pinecrest St. (also speeding)
• Gaarder & Main St (3-way only 2 stop signs)

• Sunset and Holmen
• Intersection by the Holmen post office – too many accidents
• Intersection by Subway – lights are long in some aspects and too short in others!
• Hwy 35 and Amy Drive
• Hale Dr to Rd 35. This is a busy intersection between 6:00 am – 9:00 am and from 3:30 pm to 7:00 pm. It needs stop and go lights.

• Main St and Gaarder Rd. Note enough control. Entry and exit to Kwik Trip on South end very dangerous
• All intersections with SandLake Rd from OT to Georgetown Addition - reduce speed limits to 35 or 40, current speed limit is 45 mph.
• Church St & Hwy V – hard to see around treeline
• Sunset Dr & Hwy 35/Holmen Drive – needs traffic signal
• Briggs Rd & McHugh Rd – needs traffic signal

• The intersection of McHugh Rd and Briggs Rd – a lot of traffic during the school year and other times when activities take place at Holmen High.
• Lake St & 2nd Ave – There are no yield or stop signs at this intersection
• Main St & Cty Hwy D – Mornings, late afternoons and when school is let out
• Main St & Cty High D H – Mornings, late afternoons and when school is let out
• Turning in to Walden Acres – no turning lane

• Johnson St and 1st – People don’t stop for posted stop signs
• Gaarder Rd & Main – People don’t stop for posted stop signs
• Gaarder & Main St – because right turn does not stop
• Enterprise @ Eastwood – once the road was incomplete, now has through traffic. People from Eastwood often don’t recognize stop sign, rolling through.
• Main & State – closeness of buildings hamper seeing vehicles.

• Corner of Wall St and E 1st Ave – many children , many fast drivers
• Corner of Gaarder & Main – confusing stop sign
• Enter Main St – people drive too fast
• Holmen Drive & Empire St – People often turn onto Empire from Holmen or Holmen from Empire and cut off other moving vehicles. It’s often difficult to determine speed of oncoming cars
• Hale and Holmen – light maybe

• 1st & Johnson driving East on Johnson – blind spot
• I am most disappointed in the chip sealing of our neighborhoods. It is an unnecessary expense. Asphalt overlay is a better option even though it is considerably more expensive. Asphalt roads should have a 20-year life cycle. Our neighborhoods are being chip sealed within 7 to 8 years. Unnecessary!!! Reduce frequency of chip sealing and resurface with asphalt.
• Hale Dr & Hwy HD or 35 needs a stop sign (stop and go lights)
• Cty V & Main St – lots of traffic in morning. School on Cty V. Hard to turn left
• The corner of Union and Empire – coming off Union in front of Holmen Concrete to turn on Empire, you have to pull way out to see

• Manchester & Commerence – Bushes in yard too high on #1 Commerence
• Gaarder Rd & State St – Right turn no stop sign from Main to Gaarder. Cannot be seen. Drivers see stop sign and assume car will stop.
• Main & State – obstructed view to right and left if stopped at sign from State St
• Briggs & CTH MH - too many cars during school
• Sunset Dr & Hwy 35 – One death- many accidents – heavy traffic – too many large trucks

• Hard to make left hand turns when leaving businesses on S Holmen Dr
• McHugh Rd & Briggs – high school functions and school days are extremely busy – needs traffic lights – can’t see to the east easily.
• Main St & Gaarder Rd – confusing to people not familiar with Holmen.
• Main St & Bryan – hard to see when making a left turn onto Main because of hedge
• Main St & Gaarder because left turn no stop and continuous traffic flows through by Park Bank.

• Main & Hwy D – during afternoon traffic it’s hard turning onto Main from Hwy D
• Traffic exiting Kwik Trip and Burger King trying to head north or south. Traffic is heavy coming at a high speed
• At the high school – lights needed to direct traffic safely – too hard to see oncoming traffic
• The pizza corral 0 turn lane onto Hale Dr is compromised by people exiting the corral. Those turning onto Hale Dr are mistaken by traffic behind them and many times cars cut in front of others thinking they are going into the Pizza Corral
• OT & Sand Lake Rd

• Hale Dr & HDD – crossing 4 lanes of traffic plus watching for those coming out of businesses
• Sunset Drive to HD – crossing too many lanes of traffic plus watching those coming to or leaving Citgo
• Gaarder Rd to Main St to Holmen Drive S – drivers from out of town aren’t sure who has right-of-way and yield sign by Park Bank should be a stop signer – drivers don’t yield and cut off those who are going thru on green arrow or light.
• Hwy 35 & Hale Dr – no stop & go lights
• Hwy 35 & Sunset – no stop & go lights

• Gaarder & Main St – should be a 4 way stop
• Holmen Dr & Sunset Dr
• Sunset & Main
• Main & State
• Cedar Ave - from one end to the other!

