Cuba City is in the process of preparing for possible Main Street reconstruction work anticipated to potentially take place in conjunction with a state road project in 2028.
The city could address its utilities as part of the Main Street initiative. “It’s 50 years old ... It was done in 1973,” said Cuba City Director of Public Works George Morrissey, regarding the street.
The state Department of Transportation is planning to do work on Highway 80 in 2028, according to Morrissey, and has asked whether Cuba City will plan to complete work on its utilities then, as well.
The Cuba City Electric & Water Commission members have started to discuss whether the city may complete work on water, electric, sewer, sidewalks, streets, storm sewer and trees during the same general period.
“That’s a lot of work in a one-year timeframe to do in conjunction with what they’re doing,” said Morrissey during a November meeting.
The Electric & Water Commission discussed the idea of breaking at least some of the work up across more than one year.
Since it would be a large project, spreading it out over the course of two to three may, in part, make it more feasible to partner with local contractors who have generally provided more affordable rates, they noted then.
“Sidewalk replacement is all on the city,” as would be a number of costs, said Morrissey.
But state support could help with other pieces, such as those related to accessibility and certain curb and gutter work, he added.
A project that Cuba City is currently thinking of doing is replacing an eight-inch water main with a 10-inch one. “That helps with your volume” and with fire flow, said Morrissey.
The current main at subject is from 1973 and has had numerous breaks over the years, said Morrissey.
“The main needs to be replaced; I don’t think that’s even a question,” he said.
Currently, “there’s no water main on Main Street,” he added. “They’re all fed off different streets … We want to loop that. That will be new installation of water main that’s never been there,” along with completing water main replacement work. In today’s estimates it could cost around an approximate, projected $2.1 million for this type of work, but the price could increase in the years ahead, he added this fall.
Additional utility reconstruction projects could carry other costs for the city.
The end result should be that “Cuba City will have a very nice Main Street” that will hopefully last another 50 years or so, said Morrissey.
But there could likely be “growing pains” along the way since it will be a process to get to that point, he added.
The Electric & Water Commission members in attendance for a Nov. 29 meeting agreed 5-0 to approve moving forward with planning for replacing City utilities for the Main Street reconstruction project ahead of the State’s 2028 schedule, according to the city’s meeting minutes.
More discussions on the topic are expected to follow.
