Village receives grant for square improvements
By Tracy Ouellette
SLN Staff
With Walworth County planning on resurfacing Highway ES in 2021, the Village of East Troy is looking to capitalize on the road construction project and fold in upgrades to the Village Square.
In December, the board heard from Walworth County Director of Public Works Rich Hough who suggested the county and the village partner on a state grant to improve access and connectivity to the downtown square and the East Troy Railroad Museum.
In a memo to the board for the March 2 meeting, Village of East Troy Public Works Director Jason Equitz informed the board the village received the grant it applied for, but wasn’t in the amount hoped for.
“On Monday February 17th, we were notified that our project was chosen for funding. However, DOT decided to cap the funding on all projects at one million dollars due to the large number of applicants,” Equitz wrote in the memo. “When discussing the project in December, we talked about a “worse case scenario” as being a project funded 50/50. With the funding cap, we fall short of that. The county agreed to a cap on their portion of funding at $250,000. This leaves our portion of grant funds at $750,000, leaving us having to fund over $630,000 based on the attached cost projections.”
Village Engineer Tim Lynch, of Lynch and Associates, told the board at the meeting that the estimated cost of the total project was about $1.3 million, which would mean the village would have to come up with about half of that out of pocket.
Village Board President Scott Seager said some of the costs could be cut by “sharpening our pencils” but acknowledged that won’t get them all the way there.
Because of the way the grant is written, the village has to keep certain aspects of the project in place, particularly connecting the Village Square to the railroad.
Village Administrator Eileen Suhm told the board of a recent conversation she had with Railroad Museum President Ryan Jonas.
“He said the railroad is looking at bring tracks to the Village Square,” Suhm said, adding that one of the reason for connecting the square to the museum was to bring in more of the 30,000 train riders who visit each year.
The board is going to have a Committee of the Whole meeting March 30 to discuss where and how to pare down the project to keep it affordable and still enhance the square and improve connectivity.