• Holmen needs LAW ENFORCEMENT on this street!
• Main St & Gaarder – entering intersection to go west from Gaarder is difficult due to two non-stop roadway sections. Same for traffic turning left from Main to Gaarder. Most of the time, no signal indication is given by oncoming traffic. Solution would be to build a “roundabout” at the intersection. This avoids expensive signals.
• Gaarder and Main St. Many drivers confused by 2 way stop sign with non-stop left turning.
• Main St & Gaarder – 3 way intersection with 2 stop signs
• Holmen Dr & Hale Dr & area south toward Burger King – traffic entering road from businesses

• Amy Dr & North Star – should be a 4 way stop
• McHugh & Briggs – difficult to enter and exit from the high school
• Packer & Mallard – needs a stop sign on Mallard
• McHugh & Briggs – students getting done with school make it tough to get out.
• The area around the Pizza Corral/Burger King – too difficult to gain access to Hwy 35 from theses businesses.

• The right turn no stop intersection at Main & Sand Lake
• Main & Gaarder – wide, too many options difficult to cross Main from Gaarder
• State and Main – cars can park too close to the corners – can’t see around them
• High School entrance – Too busy – not regulated and too make chances being taken.
• Both entrances at Viking Elementary should be 4 way stops

• Holmen Drive & Sunset – busy intersection – fast moving cards – wide intersection – exit from Citgo
• Main & Gaarder
• Briggs Rd & McHugh – when school is open
• Sunset Dr, both at Main and Holmen – too much using this street as access – confusing
• Intersections are safe, drivers are dangerous. Law enforcement needs to slow down local traffic!

• People driving south, trying to turn into Kwik Trip – most people do not get over to turn and slows traffic up creating potential accidents.
• Derek & HD and Sunset & HD – These are highly dangerous intersections due to the speeds people are allowed to travel on HDD. 45 mph in a residential area is high risk. Kids crossing towards the middle school and from the gas station have brought cars to a screeching halt several times.
• Turn one Dana La off McHugh as it is at the top of hill
• McHugh Rd & Briggs Rd – hard to get across McHugh and hard to se very far down McHugh
• Intersection by Quik Stop – trying to turn left onto 35 – have a long wait and hard to get across

• A left hand turn coming off of Church to N Main by the middle school is difficult when cars are parked on the North side of Main.
• By Citgo Quik Stop off of Sunset – difficult to make left turns out
• Long Coulee to Main Street can be difficult to access
• Would like to see the left hand turn lane by Park Bank heading west towards Remington Hills developed to east the load down by Cordels Standard of Excellence
• Main Street and the road in front of the Holmen Credit Union is very busy!
• HD & Hale Dr by Bills Automotive. I cannot believe the DOT allows an intersection with turn lanes that have driveways for store business. Access to Bills and Pizza Corral should be by front road

UTILITIES AND COMMUNITY FACILITIES

5. How do you rate the following services and facilities in Holmen?

• We need to adopt a revised alternate side parking – Nov 1st or after first snowfall
• Need to develop a better business park
• Library – need more space and more books
• No fluoride in water
• Police – Keep the policy of not giving out addresses to solicitors

• Trash – Expand/create drop off site for building materials
• Elections – need write in ballots
• Need more police
• Excellent administration - not counting Village President / Mayor.

GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

6. How would you describe the pace of development in Holmen?

• Residential too fast
• Industrial too slow
• Just add a few more houses that the middle class can’t afford
• Too fast – new housing
• Too slow – new business
• Development of long range plan and implementation of a wise decision to award Holmen’s sustained controlled growth

8. Which of the following types of housing do you feel the Village currently needs and should new growth go?

• I would like to see the pace of the development take into consideration the national economy – before long a house will not sell easily unless it’s new.
• Have enough mobile homes
• Problem with low rent / multi rent duplex and mixed use neighborhoods: As the buildings become older, people stop maintaining them, too much movement in and out. Pride of ownership/living/working environments slide downhill. This lowers the value of the surrounding areas. Need to have some ordinances governing the exterior appearance/condition of all buildings in Holmen regardless of buildings age.

9. What types of commercial and industrial growth do you feel the Village currently needs and where should it be located?

• Restaurants needed badly!
• Need large video store and one chain restaurant
• Restaurant and hotel/motel located along 53
• Food/Grocery eventually – but not now.
• Enough car repairs

10. What factors should be considered as new commercial development is considered:

• If you want Holmen to have integrated, multi-use neighborhoods for living, shopping and working, then you need to have ordinances and covenants/standards of upkeep over the long term. Prime example – the North Star Rd, Commerce St and Empire St industrial park off of Holmen Drive. Some of the business within this plat have tried to maintain green, landscaped area and have clean, painted, well-maintained facades. Others have become run-down, cluttered, unattractive and unkempt. All this opposite one block of duplex or apartment complexes and then immediately into sing-family housing. It is very unappealing to drive through, especially with the over-abundance of semi-trailers staged along the curbs. They should have to park on a lot off the street (like the empty roller skate lot or similar).

• Some of the business owners have tried to maintain a pleasant, well cared for, pride of ownership and the quality of workmanship atmosphere. Others are eyesores that we wouldn’t want to do business with – let alone drive by. If they can’t take care of their property, who would they do a better job taking care of a customer?