Officials will apply for grant from DOT to help fund repair
By Jason Arndt
Staff Writer
As flood-related expenses pile up in the City of Burlington, officials hope a Department of Transportation disaster fund can offset some of the costs to repair a sinkhole on Madison Street.
According to a city memorandum, the sinkhole in 600 block of Madison Street happened when a large volume of water caused a water main break, and in turn, eventually eroded the fill underneath the street.
But a glimmer of hope came at Tuesday’s Burlington Common Council meeting, where members voted 6-0 to approve a Disaster Damage Aid petition to state DOT for partial reimbursement of the project, which comes at an initial estimate of just below $65,000.
However, accounting for future restoration and repair efforts could bring the total to $100,000, City Finance Director Steve DeQuaker told Common Council members.
DeQuaker said the actual sinkhole was about 15-feet in diameter and 3-feet deep, with excavators digging 15-feet into the ground to fix the sanitary sewer main, which shifted and opened the system to ground water.
If the DOT approves the petition, the city could receive a 75 percent reimbursement for costs related to the sinkhole, with one restriction.
“The only caveat to this it can’t be a main state trunk highway,” said DeQuaker, who discovered the DOT aid opportunity at a seminar two weeks earlier.
“I attended a disaster relief seminar that was held by Wisconsin Emergency Management about two weeks ago and one of the groups that was there were the Department of Transportation,” he said. “I didn’t even know this aid existed.”
If the DOT does not approve the petition, the city plans to seek assistance from the Wisconsin Disaster Fund, which could reimburse up to 70 percent of the estimated cost.
Otherwise, if the city did neither, the costs will come from the General Fund.
District 3 Alderman Tom Vos, meanwhile, said he was concerned about the review process and whether the city has allocated funds to pay the costs.
“What kind of time frame are we talking about? We want to make sure these people get paid,” Vos said. “We are not going to wait for Wisconsin to make a decision.”
DeQuaker offered assurances, stating the city plans to satisfy costs of this particular project.
“We have a disaster fund allocation account,” DeQuaker said.
Wanasek Corporation, which made the repairs, billed the city $64,609 on July 25.
The additional $36,000 is applied to future restoration and repair work.
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