Council meeting for tonight, Wednesday, April 8th, 2026.
All older persons, our council members are present.
Please join with me and Evan.
I'm sorry, Dan Benning is absent and excused.
Evan, you're gonna stand right here, buddy.
Scott working on his mayor badge this evening
for citizenship is gonna lead the Pledge of Allegiance with me.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for
which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
All right, man, I think you've met all the requirements you can go.
I sat there once upon a time, packed 3855 with my scout troop and a while back.
So I appreciate you being here tonight.
All right, with that, then we're gonna move into public comments and appearances.
Just a reminder to community members, you have the three minutes to speak and
a maximum of 30 minutes this evening.
This time we'll welcome public comments and appearances.
Okay, Tracy Finch, port view drive, port Washington.
Mayor, the question from ABC 12 could not have been more clear.
Do you regret allowing 24 hour construction and yet you did not answer it?
You avoided responsibility and the people of port Washington deserve better than avoidance.
Before proving the around the clock construction, any leader should understand what an AI data
center brings in its early phases.
The research is consistent.
The first six to 12 months are the busiest, loudest and most disruptive period of the
entire project.
This is when land is transformed into industrial zone.
Private equipment run nonstop, hundreds of thousands of workers are on sites.
Major civil, electrical and utility work happen all at once.
This is the phase that impacts residents the most.
You knew the original schedule was 7 to 7 p.m.
But within minutes of meeting with Vantage, you approved a 24 hour construction five days
a week with a chuckle.
The decision was made without meaningful consideration.
The people who live here, the people who trusted you to protect their well-being instead,
instead the priority was placed on the developer's timeline.
You also suggested that these residents should be used to farm nighttime noises because of
farming.
Anyone who has lived near farmland knows the comparison is inaccurate.
Farm noises happen occasionally, not every night, not for months and not at an industrial
scale.
Your decision has consequences.
Residents did not ask for heavy construction during the hours when families are trying
to sleep, recover and maintain their health.
You did not account for their stress, the disruption or the mental strain this would
create.
And when a community is placed under the level of pressure without support, the harm does
not stay isolated to individuals.
It spreads, it affects families, workplaces, schools and overall stability of the town.
This is why the residents of poor Washington deserve access to a licensed mental health
support at no cost.
I am asking the city to consider providing a professional licensed therapist funded by
the city to all residents living within a one-mile radius of the data center.
This situation was created by the approval of your 24-hour construction and the community
should not be left to shoulder the impact alone without proper support, the long-term
consequences could not only individual well-being but the overall health of our community.
It requires taking responsibility of your outcomes, your decisions, especially when
those decisions harm the community.
It means acknowledging mistakes, correcting the course and putting residents of poor Washington
first.
That is what the city needs from you right now, but instead your actions suggest unwillingness
to face the consequences of the choices you made.
Thank you.
Speaker, James Perez, 2214, Stonecroft Drive, Town of Grafton, it has been my experience
that you can learn a lot by carefully observing the actions of those more intelligent than
you are.
I am certain that some of the boys in the room are already saying that, in my case,
that probably encompasses pretty much just thought everybody that must come in contact
with.
I don't think it is that bad, but let's consider again the words that we have all heard before
written by Abraham Lincoln in March of 1865 in advance of his second inaugural address.
It goes as follows with Malwis towards none, charity for all with firmness in the right
as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in to
bind up the nation's wounds.
The mayor has a catchphrase that we have heard as well a number of times that you can't shake
hands with a clenched fist.
It is not quite Lincoln-esque, but the sentiments are the same.
Perhaps now is the appropriate time to bury some hatchets, and that all of us go forward
unite and in together striving to build a better port Washington for all of its citizens.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Like Speaker.
Name and address.
Mike Beaster, 305 South Garfield Avenue, and it's the last time I get to speak from
this end.
I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to the voters in Ward 6 for giving me the
opportunity to be their voice here at City Hall.
Seeing democracy in action as an incredible feeling as elected officials, we are responsible
for being more informed than the average resident when making good decisions, however, no single
input to representative democracy matters more than the will of the people.
I vow to always take this responsibility seriously and make the best decisions I can for the
people of the city, especially those in Ward 6.
We represent the folks who pay taxes here, raise children here, and own and shop at small
businesses here.
We do not represent Larry Ellison, Sam Altman, or Dana Adams.
This community belongs to we the people, our voices matter.
And with that, I will once more invite Vantage to open a dialogue with the community in a
town hall setting so that people can better understand what is coming and voice their
concerns.
I believe Mayor Ted is doing his best to communicate between Vantage and the city, but one person
can't be expected to catch everything.
Concerns like enforcement of noise levels, like what we see in Mount Pleasant, and why
is we energies raising residential rates 9.2% next year to pay for new gas generation
facilities when we've been told time and time again that this project won't affect our rates.
We don't need billboards and misleading push-pull surveys, we need communication and transparency.
My guess is that other older persons would also find this beneficial for their constituents.
I also welcome further discussions with state officials and regulators.
They have thus far failed to put the same effort into creating some basic protections for communities
revolving around AI data centers as they did into pushing 2025X16 through.
This bill put the city in a position to put even more money into tax increment financing.
When phase two of this project will find more value locked up in TID than the entire current
value of the city until last night.
Finally, poor Washington is the best place in Wisconsin with a renewed focus on what
the residents of this great city are asking for.
I'm confident we can keep it that way.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Next speaker.
That's it.
All right.
That's going to move us into the agenda then.
We have the first item here is the consent agenda, which is the approval of minutes from
previous meetings.
Is there anyone willing to make that motion?
So moved.
Second.
Second.
Any questions or concerns on that motion?
All right.
Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying aye.
Aye.
Opposed?
Aye.
All right.
Motion carries.
Next is under mayor's business.
There's just a couple of things here.
One is I just wanted to again thank the I don't know why I stood there.
I stopped.
Joe DeBore and captains are necky.
They gave me an almost two hour tour of our new safety center out on the west side of
town.
And I just wanted to encourage community members to as they drive by there, ask any questions
that they have.
It's state of the art.
So fantastic facility and we're going to be opening that up for tours to our seniors.
In a couple of weeks, the seniors are going to take a tour with me through the senior
center.
So if you're a member of the senior center and you'd like to go, please make sure to
contact them and register.
So we're going to take a site tour of the building and then we're also going to take
it them on a site tour of the construction project on the north side with vantage, which
leads me to the second one, which is I wanted to thank the 30 plus people who attended this
past month for the data center tour.
If any of you are ever interested in going on the monthly community stakeholder tours
of the data center, please shoot me an email and we'll consider you for that.
With that then, as we go into May here on May 18th, so council members of any of you
are available, that is the mayor for the day where I have the fourth graders from Lincoln
Elementary and Dunwoody Elementary and St. John's the 23rd to come for their mayor
for the day.
So they'll come and be sworn in at eight o'clock in the morning and everyone is welcome to
witness that.
At their schools, respectively, each of the schools do it a little different.
Some of the schools have the students run.
Some of the schools have the young people appointed.
Also as a reminder, if anyone is interested in sitting on any of the boards, commissions
or committees for the city of Port Washington, please send me an email.
There are several openings.
It's become very difficult to ask for community volunteers to serve in those committees over
the last few years.
So if you're interested in everything from police and fire commission to the library
to public works to CDA and everything in between, you can look up online or contact us if you're
interested in those.
With that then, I want to move into several proclamations here.
I'm going to shift around the order to start out with two proclamations.
One is for the month of April is something that, especially in our current time and current
state, I think is very important for us to recognize.
Port Washington is home to many military families.
And when I grew up living on Portview Drive in the Kerry Apartments, our apartment buildings
were filled with Coast Guard families from Milwaukee who are from all over the United
States.
And it just is something that is a special part for me to recognize that the month of
April is the month for military children.
Young men, women, who's moms and dads and family members are active in the military tend
to move around a lot.
They tend to shift communities and they tend to live with the anxiety and fear of their
parents serving.
