Cadott Village Board; A&W given go-ahead to start building

Henry Berry, Ratsch Engineering, asked for permission to begin work, on behalf of the A&W slated to come to Cadott. The Cadott Village Board approved the footing, foundation and underground plumbing work, as approved by the state, pending building permits. By Julia Wolf

By Julia Wolf

As spring approaches, plans to get street and building projects going were in full swing, during a regular Cadott Village Board meeting March 6.

Henry Berry, Ratsch Engineering, says A& W would like to start construction of the footing and foundation. He says the state has a process called permission to start, as part of their review process, since it takes the state five to six weeks to look over plans, and determine if they comply with state code.

“Basically, it allows us to put the foundation in for the building,” said Berry, along with some plumbing work.

After that, Berry says that is as far as they can go, before they have state approved building plans.

“They’d like to start the foundation on the 16th,” said Berry. “And then, shortly thereafter, they’d like to start the underground plumbing.”

The board voted to approve the footing, foundation and underground plumbing, as approved by the state, pending building permits.

For Brown Street, Brian Chapman, Cedar Corp., said the project costs for the street alone are in the $50,000 range and previous estimates that were higher, included some street work along County Hwy.X, to bring a water main between Elm Street and Brown Street.

Board member Bart Chapek said the committee decided to recommend not to run the water main down to Brown Street. Randy Kuehni, board member, says the new owner of Cloverleaf plans to run water to the affected house on his own.

“Right now, that water extension is not going to happen,” said Kuehni. “Let’s just get it bid for Brown Street...and if we’ve got money later, after all the other extensions we’re going to have to do, we’ll look at it again.”

Anson Albarado, board president, asked what the edge of the roadway will look like, since there is no curb. Chapman said a 20-foot wide road, with two-foot shoulders.

Albarado asked if that would help the runoff issues at all. Chapman says they could include some swales.

“It doesn’t have to be an abrupt ditch,” said Chapman. Chapek says there is a ditch there already, as well as some culverts. Chapman says, if the board is OK with the $74,500 estimate that included utilities, they could use the difference to do more ditching and make sure culverts are sufficient to handle the water.

The board voted to move forward with the Brown Street construction, with possible swaling or ditching work, with five in favor (Albarado, Kuehni, Chapek, Eric Weiland, Les Liptak) and one opposed (Terry Licht).

Board members also approved moving forward with the State Hwy. 27 work, in a project estimated to come to $316,000, contingent on a private easement for utilities going through. Chapman says the project probably will not get constructed until after Labor Day.

Kim Shult, Baker Tilly, also was on-hand during the meeting, to give an update on the Water Rate Increase Application, which they were engaged to prepare.

Shult says they completed a water rate study, which includes a revenue requirement.

Following approval, the application and study will be submitted to the Public Service Commission (PSC), where they will review it.

“How quickly that happens, really depends on how many they have in the queue,” said Shult.

Shult says the village can expect the PSC to have questions and changes during the review process. Eventually, Shult says the PSC will issue a report with the revenue requirement, showing the additional revenue that utility needs.

“They want you to break even on your costs,” said Shult. Shult says the village has not had a full rate increase since 2007, and is needed to keep up with increasing costs.

“This application is really just to catch you up for the last 15 years, for inflation,” said Shult, along with routine water projects that have added up.

Board members approved the Water Rate Increase Application be sent to the PSC.

A transient permit for Heather Yarrington, Sprout Up Pop Up Markets, was also approved, after Yarrington and the weekly farmers market organizer agreed to collaborate for the days the two events overlap.

The baseball fence along State Hwy. 27 is also slated for replacement. Jeremy Kenealy, director of public works, says the fence will be 5 feet high, for $6,590, with village workers removing the old fence.

Weiland also reported he heard from Heath Benike, DNR fisheries management, that a grant was awarded to construct a fish passage/ladder, to help fish get upstream of the dam. Weiland says data collection and surveying taking place near the dam will start in the spring, to see what the options are and begin formulating a plan.