Cost To Repair Beaver Dam’s Swan Park Higher Than Expected

(Beaver Dam) The cost to repair the sagging lagoon walls at the city of Beaver Dam’s oldest park is higher than anticipated. Preliminary estimates for the project at Swan Park were pegged at around a half-million dollars. The city’s Operations Committee Monday night advanced a low bid to the common council totaling $968-thousand dollars from Janke General Contractors of Athens. The Parks budget has $625-thousand dollars on hand with $100-thousand dollars from the Stormwater Utility and $160-thousand dollars in private donations. 

The shortfall would be covered by monies left over from another project at Swan Park: the replacement of the aging wading pool with a splash pad. The $1.4-million dollar installation, which saw money set aside over two budgets, had lower than anticipated bids along with a grant awarded covering half the costs.  

The common council will vote on the lagoon contractor at their meeting in two weeks.  

The project includes the replacement of the retaining walls around the lagoon as well as the inclusion of natural embankments. The lagoon walls are Phase One of a proposed 20-year master plan for Swan Park which is broken up into multiple phases.  

In a related story, the common council Monday night approved the hiring of MSA Professional Services of Beaver Dam to draw up designs for the splash pad at a cost of $170-thousand dollars. The pool at Swan Park has exceeded its useful life and this will be its final year.