So I'm very proud that we will be proclaiming this month in recognition of military children
in the city of Port Washington.
That proclamation will be able to be viewed online.
There's some unique facts here about the state of Wisconsin.
There are two million children in the United States who are the children of men and women
who serve in the military.
And in the state of Wisconsin, there are 10,000 school-aged military children across our state.
And again, many of them live here in the state of Wisconsin.
So I want to thank them and their families.
The second one is another thing.
And Tom, you're here, so you get to accept this one.
My favorite building in the city is where I went as a kid all the time, which is the
Anita Corn Library.
If you have not visited there since the upgrade and the investment through Tom's work through
getting the grant and Roger's work in getting the construction done, please do.
But this is National Library Week is coming up April 19th through April 25th.
And I just want to remind everyone to utilize the great functionality of our library, the
resources and the awesome people who work there who can support you and us.
So I'll read this one because whereas Wisconsin libraries have long served as trusted and
treasured institutions and library workers and librarians fuel efforts to improve their
communities, campuses and schools.
And whereas the W.J.
Anita Corn Libraries are organizers and information experts who for decades have guided people
to the best information resources and librarians provide expertise service and guidance to
patrons to access credible sources and information, making their own informed decisions about
the worlds they navigate and whereas our library and librarians offer more books, more than
books offering communities the opportunity to be engaged and deliver new services that
more closely connect communities and their needs.
And whereas our librarian librarians work to serve all community members offering services
and educational resources that transform communities, open minds and promote knowledge growth,
particular as a society continues to transition to the digital landscape.
And whereas the Wisconsin libraries, librarians, library workers and support, supporters across
America are celebrating National Library Week.
It's this year for the 68th year.
Now therefore I be it resolved as mayor of the city of Port Washington do declare the
month of the week of April 19th through the 25th as National Library Week and encourage
our residents to please go to the Anita Corn Library just to visit and participate.
Tom I also want to make sure that most community members know that that is a safe haven for
members of our community who are in transition and struggle and use all of those different
resources to give themselves a firmer footing for their future.
So thank you for creating that safe and inclusive environment for us.
I want to give this to you.
All right and then the last proclamation is for our friend Alderman Tierney down here
to my right.
Pat is someone who I have had the pleasure of knowing for many years and I think our
relationship started in the early 90s playing softball for Willie's Wish, dominating the
softball circuit in Port Washington and Softville.
Yeah, you me and Joe de Lucia.
But with that I wrote a proclamation here very cognizant of the fact that it's for a
journalist so my word choice is very specific and I hope it is meaningful for you.
But I do want to thank you on behalf of myself and the council for just being a very steady
member of this council making the commitment serving on all the boards, commissions and
committees and as you hear in a second I think the key things that really stood out for me
in all my years watching you on council were three key terms which is your integrity,
your curiosity and your kindness all feeling a common sense approach to governance and
really doing a great job representing your ward.
So this proclamation stands for this evening and the historical record that whereas the
city of Port Washington thrives when its citizens commit themselves to the pursuit of the common
good guided by a vision for sustainable and vibrant future and whereas since 2018 Alderman
person Patrick Tierney of the sixth ward has served this community with an unwavering spirit
of integrity ensuring that the trust placed in him by the residents of Port Washington
was held as sacred and a paramount duty and whereas throughout Alderman Tierney's tenure
he has approached the complexities of city governments with a city governance with a
profound curiosity never settling for easy answers but instead seeking to understand the
why behind every challenge and the how of every solution and whereas Mr. Tierney's leadership
has been defined by a rare and genuine kindness treating every constituent city staff member
and colleague with the dignity and respect that strengthens the social fabric of our
amazing city and whereas he has been steadfast advocate for common sense approaches balancing
the needs of today with the fiscal and operational realities of tomorrow ensuring that Port Washington
remains a place where families and businesses can flourish and whereas Mr. Tierney's service
has been driven by a deep and genuine concern for the future leaving a legacy of thoughtful
stewardship that will benefit generations of Port Washington residents yet to come.
Now therefore I Theodore Nitsky mayor of the city of Port Washington do hereby issue this
proclamation of profound gratitude and recognition to all the person Pat Tierney of the sixth
ward for his distinguished service from 2018 to 2026 on behalf of the common council and
all of the citizens of Port Washington we thank you from our heart for your hard work and
your dedication to our community. Thank you Pat.
Okay that's going to take us then to presentation from public works on facilities and future
planning. Rob.
All right thank you so yes I've been asked to make a brief presentation on what we are doing in
public works to manage and track our facilities condition the condition of our facilities rather
and put that into a 10 year budget forecast so this is not this is in no way a substitute
for what we do with the budget that's going to be much more detailed but I want to quickly
go through what we've been doing what we are doing and what we will continue to do in the
future to manage the condition of our building so I'm going to start with so I think most of
the council knows about the the Kraus Anderson facilities condition assessment in 2024 and let
me quick say that if you're following if anyone's fine along with the the PowerPoint that I gave
you last week I've tweaked it a little bit so I have it flip flopped a tiny bit here but you know
prior to doing that facilities condition assessment we have a few other studies that were more in
depth for some of our facilities including the wastewater treatment plant we did a needs analysis
in 2021 along with the water filtration plant that was also completed in 2021 we're completing both
of those projects this year. Library which Mayor reference was first had a it's condition assessment
performed by Plunkett research in 2021 so a lot accomplished in that year and then the municipal
garage where we're both our street department and park and rec how's their maintenance equipment
that was performed by Keeney architects in 2024 and we had the presentation in 2025.
We also have a full report we've had a full evaluation on all the HVAC equipment and all
our buildings of course that and the next one roofing are the really the big ticket items that
we encounter when we are maintaining our buildings and so in addition to that work that had been
done in 2022 just most recently in 2025 Garland again our roofing consultant provided us with
information on all the roofs and all the our buildings so that we know when to anticipate
those improvements and then finally is the Krause Anderson facilities condition assessment
that covers several buildings including City Hall the library the recreation office
pool locker rooms the senior center the Eggert house in the 1860 light station
facilities that are not included in the Krause Anderson facility condition assessment include
the police and fire building although they did go through and and evaluate their their
conditions as part of a complete evaluation and essentially the the foundation for the needs to
construct a new facilities they're of course not in in the report now as we're we're completing
construction on the new public safety building and as I just mentioned the streets the streets
and parks municipal garage is a separate study as is the water plant wastewater plant the pebble
house which was performed by our own staff in 2023 and then the marina buildings also reviewed by
staff so I just wanted to highlight a couple of big ticket items so so we're in a pretty good
position I think with our HVAC systems it's just that the senior center is reached the end of its
use life for furnaces and condensers same thing here at City Hall they both been functioning
without too many problems but again they're at there they end near the end of their life
expectancy the police building there's was near the end of its life expectancy but of course that's
being replaced with the with the new building and then jumping down to roofs both police and fire
were in need of roof so we don't have those liabilities anymore and I list that down at the
bottom one point six million dollars in addition to the judge Eggert house now that's going to be
replaced this year with the assistance of the advantage who made a contribution towards their
improvements along with some private donations that they received the senior center is is currently
forecasted for 2032 replacement the parks main office in the water park building
I have pegged at 2028 on our facilities condition assessment it's 2027 in the in the garland
report but they've had no leaks and so we feel we may be able to get another year out of those
okay and then DPW Parks and Garage improvements so I didn't I didn't want to lose track of that
because it's not in the facility condition assessment but the estimated design cost for
additions and improvements to that building are six hundred thousand dollars and the estimated
construction costs are 19 million dollars and so we don't have that we that hasn't landed yet on
our 10 year improvement plan but we will be discussing that again at budget this year
okay and so the Krause Anderson facility condition assessment so I wanted to have a slide here
that showed it but there's really a ton of information and so I'm going to I'm going to jump out of
here for one second and then bring up what I have is kind of a condensed don't lose it
yeah it's super
okay well I uh and now is this not going to come back up
okay this is called clairvoyance I uh if I been up that's why I was up here early to unplug
yeah would you like us to gather around your laptop rub yeah no or you could yes if I believe
