MERCER, Wis. -- Mercer residents celebrated a $631,008 downtown enhancement grant Monday morning with a continental breakfast at the community center.
Community was the buzzword of the day. Representatives of town, county and state government, school, chamber of commerce, the Mercer Lake Association, Downtown Development Group and other residents congratulated one another for the collaboration that landed one of the largest 2008 Wisconsin Department of Transportation grants outside the Milwaukee and Madison areas.
"A hearty congratulations Mercer. Look what you did!" said town board member Bonnie Banaszak, master of ceremonies for the event.
The grant will pay for downtown improvements to be made in conjunction with a major U.S. 51 project scheduled for 2011.
The enhancements will include buried overhead cables; decorative sidewalks, period lighting, planters, benches and trash containers; sidewalks, a bike lane and widened shoulder along some parts of the highway.
The cost to the town, Banaszak said, is "virtually nothing."
She called the grant "a once in a lifetime chance to revitalize the downtown."
Banaszak credited the Downtown Development Group for stirring up community pride a few years ago. The group's letter soliciting funds from residents for downtown projects brought enough donations for the welcome to Mercer signs, downtown benches, blue informational signs, Century Pines Pocket Park and June Lupinefest celebration.
"This is your grant," she said.
State Sen. Robert Jauch, D-Poplar, said the grant was a tribute to Banaszak's tenacity.
"Mercer's strongest advocate, that's Bonnie," he said. "She is a bulldog in the politest sense of the word."
Two years ago, Jauch said, the DOT grants went to only three projects north of Highway 29. When he set out to level that playing field on behalf of Mercer, Jauch ended up on a committee reviewing the 2008 grant applications.
It was an objective process, with applications scored, not a political process he said.
"This project received a very high score on its merits," Jauch said.
In the end, 21 percent -- $3.6 million -- of the total $17 million in federal funding allocated to the DOT to disburse went to 13 projects in northern Wisconsin. A total of 47 projects statewide were approved.
State Rep. Gary Sherman, D-Port Wing, noted the timing of Mercer receiving the grant in its 100th year as a town.
"Centennials are about the future," Sherman said.
Jauch agreed, predicting that new lights and sidewalks downtown would be followed by new storefronts.
The grant, he said, will "jump-start the next 100 years."
