Questioning common council meeting for August 4th, 2026.
All council members are present.
Please join with me for the Pledge of Allegiance,
which tonight will be led by the United States
as newest Eagle Scout will.
Come on up, Will.
Right here is good.
And tell us when to start.
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.
Thank you, Will.
All right, this time we have public comments and appearances.
Individuals wishing to speak to the common council
have up to three minutes per speaker
and the council will hold it to a maximum
of 30 minutes this evening.
Is there anyone who is here to make public comments?
Name and address.
My name is Dean Wiegert.
My address is 3708 East Northport Drive
in the town of Port.
The Sierra Club is suing the Wisconsin DNR,
claiming that the DNR issued permits for the data center
without fully evaluating the project's
environmental consequences.
The lawsuit comes after emails obtained
through a public records request revealed
that the DNR staff initially informed
data center representatives
that a detailed environmental impact statement
and EIS would be required due to the scope
and scale of the project.
After the data center representatives complained
that an EIS would quote,
kill the project, the DNR reversed course
and decided to conduct a more limited environmental analysis
summary.
The agencies never publicly explained that decision.
According to the DNR website,
the purpose of an EIS is to inform decision makers
and the public about the anticipated environmental
and socioeconomic effects of a proposed action or project
and alternatives to the proposal.
Those who were involved in these discussions
and decisions may try to minimize the issue,
but the fact is that vantage themselves said
an environmental impact statement would quote,
kill the project.
Ask yourself what our governor did,
what our DNR did, what the mayor did
when told that an environmental impact statement
would kill the project.
Did they try to convince vantage
that Wisconsin law requires environmental review
and public input and that Port Washington residents
deserve this level of scrutiny?
Hopefully the lawsuit will reveal what they did.
Text messages between vantage employees
and the mayor were released.
This is one brief exchange documented.
September 23rd, 2025, unidentified vantage employee
quote, have you heard anything from the WDNR this week?
We got a request from the governor's office
for more information about why an EIS
would kill the project.
Seemingly they're not convinced, end quote,
response from the mayor, quote,
I'm meeting with them on Thursday, Secretary of DNR, unquote.
Let's hope we get some transparency about that meeting.
Environmental review is about transparency
as much as it is about science said an attorney
for the group representing the Sierra Club.
When a data center developers aren't forthright
with the public and regulators aren't willing
to hold them accountable,
it's difficult to understand the true environmental impact
of a single project must less the combined impact
of multiple hyperscale data centers.
The EIS process exists for moments exactly like this.
It requires government agencies to step back,
examine the whole picture and explain its decisions.
Instead, regulators abandoned environmental review
without ever telling the public why.
Thank you for your time.
APPLAUSE
Any other speakers?
Namin address please.
Tracy Finch, Port Washington, Wisconsin.
I'm speaking tonight because residents deserve honesty
and basic protection.
And right now we're getting either from Vantage
or from other city leadership.
Vantage is asking to run three private wells
during construction, we keep hearing it's a temporary
and low impact, but 12,000 gallons a day is not small.
That's the daily water use of 12 to 6 to 12 family farms
pulled straight out from Port Washington's groundwater
every single day up to two years refill.
And no, anyone else who knows groundwater
doesn't magically refill.
When a corporation draws that much water,
the risks are real.
Low water tables, pressure changes
and long-term impacts on neighbors' private wells.
And if something goes wrong, residents pay the price,
not Vantage.
The DNR already reduced Vantage's pumping request
because the original plan raised concerns.
That should make our city slow down
and take a hard, independent look.
Instead, we have watched the mayor
prove whatever Vantage is asked for,
almost automatically, grants it.
That's careless.
And it's not how you protect a community's water.
Residents have been asking the same basic questions
for months.
Why is a private corporation allowed to tap our groundwater
at all when municipal water is available?
Why weren't independent hydrolysts brought in
before permits were even considered?
Why are temporary requests retreated like guarantees
when temporary infrastructure often becomes permanent?
And why is Vantage simply running a temporary piping
from the south end of their property
to bring municipal water to the north end along Lake Drive?
We're told these wells will be abandoned in 18 to 24 months,
but that's no enforcement plan.
No penalties, no monitoring
and no guaranteed residents will be notified
if problems show up.
That's not oversight.
That's wishful thinking.
And let me end with this.
Vantage keeps saying that they care about the neighbors,
but their actions show the opposite.
They pushed ahead with plans
to put our ground waters at risk.
They ignore residents' concerns.
They treat this community like box to check,
not people whose waters are well-being matter.
And what's this up then for buying more town property
for more data centers or even housing workers?
Their pattern is clear.
They didn't just overlook poor Washington residents.
These steam rolled us.
Poor Washington residents are not an obstacle to development.
We are the people who live with the consequences.
We deserve leadership that protects our water,
our safety and our trust.
And we deserve a city that stops rubber-stamping bandages,
requests under independent experts,
confirm our ground water and our community are safe.
Thanks.
Next speaker.
Hi, I'm Amanda Bell, and I'm at
Passion Road in Partyville, Wisconsin.
Good evening.
My name is Amanda Bell.
I'm a hydrologist, and I spent 24 years
with the U.S. Geological Survey,
serving as the deputy director of the Upper Midwest Water
Center and overseeing the groundwater science
in Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
I'm here because the well-permitting on this site
raises big documented questions.
And the people in this room
deserve straight answers before you vote on anything more.
From the public record,
Vantage is asked to pump 60 gallons a minute
out of old residential wells.
Some over 60 years old,
they were only ever tested at 12 to 20 gallons per minute
when they were built.
DNR approved those lower numbers,
but still well above what those wells were tested to handle.
Where is the updated engineering data showing
that these wells can actually sustain
that level of pumping safely?
The combined system comes out to just over 100,000 gallons a day,
which is the exact legal limit
that defines a high-capacity well.
That's not close to it.
That's the limit.
Why that number and not any
with real regulatory investigative teeth?
State rules require high-capacity wells
to be sealed with neat cement ground.
The construction record on file for these wells
show they were sealed with bed-night, clay, and drill cuttings,
the standard for an old farmhouse.
Not what's required for high-capacity use.
Has anyone, anywhere,
confirmed that these wells actually meet
that high-capacity standard?
Right now, who's checking?
As it stands, Vantage reports its own well-usage data
to the state once a year.
I've not found any independent monitoring
built into this approval.
Why not?
You were elected to represent the people in this room.
Last month's residents brought these same questions
to your Board of Public Works
and were told to be quiet or leave.
That's not listening,
and that's not the promise you made
because you asked for their votes.
So here's my ask to you.
Before any well permit moves forward,
direct staff to get written answers
from the DNR and from Vantage.
We need well-construction standards,
the actual approved capacity for each of the wells,
real monitoring, and a firm end date
when these wells will be decommissioned.
Share those answers with the public before you vote again,
and don't approve what you can't yet explain
to the people that you were elected to represent.
Are there any other speakers?
Yes, sir.
Name and address?
Good evening.
I'm John Janssen, 5939,
Osaki Road, West Bend, Wisconsin,
and I'm a local hydrogeologist.
I've got just about 50 years of experience
managing groundwater in high-capacity wells.
So I was asked by some of the local residents
to take a look at the wells that are being operated
on the Vantage site,
and what I found was some conflicting information
on the pumping rates and the well construction.
I think it's important that the city be sure
about the conditions and operation of the wells
before they make any decisions on these wells.
Specifically, I'm concerned that two of the three wells
do not appear to be grouted to current high-capacity standards.
That increases the possibility that these wells could be a conduit
for surface contamination into the aquifer.
One of the wells is over 60 years old.
I'm also concerned about past permit applications
that I've seen to increase the capacity of three of the well pumps
to 60 gallons per minute with no testing
or discussion of the potential impacts.
This particular permit was never signed or dated,
so it's not really clear if the work was ever conducted.
Currently, two of the wells are permitted at 20 gallons per minute
and a third is permitted at 30 gallons per minute.
That makes this a high-capacity well property.
A fourth well is permitted at 20 gallons per minute,
but it's been abandoned.
So it's really not clear how much advantage plans to pump
and how well the pumping will be monitored.
So I'm not sure what authority the city has over these wells,
but I think it would be critical to ask the DNR advantage
for clear information on the pumping rate of each well,
the monitoring of daily pumping that will be going on,
and confirm that the construction of the wells
are up to current capacity for high-capacity well properties.
