Mequon's Highland Road Path Opened in October. The Money to Plow It Is Still Coming In.

"The Highland Road Bike/Pedestrian Spur is officially open — and now we need your help to keep it beautiful, safe, and accessible season after season." That's the first line of a November 3 appeal from the Mequon-Thiensville Community Foundation, sent barely two weeks after the ribbon cutting at Rotary Park.

The new path along W. Highland Road was paid for. Its upkeep is not fully funded yet. A volunteer foundation built the spur with a federal grant and local donations. Its plan for keeping the path plowed through Mequon winters is a maintenance endowment, and as of early November that fund stood at half its goal.

A Mile and a Half That Took Five Years

The spur is a 10-foot asphalt path on the north side of Highland Road. It runs 1.5 miles between the Ozaukee Interurban Trail and Rotary Park at 4100 W. Highland Road, and it adds a flashing crosswalk beacon at River Road. The News Graphic reported that dozens of people turned out to celebrate the opening of a route linking families and visitors to Rotary Park, the Interurban Trail and the Mequon-Thiensville Town Center.

The builder was MT Trails Foundation, Inc., which operates under the Mequon-Thiensville Community Foundation. The City of Mequon didn't build it. The foundation's project page lays out how long the effort took:

1. 2023: The foundation presented a 10-year plan to the mayor and city administrator. The Common Council's Committee of the Whole approved the Highland Road spur as the first project, and the city and foundation signed a right-of-way agreement.
2. 2024: The foundation obtained a wetland jurisdiction determination from the Army Corps of Engineers, completed a traffic impact analysis, and ran safety studies at the request of the city and homeowners.
3. December 2024: WisDOT gave the foundation until March 25, 2025, to submit an approved final design. Missing that date would have cost it the $988,000 grant, and the foundation said reapplication money wouldn't be available until 2028.
4. March 2026: Crews cleared trees and brush in the corridor between March 9 and March 31 to comply with protections for the northern long-eared bat. A previously identified Bur Oak specimen tree was left standing.
5. Summer 2026: Buteyn-Peterson Construction Company built the path, with raSmith as project manager.
6. October 18, 2026: The ribbon cutting took place at the Rotary Park South Pavilion.

Item three nearly killed the project. Without that grant, the spur would have waited years for another funding cycle, and the money keeping it in good shape now comes from the same group of local donors.

Why the Path Hugs the North Side of Highland

If you've driven Highland Road since summer, you've noticed the path sits across the ditch from the road, on the north side only. The foundation's reasoning, presented to the Joint Mequon-Thiensville Bike and Pedestrian Way Commission in December 2024, came down to a few points:

• The path sits inside the city's 50-foot right-of-way, and the drainage ditch along Highland Road acts as a safety buffer between cars and path users.
• The foundation's safety studies found the north side safer. The April 2024 study found it significantly safer on both weekdays and weekends. The July 2024 study found it significantly safer on weekends and about the same during the week.
• On the north side, the path sits well back from neighbors' homes. On the south side, it would have run within 7 feet of backyards.
• Between the Interurban Trail and Cedarburg Road, the path could only go on the north side because of trust agreement restrictions tied to Highland Woods.
• Switching to the south side between Cedarburg Road and Rotary Park would have added two more road crossings for anyone riding from the Interurban Trail to the park.

That last point matters if you live south of Highland. North-side residents along the road can step right onto the path. South-side residents reach it at the marked, controlled crossings at Green Bay Road and River Road, and the foundation also proposed a marked crossing at MATC. For a family heading out from a south-side street, the nearest crossing decides where a walk to Rotary Park starts.

What $1.2 Million Bought, and Who Covered It

The foundation publishes its own budget, last updated February 25, 2026.

The foundation received a $988,000 federal grant for the spur, administered through WisDOT, against a total cost of $1.2 million to construct the path. Mequon-Thiensville Sunrise Rotary gave the first community grant, and other community grants and individual donors followed. As of August 31, 2026, the foundation reported $1,221,000 raised toward its $1.3 million total.

Look at what the foundation lists as part of the bill. It treats maintenance as part of the project's cost, on the same table as asphalt and engineering, and it calls the endowment "required."

The Line Item That Decides January

The November 3 appeal says the $100,000 restricted maintenance endowment exists "to ensure the Spur is plowed in winter, cleaned in summer, and cared for year‑round." As of that date, the foundation reported $50,000 raised.

The scale is modest. Once fully funded, the foundation says, the endowment will generate about $5,000 a year to keep the trail "clear, plowed, safe, accessible and well maintained." Construction alone was estimated at $850,000. So the yearly upkeep budget for 1.5 miles of path is less than 1 percent of what it cost to build.

A small amount of money now decides how useful an expensive asset is. A paved path that's cleared after a snowfall can be a winter dog walk or a route to Rotary Park on a dry January afternoon. Left buried, it sits unused until spring. The foundation's appeal calls the spur "a remarkable community asset" that is "already becoming a favorite route for walkers, runners, and cyclists," and it presents long-term maintenance as "the essential next step."

This is the first snow season the spur has seen, and its maintenance fund is halfway to its target. The same foundation and donors who got the path built are now raising the money set aside for its upkeep.

What Sits at Each End

At the east end, Rotary Park is a city park. Mequon's park listing includes a walking trail, fishing ponds, fields, a playground, picnic areas and a pavilion with washrooms. The Summer Evening Chef's Table, the foundation's signature fundraising event, has been held there.

At the west end, the spur meets the Ozaukee Interurban Trail. The trail's official site describes it as a year-round route for biking, walking, running and cross-country skiing. The spur gives the Interurban Trail its first off-road, east-west link to Rotary Park, and through that link it connects to the Mequon and Thiensville Town Centers.

Where Highland Road Could Go Next

The spur may be the first piece of something longer. In 2024, the Joint Mequon-Thiensville Bike and Pedestrian Way Commission hired the consulting firm GRAEF to draft a 20-year vision for biking and walking routes across both communities. Its November 2024 draft named the whole stretch of Highland Road, from Port Washington Road to the Interurban Trail, as a primary recommended east-west bike route. It also recommended an off-road sidepath because of traffic speed and volume on the road.

The north-side placement fits that plan. North-side paths already run from Port Washington Road to Oriole Lane School, and the new spur covers the stretch from Rotary Park west to the Interurban Trail. For now, that full east-west route is a recommendation in a planning document, not a scheduled project. MT Trails began as a 10-year plan, and the Highland Road spur was listed as its first project.

If you want to help the Highland Road spur get through its first winter, the foundation takes donations online at mtcfgives.org/donate. Choose "Bike/Ped Paths (MT Trails Fdn)" when you give, or mail a check made out to the Mequon-Thiensville Community Foundation at PO Box 52, Mequon, WI 53092. Questions go to [email protected]. I live and work in this corner of Ozaukee County, and community projects like this one are a big part of what I love about it. If you're wondering what a new trail connection means for your street or your home, Brynn Woll is happy to talk it through. Schedule a call or get your instant home valuation anytime.