2/7/12 – The Beaver Dam Common Council last night unanimously approved the city’s five-year Capital Improvements Program. The CIP, as it’s called, lays out infrastructure improvement needs and major equipment purchases over the next five years while outlining a borrowing plan for the current year. Officials came up with a three-year plan in committee that holds borrowing to $1.6 million in each of the next three years. Don Neuert chairs the Administrative Committee, which basically holds the purse strings. Neuert says it’s important to earmark projects that constituents have identified as priorities that need to be funded over the next few years.
The Operations Committee is tasked with placing items on or removing items from the CIP, whether or not they get funded. Chair Laine Meyer says it is a benefit to have agreement on projects over the next three years. While street repairs have been identified in coming years that tie into state and federally-funded projects, Meyer is concerned that city borrowing for street reconstruction projects will continue to decline. He says the city is well behind where it should be at this point and if funding can’t keep up we’re just going to continue to fall farther and farther behind. Projects for 2012 include the reconstruction Prospect Avenue in conjunction with a state Highway 151 project. Two stretches of North Crystal Lake Road will see mill and overlay work along with the city-owned, downtown Center Plaza parking lot. Borrowing is also planned for a dump truck, handicap-accessible playground equipment, and state-mandated repairs to the dam, along with a new ambulance, rescue boat and pumper truck for the fire department.
