By Rich Palzewic
Staff Writer
SEYMOUR – At its Monday, Jan. 25, meeting, the Seymour Common Council passed two resolutions aimed at city improvement projects.
The city is looking to replace the bridge and add a pavilion at Lake Park, and resurface the roof at city hall and the old fire station.
“Fox Cities Builders will engineer the bridge project,” said John Schoen, director of public works. “The cost of the engineering for the bridge is $16,400, and the cost of the engineering of the pavilion would be $32,400.”
Alder Steve Hurkman said the pavilion project will be put on hold until the total cost of the bridge is known.
The new bridge would be approximately 10 feet wide and 40 feet long.
“The bridge most likely will be metal construction with concrete supports,” said Schoen. “The money will come out of the money we borrowed last year set aside for parks and public grounds. The initial cost doesn’t include construction, only the engineering.”
The bridge, which would support a light pickup truck/UTV, will also help fire/rescue.
“The bridge isn’t meant for heavy equipment use or an ambulance, for example,” Schoen said. “If anything bigger needs to get to the park area, we have another access area. If fire/rescue needs to get in there, this will help in that situation. We’ll put a roadway to the bridge as well.”
Seymour experienced a drowning at the lake last August.
“Unfortunately, with the drowning tragedy last summer, it took a while for the rescue boats/UTVs to get across the existing bridge,” said Hurkman. “The new bridge would help solve some of those issues. The current bridge is tight (with space) to get much across.”
Fox Cities Builders will take care of the entire process, including an architect and the bids.
“Fox Cities can certainly bid on the construction part of the project as well,” Schoen said. “I think we’ll get a good amount of bids because we have lots of nice fabrication companies around here. This should help with the bridge cost – lots of bids will hopefully keep the cost down. It will be a quick project for someone.”
Mayor Ryan Kraft said the bids for the improvement projects will be brought to the council and different options discussed.
“We aren’t obligated to the lowest bidder,” he said. “We’ll take a look at who has the best proposal to the specifications of the project.”
Schoen said when the pavilion project moves forward, it will be located inside the park near the beach/playground area.
The city also awarded the roofing contract to Osborn Roofing with its $99,000 bid, which includes a 20-year warranty.
“This would be a tear-off of the existing rubber on the roofs, replacement and insulation,” said Schoen. “Initially, we were only looking at doing the old fire station, but when Osborn checked things out, it found the city hall roof was probably worse. Doing both projects at once will also save us about $5,000. It’s good to keep the roofs at about the same age.”
Schoen said work on the roofs would most likely begin in about a month.