I I um included the the spreadsheet that is in your packet what I can describe is that it is a
very detailed report from Krause Anderson which includes all the aspects including roof HVAC the
exterior enclosure um electronics every every item of the building um is evaluated in that in
that report and again it's because it's so comprehensive there wasn't a real good way to
project it on the slide and so I apologize for the technology maybe we need to add the
maybe we need to add the technology to our facilities condition assessment that it's a need
of work but I only had a couple more slides and so I'll just describe them the things that we need
to consider when we're doing our long range budgeting is um what is the condition and
criticality and that's something in the Krause Anderson report so you know what what's the
condition of the roof and and of course the roof is a very critical item if the carpets in need
of repair it may be in terrible condition but it's not critical that we replace it right and so
what is the item at the end of its useful life so we have a life projection for instance of the
boilers is 20 years we're at like 20 years we're past 20 years and so but those are big ticket
items so are they requiring a lot of maintenance so we track the amount of maintenance that we're
we're spending on Bassett to come in and repair the the boilers or the air handlers or the condensers
are they still functioning um and how do we even out our expenditure so if you could have seen
the Krause Anderson report it would show that we have split up about a five million dollars worth
of deferred maintenance over 10 years and that amounts to about five hundred thousand dollars
in expenditures annually so that doesn't mean it's definitely going to be five million dollars
each year because something that's forecasted out eight years may last 12 years or we may have
to move it up so we just have that on our radar I see it as kind of a worst-case scenario
having to spend that half a million dollars but working together with Mark our treasure
we can forecast or or kind of have that expectation that we need to put money into our buildings right
to keep them operating and so that's where it's that's where it is sitting right now
and then finally what's the long-term plan for using our building so for instance
police and fire who had liabilities for about the roof and their HVAC system
you know we want to have wanted to have replaced them five years ago only to
move out of the building right and next year or the same thing if there if this
there's always been discussions about whether the senior center is going to stay in their
current location or move so we want to so I if there's an expectation from the council that we
may be moving any of our operations we need to know that because then we'll bandaid our systems
until move out so those are just the importance of long-term planning
and everything that was referenced here tonight is on the public works web page and so if you'd
like to see that please go to our web page including this presentation which I'll have up tomorrow
so but all the reports that I that I included in this presentation are on there on our website
any questions for Rob I guess for me real quick Rob thanks for putting this together I think
if anyone goes has a chance to go through the crowds Anderson study you'll see how comprehensive
it is it's really nice to see like red yellow green what kind of work we're kind of looking
under and I think one thing that we've done a good job of forecasting what the next 10 years
looks like we didn't even have a five-year plan I think several years ago so it's really nice to
see that since we've been so successful with the library the lighthouse that like create things
like that seeing all this information in one place have you thought about grant money and
potential for some of these some of these big ticket items that have you given any thought
in that regard we are always looking for grants you know we've been so you mentioned Valley Creek
one of the reasons we've been so successful with that is that I mean the funding for projects like
that are out there so we're trying to meet those goals because they recognize communities don't
one don't have that kind of money and two they might not have ecology or the the environmental
value is as something that they are able to place money and so we've been a we've been really
successful with grants and as was mentioned earlier I'd my hats off to Tom who got one of the only
library grants I think in fact the only one in this region and and so we are always looking for
ways to creatively finance any of these projects so I'm definitely proud of that and like the
work we did on the lighthouse bringing in grants wherever we can and other questions I was up here
practicing two hours before and of course it glitched during the presentation so my apologies
for that no worries okay thank you Rob that brings us into the agenda then for the evening on
committees council committees the first agenda item is consideration and possible action to
approve a one day extension of alcohol premise for Port Washington Main Street festivals of the
city of the arts oh I'm sorry I blew right past that thank you there are officers reports that I
that I went past I was just very excited to make sure we could have beer at the arts festival
so the first agenda item is an election update from the city clerk Susan is excused from the
evening because working the elections takes you into two days of straight work so the total
the spring election total votes cast were 4201 which is equivalent of a 50.88 turnout
absentee balance issued were 1,328 and returned from the absentee ballots were 1,198 the referendum
results were yes votes 2,672 with a no vote of 1,409 and alderman new mire alderman bending and now
our newest alderman mr bister will be sworn in for their 2026 to through 2028 terms on April 21st
our next council meeting so we extend our thank you to all poll workers and election workers
for what they do to make sure that we have free and clear elections in our democracy
also okay just a couple things I wanted to thank the clerk's office and the inspectors and all
the volunteers and all the staff that put all the time and effort into an election it really is
quite amazing what all goes on for a city election and I do appreciate all of all that work um and
the elders that I'll stop with that and then we have a presentation a little bit later about from
grave and they'll be talking about intersection improvements that have to do with the data center
project so they'll be talking about what we'll be getting modified lanes increasing and then
roger will be here for that too and then the next council meeting April 21st we'll be having a
presentation about all of the tid five pre projects so that will go project by project especially
the projects that will be happening in the first three years so there's a lot of work going into
that and we'll get that available probably by the end of the week if not the beginning of next
week for the public to view that but please come to that next meeting and um absorb all of that
information that will be happening in the city that's awesome thank you okay I'll try this again
consideration and possible action to approve establishments one day extension of alcohol
premises for Port Washington main street festival of the arts and the issue is should the common
council approve a one day extension of alcohol license for inventors brew pub on east Washington
street and the Port Washington state bank parking lot behind steers saloon to allow participation
in the main street art festival of the arts and the event is May 30th 2026 the city clerk has
reviewed and approves this request as presented for the establishments listed on the attachments
that is the report I'm covering for Susan any questions or concerns on that something we've
done before in years past so I would make a motion to approve the one day extension of alcohol
premises there's a motion a second any questions or concerns on the motion
right seeing none all in favor signify by saying aye opposed
motion carries that brings us into the second agenda item is the consideration and possible
action on use of capital reserves to fund bike trail paving in 2026 the issue is should the
you should we use capital reserves to fund bike paving in 2026 and the staff recommends approval
to use capital reserves to fund bike trail paving Melissa I can start out and if Rob wants to jump
in this is our collaboration with the county they will be doing some paving on inner urban
trail and they approached us and asked if this section of the trail we wanted to have done because
they could get it covered through a grant and it would be much more cost effective after meeting
with our staff and them so if they get the grant then we're asking for permission to use capital
reserves to do this work while they're doing the other work and I don't know if Rob has anything
else to add the trails in poor condition during the for the portion that they're recommending that
it be resurfaced and so we're enthusiastically cooperating with them and that's between sock
road and LL correct yep okay any questions or concerns on that yes mr gasper just not a
question concern just I'm going to recuse myself on this vote since I am the chief designer on
that section of the trail are you going to put in curves or anything fun uh yeah they didn't
really want that I want to loop the loop don't want to loop the loop all right I'll make a motion
to approve the use of capital reserve funds there's a motion to approve is there a second
I'll second motion is seconded any questions or concerns on that motion
all right seeing none all in favor signify by saying aye opposed
all right one recusal and one recusal all right the next agenda item is consideration and
impossible action on the valley creek box culvert design alternatives on lake street
the issue is should the common council approve a design alternative to valley creek that opens
the culvert on both sides of lake street the staff is recommending that the common council
approve that valley creek uh that that be designed to open the box culvert on both sides of the lake
as I turn this over to rob here I do want uh the council to know that I have met with the legion
as well as members of the fish take committee as they use a lot of that park and uh they they
are very understanding to what could potentially happen down there as we restore to its original
state rob terrific okay so we have with us the the stan tech team uh who will be making a
presentation uh this evening um this uh specifically we're going to talk about the specific thing
that we're going to talk about at this meeting is the design alternative to um completely open
up the creek on both sides of of lake street it should work um and so you know we're quickly
approaching um completion of the the design of the entire uh corridor um we had our 30 percent
