By Lee Reinch
Correspondent
DE PERE – If the City of De Pere relocates its yard waste collection site, it won’t be to Allouez.
A move to explore that option not only died at the city committee level, but the other party involved – the Village of Allouez – also dismissed the idea.
De Pere Alderperson Shana Ledvina said at the public works meeting earlier this month $900,000 was a lot of money to invest in another municipality, and it didn’t sit well with her the city hadn’t looked at alternative locations for relocation of the yard waste site.
She proposed the city look at other options, and the common council July 20 voted in favor of that idea.
De Pere may need to move from its current site on Rockland Road in Ledgeview within the next few years, due to development in the area and the placement of the Southern Bridge corridor in that vicinity.
A feasibility study of a potential joint arrangement with Allouez at its site on LeBrun Street showed the sites could be combined for about $900,000, which would have included paving over the current gravel/dirt surface inside the grounds of the site.
It also would have included installing sidewalks on the De Pere side of LeBrun Street to accommodate pedestrians and bikers inconvenienced by any increased vehicular traffic the expanded yard waste site would cause.
Neighbors from a nearby condo development on East River Drive voiced displeasure at a De Pere board of public works meeting, citing traffic, noise, dust, dirt and odors from the current Village of Allouez site they’re already experiencing.
They said expanding the site to accommodate the City of De Pere and Town of Ledgeview would make it exponentially worse.
In between the public works commission last week and the common council’s meeting this week, Allouez voted not to take the matter further.
In other business, the council voted to accept a $500,000 donation from the David L. and Rita E. Nelson Family Fund for the family for the multi-use facility at Voyageur Park.
Part of the agreement was to name the facility the Nelson Family Pavilion.
The possibility of an anonymous donation came up last year when inflation led the city to scale down from its original plans for the facility, done before the pandemic.
The donor’s identity wasn’t revealed until recently.
The council also:
• Voted to install audio pedestrian alert signals at the traffic light at Main Avenue and Ninth Street.
• Voted to follow a recommendation from the board of public works to deny a request to develop a policy on installing speed bumps at public right of ways.
• Voted to let the city’s historic preservation commission complete National Register of Historic Places nominations for three properties: 1218 Fox River Drive, 815 Nicolet Ave. and 1336 Ridgeway Blvd.
• Voted to accept a donation of $2,000 from Unison Credit Union for the city police department’s emergency hotel voucher program, which provides temporary lodging for those in emergency situations.