Granton Village Board discusses hitching post location change

By Cheyenne Thomas The empty lot at the corner of Main and Second streets in Granton has become the subject of some controversy between the Granton Village Board and members of the local Amish and business community. A member of the public spoke to the board at its meeting on Jan. 8 to talk about how a change to where the village has a horse hitching post has negatively impacted the Amish population and downtown businesses since it was moved a few months ago.

At the meeting, Dean Schmitz spoke on behalf of both the Amish customers and the business owners, addressing how the Amish community feels about not having a central location in town for its post.

“By moving it, you’re telling them that their business is not as important,” said Schmitz. “But they supply probably about half of the business at the hardware store.” The change of where the horse hitching post was located was made after the village met in September and had been approached by a member of the local Amish community who asked the board to have the old hitching post rebuilt with new materials, as the old post had been showing signs of deterioration. While the board had discussed its replacement, the board also discussed the possibility of moving the location of the post so the empty lot could be used for a different purpose to contribute to the village tax base, such as new housing.

At its October meeting, the board discussed the matter further, debating on where the hitching post would be moved to, eventually settling on a location next to one of the village storage buildings along Railroad Street. Since then, the post has been moved to that location, but problems have come up with the change of location, with businesses such as the Granton Hardware Store and the Granton branch of Citizens State Bank already reporting effects.

“It’s huge,” said Schmitz. “The old post was right in the center of town for the Amish to conduct business. They could go right to the bank. They could go to the hardware store and the vet office. I thought it was a beautiful spot. Now they have to walk uphill to get to these businesses. And the Amish that are affected are the older ones. The kids are working during the day. If there’s business that needs to be done in town, they’re sending the 60 to 70-year-old man who has to now walk up the hill and down again. And in the winter, that hill can be slippery.”

Schmitz told the board that the businesses in town are

concerned about how the move will affect their business, perhaps prompting the Amish to go elsewhere for their needs.

“These are our customers for the village,” he told the board. “You moved the post, but it’s not working. If we lose the hardware store we lose another business that we will never be able to bring back into town.”

With the concerns being brought up, the members of the board told Schmitz the intention of the move was never to drive business away but to find a use for the property that contributed revenue to the village budget. The board still wants to use the plot for that purpose and said it had reached out to Habitat for Humanity of Marshfield about having a house built on the lot, but no further discussion had been made on the site.

“We moved it with the intent of selling the property so that a house could be put on it,” said board trustee Bryan Vine. “But if the move isn’t working, what is a better location for it (the hitching post)? Where is a place that the village owns that is still in a central location?”

When hard-pressed to come up with a location other than the lot at the corner of Main and Second streets, Schmitz asked the board if a hitching post could be set up on private property near the center of town. The board said such a decision would be up to the private landowners of whatever property would be used for a post. Schmitz said he and the Amish and business owners were going to look at alternative options for a post on private property. Some of the options mentioned during the meeting included having a post set up on the north side of the former Spaete’s store at the corner of Second and Maple streets or in the Citizens State Bank parking lot.