Officials to weigh in on bridge’s fate
MMSD, council pressed to support action
The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District’s commission and Milwaukee Common Council will be asked to support removing the dam on the Milwaukee River at Estabrook Park.
The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District’s commission and Milwaukee Common Council will be asked this month to support removing the dam on the Milwaukee River at Estabrook Park.
Both the MMSD commission’s policy committee and the council’s judiciary committee on Monday unanimously approved separate advisory resolutions asking Milwau kee County officials to demolish the crumbling 1930s-era dam instead of repairing it.
Removing the dam is the least costly option for taxpayers at an estimated price of $1.7 million, compared with $4.3 million for renovation with 20 years’ worth of operating and maintenance cost, MMSD Executive Director Kevin Shafer said. The cost of repair and mainte- nance jumps to an estimated $5.1 million if state environmental officials require installation of a fish passage.
But the district’s primary concern with keeping the dam in place is the risk of flood damage, he said.
Removing the dam would reduce the risk of flood damage to upstream properties even with its gates fully open, according to Shafer. For that reason, removal is consistent with the district’s goal of reducing flood risks to buildings within its regional service area, he said.
Milwaukee Ald. Nik Kovac said Glendale would benefit from dam removal, much as Milwaukee did after the North Ave. dam was removed in 1997.
Restoring river flows upstream of the former dam boosted property
values and increased water quality in the river, Kovac said Monday. Kovac is a sponsor of the city council resolution.
If the resolutions are adopted by the district’s full commission and the council this month, MMSD and the city would send letters to County Executive Chris Abele and the County Board asking them to move ahead with demolition. The county owns and operates the dam.
County Supervisor Theodore Lipscomb Sr. questioned why MMSD and the Milwaukee council were considering such resolutions at this time since the County Board in February approved spending up to $1.6 million for dam repairs. “We’ve picked a path,” Lipscomb said. He represents Glendale property owners upstream of the dam who would be impacted by permanent loss of the artificial lake created by the dam. They are able to operate small motorized boats in the shallow impoundment.
Dam gates have been open, and the artificial lake drained, since 2008 following a state inspection that found numerous safety problems. The Department of Natural Resources at that time ordered the county to restore the structure or remove it by December 2012, and then granted a two-year delay after no work had been done by the end of last year.
The County Board has changed its mind in recent years on what to do about the 1930s-era dam even though a Milwaukee County judge declared the dam a nuisance in 2012 and ordered the county to eliminate the problem.
The court order came in an ongoing Milwaukee Riverkeeper lawsuit against the county.
The board approved bonding to pay for dam repairs in 2010 but the work was not done.
County parks officials proposed removal in late summer 2014 after a consultant concluded demolition of the dam would lower river levels in floods, and benefit aquatic life with improved water quality in the free-flowing stream.
Abele then proposed spending available funds from the earlier bonding to demolish the dam. Demolition was approved as part of the 2015 budget, but the board did not allocate any funds for the project.
Subsequently, Lipscomb successfully inserted dam repair into a list of major capital projects for this year that was approved by the board.
While no new County Board vote is scheduled on the dam, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Christopher Foley has scheduled a fiveday hearing beginning July 20 on the previous nuisance abatement order.
The Estabrook dam has two structures: a traditional dam with floodgates north of an island in the river and a fixed spillway south of the island. A series of ice barriers protect the gated dam.