Council votes to include Market Street entrance
By Kellen Olshefski
Correspondent
The City of Elkhorn Common Council voted in favor of expanding the scope of a traffic impact analysis on the East Market Street extension to include a new, relocated entrance for the Walworth County Fairgrounds at its meeting Monday night.
After talking with several councilmembers following last week’s meeting, City Administrator Sam Tapson said councilmembers agree that relocating the entrance to the fairgrounds off of Court Street and onto the future East Market Street extension is a worthy project. With a setback of two to four weeks for the study, Tapson said it was important the council make a determination on whether it would include the entrance so the study could get underway.
Tapson said adding this element into the scope of the analysis would cost an additional $3,000 on top of the current cost of the study, $35,832. He said if the Walworth County Fair Board were to determine it would be necessary to complete this project, the Council could discuss recovering the $3,000 from the Fair at that time.
Alderman Hoss Rehberg said what he was looking for was for Mayor Howie Reynolds to approach the Fair Board and ask about its intentions because councilmembers were concerned the city would spend the money on the analysis and then the Fair wouldn’t close the Court Street entrance.
Reynolds said this has been a topic of discussion for the Fair Board in previous years, noting the current president of the Fair Board is not only adamant about taking this topic to the board for further discussion, but said he’s certain the board will be in favor of the change
“It’s just such a nightmare when they have the flea markets and everything else,” Reynolds said.
“And it’s a safety concern,” Rehberg added. “The last thing I want to see us do, is do this part, put in a driveway and then they say, we’re not even interested in closing it.”
Tapson said from his understanding, it’s clear the Fair Board members want to complete this project, with the only concern being affordability of it. Tapson said a number of potential options have been discussed, such as the city completing the project with the Fair paying a reimbursement in future years.
“I think it was clear that their interest in the project was high,” Tapson said.
Alderman Cathy Bensaid asked if the addition of athletic fields off of East Market Street between the middle and high schools, and the events that would be held there, were something that had been taken into consideration with a relocated entrance for the Fairgrounds.
Tapson and Reynolds said that’s what the study would take a look at. Bensaid said, however, she was curious if anyone had discussed this with the school district, to which Reynolds said the potential project has been discussed with Elkhorn Area School District Superintendent Jason Tadlock.
A motion to approve expanding the scope of the project made by Alderman Scott McClory was approved unanimously by the Council.
TID 3 closing
In other business at the April 10 meeting, the Council also voted unanimously in favor of closing Tax Increment District 3.
Tapson said the Council could wait to make a final decision on closing TID 3 until May 1, though it’s a must-do either way and would be beneficial for both he and City Finance Director James Heilman to get a start on the closing process, allowing them to notify the Department of Revenue and keep the process moving forward.
Tapson said reserves are in place to “sunset” the TID and payoff all outstanding debt, and as such, there’s no “lingering doubt or question” about closing the district.
