City engineering and planning staff members informed the State Street Design Project Oversight Committee of possible funding problems and plans for posting kiosks on the 300 and 400 blocks of State Street at a meeting Thursday.
According to Steve Gohde, project engineer for Madison Engineering, the total cost of construction on the 300 and 400 blocks will be $4.229 million. However, $1 million of that total, which the staff plans to receive from a federal earmark, is not guaranteed.
"The comptroller has been in contact with the federal government to get the funding," Gohde said. "But last we heard, there has been no confirmation that we will get the funds."
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, who is a member of the SSDPOC, said the City Planning and Engineering department should find out if the gap could be filled with city funding.
Gohde said he was confident Madison would secure the planning staff with the necessary funds, if the project required it.
"The city seems committed enough to this project that if the federal funding fell through, they would be able to plug the hole," Gohde said.
The committee also passed the planning staff's design for the kiosks, which will begin on the 300 block and continue through the 600 block. Archie Nicolette, Madison city planner in charge of the kiosk design, explained why similar kiosks have not been erected on the 100 and 200 blocks.
"Students have a tendency to hang out on the lower half of State Street," Nicolette said. "Kiosks on the 100 and 200 blocks would not be as well utilized."
Nicolette said the kiosks themselves would be three-and-a-half feet wide and eight feet tall with five vertical feet of space to hang posters. The elliptical shape of the kiosks is the simplest and most efficient design, he added.
"This is a very simple, very straightforward and hopefully indestructible design," Nicolette said. "We also wanted them to fit in with other structures on the street, so the kiosks have similar features to the bus shelters and the same coloration."
Nicolette explained the kiosks are planned to be positioned at a 45-degree angle to State Street. However, members of the committee said this suggestion was perplexing.
"The whole idea of these things is for people to see as much of them as they can," Ted Crabb, chair of the committee, said. "I don't see why we don't make them perpendicular to the street so traffic going by can see an entire side of the kiosk."
Nicolette said he disagreed with Crabb's view of the kiosks.
"I think the purpose of the kiosks is just to give people a place to post signs," Nicolette said. "If people want to look at what's on the kiosk, they will stop and look at them. Visibility is not the most important factor."
Scott Thornton, committee member, said he was also concerned with the width of the kiosks. He said they would take up too much walking space on the sidewalk.
Gohde said though the elliptical design of the kiosk does take up more space than the cylindrical ones currently on the street, the difference between a round kiosk and an elliptical kiosk is miniscule.
