Posted: Oct. 19, 2009 |(0) Comments

Muskego — Frustration filled the room as Waukesha County officials told the Muskego Common Council last week why the much-delayed Janesville Road reconstruction and widening has to be delayed again.

The two-year project from Moorland Road to Racine Avenue that was to have started in 2011 now will not start until 2012, county officials said.

Muskego Mayor John Johnson said it is going on 10 years since the project was proposed and it was started and delayed and started again. This latest delay puts Janesville Road businesses and the city itself in limbo for another year, and pushes back economic development, he said.

City officials had expected to use a rejuvenated Janesville Road to reach out for more commercial development, Johnson said. But he recognized that county officials have made a good faith effort.

"You have explained to my satisfaction the recession," he said, "and if you don't have the money, you don't have the money."

Norman Cummings, director of the county department of administration, explained how the recession had punched a $4 million hole in the county's revenues. The county cannot afford the $25 million road project without federal dollars, he said.

Impact statement needed

Gary Evans, Waukesha County engineering services manager, said the county now expects to receive nearly $6 million in federal money. But those dollars come with the requirement that an environmental impact statement be approved before construction, he said. That is what is putting the project back a year, he said.

But there is another string attached to those federal dollars. A freeze will soon keep Waukesha County from buying any more of the 19 properties that are need for the road widening, Evans said.

Six have been purchased already and there are offers on seven more, he said. Three are being appraised now. Owners of the other properties are waiting.

But the county can appeal to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation that holding off buying the properties will be a hardship, Evans said. Such an appeal will likely have to be made in two or three months, he speculated after the meeting.

But the county is working hard to get as many purchases done as possible.

"Our intent is to keep going," said Karen Braun, senior civil engineer who is in charge of acquisitions.

Owners fear more delays

Several people who own businesses along Janesville road attended the meeting.

Jason Thompson, a dentist with a practice along the road, said that he will move his office in eight or nine months. He had hoped to construct new offices at the same time the road was torn up.

But his problems are small compared to at least three businessmen he knows who have let their inventories go down, expecting they will have to move, he said.

"They had a plan date," Thompson said that now is no good.

Because Waukesha County has to hand the project over after the first year to the state DOT to finish, some business people are uneasy about delays in the project's second phase.

"Now we have three parties - the county, the state and federal dollars," said Kathy Chiaverotti, executive director of the Muskego Area Chamber of Commerce. "That leaves room for more complications and potential delays.

"We may not be done, yet," she said.