By Kellen Olshefski
Staff Writer
The City of Elkhorn Common Council voted to send an offer back to WE Energies for their review concerning the potential purchase of an easement off of the city right-of-way in Sunset Park.
According to City Administrator Sam Tapson, WE Energies had approached City of Elkhorn Public Works Director Terry Weter about an easement necessary to complete a project and main replacement.
Tapson said after discussion, the council had authorized both himself and City Attorney Ward Phillips to enter into an agreement with WE Energies based on a set of conditions.
After addressing and correcting a few issues, Tapson said they arrived at a price of $15,000 as a cost to WE Energies to acquire the needed land.
“Bottom line is, WE Energies is essentially saying, ‘thanks, but no thanks,’ to that offer,” he said.
According to Phillips, WE Energies response was that they were willing to pay $3,500 and they had indicated it wasn’t the company’s policy to replace trees taken down on other people’s property, even though it’s the city’s policy.
Phillips noted in approving the agreement, the city would get a lot less money than anticipated and lose some mature trees, seven or eight according to Weter.
“Keep in mind, we wouldn’t asking them to come and put a tree of consistent size in,” he said.
“Just to replace it with a tree that would grow and then mature again … they’re not willing to do that.”
In addition, according to Tapson, some fencing in Sunset Park would also be taken down and it’s not WE Energies practice to allow encroachments onto their easements.
“Let’s just say they perceive that it is not something that they’re willing to sort of bend their standard practices for,” he said.
According to Alderman Brian Olson, while the City still has an inventory of trees that weren’t put into Babe Mann Park, his main concern is the fencing in Sunset Park.
“That’s needed for not only safety so that balls don’t go flying into cars, but also protects the homes there as well,” he said.
With WE Energies essentially saying the city cannot put the fence back up on the easement, Alderman Gary Payson made a motion to deny the granting of the easement. The motion was not seconded by any of the other councilmembers.
Tapson suggested it would be more appropriate that WE Energies is committed to replacing the trees, following city policies, the fence remains, and the board foregoing the $3,500.
“$3,500 doesn’t do a lot for you,” he said. “I’d rather see us gain on the fencing and the tree replacement personally.”
Phillips recommended if the city is going to allow any entity, not just WE Energies, to have easements on city right-of-ways, it makes sense to have a consistent approach and require them to do certain things.
“I would pretty strongly recommend that you not do it unless they agree to do the two things Sam mentioned at a minimum,” he said.
Alderman James D’Alessandro made a motion to send conditions to keep the fence, replace the trees and agree to pay the city $3,500, back to WE Energies and wait for their response.
“It’s a very generous offer on the part of the city I think,” Phillips said.
This motion was seconded by Alderman James Boardman. The motion passed with all but Payson voting in favor.
