Property owners will get right to choose 
by Brian Wilson
The Star News
March 11, 2010 —  Property owners will get a choice between free grass or paying for blacktop between the curb and sidewalk when the north end of Hwy 13 is rebuilt in 2011.
Under the plan reviewed by aldermen at Monday’s committee of the whole meeting, the city would send out letters to all the adjoining property owners offering them the option of the two surface treatments. Property owners would then have to respond to the city so that the final plans could be presented to the state.
According to city coordinator John Fales, the city would be the middleman for the project since the state does not have a mechanism to bill back the additional cost of the asphalt to the property owners. Instead the city would get a bill for the work, have to pay the state for it and then bill it back to the affected property owners through the city’s standard special assessment policies. This would allow costs over $1,000 to be spread over 10 years with interest charged based on the city’s interest rate to borrow money.
In addition to the cost of the asphalt, the state will also charge an as yet to be determined administrative fee in doing the extra work.
Fales also noted that even if a property owner decided to go with the hard surface option between the sidewalk and the curb, they would not be allowed to use the space for sign placement or parking lot without the permission of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.
Fales also noted that because not everyone would want the asphalt, the black-topping work would not qualify as a use for community sensitive design funds (CSD). The CSD is money budgeted by the state in the project for upgrades such as decorative lighting special pavement or other items which would be decided on by the council. Alderman Mike Bub suggested using some of the money to upgrade the quality of the topsoil and grass seed used along the road, but alderman Mike Riggle noted if he was a property owner who chose to go with the blacktop, he would be upset about using the money to upgrade grass when it could not be used to benefit his property.
Alderman Greg Knight suggested using some of the money to upgrade the centers of the two large roundabouts planned as part of the project to replace the stop lights at the Anns Way and Allman Street intersections.
The council will have a final vote next week on the grass versus hard surface issue and will take up how to use the CSD money at the March 22 committee of the whole meeting.
In other business, aldermen:
´ Recommended going out of town to purchase the next police squad car choosing the low price from Ewald Automotive of Milwaukee for 2010 Crown Victoria. The vehicle price was $21,209 with a trade in allowance of $4,900 for a net price of $16,309. Medford Motors was the second low price for the new squad with a based price of $21,308 and a trade in allowance of $3,550 for a net price of $17,758. The city is looking at replacing a 2006 Crown Victoria squad and looked at staying with the same model car so that the equipment could be easily moved from one vehicle to the other.
n Recommended hiring Switlick and Sons of Athens for the 2011 city capital projects. A total of seven companies submitted bids for the projects which include street and utility work on Division Street, Second Street, and Ogden Street along with the looping of the water main at the K-Mart Plaza. Switlick and Sons submitted a bid of $585,200.75 for the street reconstruction and $57,851 for the water main loop work. The second low bidder on the project was Haas Sons of Thorp with a base bid of $603,879 for the reconstruction and $67,593.55 for the water main work. Fales described the bidding as competitive and felt the city received a good bid. Switlick has done several other road projects for the city over the years and Fales was confident any of the bidders would have done quality work. The competitive bidding field is good for adjoining property owners who will be assessed for the streets project. The water main loop is a Tax Incremental District (TID) 13 project and will be paid for from tax revenue collected on improvements within that district.
n Recommended authorizing electric utility manager Mike Frey to join with other municipal electric utilities who purchase wholesale power from Xcel Energy in participating in an intervention with Xcel’s application for a wholesale electric rate increase with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. In the past the city has taken part in the interventions for the rate increases, this has resulted in the city being able to save money for rate payers.
n Recommended adopting the supplement to the city’s code of ordinance to formally include all the ordinances passed by council in the past year into the official ordinance book. This is a routine action taken every year.
n Recommend hiring Seal It & Striping of Dorchester for the city’s street striping needs for 2010, the company submitted the low bid of $9,150. Because this company is new in working with the city, aldermen put as a condition of accepting the bid, the company supplying references from other customers. There were seven bids received ranging from the low bid accepted to the high bid of $10,961.50.

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