By Owen Reissmann for Wausau Pilot and Review
Thursday evening’s Capital Improvements and Street Maintenance meeting began with a proposal to pave an alley off Fleming Street. The residents of the impacted streets are charged for the asphalt. The proposal was approved.
A representative from 3M spoke to request that the current five-year permit on trucks over 90,000 pounds being allowed to drive within the city be removed or at least extended to ten years. He shared that in 2012 the state removed their clause against this weight restriction.
Committee member Lisa Rasmussen said the length of the permit was meant to allow the city to assess the effect these heavy trucks have been having on city roads. A staff member reported that most of the roads impacted have not seen significant additional wear. There is a section of road on Union especially that seems to be in poor condition, but it has not been repaired in quite some time and the city was already aware of the deficiency.
The staff member said such an extension to the permit length would be reasonable. Public Works Director Eric Lindman agreed that the proposal seemed appropriate, especially given that 3M has expressed willingness to contribute to costs of road repair on that route.
Committee member Mary Thao expressed interest in such an arrangement being made more concrete. She also inquired as to what rerouting would be in place while First Avenue is under construction this summer. The staff member said the trucks will use Sherman more but generally while the trucks are unloaded.
The request to change the permit to ten-year terms was approved.
Rasmussen noted that the $100 fee for parking in the street overnight during snow emergencies did not have as much of a discouraging impact as the city would have hoped. She suggested changing parking enforcement to not allow cars to park on the street at all between 2 and 6 a.m. throughout the winter. But Thao pointed out that many residents do not have driveways or garages and thus have nowhere else to park. So, without significant alternate arrangements in place, such a measure would have prove impossible for many residents to comply with, Thao said. No action was taken.
Editor’s note: The Wausau Pilot and Review Documenters program is made possible through individual donations and grants from several organizations including the Community Foundation of North Central Wisconsin. The program aims to democratize news and information at the local level through a group of local contributors who attend meetings and document their observations.