I think it would be wise for the city to make this information public.
It's already public information, regardless of whatever NDA you have signed.
It would serve the citizens to have this information made public.
It would reduce the degree of fear of some of the neighbors in the area,
and it would possibly begin to restore some of the lost trust in local government.
Thank you very much.
APPLAUSE
Next speaker, name and address.
Sebastian Elicher, poor Washington, ward 1.
I want to offer a comment on the appointments of members to boards.
I believe the public should be informed not just about individuals that did get appointed,
but also about individuals that did not get appointed.
We gain an insight into whose expertise got appointed
and whose expertise did not get appointed.
I also want to offer a comment about the capital plan that is on today's agenda.
This is a great document.
It offers a lot of transparency.
Transparency triggers questions as it should.
That's why people are asking for transparency, so they can ask follow-up questions.
Several things stand out about this document.
First of all, there is a $10 million shortfall when it comes to the Creek Restoration Project.
The capital plan says, grand not secured.
That strikes me as administrative language for we don't have the money.
The document makes a distinction between funds that are generated from bonds,
so the city getting into debt, and funds generated through property taxes.
The total number of funds generated from property taxes is left blank in the document.
It's red, and there is no number.
It's just access.
My question here is, what are we going to do?
What are the ideas about the $10 million shortfall for the Creek Restoration Project,
which has become a bit of an image project, I guess?
It's further unclear in Appendix A and B which items are infrastructure
and which items are heavy equipment projects.
That has direct implications for the plan and for the generation of funds.
In fact, the separation of the two is not straightforward when you zoom into individual projects.
And finally, some of the costs for individual items does not add up.
So just one example is Project 6.2.
That's the control building down the marina.
So the overall cost for that project is $110,000.
Looking at the Excel spreadsheet, the cost listed there is $65,000.
So how does this end up for the overall capital plan over a duration of 10 years?
Thank you.
Next speaker and name and address.
My name is John Grinwald.
I live at 1864 Terrace Drive.
I already know some of you, but I wanted to simply introduce myself and my situation to the rest of you.
For about the past year, my neighbors and I have been asking questions about the construction plan near our neighborhood
related to the data center and the Valley Creek Project.
Our concern has never been whether the data center should or shouldn't be here.
That's all fine.
We voted for representatives to make these decisions and you're working on that.
But our concern has always been much simpler, that the planning be thorough and that existing neighborhoods
and the people that live here not be negatively impacted.
On February 20th, that concern for our neighborhood became personal.
My home, which has never experienced this before, suddenly began taking on water at a level required
are some pumps to run continuously.
They have not stopped since.
We have taken on significant mitigation measures and continue to work on the situation.
Then last week, our family experienced a sanitary sewer backup that caused significant damage to our basement
and further turned our lives upside down, as well as several others in our neighborhood.
Those events have changed how we look at our home.
Instead of feeling secure, we're asking questions we shouldn't have to ask right now.
How do we rebuild?
How do we know this won't happen again?
How do we regain confidence that our home is safe?
I appreciate that the city and everyone involved is investigating what's happened.
And I hope that the investigation is thorough, transparent and focused on understanding both why this occurred
and what changes are needed to make sure this doesn't happen again.
My concerns also extend beyond my own property.
Today, it may be my family and a few of my neighbors.
But I worry about everyone else on Terrace Drive and all the nearby streets and neighborhoods
that could experience similar problems in the future.
I understand you're considering the city's capital plan tonight and in the near future.
I would simply ask that as you prioritize these projects, as we've been asking for a year,
you give serious consideration to the infrastructure serving our neighborhoods
and identify the cause of our problems and invest in the solutions we're needed
so that none of this happens again.
Appreciate the urgency of the matters.
I'll be continuing to attend these meetings, asking a lot of questions and staying engaged
because this isn't just politics for me.
It's about protecting my family, my home, my neighbors.
Yeah, thanks for your time.
And thank you very much for Roger.
I think I saw him in here for helping save my Christmas tree out of my flooding basement.
That was really great.
So, thanks.
Mr. Grumold, thank you for your comments tonight and I do appreciate you working with Roger
and the team and vantage on that issue as we will continue to do everything we can.
Next speaker, name and address.
Kim Tydrick, 4, 4, 6, 5, Wilders Way, town of Port, so excuse me.
There seems to be a recurring theme here and it's about transparency.
And I know you guys are tired of me being here and bitching.
I'm tired of becoming here and bitching, but I'm also tired of the lack of respect from
all of you.
If you're tired of us, you're tired of us, then give us some answers.
Make vantage, give us some answers.
The first sign of good governance I saw was a month ago at the Board of Public Works meeting.
Two Aldermen actually asked questions related to some of the public comments that people had made.
The first questions I'd heard anyone ask in the year and a half, almost two years,
that I've been coming to these meetings to try to get answers.
Why is that?
Why are you guys all just rubber stamping whatever data center, whatever vantage says?
It's sick.
You were elected by the people to represent them, not to represent vantage and the mayor.
Let's be real.
You're working, acting more like minions than you are like Alderpeople.
You wanted this job.
You stood for election.
Now stand for the people who did elect you.
Ask questions and don't move forward with things until you get answers.
And you know what I'm tired of hearing?
Well, vantage says, vantage is going to.
Vantage lies.
They've lied about just about everything that has affected our area.
They've lied about being a good neighbor.
They are anything but good neighbors.
They're subcontractors and contractors drive like maniacs.
Everyone in my neighborhood has an example of almost being hit by a dump truck or even just a pickup truck from someone that's tired of working and wants out of there.
I literally can't leave my home anymore without being on camera, which no one warned us about.
Why shouldn't I be able to drive out of my neighborhood without being on those goddamn flock cameras?
That is an invasion of everything that Americans hold dear.
Kim, I appreciate your comments.
Please stop swearing.
Thank you.
Then please give us answers.
It's really pretty simple.
Give us answers.
Respond to our questions both verbally and in writing.
And we expect answers from you and from Vantage as you should expect answers from Vantage.
The other thing I have a concern about, and I'm not a citizen of the city anymore.
However, I find it very concerning that you're basically giving up crime property in the downtown area for nothing.
Everyone should turn about that too.
Thank you.
Any other public comments?
Okay, we're going to move into the agenda then.
The consent agenda is for the approval of the minutes from the previous meeting.
Is there anyone willing to make such a motion?
So moved.
Motion and a second.
Any questions or concerns on the motion?
Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
Okay, the motion carries.
That brings us into Mayor's business.
Before we get into the proclamation, I do want to address some of the things said this evening during public comments.
First of all, to the hydrologists and the people who came tonight.
The Council is not taking action on anything with the wells this evening or foreseeable future that stays with the Board of Public Works.
We do appreciate that work.
There was never an NDA signed Vantage and we can put this out on our Facebook page in the next day or two.
We can give you exactly what the utilization plan is, how much they will use.
I will ask our team to look into the well containment issues that you brought up this evening.
Those are good questions that were asked.
They asked for temporary use of those wells because they do not have city water and they were looking to use two of the wells to
the documents here say water from the two wells will feed two holding tanks that will be used for temporary uses in the offices that are set up there.
So the draw, etc.
So we can put those facts out for you to see.
And if the hydrologists want to email the city, we can get you all that information.
We'd love to have another opinion on that.
And then finally, as we move into the agenda this evening, again, please watch for those postings so that when you do drive here,
that you know what we are and we are not taking action on and we do appreciate your comments.
With that, Will, if you could come on up to the front here, please.
Council and community, I'd like to introduce you to Will Diamond.
Will is a scout with the best pack in Port Washington 855.
Will is an eagle scout.
If you're not familiar with what an eagle scout is, an eagle scout is a young man, woman or person who dedicates themselves to a long journey of personal fulfillment,
growth and empowerment.
You can see across Will's chest there, all the patches that he has to earn in order to get himself through the ranks.
Starting, I'm guessing, as a cub scout, we below to a boy scout, correct?
And Will Howell, are you?
I am 15.
And what's the youngest you can become an eagle scout?
Thank you.
15.
Your badges require each.
Which is virtually impossible at 13.
15 is pretty impressive.
We've had eagle scouts here who showed up the day before their 18th birthday.
So I'm very proud of you for not procrastinating, making that commitment at 15 years old.
You can't drive, but you can represent scouts in an amazing way.
