One adamant city shouldn’t spend $133,000 on consultant for South Ave.

City council member says its waste of resources

More consultants, costing $133,000 is what the La Crosse city council will decide this week.

Changes are coming to South Avenue around Gundersen Health System in La Crosse. What those changes are, however, is the question.

The Wisconsin Dept. of Transportation’s plans for the area are ones many in city hall don’t like.

Paying another consultant, however, isn’t something council member Martin Gaul thinks makes a lot of sense since the DOT has already agreed to compromise on rebuilding the street.

“To spend another $130,000 plus to come up with a separate design than what’s in front of us right now, I think is a waste of money,” Gaul said. “We should capitalize on what’s in front of us, as opposed to coming up with $130,000 worth of our own plans.” 

The DOT hopes to redesign South Avenue to allow traffic to flow better and prevent accidents. Critics of the agency’s plans say the road should be more neighbor-friendly and easier to use by walkers and bicyclists.  

“We need to look at that plan,” Gaul said. “I just believe to spend that additional money right now, to basically come to a point close to where we are right now, is just a waste of city resources.

“They addressed a lot of the concerns that were brought forth before. They addressed a lot of the parts on Toole Design’s proposals that we’ve seen before, and that they have intimated that they would be making again.”

 

 The city council votes Thursday on hiring Toole Design Group for that $133,000 to compile hard numbers on transportation alternatives and gather public input for South Avenue.

 

The DOT had ruffled some feathers when the agency proposed to make South Avenue wider as a means to ease traffic and decrease accidents.  A change that critics complained would have rendered the street unusable to walkers and bikers.