By KAREN PARKER
County Line Publisher Emeritus
In sum, rebuilding the town is not going to be easy, the Ontario Village Board has learned over the past week.
At the village’s first meeting (Sept. 25) was Kurt Muchow of Vierbicher Associates, a Reedsburg, Wis., engineering firm that has assisted the village with other projects in the past. Muchow presented a package of materials on the recovery plan for Gays Mills after the extensive damage of the 2008 flood.
The project covered a broad spectrum of projects, including relocating residential and businesses, a mercantile building, a new ambulance facility and multiple infrastructure improvements.
The total of all projects was $6.75 million, with the bulk of it covered by federal funds. Muchow pointed out that Vierbicher would not enter the picture until the area had been declared a federal disaster and funds were available. In Gays Mills, projects were mostly completed in 2011.
Muchow noted that it is not known if this flooding event will qualify as a federal disaster or how much, if any, funds will come attached to the declaration.
Then, on Monday evening, the board heard from Dale Klemme of Community Development Alternatives of Prairie du Chien. Klemme has worked in the area for the past 40 years, assisting communities with long-range planning, public-facilities improvement, and housing rehabilitation, including flood mitigation.
In Klemme’s opinion, the Gays Mills project resulted in some long-term, unintended consequences. The housing relocation resulted in the loss of starter homes, leading to a migration out of the village and elsewhere. With fewer water and sewer users, the facility is now struggling.
Many businesses declined to move, he said, although this most recent flood now has forced them out of the downtown and into the new mercantile building, which for the first time has full occupancy.
Although FEMA did the long-range plan for Gays Mills, the agency has not made any commitment to do the same in 2018. Klemme noted that other funds are available for developing a plan. He suggested, and the board agreed, to explore possibilities for planning grants.
But until there is a disaster declaration from the federal government, nearly everything remains in limbo.
