City Okays First Bills For Downtown Work

The long-planned remodeling of downtown Peshtigo is underway, and as with all remodeling projects, there are some changes and bills are starting to come in.

At a meeting Thursday, May 24, the city’s Streets and Drainage Committee recommended payment of $85,625.95 on the first invoice from Jackie Foster, Inc., for the Ellis Ave. reconstruction project, and $143,840.45 to De Groot, Inc., as the first payment toward a $1,383,709.91 contract for utility work and street reconstruction on Ellis Ave., French Street, Oconto Ave. and the downtown triangle that is to become a city parking lot and decorative area.

They also approved a change order that adds $7,382 to the contract with Jackie Foster, Inc. for some additional work, mainly relocating a water service, doing some unanticipated excavating, and hauling extra aggregate to fill in the excavation area. City Engineer George Cowell said they had run into sub-surface of about 367 yards of slab wood and sawdust, four water laterals that were cut below storm sewers, and four places where lines were too close to the surface and had to be insulated from the top.

The bills now will go to City Council for consideration at their monthly meeting, which will be on Wednesday, June 6, due to recall election voting on Tuesday, June 5.

Members present were Aldermen Mary Lock, Fred Meintz and Committee Chair Cathi Malke, plus Dennis Karman, Mayor Al Krizenesky, Alderman Tom Gryzwa, Cowell, and Jeff Larmay of Vital Signs, an Oconto firm specializing in vinyl signs and street banners.

Cowell reported the Department of Transportation (DOT) has informed him the enhancement grant will not fund curb replacement, and since the city will be paying for the work anyway, he would rather have this work done now on Oconto, Ellis and French Street, so there will be a change order for $40,000 to $50,000. The bad news is the city will be paying 100 percent for the curb instead of 20 percent, but the good news is the work can be done sooner and perhaps the paving then can also be done sooner.

Preparations are underway for reconstruction of the Peshtigo River Bridge in the city, and a pre-construction meeting with contractor Lunde Construction is scheduled for Wednesday, June 6 in Green Bay. Malke said the contractor would like to access the river bottom parallel to the roadway, and this may be among the issues discussed at the pre-construction meeting. There was some talk of possibly starting bridge demolition before the announced June 15 date, but there was no action requested at this time.

Lock asked if the railroad bridge is ready to open for foot traffic use while the bridge is out, and Krizenesky said Jim Koronkiewicz, general manager of BPM, Inc., assures him it will be ready by Friday, June 1. He added that according to Police Chief Kent Kline, people needing to cross the river can push a motorized vehicle, such as a motor scooter, across the bridge but cannot ride it. They felt bicycles and motorized wheel chairs can be ridden across the bridge.

The committee viewed some samples of decorative brick pavers and colors for planters and accent pieces. They settled on a brown/tan earthtone blend for the paving brick and weatherstone gray for the planters for good contrast.

Cowell reminded the committee that about a year ago they had talked about having the city crew do their own striping. He had a price of $3,497 from Sherwin Williams Industries for a walk behind striper and a single head paint gun. There would be about a 3-year pay-back, he said, and after that the city would save a lot of money. The committee unanimously authorized the purchase.

When the construction bills were presented at the start of the meeting, Cowell reported most of the work on Oconto Ave. is done, overhead signs and supports from the triangle corner are gone, and other work is well underway. He said the jobs are coming along on schedule, bacterial tests on the water were good, and construction material tests have also been good.

Meintz questioned receiving bills before the end of the month. Cowell explained because TIF District funds are involved, all payments must be approved by City Council after first being recommended for payment with a recommendation from the Streets and Drainage Committee. Council meetings are regularly scheduled on the first Tuesday of each month. Due to timing of the two meetings, if the bill was not submitted until the first of June it would be July before the contractor would get a check. By submitting their initial bills at this time, engineers have time to check over the charges, and contractors will get paid on a timely basis rather than having to wait nearly seven weeks for their first check, Cowell said.

Meintz also questioned a 5 percent retainage on one of the bills, as opposed to the traditional 10 percent. Retainage money is a percentage kept by the city until after the job is completed to guarantee that all subcontractors are paid and the work is satisfactory.

The committee agreed the bills should be forwarded to Council with a recommendation that they be paid.

The committee talked at length, but took no action on a suggestion from Malke that the city provide banners to be hung from street light standards east of the river as well as those provided for in the Streetscape grant for downtown. Malke said she would have the issue put on the agenda for the City Council meeting without a recommendation. She encouraged businesses and individuals to voice their opinions and concerns about banners being displayed throughout the Industrial Park. No official action was taken.

The Historical Society, at a meeting on Wednesday, June 6 is to select a winning design to be displayed on one side of the downtown banners.

There was also brief discussion on holders for the flags that are flown on Memorial Day, 4th of July, Flag Day, Veterans Day, etc.

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