By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer
SUAMICO – A second salt storage shed will be constructed in the Village of Suamico.
The village board voted Monday, July 15, to authorize the construction of a new shed with an 800-ton storage capacity at a cost not to exceed $235,000.
Village Administrator Alex Kaker said funding for the project will include $183,890 from this summer’s sale of 11.8 acres of village-owned property east of Interstate 41, bordering Veterans Avenue and Summerfield Court, to Ken’s Sports of Kaukauna.
Kaker said the balance will come from the village’s share of the Lambeau Field stadium district tax dollars.
Director of Public Works Andy Smits said originally $193,000 had been approved out of the stadium district fund for a new shed, but costs for the project have gone up since then.
Upon waiting on moving forward with the project until finalizing the sale of the property, Smits said the sale generated most of the funding.
He said the village obtained price quotes from Wheeler Lumber, a construction company in Minneapolis, for sizes of buildings that would make sense for the site next to the existing storage shed.
Smits said the additional 800-ton storage capacity, along with the current shed designed for 525 tons, would enable the village to have enough salt for an entire winter without having to refill the supply in the middle of the season.
He said the new shed would have a concrete slab and be constructed with lumber with an option calling for a two-way manual timber sliding door, instead of an overhead door, which can have problems with corrosion with the effect from the salt.
Trustee Sky Van Rossum said he favored constructing a building that would last and meet the village’s future needs.
“We’re sitting in the same situation right now with the fire station,” Van Rossum said. “And there’s contingencies who come in, continually, and telling us our fire station is too small, it’s in the wrong place, we don’t need this, we don’t need that, etc, etc, etc. You know what, that’s the same sort of lack of foresight that got us into the position where now we have to spend extra money that we could have gotten a lot cheaper on a salt shed.”
Van Rossum said he appreciated the foresight involved with building the new salt shed.
“I appreciate it and I hope that there will be the same foresight looking ahead when it comes to the fire station,” he said.
Smits said the salt shed project will be bid out this fall using specifications similar to the information provided by Wheeler, so that concrete could be poured this fall with the shed built over the winter and completed by next April.
“I can’t order salt (for a new shed) anyway until next April, so there’s no rush on putting it up for tomorrow,” he said.