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Council members state their case at hearings

$13.2 million for hydroelectric, $8.4 million for spillway

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MANAWA – The Manawa City Council began their April 21 meeting with an update on the dam as Manawa residents filled the board room.
Mayor Mike Frazier let the council and audience know that he, along with council members Jim Roenz and Mike Lehrer, went to speak in front of the State of Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee in Kaukauna on April 2.
Frazier said State Representative Kevin Peterson and Senator Rachael Cabral-Guevara encouraged him and members of the council to attend the public hearing.
The Joint Finance Committee goes to four separate locations throughout the state for public hearings, which is a way for Wisconsin residents to share comments and concerns on the upcoming budget.
The finance committee also stopped in West Allis on April 4, with the next stop being Hayward on April 28, and Wausau on April 29.

Representatives from the Township of Little Wolf will attend the Wausau public hearing to comment on the importance of the Manawa dam to the community in hopes of gaining funding.
Frazier said they waited five hours for three minutes to speak. Roenz and Lehrer also had three minutes each.
Frazier said in the three minutes he had he told the committee how vital the dam and the mill pond is to the small community, and the affect it has had on businesses in the community.
“We basically said as a small city with a small tax base, we cannot afford to raise our taxes that much to cover the cost of that dam,” Frazier said. “Mark and Jim talked about the loss in revenue from the flood damage.”
With some of the projects, namely the new roads, over the last year the City of Manawa has almost reached its debt limit, Frazier said, plus there are future projects needing to get done, the city just does not have the money to fund rebuilding the dam.
At the three-minute mark the speaker is cut off, no matter the position you hold or who you are, three minutes only and the committee moves on to the next person.
Frazier said he was encouraged that there were members of the committee that were taking lots of notes.
Along with the state budget, the city and the Township of Little Wolf have also reached out to Tammy Baldwin and Tony Weed in hopes of possibly securing federal dollars to help fund the project.
Frazier also said that the Army Corp of Engineers is another avenue to try for funding, as the city is exploring all the options that they can.
Frazier also announced at the council meeting that there is a new quote for the dam.
Frazier previously informed the Waupaca County Post that the dam quote of $13.2 million was for a spillway dam; however, that was for a hydroelectric dam with automatic gates, a dam with what Frazier calls “all the bells and whistles.”
The new quote is for just a spillway dam, with sensors that can detect when water levels are rising was given to the City of Manawa by Cedar Corporation, the city’s engineering firm.
The quote came in at $8.4 million, and includes taking out the current dam in its entirety.
The project will not be bid out until the city can lock down the funding. Frazier said that the bidding process will be competitive and could come in under the $8.4 million.
No matter what happens, the current dam will need to be taken out, Frazier said at a cost of a half million to one and a half million dollars. He has not heard from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) as to whether or not they will need to do that sooner rather than later.
Frazier said they are conducting some studies in relation to sturgeon as well as a couple other fish species to see how far up the river they will go.

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