presentation at the october 14th board of public works and then we had a public information
meeting that was very well attended on december 9th of of last year um all the way through our
design has included opening up the box culvert east of lake street um but alderman gasper uh
challenged our our design team to to come up uh with a day lighting um design that included the
west side of lake street too so completely opening it up um and uh improving the way it
handled stormwater and handled these major flooding events that we're experiencing so
we made a presentation on that at board of public works at our march meeting it was unanimously
approved by the board of public works and uh i also had reached out to the legion who um
uh who had uh no issues with it and reached out to the marina we use uh some of that parking
area for long-term boat trailer storage and um uh they were agreeable to finding other locations
and i've reached out to ozaki county uh their administrator who said they'd be willing to work on
us uh with us uh to use their parking lot um uh on main street so um so we've been
met with uh support uh from this it's supported by um john crayon at parkland rack and um but we
did want to because it's a it's a big change we think it's a great change but uh we wanted to
present it to the um the council as well so with that our team is ready this is sarah
magerris and hather schwarr from stanta yeah dig it away is it working good it's working for now
hi everyone thank you for having us tonight my name is sarah and i'm here with my colleague
hather um i just want to provide a little context before we dive into the alternatives that we're
considering i don't know if everyone is familiar with with the design as a whole so i want to
acknowledge the the holistic vision and the series of partnerships and funding pursuits that really
led up to this point just to start so this what you're seeing here is what our concept design
or 30 design looks like you can see that um it starts at noreport drive in fact we are designing
further north of that into birchwood hills where there's ongoing restoration efforts
um between the friends group and stantec and the parks department planting trees we'll be
doing some streambake stabilization up in that neck of the woods erosion control and clearing
of debris moving downstream toward hales trail we're looking at doing bridge replacements on
both hales trail and noreport to improve the the flow of water through the system um grading back
the banks of the of the stream itself if any of you are familiar with this corridor it's highly
eroded clay bluffs and we want to relax those slopes increase the floodplain um habitat
and flood capacity along this corridor and improve trail systems um so here are some real
quick just cross sections of what different sections of the stream will look like uh we
have proposed step pool systems in the lower left hand corner in the upper right hand corner sort
of a cross section of a lower level floodplain something that might be referenced further downstream
and then in the lower right hand corner there's a section of of stream that's up against the
interurban trail that where there's a wall falling in currently um we're proposing to
revegetate grade those banks and create a more accessible stream corridor where trails can be
placed in the floodplain further downstream additional floodplain management erosion control tree
planting uh we're proposing to do an overflow a wetland overflow complex uh what's in what's
currently the Gunther Pond mountain bike park um relocating some of those features into different
areas um there's we plan to to rebuild and relocate much of the mountain bike trails and then downstream
is the daylighting at Lake Street which we are um talking about here tonight so this comprehensive
approach also includes stormwater infrastructure improvements green infrastructure um with the
attempt to slow the flow of our storms that are flushing down through this system um you know the
and the the funding that we're using to complete the design is a big focus on floodplain
flood management ecosystem restoration fish passage and recreational access so those are
the components that we're focused on here um many of you have seen the 30 design the 30 design
proposes that we leave a lot of the paving in place that exists we are still we would still
have an extended uh culvert but a larger size culvert so it can handle additional flood flows
and the day lighting at downstream would be about 200 to 250 feet toward the lake between
Lake Street and the lake what we're here to talk about today is a proposed full day lighting and
when I say full day lighting they'll still be a bridge so that Lake Street can cross the system
it's about 100 linear feet compared to what what was a much longer section um there are many
benefits to this from an ecological perspective and from a flood control perspective I'm gonna let
our stream engineer Heather dig into the details and the pros and the cons of these different options
thanks Sarah so um instead of uh apples to apples pros and cons table we have a table here for you
that's showing the no day lighting the full culvert replacement kind of the existing conditions of
where we're at is on the left in the middle is that partial day lighting that's that 30 percent
that Sarah showed you which was day lighting that downstream section of the culvert but leaving
the majority of the culvert in place and then the alternative on the far right there the full
day lighting that's at 60 percent that's that last figure that you saw that was just the shorter
section of culvert where Lake Street is so a few things that are just concerns or things that I
know that that are covered as far as in the design that you're gonna have questions about is are
shown here on this table and the first one is of course flood risk and stormwater treatment
and if we look at the the no day lighting or kind of that existing conditions right now as you know
that the flow is constricted through there right there's existing flooding that's happening
those water surfaces will continue to be high in that reach there's still chances for debris
jams any culvert that you put in there as far as that constriction you're going to have some of
that and then there's not really a chance for that infiltration of stormwater to happen there
and as you can get into that 30 percent design where we're shorting it up the flow is still
constricted there's still a chance of debris jams but you do have that increased stormwater
infiltration down that downstream end because you have more exposed natural land uh native
vegetation to suck up some of that water um so there is some stormwater benefits there and then
that full day lighting option we've done preliminary modeling basically shorting shortening a 600
foot long culvert down to 100 foot we're actually seeing about three feet of drop of water surface
elevations upstream on the culvert it's actually dropping by almost three feet right now so I mean
that that's that's like we're in the conceptual modeling stage right now but that's showing you
the level of change we're not talking about inches of water surface elevation we're talking
about feet of water surface elevation uh it's giving you a wider floodplain upstream and downstream
to allow that flow and debris to be able to pass um there's less there's 16 000 square footage
of impervious pavement that's going to be reduced and then more stormwater infiltration
and I can go through each one of these on recreational value too but I think if you think
about it from what you have now from existing conditions to shortening up the culvert to removing
it as much as the the full day lighting you know you're talking about more park space you're talking
about increased public access to a stream and when I say increased public access it's not just because
it's open too we're talking about safer slopes for people to be able to get down and actually
access the corridor itself um and and just the benefits of it being able to interact with the
stream I do want to point out that there is an existing playground in that area right now it is
in the floodplain it needs to be relocated no matter what alternative that we choose
um it's an older playground too so it's something that's going to be part of the plan but the placement
of that playground is something that we can still uh you know discuss and you can see it on on the
figure that Sarah showed you it's right now um next to where that the fish day's tent is is where
it's located right now so we talked about the flood management we talked about recreation the
other considerations are the ecological value shown here the cost and the long of the long-term
maintenance cost so from an ecological value uh the existing conditions right the culvert
some fish can get up through it but it's limited it's a little flow barrier right now um plus fish
don't really like to go swim through a 600 foot long dark culvert they see that as a really big
limitation so by shortening the culvert even to our 30 design more officially able to get through
but by shortening even more to the just 100 foot long you actually will get daylight from the
upstream and the downstream through that culvert uh more fish will want to go through uh in addition
that gunther pond area will have areas for fish to actually spawn right there'll be there'll be
floodplain benches there that that some fish will maybe want to spawn at and so it's it's really
bringing up that healthy ecosystem for fish uh to be able to use this corridor cost we don't have
a full estimated cost in every single one of these yet we're in that alternative you know we're
asking you guys to think about if this is something that you know should be done but just from a broad
sense of comparison right now with the the no daylighting full culvert replacement it's the most
expensive option it's because a structure that's that long 600 feet long is more expensive than a
culvert that's only a hundred feet long so that's why you see three dollar signs for the no day
lighting and only one dollar sign for the the full day lighting so we do have a structural cost
estimated right now for that shorter culvert based on just the bridge and the culvert somewhere
around eight hundred thousand dollars uh to reduce it down to that the 30 design it's somewhere around
close to one and a half to two times the cost of that so maybe like one and a half to two million
dollars is what it is for that um slightly daylighted option and then when you think about maintenance
the bigger structure is the longer the structure is the more maintenance that goes with it the more
things that could go wrong so we just are pointing out here at the very last line like higher long-term
maintenance costs for a bigger structure versus lower with something that's shorter so that that
is the comparison table and i don't know if you want to go to questions or if you had something
else you want to talk about zero i think we can go to questions
