Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RICHARD JENKINS
Hurley — Foth Infrastructure and Environment, LLC, will continue its work as the engineering firm for the reconstruction of Saxon Harbor, after the Iron County Board of Supervisors approved the contract for Phase 2 of the reconstruction’s design process Tuesday.
While the first design phase of the reconstruction project to return Saxon Harbor to an operable state following its destruction during rain and flooding during the July 11, 2016 storm consisted primarily of gathering information, Phase 2 covers the actual design portion of the project and the bidding of contracts for both the campground and marina.
“They’re going to put everything together — they’re going to design the whole facility, they’re going to assist us in bidding out the projects,” Iron County Forestry and Parks Administrator Eric Peterson told the board. “We’ll have awarded contracts at the end of Phase 2.”
The contract ensures Foth will check in with the county as project benchmarks are met, according to Peterson, but the company has been working closely with the county so far.
The cost for Phase 2 is not to exceed $988,664, Peterson said.
While not everything planned for Phase 1 of the design project has been completed, Peterson said the cost to date for the phase is $194,962 — under the $248,164 budgeted.
The Phase 1 benchmarks still needing completion largely revolve around the harbor’s campground, and require the location be finalized before they can be finished.
Peterson said the latest campground location appears to be two sites on county land south of Oronto Creek.
“If this one for some reason falls apart, we’re out of options at the harbor,” Peterson said.
He later clarified the location was the last option at the county’s harbor facility itself, not necessarily on the surrounding land.
The county has run into several obstacles regarding where to put the harbor’s campground, with the previous site unsuitable due to a state law that prevents the construction of a campground in a flood plain without a sufficient warning system. The county had planned to move the campground to the high ground east of the marina, however, Peterson reported in May a protected eagle’s nest eliminated too much of the proposed site for it to be viable.
Another obstacle to moving forward with the campground location is the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s ongoing update of the national flood insurance maps.
Peterson said the maps roughly outline where the nation’s flood plains are.
These “broad-strokes” maps put Lake Superior’s flood plain approximately 90 feet above lake level, putting the county’s entire facility at Saxon Harbor above the plain.
“The good news (is), I’ve got better data then they do,” Peterson said.
While the data the county is providing should show a more accurate flood plain; Peterson said the process requires Foth submit a “conditional letter of map revision,” which is one more step before Phase 1 of the harbor’s reconstruction can be completed.
Peterson said the approval process for the letter could take three to five months, but waiting on FEMA to do the work could take three years.
Along with approving the Phase 2 contract, the board also approved seeking an approximately $10 million loan from Chippewa Valley bank to finance the harbor’s reconstruction until FEMA reimburses the county for the covered portions of the project.
FEMA pays for 75 percent of eligible projects, while Wisconsin Emergency Management and Iron County each pay 12.5 percent of the remaining costs.
“After the projects are complete, we can submit for reimbursement,” Peterson said.
If the reimbursement paperwork goes through without issues; the county expects to pay the loan off around 2020, Iron County officials told the Daily Globe after the meeting.
The county will pay an approximate 2.75 percent interest rate on the loan, according to bank officials at the meeting.
In other action:
—Following a presentation by Mike Marasch regarding a boundary dispute on land in the town of Mercer between his family and Iron County; both sides agreed to formalize the boundaries established by the most recent survey of the property, which were used for recent logging of the adjacent county property Thursday.
—The board approved an amendment to the county’s Shoreland Ordinance requiring decks or porches attached to a lot’s principal structure comply with the setback requirements, but are not to be used to calculate the principal structure’s setbacks.
—The board also approved an amendment to the zoning ordinance to allow “setback averaging for accessory structures to the road by conditional use.”
