City gearing up for $9 million street project in Hodag Park neighborhood

A public hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. July 22 to allow the public to weigh in on a major street/utility project the City of Rhinelander is planning for 2025.

The streets involved are Messer (from Doyle Street to Hodag Park Drive), Evergreen Court (from Doyle Street to Rose Street), Lake Shore Drive (from Doyle Street to Rose Street), Rose Street (from Lake Shore Drive to Thayer Street), Fremont Street (from Messer Street to Hodag Park Drive) and Hodag Park Drive (from Messer Street to Thayer Street).

“As the City is getting prepared for the Messer Street project in 2025, Town and Country Engineering is working to line up available funding for this project,” city administrator Patrick Reagan wrote in a memo to the council. “One source of funding is Rural Development (USDA-RD). Part of the process of obtaining this funding is the requirement that a public hearing be held, which allows residents to voice their opinions, concerns, or support of this proposed project. Mark Barden (of Town and Country) and I agreed that the City Council should set a date, time, and place for this hearing so that is why this resolution has been placed before you tonight.”

The project is expected to include sanitary sewer mains, manholes, laterals, partial street, sidewalk, storm sewer and miscellaneous improvements, according to materials included with the council agenda.

“It’s been on the city’s capital improvement plan to reconstruct this area,” Barden told the alders. “We have undersized water main out there. We have very shallow sanitary sewer and aged sanitary sewer. The manholes are deteriorating..they’re falling apart, and the roads are probably some of the worst in Rhinelander as well.”

“This project is very similar to Oneida in scope and cost,” he added, noting that the city also intends to apply for grant funding through the DNR’s Safe Drinking Water program and the Clean Water Fund. “We’re looking at about $7.6 million in just construction costs. When you add in contingencies, engineering, other costs that are associated, it’s about a $9.4 million project which, again, is very similar to the Oneida project.”

The Oneida project, which was scheduled to wrap up by the end of last week, involved extensive street and utility repairs to Oneida Avenue and several other adjacent streets.

The resolution before the council suggested the required public hearing for the Messer project be held on July 8 but Mayor Kris Hanus suggested moving it to later in the month for “transparency and potential input.”

With the Fourth of July and the Hodag Country Festival, Hanus suggested early July might not be the best time to ask people to attend a public hearing. 

Barden noted that the July 22 hearing is a requirement of the grant application process and a separate public input meeting is also planned for later this summer.

“We’ve done this with all the big projects,” he said. 

Alderman Tom Barnett asked about potential disruption the project might cause in terms of access to the Hodag Park boat launch.

“The intent is to keep the boat launch open,” Barden said. “At no time would we completely cut off the parking lot or the boat launch. With any construction project there’s always going to be some disruption, but we would limit it.”

The public hearing will take place in the council chambers at City Hall.

To watch the entire discussion, visit www.hodagtv.com.

Heather Schaefer may be reached at [email protected].