do you want to bring up the boundary um
i i don't i don't normally start i just wanted to start by thanking you for this that i
it's very rare that a community gets to restore uh in daily and bring back the original navigable
stream um even with the 60 percent i mean just with just having a bridge basically there in that
small culvert i think that is this is incredible um especially because um you know that creek i'm
i'm thinking back my whole life and just the different ways in which different generations have tried
to fix that i mean i remember um when they threw pieces of old sidewalk down to try to retain the
hills and that's my first question for you robber the team is what what year did they put in the
big cement blocks uh just south of uh or just east of um elephant park do you remember the
because those are all got collapsed in like the first flood that hit down there yeah prior to 2001
i'm guessing maybe those lines all that is a 96 flood yes they were there prior to that but
they're all i mean they're only held up by gravity until they're pushed down by gravity so and again
addressing the bridges all the way up along there too yes and and i do have one request when we
get that far if we get that far is in those bridge designs to put in respectful smart bridges versus
just a road with a big tube underneath it and the only thing keeping us safe is a wood fence
um because that's been completely redone in there and it's just such a beautiful corridor for our
city that i don't know i just i think this is really this is wonderful but i'm gonna stop talking
and i've got i've got other questions here but i'm gonna let council go other questions from
council alder person pastel yeah i'm really excited about this project because i've got
neighbors who've lost at least 30 feet of their backyard um along valley creek so i think this
is extremely important can you review for us rob the the funding for this whole project where
is this going to be coming from yep and so our stantic team can chime in with some of the other
ancillary funding mechanisms but um this is uh this is included there's 10 million dollars included
in tidd to five to cover this so this would not be you know our goal from the beginning my goal
from the beginning is to do this project without having to rely on our taxpayers or to borrow for
it and so we've been very aggressive in going after going after grants and um we're we're very
grateful that it was included in tidd five this is of course in the same watershed that uh the
vantage project is in the headwaters and so um it uh is essentially a part of this stream corridor
and so we were able to include 10 million dollars in tip funding so that'll be paid by the increment
from um that development on the north side and then also uh vantage did uh make a three million
dollar donation to lnrp that will go towards this and we are currently uh seeking funding from uh
national fish and wildlife foundation for six point three million dollars to fund the balance of
that so right now they're still working on um they're they're just at 60 percent so the budget
is still being developed but right now it could be uh as much as 20 million dollars to complete
this project all the way from the north and in birchwood hills down to to lake michigan and so
we are working again on putting the the pieces of the financing the pieces of the puzzle of finance
this again without relying on taxpayers so i'm very excited about the opportunity and so
um that's why we we are moving at great speed so that we can meet the deadlines for these grant
applications and so we should know by the end of may i think if we are going to be invited to
submit a full proposal for uh from the national fish and wildlife foundation they have funded
uh over nine hundred thousand dollars of the design and so once you are in their pipeline
in other words once they have put you in their funding program they want to see the project
through to completion so we're very optimistic that uh we'll score well in a very competitive
grant process cool thank you good question other questions
ultimately that's not so much a question it's just a comment i've uh i'm sorry some of you have
heard me say this at park and rec and you've heard me say it at public works too
but i think i'm very enthusiastic about this project and i think that one of the things
it's really important is to look at the entire project you know it just uh it just fits together
so well and because so much to control flood waters and the actions we've had from way up
at the beginning of it all the way down it's kind it's so completely thought through
that uh and i think it's obvious if you study the whole project i really encourage anyone to do
that uh one of my first uh right after i was elected one of my first uh meeting one of my
early meetings with public works was right after we had had that huge flood that kind of overstorned
the uh the culvert there and everything and uh i'm glad that we're you know finally maybe getting
able to deal with that uh that whole problem now so again i'm very enthusiastic but goes well
other questions mr gasper um sure um more of comments again um yeah when um when i looked at the 30
percent and i pushed for them the head this direction um to me you're seeing the long box culvert it just
wasn't a very nice park like environment and i wanted to be more of a of a park amenity for us for
future generations going on and when you look at you like oh but we're losing park to the creek
but you're really not the creek is still part of the park the slopes are going to be gentle you're
going to walk down to it um in fact currently on the west side where the parking lot is it is so
steep to go down there that it really isn't safe to go down by it and this will make that a much
more gentle slope that people will be able to venture down there if somebody wants to go fishing
right there it would be safe to do so um you know we also look at this area having had the flooding
has older minterney mentioned and um the people in lighthouse condominiums have had their parking
garage flooded out twice over the last 20 years and there they've had enough of that um and this
should do the best pretty much that we can to alleviate that flooding but it's not only their
building that's flooding each of those flooding events has run a whole and even some of the more
minor ones has run a whole lot of mud into the water treatment plant that has been problematic
in there and a couple in at least one of the cases we were a couple inches of water away from the
water treatment plant having to shut down so this really is necessary for public safety in that you
know we're our water plant is always at risk from this creek and this is about as I said the best
we can do to alleviate that risk with the with the water treatment plant the current site so
yeah I I very much like this alternative and you know we they took pains to make sure that
every single parking stall was accounted for and replaced and they're saving um you know paved
areas there's a lot more green space because of this while saving having just as many parking spots
so unfortunately parking stalls are an unnecessary or are a necessary evil um you know it'd be a
much nicer park without having to supply it but people like to be able to park and go to the park
so um we've made sure to maintain all those parking stalls
so it's your new um sorry yeah so thank you just to follow up on ultimate asthma observations
about flooding how do you remediate as far as protecting the water treatment plant in the yacht
club if we have a really large dispersion of water how what did we take into account for that if you
can I'm sorry can you repeat how do we protect the water treatment plant and the yacht club if we have
a huge flood how does that take into account for that for future I will say that this this
plant doesn't necessarily take that into account I'll say that like it's not I could put together
maybe a flood map that would actually show how the reduction in inundation area could be reduced
right it with this open stream that's something that we could definitely map out for you to show
the reduction as far as the inundation area goes but we haven't been asked specifically to look at
the wastewater treatment plant yet as far as that goes but you do have a sustainability
plan I believe for the wastewater treatment plant and flooding so that's something we can look at
water field water field water field I'm sorry I'm sorry water field water field okay thank you
yeah one more thing to just add to your to the answer if I may um you know at by by daylighting
more of the channel we're providing a preferred route for any flood flows to go directly into the
lake through the open channel what's happening currently is debris is building up and then that's
forcing the flood water to go to other places and that's posing a risk to adjacent parking areas
and the water treatment plant in a different type of way thank you I wholeheartedly support
the project I think it's a great idea thank you I would just I'm gonna add here I just I really
appreciate that we're finally taking a proactive approach to flood mitigation and poor wash instead
of a reactive when we put up the gate reactive when we throw up walls reactive the navigable stream
part I mean that's been a passion project for me my whole life trying to get sturgeon reintroduced
in the Milwaukee River and just fish in here I am wondering how you are working with the design
scope of the headwaters in the area that is now on the vantage project with their 60 to 100
potential acres of retention ponds one of the main reasons we were told that area flooded
year after year after year was because of the different agriculture agricultural drain tiling
systems that didn't line up and just sent all the water into town rapidly so I'm just I'm hoping
that that is proactive in the conversation as well which is what puts it in the tidd is because that
is what flooded us traditionally for all those years so it's more of a comment and please make
sure you guys are working together we were up there the other day they've already got I can't
remember what it was 60 acres of retention ponds currently up there so I'm hoping that
makes for a much quieter spring here in Port Washington yeah I know that you know it's counter
intuitive to some to to most people that development actually improves the stormwater runoff but that's
the case so with with every every development the city of Port Washington and this is a standard
which was established even before I came here so I'm very proud that we have a stormwater ordinance
that requires the 100-year storm to be reduced to a two-year pre-development runoff and so
some of our only a few of our developers complained about it but I mean that means we're kind of
in that sweet spot for making sure that we are that every development improves the situation
for the people who live downstream of those developments and so it's really paid off.
