(Beaver Dam) The Beaver Dam Common Council later this month will consider dissolving a committee tasked with disbursing hundreds of thousands of dollars of downtown revitalization grants. Under the proposal, the functions of the Beaver Dam Community Development Committee would be merged with the city’s Landmark Commission. Mayor Becky Glewen says the redundancy means there are twice as many meetings for staff and volunteers the two committee’s could be melded into one that would oversee everything.
The CDC is an eight-person committee with two alderpersons that was established to review matters relating to development of private projects including those advanced by the Beaver Dam Area Development Corporation. The Landmark Commission is appointed by the mayor and has five members, two alternates and three non-voting members. Landmark enforces guidelines for downtown improvements façade improvements.
“The CDC meets and then there are a lot of questions like ‘why were the decisions made at Landmark to approve some of these things’ what they should or shouldn’t fund,” she says “We’ve had a lot of internal discussions saying ‘it would be easier just having one group oversee approval of the project because of the aesthetics and approval of funding’.”
At the last CDC meeting, the commission made plans to bolster the guidelines to receive grant funding. Glewen indicated that the process would be easier with less guidelines. The Beaver Dam Common Council will consider the matter on Monday.
