Street projects get underway within Village of Somerset

Talk about it

A majority of the discussion at recent Somerset Village Board meetings has focused on current and future construction projects. The April 17 meeting was no different.

Design Engineer Robert Jones told the board that construction has started on the Shay Street lift station.

He said most of the underground infrastructure for the project is installed (water main, gravity sewer main, station structure, etc.), but it will be about five weeks until the control panel arrives.

In the meantime plumbing and pipes will be installed at the site.

“We’re still on schedule. The early nice weather got our contractor out there about a month earlier than we expected, so now we have about three or four weeks of reduced activity out there,” he said.

Jones said the village reached an agreement with the Vanasses regarding a conservation easement related to the Shay Street project.

“Essentially the agreement we made is for a utility easement on the north side of Shay Street, which allowed us to put our gravity sanitary sewer north of Shay Street,” he explained. “They (the Vanasses) provided a 20-foot easement on the that stretch of Shay Street. In exchange, we said when we’re routing La Grandeur Road, adjacent to their house, we would keep them in the loop and consider granting a conservation easement near their house so that our road or any future buildings wouldn’t be approximately 50 to 75 feet from their house.”

He said the agreement doesn’t impact the village’s desired corridor for the road.

“If we were able to get the road through that 20 acres of La Grandeur, we would kind of snake it across somewhere over to the western side of that 20-acre parcel and then head north through that corridor,” Jones explained.

He said the easement works well for both the village and the Vanasses.

“The utility easement that they granted us does not affect their setbacks or the buildable area on their property,” Jones said. “The sort of conservancy easement that we consider granting them would really be an area that we would use for storm water management or wetland mitigation. It doesn’t affect the use of either property, it just gives allowances for each to benefit.”

Jones said the village is also working on the La Grandeur Road and Laser Drive projects and construction for the police department addition started Monday, April 23.

In other news the board:

-Approved the purchase of a Chevy utility truck and equipment in the amount of $57,595.

-Approved the contract with Stantec in the amount of $20,800 to update the technology system and upgrade the generator connection.

-Approved the contract amendment for Cedar Corp. in the amount $23,700 for the engineering change scope of project on Shay Street.

-Discussed adding a permanent restroom and concessions facility at the Village Park.

-Approved the street use permit for the Tough Mudder event on May 19-20, with submission of certificate of insurance required.

-Approved operator’s licenses for Scott Hawley, Michelle Sellnow and Angela Le Clair.

-Approved the bid and village lawn mowing contract for Complete Lawn Care in the amount of $20,000.

-Approved the five-year contract with Titan Energy for the generator maintenance agreement in the amount of $2,757.75.

-Approved a $500 donation to the Stillwater Bridge Coalition.

-Approved the use of a computer backup service at a cost of $1,115.

-Approved election inspector and committee appointments.

-Approved a driveway permit for 300 Frances St.

Tags: local government, communities, wisconsin, somerset