By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer
SUAMICO – The village board last month approved providing additional parking in Historic Downtown Suamico, which is expanding with businesses, but has limited public parking.
The board awarded the Vickery Village parking lot addition project to MCC, Inc., the lower bid of two companies, for a base price of $159,842, with a 10% contingency allowance of $15,984 and engineering costs of $15,300, for a total of $191,126, coming from Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) District No. 2.
“We kind of bid it out in two options, one to basically resurface all of Side Street, and then one to just do the improvements to get people safely up to the overflow parking,” Public Works Director Andy Smits said. “I think it was in the interest of the village to utilize the TIF and fully resurface Side Street here by next June.”
Smits said the parking lot area will not be paved.
“We will add some stone in there,” he said. “It’s a little rough-graded right now, but we’ll level that back off and try to improve it just within the right-of-way through that area.”
The project calls for creating a walking path from Riverside Drive to an existing gravel lot on the east side of Side Street.
As of the Aug. 16 meeting, Village Administrator Alex Kaker said he had yet to finalize a parking agreement with Saint Benedict Church to use its paved parking lot as overflow parking.
“If for whatever reason that (agreement) ends up falling apart, we do have the authority in our contract to remove that section of the sidewalk (to access the church lot), which would reduce the cost,” he said.
Kaker said he would bring a finalized parking agreement with the church to the board for approval at a future meeting.
To direct motorists to the additional parking, the board approved overflow parking signage provided by Jones Signs, at a cost not to exceed $5,500, again using TIF District No. 2 funds.
The board also approved related street lighting provided by Wisconsin Public Service, at a cost not to exceed $5,000, using TIF District No. 2 funds.
Finance positions
After meeting in closed session, Kaker said the board voted 5-1, with Trustee Dan Roddan opposed, to approve a memorandum of understanding with Finance Director Jessica Legois to reduce her hours to 32 per week, with her paid time off allotment also reduced by 20%.
Kaker said Legois requested the reduction, which took effect Aug. 30.
Following the action related to Legois, he said the board voted 6-0 to advertise a new part-time accountant position, which will be for 16-20 hours per week with a pay range from $21-$27 per hour, depending on qualifications.
Kaker said the net financial impact will depend on the salary the part-time accountant is hired at, but the annual increase to the general fund will be less than $3,000.
The fiscal impact statement Legois provided to the board states the general fund would pay 25% for the position at nearly $3,000, with 25% coming from the water fund and another 25% from the sewer fund, with the remaining funds coming from two TIF districts (15%), the stormwater fund (5%) and the garbage and recycling fund (5%) for an annual cost in 2022 of $11,975.
Kaker said he hopes the village will be able to hire someone to begin the position in late September or early October.