So we're very proud of you for that.
Will worked with the City of Port Washington for his eagle scout project,
and I'm going to read his proclamation into the record to ensure that the community knows what this young man has given to the city.
So whereas the rank of eagle scout is the highest and most prestigious award a young person can achieve with the boy scouts of America,
representing years of discipline, effort, leadership, and a steadfast commitment to the scout oath and law.
Whereas Will is a dedicated member of Port Washington's own troop 855 and has successfully completed the rigorous requirements for his rank,
joining an elite group of individuals, historically representing only 4% to 6% of all scouts,
who possess the character and perseverance to reach this summit.
Will has demonstrated exceptional personal initiative by studying for and earning the extensive array of merit badges required to become an eagle scout,
proving his proficiency in diverse fields ranging from environmental science to citizenship in the world.
Will has further distinguished himself with through his eagle service project,
a lasting contribution to our local environment and community, which involved the beautification of a nature trail.
His hard work in preparing trail paths, constructing quality bench seating for weary hikers,
and adding birdhouses to support our local wildlife has enhanced the natural beauty for outdoor enthusiasts to enjoy.
Whereas as a proud former member of 855 myself, it brings me immense personal joy and scout spirit
to see a fellow brother from our troop continue the legacy in service and leadership that has defined our community for generations.
Now, therefore, I, Mayor Ted Nitsky of the City of Port Washington,
do hereby proclaim my heartiest congratulations to Will on achieving the rank of eagle scout,
and I commend him for his dedication to his troop, and we're honored to call him a citizen of Port Washington and our own.
Congratulations, Will.
Will, could you go over the microphone?
I have two questions for you that I wanted to ask.
You were not prepared for this, but you are an eagle scout, so you are ready for everything.
So, Will, one of the questions that I enjoy hearing is of all of your merit badges,
which merit badge was the most difficult for you to earn?
That would be the cooking merit badge.
Two years to complete.
Two years to complete?
And why is that?
Mostly because it was hard to get all of the cooking done for an entire camp out.
I'd have to go to multiple summer camps.
I'd have to cook for every single person on an entire weekend camp out.
So, I'd be the only one cooking, and that was hard to do.
That is excellent.
And then my second question, which was the most rewarding merit badge for you?
The most empowering that you learned and grew the most from?
One of the four citizenship merit badges.
Now there's three, but all four of them I learned a lot from, because they each have different aspects.
They cover a lot, and they each took time, and I learned a lot of really cool stuff with it.
And what was your favorite part of your Eagle Scout project?
I was working with all of my friends and buddies to make the benches, cut down all the grass to lay the mulch, and set everything up.
And do you go up there often now?
If I have the chance to, sometimes I'll bike downtown, and then I'll go check on it.
Yeah.
If anyone's used it.
Well, on behalf of myself and the council, we're very proud of you.
We're very grateful for your commitment and for your energy and effort in becoming an Eagle Scout.
So congratulations.
Thank you.
We'll come right over here so you can come and take a picture of us.
Okay.
You go first.
Your family.
Yeah.
Okay.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
All right, under the next agenda item for the mayor's business is the appointments of members of boards committees and commissions.
Under the public works board, we have an applicant in my recommendation of Ross Brooks and then under the Board of Zoning and Appeals, Doug McManus and Dave Peeringer.
Any questions or is there someone willing to make a motion for their approval?
I'll move to approve.
Motion is there a second?
Second.
Moved and seconded. Any questions or concerns on the motion?
All right, seeing none, all in favor signify by saying aye.
Aye.
Opposed?
All right, motion carries.
Brings us into officer and staff reports and anything for this evening.
Just a couple things.
The last chance for the pool is closed this month on the 23rd.
So if you haven't been to there, get out there and enjoy the nice pool with this weather.
I wanted to also remind everyone that this zoning code rewrite is continuing on.
So check that out on the website.
Bob has, I think, almost all of the drafts there.
That'll be going to plan commission in September.
So if you are interested in that, please take a review of that because it's a substantial
amount of work and it very much matters.
And then next meeting, Mark will be doing a 10 year financial outlook.
And then later on the agenda, we'll be talking about the CIP, the 10 year.
This is not a document that's in stone.
This is a living, breathing document that we're bringing forward much earlier in the process.
So that council committees, the community are able to see where we are and provide input.
That's all I have.
Awesome.
Thank you.
Any questions of concern for staff?
All right.
Seeing none, that takes us into the next agenda item.
I'm sorry.
Oh, Susan.
I just wanted to take a minute to remind everyone that if you're interested in personally voting
by absentee ballot that continues this week through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. here at
City Hall in this chambers.
On Friday, it is extended till 5 p.m.
We also are doing voter registration for new voters coming to the city at the same time.
And the election, which is the partisan primary, will be conducted this coming Tuesday and
that will open at 7 a.m. for the polls and close at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, August 11th.
So if anybody has any questions, they can always contact City Hall and ask for the City Clerk
and I'd be happy to help you.
Thank you.
Thank you to your team and all the volunteers.
Okay.
That takes us to the next agenda item, which is consideration and possible action on safe
built contract for building inspection services.
The issue is should the City contract with safe built for building inspection services
and the staff is recommending that we do.
Melissa.
Thank you.
And the what comes up on the screen is for the next agenda item.
So disregard that for right now.
Many of you already heard this at personnel in GGF.
Our building inspector left in July.
We did a search.
It's difficult to find a building inspector that can do all of the things that a city
our size needs to.
So tonight we're asking for approval for a one year contract to work with a company
called safe built who works with Menominee Falls, Germantown, other things, other organizations
that have given them positive feedback to take on the role of building inspector.
Right now we have like three inspectors still in town that help us with commercial properties
and they've been extremely helpful, especially to get us through this, but over the years.
And this service will be sort of a full service to the community on building inspections for
plumbing, electrical, the whole gamut.
So that's what this is.
It's fee based and we intend to bring it back probably eight months from now we talked about
it at GGF.
I'll be bringing it back just updates on how things are going, feedback from the community.
But this is more of a one stop shop for the community that is developing and or doing
projects for permitting.
So I'm asking for permission to enter into a contract with them for that one year with
the understanding we'll review, make sure it's right for the community, make sure it's right
for the city and go from there.
Thanks for clarification.
Our building inspector retired.
Correct.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
He hung on long long time for us.
So we appreciate him.
Good old Gary.
Any questions or concerns?
Mr. Gasper.
So does this replace electrical and plumbing inspected inspecting as well that this will
replace those inspectors or there are those individuals staying on too?
Those individuals are working with us to get us through this transition period and
then also all of our current projects that are going on right now.
We are keeping that outside of that contract.
If they will continue to help us, we will continue to use them.
Okay.
Thank you.
But I honestly think it's more of them helping the city.
It's not lucrative for them and their trade is the lucrative and they've been helping us
out immensely.
Okay.
Thank you.
Mr. Ben, I'll just add it to GGF.
We went through this in quite a bit of detail.
And I think the biggest challenge that we've had is trying to find candidates.
It was advertised.
We had no candidates that applied for it.
I think this is going to be a good solution to carry us forwards to help with all the
permitting and inspections that we need to do.
So with that, I'll make the motion to approve the agreement.
There's a motion to approve.
Is there a second?
I'll second it.
Second?
Yes.
Any questions or concerns on the motion?
Well, the only reason why I feel confident seconding it is because I sat through GDF.
It would have been nice if that would have been televised because everyone would hear
what they all talked about, which was quite intense.
And I think it would have answered a lot of people's questions that they have them out
in the audience.
So, but I'm still...
Second.
Okay.
With the editorial.
Yeah.
There's a motion and a second.
Any other questions on the motion?
All right.
Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying aye.
Aye.
Opposed?
Okay.
Motion carries.
It brings us to the next agenda item, which is consideration and possible action on a 10-year
capital improvement plan, 2027 through 2036.
The issue is should the Common Council approve the planning, direction and framework for
the 10-year capital improvement plan as presented?
And the staff is recommending approval of the planning direction proposed in a 10-year
capital improvement plan as presented.
Melissa, before you begin, I just wanted to say thank you to you and the staff who are
here tonight and all staff who participated in this.
This is something that we asked for when you were hired and prior so that the city could
act with great stewardship moving forward in the future to understand what potential
liabilities were still ahead and are ahead so that all future councils can plan for that
as we shift our taxation and our budgets in the future.
