http://www.lre.www.usace.army.mil/who/operationsofficehomepage/project_overview/kenosha_harbor/

At tonight’s Board of Park Commissioners meeting, the commissioners unanimously approved the project work for the dredging of the Kenosha Harbor and the Southport Marina.  The contract was awarded to Shoreline Builders (Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin) in the amount of $381,500, and the professional services agreement contract was awarded to Ruekert Mielke (Waukesha/Kenosha/Madison, Wisconsin) for construction management of the project.  The project has also been referred to the Public Works Committee for approval, and their next meeting will take place on Monday, May 7th.

Cathy Honeyager, assistant city engineer, stated that administration was working to find more money because the bids surpassed allocated funding.  Carol Stancato, finance director, explained that 2013 funding for dredging was being transferred to 2012.

Alderperson Anthony Kennedy questioned the amount budgeted for dredging, which was $205,000.  “Now we come back with $331,000 (with a $50,000 contingency fund).  What happened?”  Stancato explained that, in past years, that was the cost of the dredging; therefore, that was the amount budgeted.  “But, this year, since the harbor is down two feet, the dredging has to go deeper.  It’s in worse condition than normal.”  Chairman Michael Orth confirmed what Stancato was saying.  “More material has to be moved because the water level is down.  Last year, we lucked out because a company from Muskegon, Michigan, was here doing some work down the shoreline, and we got a discount.  We should see less of the contingency being used.”

Orth also stated that the dredging will come out of the Capital Improvement Project (CIP) in two years’ time, and it will be added to the bonding.  “We are well down the path to a more permanent solution,” he said.  Kennedy was supportive, but he said that “someone should have known that, if we had to dig deeper, that we should have budgeted more.”  New Alderperson Chris Schwartz expressed her support as well.  She stated that “her constituents have told her that this is an essential thing.”

Orth wanted to know when the work would start.  Jeff Warnock, parks superintendent, thought that the work would start within the next month, and be completed within the month.  “Now that we have a place to bring in the soil, Pennoyer Park,” he said.  The commissioners wanted to know if the vendor from Pleasant Prairie had experience, and Honeyager replied that they were pre-qualified. The second bid came from a company in Minnesota.  There were only a total of two bids put in on the project.