(Beaver Dam) City officials in Beaver Dam will consider using downtown revitalization money to pay for the rehabilitation of a downtown alley. The $280-thousand-dollar improvement to the alley north of Front Street was initially paid for with dollars earmarked for streets through the city’s annual borrowing plan. As part of the borrowing, the city also secured money for downtown revitalization, but not all of the revitalization money has been used.
Alderman Mick Fischer is pushing the resolution saying that the city already established a precedent by using revitalization funds to pay for a “pedestrian alley” east of American Bank. His resolution would free-up $280-thousand dollars for various street rehabilitation needs in the city this year or next year.
There is leftover downtown revitalization money because, among other things, one of the projects identified – the purchase and removal of a Front Street building – never came to fruition. Mayor Becky Glewen says that money is instead needed to fund a matching grant that the city has applied for that would fix a retaining wall along the Beaver Dam River. The funds transfer will be considered in committee on Monday evening.
