The renovation of several roads and pedestrian walkways adjacent to the University of Wisconsin’s campus was just one of many budgetary breakdowns weighed by the mayor and city alders at Tuesday’s Board of Estimates meeting.
Mayor Paul Soglin and members of the board went over the Executive Capital Budget and Capital Improvement Program for 2012. This annual budget divides funding between agencies of the executive branch in order to make large operating improvements throughout the city, Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8, said.
The city has proposed spending $11.5 million on a construction project to improve the condition of University Avenue during the upcoming year with an additional $630,000 proposed to fund a construction project for Henry Street.
The budget also outlines $4.9 million to go toward revitalizing the 700 and 800 blocks of State Street and Library Mall between Memorial Library and the University Bookstore, with the bulk of funding to be received in 2014.
Resnick said this multi-million dollar investment is the last component of the city’s decade-long State Street corridors project to renovate and restore the popular pedestrian destination.
The project will enhance the atmosphere of the area, Resnick said, while continuing to cater to the local food carts that have become a staple on the block.
“It’s really going to change the whole look of the fa?ade and become more welcoming to the street vendors,” Resnick said.
During the meeting, Soglin exchanged sharp words with Ald. Tim Bruer, District 14, over the proposed location of a fire department fleet building and the merits of the city’s investment in South Park Street’s Village on Park mall, both located in Bruer’s district.
In the budget, the mayor approved a decision by the agency to bid on a Park Street property. The agency argued the property’s centralized location makes it an ideal spot to house large equipment for the fire department.
Bruer said the decision was made in haste and no bids should be made on the property until all other possible building options are explored. He said he was told the city’s current facilities are efficient enough to house all of the major fire department equipment.
The city would look for possible alternate sites and other alternatives once the proposed bid on the Park Street property is made, Soglin said.
Bruer said he wondered whether the city would have granted the property less consideration if it was not been located in a neighborhood occupied mostly by lower-income communities.
“I would hope we would pay that same courtesy to this neighborhood as it was to others,” Bruer said. “This is a highly inappropriate land use for this site.”
A heated argument then followed over the merits of the city’s renovation plans of the Village on Park mall, which Soglin said was a poorly planned project.
Several members of the Board of Estimates weighed in on this dispute, saying it was not a discussion that pertained to the Fleet Service agency’s capital budget.
The board also reviewed the capital budgets of several other agencies for the next budgetary year, including Traffic Engineering, Water Utility and Parks.