This is a very comprehensive report and I really, really appreciate everything from the
photographic evidence to the detailed pieces in there.
There's public comment this evening about some of it being incomplete because, again,
it's a 10-year plan and we don't have a forecast for those different pieces or those funding
pieces.
So I really, really appreciate you, the team, the time and effort as well as the council
members who participated in the development of this and the expectations.
So thank you for that and the floor is yours.
Thank you.
Eric, can you help me get that up on the screen?
This one, yes.
I might have a Rob computer.
I have some commentary before so I can let you do that.
So like the mayor said, this document, the fear is always to put out a piece of a document
that's not perfect because you get feedback and the purpose of the CIP tonight is to not
say this is set in stone and this is not a perfect document.
We are in the process of the budget process.
The purpose of tonight is to show the 10-year plan and to get a consensus of this is the
direction we're going and this is the way we want to move forward in our next 10 years.
We have a substantial amount of projects.
I think we have 35 projects or 30 projects this year and I think we have another 30 next
year.
So it is important that we're all aligned on where we're moving forward to.
So again, we appreciate feedback and questions along the way and I know some of the council
members want their committees to get more involved and we appreciate that so we're trying
to get out ahead of when the budget is due.
So I want to also recognize the fact that we went from planning one year at a time maybe
six, seven years ago to where we are now and that's a substantial improvement for the city,
for the city residents, for staff planning and that's been driven by this council and
the staff has done an immense amount of work.
Seamark here, he's put in hours and hours on this 10-year plan process.
Then I also wanted to just note this, what we don't have accounted for tonight and I know
I've talked to some of the council members about, this does not account for City Hall,
the future of like the City Hall, future of a library, senior center and what's the
community pool recreation.
These, we're in maintenance mode on those but we don't have a large capital plan for
any of those facilities and we are working on how much those facilities will cost us
and we're doing everything we can for preventative maintenance on the facilities that we have
so we can keep them as long as we can, that's the better use of resources, it doesn't
like me.
It's just not, it's not allowing me to clone to share the screen, it's for some reason
there's a large delay on it.
But I will tell you that there is, Rob did an hour presentation at Public Works so I
think five of you through committees have already seen this plan and it was included
in the packet and it's an update from last year so we don't actually have to go through
the spreadsheet, it's unfortunate but we have a few things in here that like the pebble
house, the price, the cost of that project is about doubled and so we're going to be
seeking some feedback from the council on what we would like us to do to manage some
of those costs and if that's still where we want to go with the projects.
And then lastly, I mean we have to really think about the priorities of the, you know,
in the next ten years, yes we have this TID 5 but we also have our own projects and the
Valley Creek project I know has come up a couple times and there's several questions
about that project and that's a later agenda item.
So does anyone have any questions on the actual plan?
Like I put in my memo, you can link to that Public Works meeting where it was and I mean
I think you did about an hour of all of these so if anybody from the community goes to just
this memo that's right on the agenda, you can watch the, I call it the show but watch
the video on it and it's very comprehensive on what the ten year plan is and they have
all the materials for all these projects that's about this thick.
We do actually have all of the department heads that are with the, with Public Works
if any of you have specific questions about specific projects, we ask them to attend in
case you did have questions.
Are there any questions or comments for the?
No, I just echo what Melissa said.
We've gone through this.
I know Rob went through it with Board of Public Works because the majority of the projects,
not all of them, but a majority of them fall under the Board of Public Works and as you
alluded to, this has been an evolving process over the last five plus years to actually
have this, have the planning put together.
The thing that's neat on the end is we now have an equipment list and a vehicle list
and know when those things need to be replaced so that again we can look out ten years and
see what has to come in years past.
I know when I first started in council it was all surprised we needed to replace this truck
or it was surprised we needed to replace that truck.
Now we've got the information for ourselves but also future councils.
Rob, first of all, yes.
This list is great but as Melissa had mentioned, there were what, 35 projects this year and
30 more next year, that's a lot of money.
But I can't, I'm having difficulty seeing how these projects can be managed successfully
in this volume.
I guess this is a question for the Director of Public Works.
What is your opinion on managing these projects, this volume of projects for the rest of this
year and next year?
Sure, it's a lot.
We're used to having a lot of projects so, but a number of them we do, you know, we
do hire outside help for instance on, well, I should say inspection wise, we have Ross
Krager on staff so he will inspect our street projects and our sidewalk projects.
We also have going down the list.
So if we do do the work on the Pebble House next year, we'll, part of the contract with
them would be to hire legacy architects to manage that project.
If we go ahead with the garage expansion and renovation, we would look to hire a owner's
representative for that again since we had great success with that on the public safety
building, Valley Creek construction.
We would work with a stand tech to make sure that we had full-time oversight on that project.
And I'm trying to think of some of the, any other ones specifically that?
No, I guess what I'm trying to get at is if there are large projects that are approved
by Council and they move forward, I could use the new safety building as the perfect example
of checking all of the boxes of everything that I learned for project management.
The charts, constant updates, it was, it's being completed before schedule, ahead of
schedule and under budget.
Other projects don't have that level of success and I guess that's my expectation going forward
is for these big projects to have that level of oversight, that level of project management
and to be able to do that with this number of projects, who is the man behind the curtain
that is going to make sure that all of these are running smoothly?
So Roger and I, of course, are responsible for seeing that all the projects remain on
schedule and are going as planned and they do have Gantt charts like the public safety
building.
So when we have a, when we kick off a project, the contractors required by the contract itself
requires him to provide a Gantt chart.
So at the pre-construction meeting, he provides it to us so we don't share it with the Council
or the Board of Public Works, but it's something that we refer to often in a project to make
sure that it's, you know, staying on schedule.
So we do have that, we just, there's been a, because of the size of the project with
the public safety building, there's been essentially more information provided on others, but we
do have that for all our projects.
If I may offer an expectation, Ms. Gossett, for your team is, I think what would be really
helpful because of the volume of projects we take on a year and then how many projects
get carried into the next year.
And I think all of them are impossible as we've discussed this over the years, you know,
we assess and we tax for those projects, they don't get completed, they then carry over
into the next budget, those dollars carrying over the next budget.
And I think the fiduciary responsibility we have is to create a process where, as a Council
and then the committees are in the loop as to the progress monitoring of those different
projects.
What I'd ask you if we can do, and you said two of my favorite words are Ganttchart.
But if we could, if we could create a project map and then every month, it just shows those
project maps and the, you know, green, yellow, red, are they on track, off track, are they
in progress?
And then I think the other piece is the financial delta, if it's above or below budget.
And just to see that every month for a compile of the projects, I think that would help
the executive team as you guys meet, but then most importantly, us, and the last thing
is in that process, if we could have milestones like what to expect and when, so that the
community can see as well as us, like if we're on track, off track and if we're hitting
those targets, and then we can learn if not, why not?
Just so there's a greater level of accountability to the Council and then the community can see
where we're at in those different pieces.
Yeah.
Other questions or concerns?
Mary Lou?
I'm very happy with the capital improvement plan and I'm delighted with Mark.
Thank you, Mark.
I don't think you get enough recognition of all the work that you do, all the hours
that you spend doing this.
I know at Public Works, it may seem to announce that we talk about this stuff ad nauseam,
but I can tell you with great confidence, I feel good about the Valley Creek project,
only because I heard it so much, presented and repeated.
I'm sure as educators, you know how students learn and you can't expect anyone to know
anything the first time and only given it to them once.
So the more information we get, the more repetitive information we get, the better we are to make
better decisions on behalf of the city and our community as a whole.
So I do want to thank Melissa, Rob, Mark, all the other department leaders to make
this happen.
Even with Park and Rec, another committee I'm on, we had not seen any budget consideration
in the past and I think this will help make that committee a better advisory committee.
So I thank you all for your time and are we moving on or can we make a motion at this
point?
You can make a motion wherever you want.
I'll make a motion to accept as presented.
There's a motion to approve.
Is there a second?
I have a comment first.
I'm sorry, there's a motion on the floor.
So I need a second.
I'll take the second.
Oh, there's a second.
All right, Mr. Beaster, is it about the motion or do you want me to back up?
No, I just wanted to reiterate some of the other things that were said here.
I appreciate seeing this as a new guy who has to have a little bit of humility and apologize
sometimes for where I'm still learning.
