Investing In Infrastructure: City Council Approves 2013 Capital Projects

The biggest decision at Tuesday’s South Milwaukee City Council meeting: A 7-0 vote to move ahead with $1 million in various capital improvement projects this year. Among the projects and estimated costs …

• Re-roofing the city garage: $300,000
• 12th Avenue reconstruction, Milwaukee to Minnesota Avenues: $250,000
• Replacing one of the South Milwaukee Fire Department medical units: $185,000
• Repaving and other work on Minnesota and Monroe Avenues, 12th to 14th Avenues: $150,000
• Various repaving, local streets and alleys: $105,500
• Replace lighting fixtures at the library: $9,500

While the council approved the overall plan, it must still approve each of these products as they come up, so actual costs may vary. And we’ve already discussed several of these improvements.

As to how these projects will be paid for, the council also approved either of two options, to be determined: moving existing money from our undesignated funds (“rainy day” fund) or borrowing the amount with a short-term loan to be paid off when we do a larger, longer-term borrowing down the road (likely in 2014).

I’ll keep you posted on some of these projects as they get underway.

Also approved at Tuesday’s council meeting: Spending up to $180,000 for significant concrete repairs on Drexel Boulevard, from Nicholson to 15th Avenues. That work will be completed by the end of September, with pavement marking after that. Phase two of this project — east of 15th — will come later, perhaps 2014. The pavement dates to 1972.