The South Milwaukee City Council on Tuesday approved more than $6.3 million in borrowing for 2013-15 capital projects.
The 10-year loan will help fund road improvements, facility renovations and other big-ticket items for a variety of our city departments and functions. The interest rate is 2.4% — a low rate in part due to our strong bond rating.
The loan includes $1 million in funds for 2013 projects, something the council previously approved with the knowledge we’d repay this money with long-term loan funds upon the execution of our next borrowing. (We typically do these kind of large borrowings every two to three years.)
The rest of the funds is for costs contemplated for 2014 or 2015, including the following:
- $750,000 in heating, ventilation and roofing upgrades at City Hall;
- $350,000 for reconstruction of 11th Avenue south of Milwaukee;
- $300,000 for tree removal as part of our efforts to combat emerald ash borer and address other ailing trees (I’ll be posting more on this effort in coming days);
- $288,000 for police radios and another $155,000 for a 911 phone dispatch system;
- $280,000 for two new dump trucks and plows;
- $250,000 each for reconstructing 17th Avenue between Milwaukee and Rawson;
- $225,000 for Drexel Boulevard concrete repairs;
- $200,000 each for construction projects on Montana east of Fifth, Clark Fifth to Ninth and Sherman Sixth to Ninth; and
- Between $150,000 and $180,000 for the following road projects: North Chicago, between the Oak Creek bridge and Pine; Hawthorne, between Chicago and Lake; Marion, east of Fifth; Edgewood, Third to Fourth, and Third and Fourth, Edgewood to Williams; and 13th, Milwaukee to Marquette.
We will also spend $72,000 over the next two years to fund a “traffic preemption system” for South Milwaukee stop lights, helping speed response times and improve traffic safety. All in, we’ll be spending an estimated $144,000 over four years to allow our police and firefighters to automatically require lights to turn green as they respond to emergencies. Cudahy and Oak Creek intersections (and many others) already have this technology. The first three South Milwaukee intersections to get it in 2014 will be the intersections of 10th and Milwaukee, 10th and Marquette and 12th and Marquette.
These are just some of the projects put forth for the borrowing, and, obviously, more details (and final costs) on individual projects will emerge as the council formally debates spending on each one in the months and years ahead. Keep reading this blog for more details.
South Milwaukee Blog 
Is there a plan for Rawson Ave by Rawson school, and the parking lot at Rawson School? There is always so much congestion, I’m afraid someone I’d going to get hurt. As a parent picking up kids at Rawson, it is so frustrating getting in and out of that parking lot when picking up my kids.
Unfortunately, no. And as the parent of two Rawson students, I feel your pain. I wish there as an easy solution there, but there isn’t. One thing I’ve done in the past year — organize two meetings of city and school officials around the issue to brainstorm solutions. While these meetings were focused more on the middle and high schools, where things are just as bad, Rawson was also included in the discussion. The meetings led to some increased outreach efforts and discussion of possible engineering fixes. But the problem persists, as you see every day. I’m open to suggestions on this issue … and know it will take a combination of school and city efforts to improve things there.
!Unfortunately when the school was in the design process, the City Engineer and Plan Commission recommended that the entrance drive to the school be off 15th avenue to alleviate the traffic problem. The Architect and School Superintendent at the time did not want to do that and they indicated that they would stagger school start times with the high school to minimize the traffic problems.
Do you have any idea when 17th Ave. between Rawson and Milwaukee Ave. may be repaved and reopened? It seems to be taking forever to be finished and doesn’t even appear that any work is being done. The road has been packed gravel for some time now but the driving surface has yet to be poured.
Cory: I will find out. I am sure the week of rain last week slowed things down.
Cory: We are extending the Oct. 31 completion date a little bit due to weather and a statewide cement shortage. The remaining concrete work is scheduled for later this week followed by joint sealing and cure time. So we expect the road to reopen the week of Nov. 3.
Thanks for checking. It’s been an inconvenience and it seems like nothing has been happening. I’ve been working for the zoo interchange project and have been hearing that they too sometimes have trouble getting concrete because of the cement shortage.