I have two other wonderings as we move forward with the project and as you're writing the grant
and one is thinking back to when we had our young people here from TJ if there's a way to
build in a community service project when we do the plantation plantings in the vegetation in there
so we've got some youth ownership in the project and then the other one is
really I had it's more of a question for John but are we going to go in there in this project
and are we going to work to remove as much of the debris as possible or at least fell those trees
so that they're more natural instead of getting washed up and jamming up the creek over time
is that part of the scope of the renewal to remove all those right so the design the design of
this incorporates actually that debris that's currently in the in the floodplain we are going
to be using that to break debris to stabilize the the new bang embankments and so they're actually
use that vegetation to reduce future erosion and to establish the the stream bangs
and the rest of it that we don't use is going to be hauled out and so awesome I mean it's going to
be essentially a clean a clean site once we are completed with this project fantastic yeah
Evan do you have any questions
okay all right any other questions or comments from council
Mr. Mayor hold on Mr. Benning I just call on Miss Miller I'll call you next okay
so just an adjacent wondering you talk about the fish coming back into this creek and all of that
so would that be part of this plan to get the DNR involved to repopulate or to have spawning
areas created or is that going to be an adjacent plan that we would do after
if anyone knows we know I can speak to that it is a part of the comprehensive plan all of the
the fish habitat improvements will be built into the design itself and we're working with Sea Grant
Titus Selheimer is a PhD with Sea Grant and he's been doing research on the creek itself to better
understand what species are trying to encourage to come up he's seen he's seen observations of
salmon coming up from Lake Michigan suckers and we're hoping for northern pike so it's all part of
it so so we wouldn't be stalking it or would we just allow it naturally come up because there is
some restocking of our fish in Lake Michigan and other lakes so I was just curious it's something
that we could talk about but as of right now it would be naturally occurring let let giving
them basically a path to come up okay thank you and as far as DNR you know we've already been
coordinating with them like like Sarah said the Sea Grant and and the DNR is aware of this
and not only is the DNR aware but we've had the UWM students have been here doing the research
with Titus from Sea Grant on this they've been coming up here and looking at fish and doing
some water quality assessments we have some UWM students doing some mapping for us looking at
trails we've had school-aged people coming here and doing tours with LNRP so the community
the youth that aspect of it is something that has been brought into the project and we're going to
continue to do that again it's just awesome I mean I'm older but I'm not that old but that that
creek level has dropped so much over the course of my life through the erosion and I worry all the
time about the west side of the bluff so I mean I think we've got a nice compounding effect here
and I'd ask us to move as quickly as possible in this so Mr. Benning yeah I just want to say thanks
to Rob and the team I gave him a list of questions on Monday morning with the timing of the packet
and the holiday and elections and things like that so thank you for the feedback there I do have
you know some concerns with the cost of this in my my recollection may not be right but I thought
we had started out at a 15 million dollar estimate and now we're up to 20 million and so I'm concerned
that that keeps creeping up so I'd like to get to a a good number that we understand fairly well
I have concerns about losing more green space down there and I understand that you know
the green space we will be kind of adding along the edge of the creek is this very beneficial
but we're also losing green space kind of over on the north side of the driveway behind the
van shell where we're adding a whole bunch of parking spots in there so just green space in
that area especially with what we had to lose with the water treatment plant is getting valuable
and the more we can retain down there the better so keep that in mind I think the other thing is
that when we when we consider the bridge for the path along the lakefront you know when we have
festivals that is the path for emergency vehicles to get in there because lake streets closed we
need to make sure that bridge is capable of handling that that volume of traffic going through there
as well so just and and mayor I I don't want to disagree with you but I have had some of the
fish day people reach out to me and and very concerned about losing space down there for
their festival thank you any other questions or concerns though is there someone willing to
make a motion sure I'll move to I'll move to accept the staff recommendation and the staff
recommendation again is to do the 60 day lighting correct Rob is there someone willing to make a
second seconder second by ultimate tyranny any questions or concerns on the motion
right seeing none all in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed aye all right motion carries
thank you very much this we're very much looking forward to this thank you okay that brings us to
unfinished business which is from the top of the hour our librarian is here to do a charter
presentation which I blew right past the mic excitement to proclaim it his week
so Tom you are up to do your charter presentation well it's really you have three minutes please
state your name and address Tom Carson library director 424 Grand Avenue take as much time as you
need he said three minutes so basically you have a copy of the charter in your packet
so really our focus this year is getting used to all the new renovations and I will tell you
we've received nothing but positive comments from our users especially which I'm very proud of
is the bathrooms were finally redone that actually has been people have been shocked when they've
walked into the bathrooms but also they really are using the study rooms and the conference room
and the computer lab we're offering more computer classes which are gradually going up in attendance
so our goal is still to be a community gathering space as well as an opportunity people to access
information we are like all public libraries in this country we are changing it's really not
about it's not just about the book anymore the print book our statistics for digital access to
materials is gone up dramatically it's gone up dramatically around the state the state is working
on trying to create more opportunity to people to access digital content I have to repeat this
a lot because people think that libraries can get digital books really cheaply we cannot we actually
pay about well the system the state system pays 76 dollars for a digital title and once they
sir 26 times they got to buy that copy again so and the state knows that we need more money for
the program there are organizations working with the state to provide more funds for the digital
library we are one of few states in the country that provide digital materials to every resident
in the state of Wisconsin you just need a library card and a password to access the collection
yes it is heavily used there's like 400 holds on some titles but we're doing the best we can to
meet those needs so I just want to invite everyone to come and use the library that's what we're
there for we have well-trained staff we are have great programming especially for kids
we really focus on literacy and getting kids started so when they get off to school they're ready
and get them to enjoy learning so please come and use us we have everything done except we
got to do a little way finding we have all the latest technology all our computers have been updated
our Wi-Fi we now have 12 access points versus two so we really have improved that so feel
free to come and use us any questions what's the current wait time of Theo of golden
you know sir you could look it up it's a bunch but I will tell you we are participating in what
they call the advantage program so if you're using digital content in the digital library always go
the next step to see if we have it in our library system because we are spending a little more
money to buy extra copies but it's only for those folks who live in Dodge Washington,
Shabogan and Otaki County.
Tom are there ways the public can support the library?
