Questions on Haymeadow Bridge create quandary for Pelican town board

A ticklish situation regarding the Haymeadow Bridge has made for quite a quandary for the Pelican town board. 

That quandary was front and center at the board’s regular monthly meeting March 23, as well as at a special meeting on March 13.

The proposed removal and replacement of the 109-year-old bridge, judged to be at the end of its useful life, for an estimated $627,260 was already approved for 100% federal funding through the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s Local Bridge Improvement Assistance Program. Any amount beyond that would be the town’s responsibility to pay. 

Pelican’s current board recalls the estimate being done around 2023 by SEH Engineering. However, now the total cost of the construction project has come in at approximately $760,303. That’s a difference of $133,043. 

When a project is approved in the Local Bridge program, Pelican town board chairman Nick Scholtes told the River News, “it’s got to go through design. Once it goes through design, it can be approved for design-slash-construction, but they have to take and have a number from the design in order to get funding for the actual construction itself … this could be a four-year project, so you might be getting an estimate that’s from four years ago, and you’re building now.

“Sometimes those estimates can be off dramatically, depending upon what the economy is and everything, there’s a bunch of factors that go into that, and that’s why they put in something in the program called justification … if there’s a good justification as to why what the estimate was and what the final price was is so much different, then Wisconsin Department of Transportation considers making an increase in the funding for the project, if they have it available.”

WisDOT opened the bidding for the project March 10 and the board must decide whether or not to go forward with the project at this time.

At the Pelican town board’s March 13 special meeting, at which the board agreed to pay for the bridge’s design, Scholtes reported that WisDOT local program design project manager Nathan Waite emailed him that day to say Waite was seeking additional funding with the Division of Transportation Investment Management, The additional funding would be an 80/20 cost share if available. 

“‘If approved,’” Scholtes read aloud from the email, “‘the federal funding would increase by approximately $106,433 and the town would be responsible for 20% of the $133,043 or approximately $26,609.’”

If funding wasn’t available, though, Pelican would be responsible for all $133,043, as well as any additional costs if the project ran over.

Pelican hadn’t yet heard a decision on the additional funding as of its March 23 regular meeting.

“What’s slowing the process down now is, the department that’s in Madison has to review it because it was over 20% higher than what the estimate was,” Scholtes explained to the River News. “So that department has to do their own review of it to find out, why is that over 20%? And then it’s up to that department, first, whether they have the additional funds to offer it, and second, does it warrant it?

“So it’s really in their hands until they actually come back with an answer. We’re kind of in limbo, and the local DOT people, Nathan Waite and that, they’re pushing, trying to get an answer as quickly as they can so we can answer back. So we’re all just sitting and waiting.”

The Pelican town board is still being pressed to give an answer by Wednesday, April 1, on whether to proceed. In the meeting they considered how to respond.

“If we do not get the funding, are we okay with that and still moving forward?” Scholtes asked fellow town supervisors James Cates and Walter Dahlquist Jr. “The only other option at that point would be to take and say that you’re going to roll the dice and re-let for next fall. Which, the way the global politics and everything are going on right now, there’s no saying that any of the materials and everything else isn’t going to go up, rather than go down.

“ ... According to Nathan Waite, he feels that they have a good argument for the justification to get the additional funding. So I guess I would like to tell them that the board is okay, with your guys’ permission, with the 80-20 … but we need to know where that stands before we can make a final decision, because that impacts our whole construction season ... If you guys are good with that, I’ll respond back that way to them.”

The rest of the board unanimously agreed.

Road projects

Also discussed at the meeting were road construction projects. Work on Bergman Road is the priority this year, Scholtes indicated. 

“My estimate on it is coming in at around $146,000, and that is for just under 4,200 feet of road,” he said, adding that bids will be accepted until 4 p.m. on Monday, April 20. 

“Once we know what this costs us, then we can plan on what else we want to do,” he said. “Because at the same time in April, we should be hearing back on Lassig Road, whether or not it was accepted for a TRIT or a TRIS. But now that affects 2027, not 2026 … $462,000 is what I’ve actually got that projected at, but that is just short of two miles … If they were to give us the TRIS, we could get up to 70% funding on it. If they were to award us the TRID, we could get up to 50% funding on it.”

“It’s still better than a sharp stick in the eye,” observed Dahlquist. 

Other possible road projects include a Faust Lake Road intersection, for which pre-construction design is awaited, and 5,438 feet of Forest Drive, estimated at $180,000 by Scholtes.

“Should the bids come in decent on Bergman Road, and we cannot find another project that will fit decent in what we want to do, there’s going to be two spots on Forest Drive that we’re going to need to take and put lifts in, and change out the culverts …we could do that all in one year,” he said. 

Other matters

The board at its March 23 meeting also:

• Decided to vacate a platted road, which Scholtes noted was never built, in Alburmi Shores. “It’s been there doing nothing forever,” said Scholtes.

• Approved the bartender license applications of Diane S. Arendt and Susan M. Lispey.

• Heard that weight limits go into effect Wednesday, March 25. 

The board would meet next at a special meeting concerning the Haymeadow Bridge on Monday, March 30. 

The annual meeting of the town of Pelican will be on Tuesday, April 14, at 7 p.m. in the Pelican Town Hall.

Ardith Carlton may be reached at [email protected].