This is really helpful as one of the public commenters mentioned to see this level of
transparency and understanding of what we're spending money on.
So just like others have said, I appreciate all the work that went into it.
Thank you.
All right, so there's a motion and a second on the floor.
Are there any other questions on the motion?
All right, seeing none, all in favor signify by saying aye.
Aye.
Opposed?
Okay, motion carries.
Staff, you guys can go home.
No, you can seriously go home.
You don't have or do they have to stay for the next part because it's garbage, right?
It's not a really garbage.
Yeah.
All right, so the next agenda item is, I'll give you guys a second.
Yeah, oh yeah.
The next agenda item is consideration and possible action on a five-year contract for
collection of garbage and recyclables.
The issue is should the city of Port Washington extend its current five-year agreement with
Harder's Lakeside's disposal for another 60 months by addendum to the original agreement.
The staff recommends extending the current five-year agreement with Harder's Lakeside
disposal by addendum for another five years.
Rob?
Okay, so five years ago, you may recall that waste management began failing in their duties
and so the city went out and hired a new contractor for five years of garbage and recycling
collection and that was Harder's Lakeside disposal.
In those five years, and I've seen a lot of garbage collectors in 35 years of doing this
and Harder's is done as well or better than anyone and I can't recall the last
complaint I got about them.
I've talked to the people who answered the phone here and they don't get any complaints
either and unreached me, so we've been very happy with them.
We did receive another proposal from GFL that's green for life, right, yes, anyhow, and so
but Harder's was just a little bit lower and so this often happens when you renew contractors
they're able to find some savings in their contract and so as a result of this we're
going to actually cut our costs for the next couple of years over this past year so we're
very excited to have Harder's back for another five years and again the cost savings to the
city is approximately $50,000 next year and even $13,000 this year so like doing this
here from Harder's and if there's any questions but otherwise I just feel that this is really
good news for the city.
I just want to compliment them when I've had to call you folks, you're very receptive,
people were very friendly, neighbors garbage didn't get picked up, you came right back
that day, thank you very much, it was a big thing for the neighbors.
Other comments or questions?
Question Rob, does this contract include provisions as we extend an annex property on the west
side, the north side, south side, is there provisions in there because our service area
is expanding out and it's quite a distance out on the north side where those residences
are still on LL?
You know, we're expanding all the time and so there's we are continuing to add customers
every day and every year and so there's nothing prohibiting that, there's no concerns, I mean
because just literally the distance, I'm not, I mean you want to address this at the
microphone sir, yeah, Chris, there's no issues we've actually met, I believe a year and a
half ago or two years ago that talked about the growth of the city and potential changes
to the route and those conversations will continue to happen, right?
Also those are ways that we can help reduce costs, is adding days, sometimes losing a
day but with the growth of the city that is one thing we will be coming forth within the
next three to four months as a different routing plan which potentially would add at a day.
So we understand the growth of the city and where it's happening and those are things
that we just, you know, you work through them all the time as waste haulers.
Before emotional, I just, I too want to say thank you, I mean, I've lived in my whole life,
I've never seen the level of customer service that your drivers and haulers provide, just the
own experience of living in my neighborhood and seeing, you know, when they pick up a
cannon it drops or flies off and gets out of his truck, goes and fixes it. Again, when I first
became mayor I think every week, every couple weeks we'd get a phone call about something in
a ward or to myself and that has dried up. So I hope that you will continue that just,
and please share with your team that we're very pleased and very proud of you guys so
you can tell small business mindset, community driven, and we're very grateful for that.
So and thanks for all the extra stuff you do with festivals and helping out our nonprofits
as well. Yeah, we appreciate the relationship. Yeah. Okay, any other comments otherwise
is someone willing to make a motion to approve the new contract? I'll move to approve the
new contract. There's a motion. Is there a second? I'll second. We moved and seconded.
A little slow on the button there. All right. So all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed?
All right, that motion carries. That brings us into the next agenda item. Consideration
and possible action on the proposed, you're welcome sir. Consideration and possible action
on the proposed Valley Creek scheduling and project cost estimates, the city's being asked
to review this proposal. The staff is recommending approval. Mr. Vanden Hoven.
Again, some questions came up after our June meeting where we requested approval to seek
some grants to support the Valley Creek project. And so I have Stantec with us here tonight
to answer some of the questions regarding scheduling and financing.
I also have a PowerPoint presentation, which I'm going to cross my fingers will work.
All right, so far so good.
Okay, so I'm going to start off with just a hopefully quick recap of how we've got to where,
why we're here, why we've been talking about Valley Creek.
Pretty much non-stop for the last six years, or eight years really.
And then after I make this presentation, we have Erin from Stantec who will make a short
presentation on the effect of some of the stormwater controls that are upstream of the Creek.
And then Sarah Majoris is here who will talk about again timeline and budgeting. So,
anyhow, so many of you who have been living here for 30 years will remember that June 18th.
And I wasn't here yet when this occurred, but the flooding was massive and I heard about it and
had seen some pictures and the Ozaki Press documented well the some of the devastation that
was caused. And so if you don't recognize this, this is the box cover that goes through
Veterans Park and that's the outfall in the Lake Michigan. And so the of course,
the amount of water was too great for the size of the culvert. And so that's why we're recommending
upsizing the culvert and adding a daylighting component to it to increase the capacity.
And then in 2008, there was a storm that affected the high rise, which unfortunately took a couple
storms for them to recognize that they actually had a problem with their storm drainage system that
drained the storm water from the the city street into their structure. And so once we discovered
that and brought it to their attention, they corrected that issue and then put in some features
in their in their parking lot that prevents the water from from getting down the driveway.
So in 2019, we had already been working with Stantec has been handling the city's stormwater
stormwater issues since since even before I arrived in 2001. And so they provided a list
of alternatives that we considered, which included reprofiling the street, which turned out to be
unworkable, a parallel culvert of a 100 year sizing, one of 500 year sizing, and then a daylighted stream.
So the 100 year, the 100 year parallel culvert still was not high enough capacity to handle
handle the storms that we were getting. In the parallel 500 year culvert would still
result in backwater. And of course, the problem with the culvert that we've been experiencing
is that all the debris in Valley Creek is washing down the creek and and either overwhelming the
opening of the box culvert or the the debris rack that we had installed. And so again,
that's the value of this project that we're proposing is that it not only increases the size of the
culvert, it increases the capacity of the stream by daylighting it and clears up all the debris
in the creek. And so if that debris isn't in the creek, it's not going to wash down and and
and plug the plug the culvert downstream. So and then what I like about this picture here and that
next to the us in the Ozaki press, that's where we have that emergency spillway that we we built in
in 2011 on Lake Street when we reconstructed Lake Street using a community development block grant.
So that has been functioning in order to reduce flooding, but we're continuing to have flooding
and this one is from 20 these pictures are from 2025. So you may remember back in early August of
last year, again, we not only had flooding and veterans park, but it it entered our water
filtration plant. Of course, it was highly concerning to us and and again, a great motivation for this
project. So I mentioned earlier the the debris that's upstream. So not only are we experiencing
washouts that's that's loading sediment into the stream and and and knocking down armored
barriers to to to the creek banks. But again, we have massive amounts of debris building up
every time we have erosion trees fall into the creek and and of course with just even the natural
die off of ash trees. Another species debris continues to be a problem. And of course,
then that localizes additionally erosion and pushes the banks back and we're getting very
worried about the the stability of the creek banks, which just beyond the creek banks, we have our
sewer and water transmission and collection system. So some of the renderings that that
we've seen previously, this is kind of small. But this picture here, this is this is a photograph of
Valley Creek just south of Norport. You can see that heavily eroded banks and down cutting to the
stream. And so how that will be repaired is that the the natural floodplain will be restored.
And there'll be a series of pools and riffles, which will take energy out of the the stream and
heavy rain events and essentially function better for for to to for planting animal life.
So this is just downstream of of hails trails. This is that if you've ever looked over the edge of
the bank that city in the past again, this is before I was here, had stabilized this bank with some
gravity blocks. And those have washed away a couple of times now. And so again, we're looking
to stabilize the channel with green infrastructure solutions, which will again, stabilize the bank
and restore its natural flow. So and then just some recent highlights and this all
this really came together in 2022 with started with a grant from Fund for Lake Michigan is $150,000.
