City seeks federal help for modern levee

Jun. 22—EAU CLAIRE — The city is asking for federal money to upgrade a levee that's long stood along the Chippewa River.

Eau Claire is advocating through U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, D-La Crosse, to include funding the upcoming federal budget to upgrade the levee that runs along the east riverbank from East Madison Street to the city's Central Maintenance Facility.

"They don't call it 'earmarks,' but that's what it was in previous years," Interim City Manager Dave Solberg said.

Aside from seeking the money through Congress, the city is also in talks with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take on the levee project.

Solberg said he'd talked with a representative of the corps on Monday. Based on that conversation, Solberg said he'd expect it would take two to four years to get the levee project done.

Seeking federal funding for the project is a switch from the strategy laid out in the proposed document that outlines city projects for the next five years. Slated for approval today, the 2022-26 capital improvement plan shows the city funding the project with its own money and a flood protection grant program from the state Department of Natural Resources.

The levee is slated for reconstruction as it was not built to modern engineering standards and would not adequately protect against a 100-year-flood of the Chippewa River, according to the city document.

Skate park boosters speak

Skateboarding enthusiasts are asking the city to allocate $100,000 in 2022 toward building a skate park in Boyd Park.

Volunteers have raised $83,000 through grants, donations and a previous $20,000 city contribution toward the project in the past eight years.

But Gabe Brummett, founder of the Eau Claire Skaters Association, said additional help is needed to get the city's second public skate park built.

"We can't keep kicking the can down the road. We've got to get it done," he told the City Council during its Monday night meeting.

The Boyd Park skate park currently has an estimated price tag of $200,000, Brummett said. Should the city agree to contribute $100,000 to the project next year, Brummett said volunteers would raise the remaining $17,000 needed by spring 2022.

At about 5,000 square feet, it would be more than twice the size of city's current skate park at Lakeshore Park. That first park can only accommodate one to two people at a time while many others stand aside to wait their turns, Brummett said.

"It's just not big enough for a community our size," said Sara Hendrickson, who goes skateboarding with her daughter.

Hendrickson noted the city has much larger budgets for its public pool and ice center than the one-time contribution sought for the new skate park.

Council Vice President Catherine Emmanuelle said she and other elected officials had heard from the skateboarders about their needs.

While Emmanuelle wouldn't have an amendment prepared by today to get that funding added into the 2022-26 capital improvement plan, that change would be possible this fall when the city decides its 2022 budget.