By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
The Burlington Common Council will vote Aug. 16 on whether or not to place a referendum for the community pool on the ballot for the Nov. 8 election.
The city is working to meet the state’s Aug. 23 deadline for filing a referendum request for the fall election. On Tuesday night, the council approved moving forward with phases 3 and 4 of the pool study conducted by Ayres and Associates.
The referendum question to be voted on reads as follows:
“Should the City of Burlington construct a community pool facility at Devor Park, 394 Amanda Street, funded by taxes with the following conditions: (1) Spending and/or borrowing on the facility is not to exceed $4.7 million and (2) the facility will be built within the corporate limits of the City of Burlington.”
A yes vote on the question would advise the city to spend the money, while a no vote would indicate opposition to the plan.
City officials estimate the cost of such a project to property taxpayers would be between 30 and 50 cents per $1,000 of property value. City Treasurer Steve DeQuaker said at Tuesday night’s meeting the median value of a home in the city is $172,000, which means the cost to the owner of the median home would be between $52 and $86 per year.
At Tuesday night’s Committee of the Whole meeting of the Common Council, aldermen heard support for the pool from Darrell Crone, who said, “I’ll do anything to help you push this forward.” Crone said. He then debated details that have yet to be finalized, including an agreement with the newly rearranged Community Pool Board to manage the pool once it’s constructed.
Alderman Tom Vos said he wanted to make sure money would be put aside each year to address any future improvements or additions, which City Attorney John Bjelajac said would be worked into the agreement.
Alderman John Ekes expressed concern the agreement would adequately keep the city out of running and maintaining the pool in the future, which Bjelajac assured him it would.
“Trust me guys, I’m going to protect the city on this,” Bjelajac said.
There was also discussion on the referendum itself, with Alderman Jon Schultz raising the question of whether the city needed to send the question to referendum.
Bjelajac and DeQuaker explained that the referendum would be advisory in nature, not binding. The city could chose to move forward – or not to – in opposition of the vote, though Bjelajac said the council choosing to do that might not be in its best interests.
Vos said it would be the city’s job to get educational materials out to the public, so residents could understand exactly what they were voting on and what the cost to them would be.
“I don’t want to see the referendum burn in effigy because we didn’t have enough information out there,” Vos said.
Other news
The council tentatively agreed at the COW meeting to move forward with a 12-hour study of traffic at the intersection of Pine Street and Milwaukee Avenue to decide whether to install a lit sign advising no left turn either all day, for part of the day – or not at all.
The council reactions ranged through all those options, though most agreed there isn’t an ideal fix to the intersection.
The study would be done by TADI, the same company that has done past traffic studies for the city.
The item was for discussion only Tuesday night, with no vote currently scheduled.
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