We ultimately initially we looked at applying that towards just targeting some areas where
the banks were most heavily eroded and that we were in the greatest fear of perhaps it cutting
into our sewer and water mains. But then took another look at it. We felt if we didn't treat
the creek holistically, we're constantly going to be chasing the problems caused again by downcutting
and erosion. So so we turned that $150,000 grant into more of a of a universal plan for the entire
watershed. With that, we were able to secure a $915,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation, which prompted the the award of another $500,000 from Wisconsin Coastal Management,
who's taking a great interest in the project. And so that's brought us up to where we are now,
where we're actually beyond the 90% design. Last year, we had a visit from Senator Baldwin,
who's also shown great interest in in the project and has
recommended that we make requests for congressional direct,
congressionally directed funding for this project. So again, her and her staff are very
supportive of this project. And so we're hoping that that could be another source of project funding
in the future. So in 2025, we had in December, we had a public information meeting for stakeholders
and repairing owners. And then we followed that up in February of 26 with another one targeted
specifically for people just north of of Northport Drive. And then we've been submitting a number
of grant applications recently, including to the DNR and NIFWIF, and I list those here.
And those have all come in front of this council because they
to either get a motion to approve the grant applications or in the case of the DNR,
they require resolutions by the council. And so if you've missed anything or can't get enough of
Valley Creek, go to our webpage. And so all the presentations that I shouldn't say all of them,
but many of the presentations that we've made in the past are up on the website. You just click on
it and you can see them over and over again. And we also have a story map that we hope people
are finding very informative. There's drone footage of the entire basin. And so just a lot of information
out there. And of course, if anyone has any questions, they can certainly send them to us any
time. So that's the background. Rob, thank you very much for that comprehensive piece. And I also
appreciate the website component, the historical context that you brought tonight and why this is
so important for the for the sustainability of our downtown. I appreciate also, I'm just on my
personal behalf that we're going to daylight the creek again and restore that back to its original
piece so we don't create that bottleneck. And I think it's also important. Over time,
you know, the last three major rains that we've had, you can just you go up to the
bluff now and you can see the muck line that comes out of South Creek and how there's barely anything
coming out of Valley Creek now. So this is ideal for us to be able to restore this and
especially working all the way up to where the headwaters are and bringing that back. I think
that's going to be beautiful for a really, really long time and stop a lot of the problems that
are occurring. I also like the fact that the plan does not have a lot of man-made solutions
like we have tried in the past. I remember as a kid, they would dump chunks of asphalt and
sidewalks down there to try to stabilize the sides as well as the beach. So to see that we're using
as much nature or natural processes is really, really appreciated. So thank you. Thank you.
So Sharon, you're again, Aaron Volkineen and Sarah Majoris are
with us. And do you want to plug into your computer?
We've got a couple slides to share here, which we'll get fired up. I'm Aaron Volkine with
Stantec. I'm a Water Resources Engineer and my colleague Sarah Majoris is here,
Project Manager and Scientist with Stantec.
Sir, if you just open up your PowerPoint and then hit Begin Program or Begin Show,
it'll, it should take you to your show instead of the background. There you go.
Sorry for the technology roulette.
Oh, it looks like it's working good here.
So we just wanted to bring forth a little bit more information about, you know,
the watershed and some of the flooding conditions and how that relates to watershed conditions,
past development, future development, so forth, and then, you know, have an opportunity if
there's any further questions. So there's a map here of the Valley Creek watershed.
The approximate boundary is shown in yellow there. The overall area of the watershed is about
two and a half square miles or about 1,600 acres. You know, I've always sort of roughly
conceptualized the watershed is approximately being cut in half by Interstate 43. You know,
the northern part of the watershed is north of 43, you know, obviously up until recently,
you know, has been mainly undeveloped, you know, some larger, you know, rural development,
farming, of course, the data center is being built up there in a portion of that now.
This, you know, flatter ground up there also. You get south of 43, you know, first of all,
the terrain starts to get steeper. And it's also, you know, most mostly developed,
there's a few parcels left and Birchwood Hills is in there, but, you know, mostly developed.
There's, you know, approximately 700 acres of city area south of 43 that's in the Valley Creek
watershed. It's important to note that there's not a lot of stormwater management in that area
south of 43. You know, newer areas of the city, we have stormwater management, we have detention
ponds, infiltration basins, green infrastructure, stuff like that. So if you go, you know, for
instance, kind of the western portion of the city or, you know, southwest along 32 or the
industrial park to the south, you know, you'll see, I think the city has something like 60 stormwater
ponds and facilities or something like that now of varying sizes. You know, those really started
being built, you know, probably in the 1990s, partly driven by regulation. There were some
federal and state laws that required stormwater treatment. Also a recognition that, you know,
stormwater, what was causing flooding was causing erosion and stuff like that. You know, a lot of
the Valley Creek watershed, the southern half of it, you know, it's not all super old development,
but a lot of it, you know, developed before we really, you know, knew or required to build stormwater
management. So there's a lot of, you know, undentained urban stormwater runoff from existing city areas
that, that, you know, as a substantial contributor to the flooding and the erosion problems that have
been seen. We had some interesting reports, actually, from last week's rain, just wanted to show you
a couple pictures. It kind of points out the flashy nature of the watershed, you know, because of
some of these urban areas that have storm sewers that go right into the creek, which were making
some efforts to address that as part of this project. So we had, there are various groups that do
monitoring and assessments out there. One of them is the State or the University Sea Grant Institute.
Dr. Titus Sealheimer with Sea Grant is part of the monitoring crew. He was out there last week on
July 27th. And they started their sampling in the morning before it rained. And you can see a
picture on the left there. They're doing some sampling at the outlet of Valley Creek to Lake
Michigan. Then, you know, I think midday it rained. I looked at some rain gauge totals, you know,
it's somewhat variable, but the rain gauges I saw we got, you know, a little over an inch to an
inch and a half of rain, I think on average, you know, so a good rain, you know, nothing like 100
year storm or anything like that, like some of the events that Rob showed pictures of. And you can
see, you know, the water, you know, came up pretty quickly. And that's the influence of that urban
hydrology. Just another picture. Titus didn't didn't close in exactly where this was. I think it's
somewhere between Lake Drive and Hales Trails or somewhere in the Hales Trail vicinity, you know,
another location where on the left there before the rain, they're in the stream to do their sampling
after it rained. It, you know, came up pretty quickly.
The city, you know, has a comprehensive stormwater management ordinance. And one of the things it
does is it requires new land development to build facilities such as detention-based and stormwater
ponds to manage the runoff. And there's some numeric requirements in there. And the way the
numeric requirements read is that, you know, in hydrology, we have ways of analyzing the severity
and the frequency of rain events and flood events. You know, you'll hear terms like the 10 year storm
or the 10 year flood, the 100 year storm or the 100 year flood, you know, and the bigger the number,
the more severe the event. You know, so the city ordinance requires a land developer to
look at the 100 year flood flows from their development, you know, after development,
accounting for the impervious area and the grading they'll do and so forth. And when that runoff
leaves the site, that has to be reduced to what they calculate as the two year pre-development
flow. You know, so looking at that land, you know, before urban development conditions
and make that make that reduction. The primary reason for those numeric requirements is that,
you know, modeling is not an exact or, you know, completely precise thing. And those of you that
might, you know, work with scientific models or engineering models, you know, know that there's
different sources of uncertainty or limitations they have. And so, you know, as engineers and
scientists, we introduce factors of safety. Structural engineers have, you know, loading
factors of safety. Hydraulics, we have what we call free board, you know, where we try to cite
things above a flood level. We have this sort of factor of safety where we say, okay, we don't know
that we can precisely calculate these things like a two year flow and a hundred year flow.
So we're going to make sure there's enough of reduction that we're confident that those flood
flows are not going to increase after development. So that, you know, that's the purpose of
this ordinance requirement. It's not a requirement to, you know, really try to solve existing flooding
problems. It's difficult to predict what the, you know, hydrologic change is going to be,
you know, a ways down in the watershed where, you know, confident that, you know, as designed,
this is going to, you know, not increase peak flood flows that land development. It's,
it's, you know, likely going to result in some, some kind of reduction. It's challenging to
calculate that exactly what that is. You know, we're moving forward using
some flood hydrology that was done by DNR and FEMA for the floodplain, the official floodplain
mapping. You know, the, the upstream development has to follow these stormwater rules to avoid
any increases to that. But, you know, the stormwater ordinance is, is not really intended to
make watershed wide flood management reductions. And, you know, I could talk for hydrology about
an hour, but I don't know if anyone else wants that. So, you know, happy to answer questions on that.
