South/Commerce Street Steering Committee

MINUTES CITY OF MINERAL POINT COMMERCE/SOUTH STREET STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING Tuesday, October 29, 2024 – 1:00 PM City Hall Community Room CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Meeting called to order by Chair Burrows at 1:00 PM. Burrows Present Spady Present Cisler Present Sielaff Present Sorum Absent Others Present: Clerk-Treasurer Skelding, Administrator Honer, Sean Henninger DISCUSSION OF STEERING COMMITTEE PURPOSE, CONCERNS, SCOPE, AND GOALS Administrator Honer stated that the city engineers asked that the conversation be started on this project, which is anticipated to be completed in 2026. Honer asked the group what worked well for the High Street project and what didn’t work well. He opened the floor to the committee. John Spady stated that at the corner of Fountain and Commerce streets, there were difficulties that were not anticipated, which left the intersection unfinished for approximately 4 months. In general, he lost about 40% in business. He hopes this project can be completed quickly and not have that intersection disturbed for anything great length of time as it had a big impact on his business. Gary Cisler stated his business didn’t have a lot of impact from the High Street project. Their only issue was dust from leaving the front door open. The state of the cement joints is very noticeable. High Street is a very rough ride. Keith Burrows stated that the High Street Steering Committee got dominated by big questions like one-way or two- way, and didn’t quite address some things that it was meant to address. For this project, we should be able to focus more on detail as there aren’t as many design issues. Ulrich Sielaff stated that the idea that an engineering company does the design is a big mistake. Having professional people that do this for a living would be well-served. He believes that going forward, the telephone poles should at least be straightened for the rest of Commerce Street, since nothing can be done with the upper part of the Street that is completed. Honer asked the committee what their hopes are at the end of 2026. What does success look like? Spady stated that after seeing the full High Street project, the project was expedited quickly without too much stress and harm on the businesses. He stated there are a lot of grumblings about the end product that he doesn’t necessarily agree with. Honer asked committee members when they would prefer to have the work done, and all agreed that construction earlier in the year is better for business. They would prefer to not have construction in July, August, and September. Sielaff sent Honer plans for the potential to not have the top of South Street re-opened to traffic. Committee members were open to the idea of closing the street to vehicle traffic, but still having a walk-way for pedestrian traffic. Spady would like to see a “Public Parking” sign so people are aware they can utilize the South Street parking lot. Committee members would like to the green space on South Street be able to be utilized a little more. They discussed the lighting and perhaps changing out the current lights to be the same as the new lights on Jail Alley. The committee discussed having a walking path extending up South Street, and they believe that now is the time to complete that project. They discussed waiting to see how much it gets utilized, but they are afraid then it would never happen. John Spady noted that he does not want the square footage of parking to change in this area. The city has already purchased sign posts to extend all down Commerce Street. These posts are the same as what is on High Street. John Spady mentioned that there should be street lights all the way down. The lights currently stop at the Mineral Point Hotel, but the committee agrees that they should extend further down Commerce Street as well. Regarding sidewalks, one of the engineer companies that looked at this project stated that the sidewalk on Commerce Street should be looked at. John Spady doesn’t believe that the sidewalks should be narrowed any further, or any sidewalks should be added as truck traffic is already very busy in this part of town. He believes that a crosswalk to direct people to one side of the street onto the sidewalk might help slow traffic down and also make it safer for pedestrian traffic. The committee discussed putting a small sidewalk from the South Street parking lot to Popolo. DISCUSSION OF MEETING CALENDAR AND TIMELINE Administrator Honer proposed that he will divide all of the discussion from this meeting into two different thoughts: committee thoughts on end product, and committee thought on how to get there. He will send everything to the committee who can tell him to add or remove information. Honer will then share the information with the city engineer. He is hoping in January, the committee can meet again and start the formal discussions. Honer will send a meeting invite to the committee for late January. ADJOURNMENT Motion (Burrows/Spady) to adjourn at 1:56 p.m. Motion carried, all voting aye (4-0). ________________________________ Matthew Honer, City Administrator Approved: Page 2 of 2