MARINETTE — Marinette’s city engineer agreed to patch the holes on Madison Avenue between Hall Avenue and Lewis Street at a council meeting last Tuesday.
The temporary fix comes ahead of the $2.6 million Department of Transportation (DOT) project, secured by a grant, that will restore the stretch of road in 2026, said Brian Miller, city engineer. After completing the paperwork, the DOT will bid out the project in 2024. The project’s cost will be split 80/20 between the state and the city, with 80% being covered by the state.
In the meantime, patching will remedy the problem of cars driving into the opposite lane to avoid bottoming out on the road, risking a collision.
“What I’ve been witnessing is cars veering out of their lane to avoid that big hole,” said alderwoman Liz Mikutowski. “It’s getting pretty dangerous there.”
FLEET FARM PROPERTYIn a 7-2 vote, the council also approved the transfer of $157,033 in funds from old boat launch fees and daily and annual passes to fund the old Fleet Farm property. Alderman Doug Oitzinger and alderwoman Mikutowski voted against it. Oitzinger said it was understood that when the funds were set up years before anyone on the council was in charge, the money, which doesn’t come from taxes, would be used to maintain facilities along the bay.
“I feel we’re breaking faith with those folks who paid those fees,” Oitzinger said, noting that the Menekaunee harbor doesn’t have a fish cleaning station and Red Arrow’s dock wall needs repairs. “There are lots of waterfront development projects that we could’ve used the money on; we just never did.”
Mayor Steve Genisot said they will still have funds to update waterfront projects. Current fees are going into a different account, and the council has already been taking money out of those funds for dock and lawn renovations, he said.
“This was an old fund that was sitting there,” Genisot said. “We still have all our revenues that we received for all the boat launch fees. That is not changing.”
Last month, the board voted 4-4, with the mayor giving the tie-breaking vote to use the funds to purchase the old Fleet Farm property. This meeting’s agenda item was simply to approve the budget amendment.
DANGEROUS DOGThe council also voted unanimously to update the dangerous dog ordinance to include “serious permanent disfigurement.” The council went back and forth on the new language, but alderman Jeffrey Skorik said the phrasing is taken directly from Wisconsin’s state statute for the definition of bodily harm. The council asked police chief Jon LaCombe, who was at the meeting, to comment on the issue.
“The verbiage is spot on with our use of force that we’re trained on by the state of Wisconsin to identify serious bodily harm,” he said. “It helps every officer specifically know what they’re looking at and what the threshold is for serious bodily harm.”
URBANIAK PROPERTYThe council approved a cost estimated at $15,000 to clean up the Urbaniak property at 2060 Old Peshtigo Road, Marinette, next to Menard’s, where a mobile home and smaller buildings will be demolished. The animals on the property will also be removed and relocated to an appropriate location where they’ll receive proper care, according to documents served to the residence.
“The horse has been removed as well as a rabbit, and they still have some chickens and a duck,” Genisot said.
When the animals, buildings and non-registered and non-working vehicles are removed from the property, one of the only things standing will be the vacant house, which is owned by Delores Urbaniak, who lives at another property in Marinette.
“Any amount that the city spends, we would attempt to charge that back against the property so the city would get reimbursed in the process,” city attorney Robert Gagan said.
OPIOID SETTLEMENTIn other meeting notes, alderman Oitzinger recommended that the $25,000 received from an opioid settlement be discussed in committees to fund nonprofits like Bridges to Recovery or Healthy Youth Coalition or police department programs like Crime Prevention or the K-9 unit. The city will eventually see $90,000 from this settlement, Genisot said.