I think Sarah has some more information on phasing and scheduling and other updates.
I do have a quick question for you backing up to the most recent measures that were done.
How far back do you have data sets for that? As far as like when we have 1.6 inches or 2
inches of rain, how far back can you go to show the flow, the depth of how much water is running
through that creek area? We don't have a lot of data on flows. You know, I know it's been what
the last year or two that, that, you know, Sea Grant Institute has been making some observations.
And, you know, anecdotally, or, or, you know, sort of qualitatively, we have things like the
pictures that Rob showed, you know, they can provide us with a, you know, an approximation of flows
and stuff like that. Rainfall data is, you know, generally available more, you know, more historical
rainfall data is available. I'm just asking more in the context of how that creek
can so violently shift, you know, in how it has historically opposed to, like, what it is now
and then what will be in the future. So if there's no baseline, I understand. So thank you.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, urban development without stormwater management in general, you know,
the kind of rule of thumb is that it, you know, can potentially increase flood flows by,
you know, an order of magnitude or more. So, you know, anytime you have a situation where we've
got these storm sewers that are going right into a creek without stormwater management, that
has played a big part in kind of what we've seen. Okay. Rob, moving forward is that data that will
be kept. Like erosion, you know, like, will that entire area be mapped so that there's, there's
base? Okay. Yeah. So as part of the grant, we need to, we do need to track quantitative data,
but I'm going to let Aaron or Sarah talk more about some of the reporting that is required to
show that the the creek work that we're doing is having, you know, the desired effects.
Yeah. The the dollars that have been applied for from grant granting agencies funding
require metrics to be reported long term. So we have a pretty comprehensive spreadsheet of metrics
that will be tracked pre and post construction to monitor the changes over time. Does that help?
And we can share that with the city. If you're interested, it went in with an IFWIF application
that was submitted last month. Yeah. And I guess what I'm looking for is,
I don't know the depth of like, if there will be a 3D model that will be run from the headwaters
all the way down so that over time in different eras, we can measure that. One of the accountability
pieces that we want to hold the northern development to is, you know, leave it better than you found
it in the retention water or the the land easement that with the conversation con for con.
I just lost the word conservation. Yeah. Thank you. Conservation easement,
we asked them or made them put on the 120 acres up there just to see that and then all the money
we're spending here to ensure that we're not back 10 years from now talking about like, well,
they shouldn't have done this like we did in the past. So thank you for letting me know that.
Yeah, absolutely. In addition, the the FEMA flood maps will be updated
pre to compare pre and post construction. So that'll be a nice baseline to have on a map as well.
I'm also considering thinking of the homeowners who live in that area and then along that creek
who's insurance now have gone up because of the new mapping and etc. So if we can create
historical documents for them and reduce their costs over time, that'd be important. So thank you.
Yeah. Okay. So my understanding is that a hundred year flood doesn't mean that it only happens
once every hundred years. It means that any given year you have a one in 100 chance of having
that flood and same thing with a one in 500 for the 500 year flood and every year it's the same
regardless of what happened last year or the year before. So explain to me how this two year
pre development flow. How is that calculated? What data are you getting for that?
Yeah, it's it's based on rainfall in in stormwater management design.
The the systems are modeled and designed for certain rainfall. So there's there's statistics about
you know what a hundred year rainfall is of a there's durations of factor into it too and
there's statistics on you know what a two year rainfall is and a 10 year and stuff like that.
Those are also periodically updated you know so the the rainfalls that you know the developers
and the city years they're using now for projects are different than they were 15 years ago.
You know in a lot of cases those depths have gone up a little bit. So yeah there's
you know in stormwater modeling it's pretty rare to have you know lots of data for calibration
you know in others of water like if you live on a a big river like the Milwaukee River
the USGS has been running stream gauges for 50 or 100 years. You know a lot of like individual
sites or you know really small drainage areas you know there's just not necessarily the monitoring
data that's out there. So a lot of it is based on what we know about rainfall you know updates
to rainfall data and then models about how runoff is generated from that rainfall and
stuff like that. So we have that information and we do not have that we're making assumptions
or we have actual data. We have we have design rainfall information
we for individual sites you know for for like designing stormwater systems there's no
monitored stormwater data it's it's computer models and and you know using you know the best
available data sort of you know these models are are based on observations and you know other
areas like you know other areas of the state or in the country where they have done some
monitoring of stormwater flow but you know there's there's thousands of developments that happen
even in Wisconsin every year so you know yeah yeah not everyone is monitoring so yep.
Mary Lou I appreciate your questions because I mean global warming is real we're a harbor
community we're going to see everything rise we're going to continue to see these historic
floods more and more I mean they're not 100 I mean like you pointed out one in 100 but
we've been winning the lottery for flooding in that valley for too long so this is this is
excellent work okay shall we move on to phasing budgets dollars okay here you can see the
that the valley creek construction project was designed all as one project but we're
broken we've broken it up into three separate phases there are multiple reasons for this
one it's uh we wanted to break it up from a budgeting standpoint so that that's a little
bit of a lighter load when we go and ask for grant funds um and then any city contributions
along the way uh the second reason is because of natural resources construction windows this is
a tributary to lake michigan and any fish that are spawning uh from lake michigan are active for
most you know most of the year we have an exclusion so we need to limit our construction from the
mouth of the project up to the first fish barrier uh to dune 15th to september 15th we only have
three months to work within that zone so that's another reason why we break why we are breaking
it up so you can see uh and I guess the third reason that it's phased this way from upstream to
downstream is because typically stream engineers prefer to work from upstream to downstream
from an erosion control perspective for stream flow bypass reasons there are multiple reasons
why we do this so that's why we're recommending these three phases it's the first phase
for which we've applied for funding that could be approved as early as 2027 is from bircuit
to downstream of hails trail that would allow us to replace both bridges not at the same time
of course because of traffic flows um and then all of the stream corridor upstream of that
phase 2a is downstream of hails trail to upstream of lake street and then the third phase would
or to to be is upstream of lake street to lake michigan there's a chance that both phase twos
could get constructed during the same period all will depend on funding sources and constructability
there are still some unknowns with phase 2b because of utility corridors but we're working
with various engineering firms to confirm the all of the variables with respect to utility
upgrades in the next couple of years so that we can finalize designs and decisions in those areas
so the for phase one we have a little bit more detailed gantt chart laid out here
this was submitted with the most recent niff with grant application so if all goes well we could
start some project kickoff um the bidding and some of the clearing in q1 and q2 of 2027
and then move forward toward construction in q3 which is you know when we would
begin outside of the the exclusion windows for fish there's a more limited window for those
this portion of the stream that's downstream of hails trail which we which is our first
fish barrier technically but all inland streams in wisconsin can only be worked in
from march 15th to september 15th so we're still limited there um so that's why you see the
construction major construction uh window between q3 and q1 and then we would work toward
revetation and restoration uh really throughout the entire project to make sure that the stream
banks stay stabilized and uh following that would be education and outreach and post-construction
monitoring um and the subsequent phases would look a lot like this they would just be phased out
differently uh we haven't broken the the future phases up quite yet so construction budgets we
i don't won't go into the details at this point i think everyone on the council has a detailed
copy of this for the nitty gritty pieces here but uh for phase one we're looking at a total
cost of about seven million five hundred and seventy five um thousand dollars for this first
phase for phase two a we are looking at a really similar amount dollar amount
right around seventy four or seven million four hundred thousand um you'll notice that there is
one line item that's highlighted here and that's for gunther pond uh we're still working with
engineers who um are finalizing the alignment of the sewer through that area we are hoping to
avoid any intersection of our project with the the new interceptor so waiting on that alignment
and that's why this is a question mark dollar amount for now and then phase two b would be the
daylighting of lake street and rebuilding of the lake street bridge and a pedestrian bridge at the
mouth of of the creek and the totals here come in at about two and a half million um with a grand
total of seventeen and a half million dollars uh and i also want to note that there is a
twenty percent contingency added to this total cost um kind of as a safeguard as we plan ahead
so here we uh rub covered a lot of the design funds that were that were required for the
project you can see here that the phase one budget that was proposed as part of our recent NIFWIF
proposal includes a vantage donation to lnrp which would allocate one point eight million to the
project uh the NIFWIF application that was recently submitted and we should know about in
October for three point eight million a targeted runoff management grant from dnr for two hundred
eighteen thousand and then if approved that did five two point one million as match for the
