City may move footbridge Project may also be scaled back By DAVE RANK Daily News Staff Shrinking the bridge and moving it a block north might salvage the third pedestrian walkway across the Milwaukee River in downtown West Bend. “We’re exploring whether it is feasible,” said T.J. Justice, interim city administrator and Department of Development director. On Monday night, Justice and Mayor Kraig Sadownikow updated the Common Council on the project, which was stopped last month when the low construction bid came in at least 50% higher than the city had budgeted. Discussed since the original enclosed 90-foot pedestrian bridge was abandoned in 2007, in 2011 the Common Council settled on what it thought would be an $860,000 design for a new 180-foot bridge linking North Main Street directly with the public parking lot south of the new Museum of Wisconsin Art, crossing both the river & Veterans Avenue. After a series of delays, city officials were startled to discover the low bid for the replacement bridge was $1.25 million, which includes contingency fund. The solution may be to reduce the scope of the project & move it to a new location the mayor said. After what Sadownikow described as “the most positive discussions in years” that included the MOWA, West Bend Economic Development Corp., Zimmerman Architectural Studios Inc., Milwaukee, the original project design consultant, & Milwaukee architect Jim Shields of Hammel Green & Abrahamson Inc., Milwaukee, who designed the new MOWA, this is what is being discussed: ■ Remove the old overhead bridge, located between the West Bend Theater and Husar’s House of Fine Diamonds; ■ Build a smaller bridge, “bank to bank” across the Milwaukee River, at a site about a block north of the overhead bridge, aligned with the pocket park between the Kreilkamp Building (formerly the Ziegler Building) and Sal’s Pizza, 161 N. Main St. There are two bank-to bank footbridges downtown crossing the river now, a concrete span to the north and a steel truss bridge to the south. The city is waiting on the state’s departments of Transportation and Natural Resources to see if they would accept the smaller bridge proposal, Justice said. “We’ll have an answer to that question in a month,” he said. The city received a $455,375 federal grant through the state’s DOT for the footbridge and planned to use funds from Tax Incremental Financing District 9, which includes Veterans Avenue for the rest. The West Bend Mutual Insurance Co. and WBEDC contributed $50,000 to the project. As for when the city would be able to build a pedestrian bridge, which it had promised the MOWA last year would be completed this year, Sadownikow said, “Within a timetable acceptable to all involved.” River Committee approved A group organized by Alderman Steve Hutchins to plan renovations for the Milwaukee River downtown received formal approval from the West Bend Common Council on Monday night. The Milwaukee River Revitalization Committee consists of: ■ Hutchins and his wife Kris Hutchins; ■ Kevin Schultz, downtown Business Improvement District; ■ Jennifer Jerich from the state’s Department of Natural Resources; ■ Mike Christian, Downtown West Bend Association; ■ Laurie Winters, executive director of the Museum of Wisconsin Art; ■ Paul Price, West Bend Economic Development Corp.; ■ Chris Porter, Downtown Design Committee; ■ Melissa Philipps, landscape architect with the West Bend Park, Recreation and Forestry Department; ■ Shawn Graff, executive director, Ozaukee Washington Land Trust, headquartered in the Historic Railroad Depot downtown; ■ Chris Wenzel, West Bend Noon Rotary and its Waterways and Byways Foundation; ■ Mike Nowak, West Bend Sunrise Rotary; ■ Alderman Tony Turner; ■ Lou Glassman, businessman; ■ T.J. Justice, interim city administrator and Department of Development director. The committee should have concept plans ready before the end of the year, Hutchins said. Pickleball court West Bend’s first pickleball court is one of three sport courts that will be added to Quaas Creek Park this year. On Monday, the West Bend Common Council approved advertising for bids on the project, which has a preliminary cost estimate of $90,000. Also to be constructed would be a three-quarter size basketball court and a regulation- sized tennis court, said Melissa Philipps, landscape architect with the Park, Recreation and Forestry Department. Pickleball is a game similar to tennis played on a court half the size of a tennis court. “It’s kind of like tennis, only slower,” Philipps said. “It’s easier for all ages to play. ... We anticipate the contract to begin in the beginning of September and be completed by the middle to end of October.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:40:55 +0000