Saturday, August 27, 2011

Dredging Up History

The planned dredging project at Belle Isle is a major issue on the council's plate right now. I strongly believe the dredging will go forward either this fall or next year. It has been planned for a number of years, but a key difference that demonstrates the city's commitment to the project is that the city hired an engineering firm to prepare for the project. The lagoons have not been dredged since the early 1950's.

Under current ordinances, benefited property owners will pay 70% of the costs. Residents of that area also got hit with street special assessments this year, but the projects have both been in the works for years and it was known that both would likely take place in the same year or continuous years. (I note that when a road is first improved with concrete curb and gutter, abutting property owners pay 60% of the cost for the road work. The city taxpayers pay the other 40%. City ratepayers pay all of the costs for utility work.

Belle Isle residents are understandably upset that bids came in triple the amount of then-city engineer Rich Vela's estimate from a couple years ago. That cost jump is one reason we are considering re-bidding the project.

Here is a bit of history for the excellent Monona in the Making. Click to enlarge.


4 comments:

  1. Speaking of spending money.
    I went for a walk on Monona Drive on Sunday morning.
    I noticed the new signage that looked nice for several businesses. My one thought is that the city helped pay for those sign-why doesn't the sign say paid in part with fund from the city of Monona.

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  2. If these are signs for the businesses, then they weren't funded by the city. Maybe I'm not understanding your question.

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  3. The signs at Village Peddlar, Taco Johns and the Village lanes were not paid from city of Monona funds OR are you going to make an argument the funds are from the TIF?

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  4. OH, got it. Good idea, nobody thought to raise it before.

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