various grants and then moving forward for phases two a and two b the remaining donation from vantage
del nrp would be utilized uh there are there's an national park service recreational trails
program grant um that was applied for to support the pedestrian bridge at the mouth near um
veterans park a sogel application for walter street ravine i believe that has been submitted
that pre or will be shortly and the NIF a second application to NIFWIF the benefit of a lot of
these grant uh funds is that they can be applied for repetitively in subsequent years so this is
we do intend to support an additional grant application to NIFWIF in next year to support
future phases and then as Rob mentioned earlier discretionary congressional allocations
and remaining did five allocations uh this is a little bit separate from what we're talking about
with valley creek but there's a concurrent project at upper lake park to put in by our
retention basins of course this has a direct impact on the valley creek project because we
are reducing stormwater inputs into the system uh there have been there's already been funds
awarded for to finalize design and move into construction for these and you can see them listed
up here on the screen and that I believe wraps up my presentation it does thank you
any questions comments for the team
so I guess all the person to pass still oh sorry um all of these funds are not confirmed yet
and if you phase this in what if you get phase one done and the funding just dries up is there
a detriment to downstream um is does it make it worse or would we be okay
let me speak to that there's still a benefit to to constructing a portion of this project
so the way the project map is designed it's not funding dependent to your point of
we're just left with half of something done and done okay mr. Pointer me for the interruption
um what does the recommended staff motion do for us this evening because I you know we had
talked about this at GGF talked about this at public works like we're not committing future
councils the city to money in the future are we by this motion we're just thanks most
that's a great question so tonight we we're bringing this forward for education purposes
to highlight the things that um might have been at public work some teen times but hasn't been
here so that the community um everyone has the facts all in one spot um and also it is to move
that we agree we want to move forward with the you know we're going to move forward with the
projects we've applied for the grants and then that a train no that's a boat um that's a boat
okay that's a boat sorry it's a boat um sorry um squirrel so the purpose is for us to move
forward just like the cip none of those projects will move forward until they get approval
so the ask tonight is that the direction of we're going to continue to move forward with this
project um there is a little bit of dispute of the cost because like she said there's 20
percent in there and like I think we need to dial that in and figure out what those numbers
really truly are and then also figure out if we can do this in two years which I have a hard time
imagining within the environment we can if we can great but this may be a three-year project
so the ask is are you in general support of moving valley creek forward um and that's what
was separate from the cip plan and then the mayor had asked in june for the actual rundown from
this project does that make sense yes does i think it's helpful for everyone to understand the
context that we're committing 20 million dollars we're not spending 20 million dollars this evening
we're just wanting to move forward with the project we're securing some grants we're still
waiting on future grants to come in we won't finish phase two a to b until there's money available
to us um there's always a possibility of pausing if we're unreceptive to future dollars spent yeah
so even so even if we're awarded the grants those come with agreements and so those agreements
would come back to the council so everything is a and moving forward with construction
construction contracts would come you know if if a contractor came and bid 20 million instead
of 10 million obviously that you know that comes to the council so everything gets approved
everything still comes back to the council but we want to
yeah have that feedback from the council of a vote that indicates that this is
this is the direct the direction of again implementing a sustainable valley creek is
something we want to continue on and the proposed motion from staff as i move to
approve the proposed phasing and cost estimates for valley creek so i appreciate that clarification
mr benning yeah rob i think we were due to have 90 design completed in may is that where we're at
we're we're beyond that for some phases of it we're not quite to that for other phases which i
think are just the the bridges really is where we are a little bit behind on scheduling and so
those are scheduled for september there should be an abogus and abogus so i guess
do we expect the the dollar numbers to move i know the the gunther pan 300 000 is just a
placeholder um based on what we know right now do we expect the numbers to change significantly and
any portion of it no we're not no i think you put the numbers together but yes we've been talking
about it at length and no they feel that they have enough information now to make
good estimates of of the cost of the work okay yeah and they've been working you know as as
design is progressed they've continued to refine their numbers okay and i guess the other question
you know looting to what most mentions why 20 percent that seems higher than what we put
in any other project for contingency oh i um i i guess it's i guess i wouldn't consider that
i guess i wouldn't consider that excessive for a project like this
and it includes construction oversight that 20 percent includes construction oversight
and management as well and so if we i think we started at eight and then and bumped it up to
20 because we wanted to make sure that there was a a representative a city representative there to
monitor and manage the construction contractor throughout the project that would that would
include the cost of an owner's rep for the overall project yes and responses to RFI's along the way
things like that so that is not a true like traditional contingency that's your contingency
in building the budget built-in yes okay thank you for that clarification both mmm
this is your gasper now with the flooding that we've had out of valley creek i think a lot of the
the public really isn't aware how close a couple times we came to the flooding
knocking our water treatment plant offline and you know providing clean
water is probably the most important service that the city provides and that
really makes this project potentially the most important thing that any of us
will do in our time on the city common console. We need to be able to guarantee
that flooding from the creek is not likely to be knocking our water plant
offline. You know we we have a city in Wisconsin right now that is going through
the problem of having a natural disaster destroy their water treatment plant
and it's and anything that we can do to alleviate that type of risk I think it's
behooves us to take those actions and in this case this is a problem that's
been mounting for years just because of development practices and how you know
for most of the area south of I-43 as it's been developed along the creek we
really didn't take into account the additional runoff that is produced by
an urban environment versus when that was just farm fields north of north of
the creek or north of downtown. So it's it's been a lot of different things
have led us to this but I think it's it's important for us to go through it
and carry this project forward. It's not just benefiting people who have
personal property have been damaged by flooding or have had their cars flooded
out but this is vital to the community as a whole that we need this to protect
our water supply. Is that a motion? Sure I moved to approve the proposed
phasing and cost estimates for Valley Creek. Is there a second?
Moved and seconded. Any questions or concerns on that motion? All right seeing
none all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? All right the motion
carries. That brings us into the next agenda item which is consideration and
possible action and approval of a collateral assignment of development
agreement related to development agreement previously agreed upon between
the City of Port Washington and Pear Street landing LLC related to the
property at 120 East Washington Street in the City of Port Washington. The issue
is should the Common Council approve the collateral assignment of development
agreement and the staff recommends the city attorney the city attorney
recommends Council approve the collateral assignment of development
agreement. Mr. Nugent. Thank you. This is a fairly straightforward assignment
here. You'll recall that the Council approve the development agreement for
the Pear Street landing in March. What this document is and this is at their
request is essentially in order to secure their loan. The bank needs this
collateral assignment that essentially gives them the authority to take over
the project if there's a default on the loan. I guess is that ultimately the bank
wouldn't actually take on the project and would probably assign it to someone
else and as part of the developing agreement this Common Council has to
approve any assignment that takes place. So this assignment has to come to
Common Council for approval. If for some reason the bank were to take over the
obligations and want to assign it further this would have to come back for the
Common Council again in order to approve that assignment as well. We have done
similar things in similar developments in the past and I'm happy to answer any
questions. Any questions comments or concerns? All in person possible? No
questions. I'll move to approve the collateral assignment. Is there a second?
Second. Second by Alderman Benning. Any questions or concerns on the motion?
All right. Seeing none. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed?
All right the motion carries. Mary Lou did I miss you? Did I see your red
blink blink over there? All right. Well that brings us to the next agenda item
and convene into closed session. Per Wisconsin State Statutes 19.851E for
the purpose of deliberating or negotiating the purchase of public
properties. The investing of public funds are conducting other specified
public business. Whenever competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed
session to it discuss and formulate negotiating strategies regarding the
potential development and developers agreement at 104 West Washington
Street and 365 North Wisconsin Street in the city of Port Wash and Ozaki County.
Wisconsin tax ID number 16-098-10-01-0.001. Is there someone willing to make
that motion? There's a motion and a second. Any questions or concerns on that
motion? This calls for a voice vote. District one. District two. District three.
District four. District five. District six. District seven. The motion carries. We are
now in closed session. Please clear the chambers. Dispel good luck in your
election.