A wheelchair user in Hales Corners has been relying on a temporary gravel path to reach the road ever since Luther Avenue's sidewalks were torn out this summer, but village officials have now reversed an earlier stance and agreed to pay for a permanent paved connection at his family's home and a dozen others along the street.
Nick Ness uses a wheelchair, and his family had been told the cost of building that connector would fall on them. As reported by TMJ4 News, then-Village Administrator Sandy Kulik told the station the permanent path would be considered a private improvement, meaning public funds could not be used to build it. Roseann Ness said she was informed her family would have to hire a contractor at its own expense to get Nick from his wheelchair ramp to the street.
The dispute traces back to a road reconstruction project on Luther Avenue, part of the village's 2026 Roadway Program engineered by RA Smith, according to Village of Hales Corners engineering plans. A neighborhood petition led the village board to eliminate the existing sidewalks along that stretch during the rebuild, according to the dossier's account of the project. That decision left 13 properties on Luther Avenue, including the Ness home, with front walkways that simply ended in grass instead of connecting to the road.
A Temporary Fix While the Family Waited
With no paved route in place, the village installed a temporary gravel path so Nick Ness could still get from his ramp to the street, according to TMJ4. A curb cut had already been poured leading to the road, but the gap between that curb cut and the Ness family's front walk remained unfinished. Roseann Ness said the missing connection made it harder to get her son out of the house.
The administrative turnover complicated the timeline. Sandy Kulik, who had served as village administrator for more than a decade, retired at the start of August, and Rachel Pocquette, previously the assistant administrator, was appointed to take over the role, according to the Village of Hales Corners. Kulik had told TMJ4 in late August that the Ness family would be responsible for the cost, a position that shifted only after Pocquette stepped into the administrator's seat.
Why Officials Initially Balked at Paying
Village officials leaned on Wisconsin's Public Purpose Doctrine, a judicial standard requiring that municipal spending serve a direct public benefit rather than primarily helping private property owners, according to the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau. Pocquette said the village could not use borrowed money or tax dollars for private improvements under that framework. The alternative, a formal special assessment against the affected landowners, comes with its own delays: under Wisconsin Statutes Section 66.0703, municipalities pursuing that route must file engineering reports, issue class 1 notices, and hold public hearings before assessing costs to property owners, per the Wisconsin Legislature. Pocquette said that process alone would take about 90 days, and the special assessment process could have delayed project completion until next year.
The village's initial refusal also ran up against federal accessibility law. Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires local governments to maintain accessible pedestrian routes and install compliant curb ramps whenever public streets or rights-of-way are altered, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The U.S. Access Board's Public Right-of-Way Accessibility Guidelines, which took effect in 2023, similarly mandate continuous pedestrian access routes for government-owned rights-of-way, adding pressure on Hales Corners to resolve the gap it had created by removing the sidewalks in the first place.
A Budget Surplus Becomes the Fix
The village ultimately found a funding source that avoided both the tax-dollar restriction and the lengthy assessment process: higher-than-expected interest earnings on its cash and investments. As reported by TMJ4, Hales Corners is using those higher-than-budgeted interest earnings to pay for paved paths at all 13 Luther Avenue properties, extending each front walk to the road as a one-time accommodation rather than a routine public expenditure.
Hales Corners is now paying for a permanent paved path from Nick Ness's wheelchair ramp to the road, and neighbor Joe Welch is getting a similar paved connection from his front walk to the street. Welch said he is happy a solution was found for his neighbors, telling TMJ4 that the community should help all people. Roseann Ness said speaking up helped bring about the solution.
Part of a Busy Construction Season
The Luther Avenue fix arrived amid a packed public works calendar for the small Milwaukee County village. In August, Hales Corners also managed South 116th Street utility work tied to Edgerton Elementary School, coordinated with the Whitnall School District, which forced road detours from August 22 to August 24, according to the Village of Hales Corners. Nearby, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation resumed a $13.8 million resurfacing project along a five-mile stretch of Forest Home Avenue running from Janesville Road in Hales Corners into Milwaukee starting in March, as previously reported by Hoodline, with contractor A.W. Oakes & Son handling that state-funded work.
Hales Corners, an estimated 7,689 to 7,720 residents with a median household income of $87,740, has faced accessibility questions before. Public records and local community postings show residents previously raised concerns over the village's two-story library and a two-story health department facility lacking an elevator, part of a broader pattern of local disability advocacy predating the Luther Avenue dispute. For the Ness family, though, the immediate fix is close at hand: once the paving is finished, Nick Ness will have a permanent route from his ramp to the street, replacing the gravel path that has stood in for a sidewalk since the road project began.
