Village, ASD to split cost for PAC paving

By Kevin Boneske

Staff Writer

AHSWAUBENON – The cost of paving a loading/unloading area, where grass is being trampled to access the backstage of the Ashwaubenon Performing Arts Center, is being split between the village and the school district.

The Ashwaubenon village board agreed Tuesday, Aug. 28, with a recommendation backed by Trustee Ken Bukowski to pay up to $4,000 to cover half the cost to have the area asphalted.

“We have a blacktop driveway where trucks can back in to unload their show equipment on the north side of the PAC,” Bukowski said. “But when that area was landscaped, unfortunately, there’s a piece of it to the east that’s grass, and that got all rutted and looked like the dickens, and it’s going to happen again, because these trucks go in there, and there’s more than one truck for many of the shows, and cars and SUVs and in the fall and spring, and even in the wintertime, it’s a mess.”

Bukowski said concrete would be “very expensive” to pave that area, so Northeast Asphalt was contacted for a quote to blacktop the area, which came to slightly more than $7,700.

“I know this is a difficult time to ask for money – we’re past the middle of the year and we’re starting the budget process for next year – but this needs to be done at this time so we don’t run in that same ugly situation this fall again and in winter,” he said. “We have funds left over. I’m not asking for money to be taken out of any place else, but we do have some small bit of funds left over to use to fund half of this.”

Village Manager Allison Swanson said the village has around $600,000 of excess funds from 2017 and is also expecting more than $100,000 in excess funds from 2018.

Swanson also noted the village funds a portion of the PAC director and technical director salaries.

Being that the PAC is on school grounds, Village President Mary Kardoskee said her first thought was the school district should fund the paving, but the PAC is a “community building.”

“If we didn’t have the excess funds, I probably would feel differently,” Kardoskee said. “But I guess I would like it cleaned up before the start of the snow, because otherwise is just going to get sloppy, messy, and next year we’re just going to pay more to have it done.”

The Ashwaubenon school board will consider approving half the cost of the paving project at its next meeting Sept. 12, said Superintendent Kurt Weyers.