Village Trustees Not Satisfied With Water Tower Plan

The Whitefish Bay Village Board deadlocked Monday evening over the proposed contract for a long-term service plan for the village’s water tower.

Public Works Director Daniel Naze said the water tower has seen little routine maintenance in recent years, and without immediate action, Whitefish Bay would eventually face a complete blast and recoating of both the water tower’s interior and exterior.  Naze said he had found no record of an interior inspection since at least 2005 and no official exterior inspection since the 1990’s. He said 1989 was the last time the exterior received a paint job.  The interior was last coated in 1996.

Naze said he and other public works staff have been working with Utility Services Company of Watertown to create an inspection, maintenance, and improvement plan that would be conducted over eight years. 

The plan would cost the village $145,000 for each of the first five years and almost $58,000 for each of the remaining three years, for a grand total of just over $899,000. The village has already budgeted $200,000 for the work this year.

Naze said most of the work would be completed in the first two years and would include an exterior paint job and a complete renovation of the interior.

Naze said the village could expect to pay upwards of $850,000 for engineering and contracted services if the tower was to be completely blasted and repainted.

After Naze’s presentation, multiple trustees voiced concern about Naze only seeking one bid on the project. 

Trustee Lauri Rollings said multiple proposals without competitive bids have come forward within the last few months, and she suggested instituting a policy where competitive bids would have to be sought if the project would cost above a certain dollar amount. 

"I think taking advantage of natural competition in the marketplace may allow us to get better prices on some of these services going forward," she said.

Trustee Kevin Buckley said he did not think a policy was needed, but that staff should include a thorough explanation of why a bid was not done.

Trustee Jay Miller also said he was uncomfortable with the process, which he described as "too casual".

“We need to make sure we’ve done our due diligence on this, and I'm just not convinced that we have at this point” he said.

Defending the plan, Naze said the issue did not require bidding because Utility Services Company is one of the only companies that services water towers.  Village Manager Patrick DeGrave agreed that not many companies provide water tower maintenance.

Mike Oleson of Utility Services Company said his company has been in the business for over 45 years, servicing at least 6,000 tanks during that time. 

The board also came into contention over adding a Whitefish Bay logo to the water tower, which would cost an additional $9,000 to $11,000.

“I just don’t see the need the need for a logo,” said trustee James Roemer.  “We’ve lived for how long without one.”

However, Buckley disagreed because he said it marks out the village’s territory.  He mentioned that most people do not know that the water tower even belongs to Whitefish Bay.

“It’s a landmark. It's probably the most visible landmark that people will see as they travel south or north on I-43,” he said. “It gets seen by how many thousands of people per day? That's our obelisk. That's our monument.”

When it came time to vote, DeGrave suggested splitting the vote, one regarding the plan itself, the other regarding the logo. The trustees said that was not necessary because the lack of bids was the issue, not the logo. 

The motion did not pass after the board deadlocked at 3-3, with trustees Roemer, Rollings, and Miller voting against it. The board decided to table the issue, so it will be addressed again at a future meeting.