Final Sewer Report to be Unveiled at Village Board Meeting Monday

An engineering consulting firm will present its final storm water and sanitary sewer study report Monday night, giving trustees the information they need to make a choice on the scope of sewer protection at a later date.

The Whitefish Bay Village Board meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at . At the meeting, consultants Donohue and Associates will present three tiers of proposed improvements to the storm sewer system:

• $22 million: No ponding on streets during a 3.8-inch, 24-hour rainfall event (a rainfall event that has a 10 percent probability of occurring in any given year).
• $23 million: No basement or first floor storm water flooding using available street storage from a 5.8-inch, 24-hour rainfall event (a rainfall event that has a 1 percent probability of occurring in any given year).
• $36 million: No basement or first floor storm water flooding using available street storage from an 8.4-inch, 24-hour rainfall event (the July 22, 2010 rainfall event, a storm with a 0.2 percent probability of occurring in any given year).

The consultants made their preliminary storm sewer recommendations at , and at that time, the three storm sewer price tags were $23 million, $24 million and $68 million. A video of the presentation is available here, and here is the PowerPoint presentation from that meeting.

The Village Board will also have to choose a level of protection for the sanitary sewer system. For a 25-year level of protection from basement backups, the consultants' final report recommends a 40 percent inflow and infiltration reduction coupled with 5 mg of inline or offline storage for an estimated $49 million.

Budget discussion also on tap

The Village Board also is scheduled to address any remaining budget issues at the meeting. A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Nov. 12.

The nearly $14 million budget includes a levy increase of $262,193, or 2.56 percent over last year's budget. The board was originally faced with a , but the levy dropped by roughly 2 percent after recent changes to next year's debt service payment, the elimination of a redundant liability insurance line item and the board's decision to use reserve money to pay for a new street sweeper. With the changes, expenditures and revenues both increase by 0.37 percent.

The budget for major road or sewer projects, while using $775,000 of reserve funds, including $589,000 for a and $150,000 for an .

Capital equipment expenditures are up $266,027 compared to the 2011 budget. Those expenses do not include $250,000 to replace the roof on and the former Department of Public Works building that is rented by , both of which will be funded with capital reserves.

The village is contractually obligated to existing pension costs and 1.5 percent wage increases for police officers and public works employees. DPW union contracts expire at the end of this year, and police officers are not subject to the provisions of the state's new collective bargaining law.

This article was updated at 9 p.m. Saturday to reflect the amended budget figures.