City wants School District to help pay for $35K bridge repair

PORT WASHINGTON - The pedestrian bridge over Sauk Creek that leads from Moore Road to the Port Washington High School athletic fields is in need of significant repairs, but last week members of the city’s General Government and Finance Committee said they want the Port-Saukville School District to help pay for the work.

“It only benefits the school district, so I don’t know why we’re not talking to them,” Ald. Dan Benning, a member of the committee, said. “They’re the prime benefactor.”

While the city may own the bridge, he said, “I don’t want to improve this until we have a discussion with the School District.

“If it was something any citizen can use at anytime, it would be different.”

The bridge, he noted, leads to a fence and gate that is locked.

But Public Works Director Rob Vanden Noven said that while the bridge may be used primarily by the School District, it is the city’s job to provide access to the area.

“This is what we do,” he said. “I see it as our job to provide access to the schools. This is just another way to get to the school.”

Port-Saukville School Supt. Michael McMahon, who noted he used the bridge while attending games when he worked for the Grafton School District, said Monday that the district is open to discussions about cost sharing.

“The partnership we have with the community is essential,” he said. “It sounds like there are some connections that need to be made. This is absolutely something we could see partnering on.”

The city had budgeted $10,000 to repair the bridge this year, but City Engineer Roger Strohm said the repairs proved to be more extensive than initially thought.

“We found more problems than expected” in an inspection of the bridge conducted after the budget was set, Strohm told the committee.

The new repair estimate is $35,000, Strohm said.

  “It looks pretty ugly,” Benning said, referring to photos of the issues with the bridge. “How unsafe is it?”

Strohm said the Public Works Department is checking the bridge’s condition monthly, adding that when football season starts in August that will increase to weekly.

“The structural engineer says it won’t collapse,” he said. “We’ll keep watching.”

If the surface gets “spongy,” he said, the city will barricade it.

“Is that bridge really used that often?” Ald. Deb Postl, a committee member, asked.

It is primarily used during football and track seasons, officials said. Because it leads to the visiting team bleachers, the bridge is often used by their fans, who park on Moore Road, to access the football field.

City Clerk Susan Westerbeke noted that it is also used by kids as a shortcut when walking to the outdoor pool, and Strohm said it is also used by fishermen.

Benning said there are some ownership issues regarding properties owned by the city and school district and who is responsible for maintaining them that also need to be ironed out.

“We need to get all this ownership of property cleaned up,” he said.