Sure we always take donations you can be a member of the Friends group the Friends group
helps us a lot because they they're in charge of the use book sale so and you can get some
really good deals on use books I mean there's a lot some people bring in brand new books
they're a buck versus $15 now they're not there every day but we also there's opportunities for
programming our scene this year is dinosaurs for the summer we have some really great programming
coming up and so yeah we take donations we are not taking books donations yet just keep that in mind
people keep calling us but we got to create a little more space to take those donations
awesome and I appreciated hearing that Mr. Harris is going to be in an inflatable dinosaur
costume waving people in the summer so well that was very cool we did I actually contacted
a company in California that brings we can get a 30 foot dinosaur
um but it's two thousand dollars a day and I don't think that's uh the right way to use
a day Bob wouldn't charge that we'll build that
no it's actually a replica and they're 30 feet 30 feet high I mean they ship it it it
it blows up with air and it'd be really cool but it'll feel too pricey I think for like $15 on
Amazon we can get Bob their costume other questions for about the charter
not so much about the charter but I do want to thank you and everybody who has worked at the
library continues to work at the library um me and my family have been card holders since 1987
when we moved back into town before that we've had other library cards but um most importantly
though it's not only the members of our community who are physically here right now
when my son was in the Navy serving in Japan in Spain he also used all of the services that
are available online and for someone who doesn't have access when they're on on a ship in the
middle of the ocean this was fabulous for him so I want to thank you again well thank you and
so the statewide program is BadgerLink and the digital Wisconsin digital library all available
you can be in China yeah and download books I know people who have done it uh so it is available
so use these resources they're available okay thank you Tom yep thank you all right that moves
us back into oh I'm sorry all the maternity do you have a question oh no okay all right that
brings us to new business then the public works five-year planning for intersection improvements
for the vantage data center uh Rob I'm going to turn this over to you and our friends from
grave yep okay I'll kick this off and I'll first just for clarification um the the title of this
item is really just the intersection intersection improvements for vantage data center the public
works five-year planning that's going to be at our uh at our next council meeting and a preview of
that at our upcoming board of public works meeting uh next week so we have representatives from
grave they are engineers who are working for vantage and designing intersection improvements
that will facilitate movement of vehicles both workers and oversized trucks to and to and from
the site we have Alex Monal and our model sorry and you got a model okay sorry Alex Monal and
Jim Lisa here from from grave and so I'll kick it over to Alex all right thank you thank you all
for inviting me and Greg here tonight to talk a little bit about the roadway improvements
um I wanted to to start off by saying you know we we looked at you can see on this map which is
the tid five area um the red circles are the locations the intersections that were included
in our study this these were identified um in conjunction with the city um Ozaki County and
the Wisconsin DOT because it does include an interchange with i43 um we really focused on
improvements that would be required for two different um two different reasons so the first
would be flow and traffic operations and reducing congestion um and impacts to the motoring public
because of the increase in volume and then we also looked at improvements focused on geometrics
because of some of the size of some of the vehicles that would be coming through you know the the
larger delivery vehicles so all of the improvements at these intersections and along the roadways are
focused on addressing one of those two issues at these intersections so the first area that we
looked at is highway h um with the interchange at i43 this is exit 100 um so highway 32 and h
on the north side of town um starting at the north end so the intersection of uh h and kw um
no significant improvements adding a right bound uh right turn lane for the northbound
approach so that that northbound traffic can move out of the way out of the through lanes and make
their turn um a little bit of pavement widening there for vehicle tracking um as we move to the
southbound and northbound ramp terminals with i43 those would be kind of the biggest areas
where we wanted to focus on improvement um those we are looking at adding temporary signals to
both of the ramp terminals um and that is really to help provide progression along h and make
sure that there aren't impacts on the ramps um with the amount of volume that we are expecting to
the site during construction um there could be delays potentially on the freeway if we weren't
to put signals in and also potential um potential delays on county h thank you for coming tonight
so putting in these signals um and in tying them connecting to the signal at ll um immediately
south of the interchange will help provide that progression along county h and make sure that
your movements off of the ramps are uh occurring so that you're not seeing those long delays and
impacting the motoring public um when we worked with the dot on these one of their biggest concerns
was making sure that we're not creating long queues um whether it's on h or on the ramps
keeping traffic flowing with progression so um in addition to any of the the
the temporary timings themselves there will be coordination between all three signals so that
you can create that progression as you're moving through the corridor uh we are also looking at
adding some turn lanes so at the um southbound ramps it's kind of hard to see in this image but
right now there is only one northbound left turn lane to go south on i-43 we are proposing to take
the middle lane which is currently a through lane and make that a shared through left turn lane
to help reduce that queuing and really make sure that we're not impacting uh the through traffic
that is trying to go on h so um that involves widening the on ramp so you'll see there's um
we've added some pink shading that's uh an expansion of pavement to um allow for two receiving lanes
so that we can pump more traffic through and minimize those impacts to the public
at highland lane so now we're moving kind of northeast a little bit so this is um taking ll and
highland drive um highland lane is the underpass that goes under uh 43 um we are looking at uh
we are looking at uh an enhanced pedestrian trail crossing so this is also right where
the inner urban trail crosses highland drive um looking to really enhance visibility and safety
there um making sure uh right now we are looking at um putting in rectangular rapid flashing beacons
which is the wigwag lighting that you can push a button and there's um lights that flash to notify
drivers that there are pedestrians or people biking on the trail making those crossings
one of the other things that we are proposing on ll is some widening to account for a free flow
southbound right turn um for people exiting um we're going to be restricting left turns out of
that movement to go north on ll uh just because of congestion allowing that movement would um
it really create congestion and delay on highland drive and highland lane so by expanding the
cross section on ll to the south we'll be providing space for a free flow right turn lane on highland
lane then lastly on lake drive at the north end of the site so the top image is at kw on the west
side and the bottom image is lake and ll on the east side um we're proposing adding right turn
lanes for those counterclockwise circulation patterns and that's really to get the traffic
coming to the site out of the main lanes of travel so that anybody that's slowing down
to make a turn is not impacting through traffic um separating those movements helps avoid any
potential safety issues with rear ends for vehicles slowing down and just help separate
movements and gives everybody their own lane and then it also minimizes any congestion issues with
traffic slowing down so these are the improvements that we are recommending um have been approved
the concepts have been approved by the wisconsin department of transportation
as far as schedule and timeline goes uh we submitted plans last week to the dot we did get
some comments back we've been working with them um in the dnr on um getting appropriate approvals
and we have a meeting with them scheduled tomorrow to talk about some of the temporary
signals logistics we are expecting to get those permit approvals within the next several weeks
and the vantage team is working on pricing and getting those um improvements set up and we are
expecting that though they will be installed within the next two months or so so i would think by
may you'll be seeing a lot of these improvements coming awesome uh moosa and just um for clarity
and i know rob spoke to this but this isn't an action item this is just an update um the title
is like a little bit wonky but where we are working with the county on most of this
road construction work so that they're getting the revenue for that and they are not doing they
can't do the traffic signal pieces um so we're working externally on that but i just want to
let you know it's not an action item it's just an update these are requirements from
the dot to make sure that this is a safe project but like yeah eventually we'll get more clarity
on the timing and like five-year plan this will all come piecemeal as a this work this work will
all be done pretty rapidly um within the next six months yes this work is being done to eliminate
or minimize uh congestion during construction so these improvements will actually be removed
once construction is complete so like the temporary signals we're not putting in permanent
signals at the ramp interchanges the volumes won't need that post-construction so they should be
installed very soon in the next you know month or two months two to three months
and then we'll be removed post-construction and and and none of this involves any
eminent domain issues this is already owned by the east of the state the county or the
municipality that's for by or by vantage or by vantage yes correct okay thank you
other questions mr good i was going to call you mr gimpson
yeah um looking particularly by the i-43 ramps my initial impression was that it looked like
overkill but i can see that dot would require that no matter what um so i was going to ask for
the temporary signals um it is truly going to be temporary dot is not going to require us to
put up monotubes for just a couple years because i have worked on a project where they did require
us to put up a monotubes that we knew would come down in three years uh that is not currently uh
on the table our plans the temporary signal plans that we put together and have submitted
for review um do show polls it would post um so i i would not expect that they will be requiring
anything like that um it is the intent to remove them post-construction the the warrants were not
met for permanent installation okay um would the the turn ramps in is the intent to remove
them post-construction to or are they going to stages without the signals or potentially get
striped out if we don't need them you mean the widening yes the widening for the like the turn
lanes or the the extra lane down the ramp and so that the pavement could be removed it could be
left and striped right now the plan is that it would be removed um all of the pavement markings
so um particularly at the uh southbound off-rams for that dual um shared through left lane um we
have a pavement marking plan that shows the temporary condition and then a removal and restoration
plan as well that shows everything going back to the conditions that it is right now so that will
return to two through lanes and a single left turn lane in the future okay yeah actually the
for the traffic on that on that bridge it's four lanes but it could be just a two-lane bridge
would be completely adequate under normal conditions yes the DOT really overbuilt that in the 70s
yes target roads here on wisconsin public radio
mr gasper do this does this for a living so it's always interesting i have no idea what
you're talking about what was it pipes pipe pipe what is now a month so like a lot of tube is
DOT it sounds like a Disney thing it's it's about a up to a 36 inch wide pole that comes up it's
on a base that goes down about 16 feet into the ground in fact i don't know how we'd ever really
would remove those other than blasting them they're um they're they're huge with full and full of
steel they're overkill and they're really expensive and referenced in the calm plan update
all right so no other questions or clarifications on the report for us mr mare yeah mr betting
just a couple comments questions um how long is you anticipate the temporary signals being in
place the construction is expected to last for about five years okay that's for phase one or
phase one and two phase one okay so okay um and then the traffic coming northbound and 43
and the off ramp that then wants to go northbound on ll has to cross a couple lanes to get to that
left turn lane if you know if we got a consideration there that we don't back up traffic blocking
cross is trying to cross there or can't get across there yes so the signal phasing is set up there
is a southbound at the the ll and h intersection there is a southbound left turn there um green arrow
phase and so that movement that path from the off ramp making a right turn to then go south and
make another left turn onto ll that is one of the patterns that the signal timings are um will be
set to address and accommodate that movement okay because it i mean it's a little hairy today
even trying to get across two lanes and i just didn't know with the lights holding up traffic um
how that was going to work so so the lights will actually assist that because the southbound
traffic on h will be stopped when the the right turn traffic i mean you will have right turn on
reds but um there will be i guess i'm more concerned about northbound 43 off ramp traffic
queuing up for the stoplight and then if you got eight or ten vehicles backed up there that are
coming down and queuing up to get either straight or or left turn so that's it gets more my concern
is the volume coming off 43 and wanting how many of them don't want to turn left on ll going north
on ll okay this way over here yeah on ll yeah so if you're making this this movement coming down
and then that direction so if i've got vehicles queued up on on the off ramp from 43 north
and then that light turns green for me and i've got to get all those vehicles today it's usually
one or two vehicles i could have six or eight vehicles lined up there yes so the lights will
be timed so that you can make that movement kind of all together and that's something that we will
be monitoring and and working with the dot on who's managing these timings um
traffic flows fluctuate throughout the day and the timings um we have different timing plans for
different movements and flows so that might be a pattern that you see during the morning peak
hour as people are driving to the site um and you might have a different timing pattern or
prioritize different routes at different times of the day so we work with with the dot who manages
the signals to adjust timings as needed okay thank you okay that looks like those are all of our
questions thank you very much for coming in this evening and presenting this and looking forward to
a little safer north side there absolutely thanks okay that brings us into consideration a possible
action on resolution 2026 dash 04 approving governmental responsibility for targeted runoff
management and urban non-point source and stormwater management grants the issue is
should the city approve resolution 2026 04 to authorize the director of public works to apply
for dnr targeted runoff management trm and urban non-point source grants to fund improvements to
valley creek the staff's recommendation is approval of resolution 2026 04 rob okay so um following
it up on how we are planned to fund the valley creek improvements these are two more grants that
the stantec team has identified both supported by the department of natural resources dnr and
they require prior to submitting these grant applications that the council passed a resolution
supporting them so it's two different grants that we intend to apply for the non-point
source pollution grant and a targeted runoff management grant and so those will support
two aspects of the project one being the stormwater management best management practice bmp
on the west side of upper lake park which was also mentioned by the mayor this evening to um
attenuate erosion on the the bluff and the other is uh to
help pay for what we call RSCs or um all right I'm having a moment here but regenerative storm
water conveyance uh at various discharge locations along the creek so um so one is a 70
percent uh grant funding rate the other is 50 percent we have matching funds provided both by
the vantage uh donation that I mentioned before of three million dollars and the 10 million
dollars that has been um allocated in the tiff um and so uh staff is recommending approval of the
resolution that is in your packet any questions anyone willing to make a motion on the recommendation
to approve resolution 2026 dash 04 permitting him to go after these grants I move uh to approve
resolution uh 2026 dash 04 there's a motion is there a second second there's a motion a second
any questions or concerns on the motion all right seeing none all in favor signify by saying aye
opposed all right motion carries just as a reminder council when more than three of us have our
microphones on we get feedback consideration impossible action on the approval of an easement
to we energies for electric utility on east jackson street should the city approve an easement
agreement for electric utilities for we energies to provide power to the peer street landing
development the staff recommendation is to approve the easement for we energies roger
all right um so the peer street landing development was approved at the last
council meeting and uh as as part of their development they're they're removing some
power poles bearing bearing power lines and transformer that serves this area
is on one of those power lines so that that's coming down needs to be on the ground
so um just a little point of clarification this transformer serves the house adjacent to the
city parking lot on the north side of pure street and and then also the one of the buildings
have from franklin street so it serves two properties across the street from the pure street landing
pure street landing has a transformer for their development on their property
um so anyway as as a result of of these design and and action taken um
we energies needs is putting this transformer on the ground they need space for it and they're
requesting an easement from us okay all right any questions or concerns i would just um as
a comment say um i'm not sure it's the best place to put it but i don't know where's better um it
it it's it's a it's a spot that if we were ever to want to redevelop that parking lot i have a
feeling no matter where we put it there it's going to be in the way and we probably can't make the
right decision on it because it's no matter where we put i think it's going to be in the way there
but since it is uh not just exclusive to the one parcel but um also benefits the others i guess i
would move to approve this item we have a motion is there a second i'll second move it in second
any questions or concerns on the motion seeing none all in favor signify by saying aye
all right opposed that motion carries that takes us into the last agenda item this evening
which is public comments and appearances are there any public comments or appearances this
evening all right seeing seeing none i would like to give the floor to alderman attorney
just thank you mr mary just wanted to uh express my thanks to everyone uh both on the council and
the staff and the two mayors i've worked with and the three administrators and um to appreciate
educating me as we go along i was thinking today that in late 1979 it was in just october i was
just finishing up a four-year hitch in the navy i had about six months to go i was at an instructor
at great lakes and i was living in canosia i had a part-time job at the newspaper and i went down
to the newspaper to drop off some copy one day i ran into the sports editor and i was always
kind of looking hey need any stories covered you know anything i can do to get a new clip
chris is probably the only one that knows what a clip is but uh the uh he said well you know i'm
looking for some guys to go out and cover the state championship football game we're really
excited about this trampers in it it's one of the first state championship games ever played
it'll be great it was in ashkash and i said i said who are they playing he said port washington and
i said oh where's port washington and a year later i was sitting in this council chamber covering
the port washington common council as a reporter and up a year before that i didn't i wasn't sure
where the city was located so uh that uh was quite a change uh and i just wanted to say that uh
the whole time that i've been on the common council or before that when i was covering the city
there's always been kind of a matter of uh too many things needing and we don't have not enough
dollars and um it got uh and always we've talked about things that were kicked down the road
deferred maintenance and this type of thing and having kind of gone through some of the history
it's hard to blame some of those people that kicked things down the road when i moved here
i checked inflation was 15 percent and unemployment was almost eight it was 7.9 percent and we went
through we went through the great depression when we had so many open storefronts downtown we the
mayor has mentioned that we saw our once thriving industrial base just kind of shrink over the years
and uh i think you know and things kept getting pushed off so it's hard to blame people but i think
you know in the last 18 months we had an opportunity to do a reset and it you know no matter what
people think it was not an easy decision i don't think it was easy for anybody i lost all kinds
sleep over it and uh in a way it would have been easier to say no let's not do this you know it's
you know i think we could but then i think we would have been kicking financial issues down the road
and i think somebody would have been able to blame us for that and uh you know like we could have
waited for that absolutely perfect potential development that everybody would have loved
and wouldn't have caused any trade-offs and we'd still be waiting and they'd be waiting in the
perpetuity so i you know i think i think we took a responsible approach and i'm uh you know i'm
i'm gonna live with that and i want to do want to say it it's been a pleasure to work with all of you
and uh i have never had any reason any reason at all to doubt any of your integrity or to doubt
your sincere desire to do what is best for the city and what is best for the people that live here
and i'm proud to have worked with you and and i hope i'm not going to go die tomorrow or anything
so we'll see you around but uh it's been a pleasure it's been a pleasure thank you
with that would you like to make a motion there's a motion to adjourn is there a second
second by all room and puzzle any questions or concerns on the motion
pass this to him please all right all in favor signify by saying aye opposed the motion carries
the meeting is adjourned go pirates and good night thank you pat