Whitewater: City authorizes pursuit of dredging contract with A-1, Kowalski

By Kim McDarison

The City of Whitewater Common Council Tuesday authorized city staff to pursue two contractors, A-1 Excavating, Inc. and Whitewater-based Mark Kowalski and Sons Excavating, regarding a dredging contract for work to be done in Trippe and Cravath lakes. 

Both companies have been in discussions with the city recently, looking to create options the city might pursue to continue with dredging plans. 

Authorization granted by council allows city staff to enter into a contract with one of the two contractors, with proposals extended to one or both contractors by the end of this week. 

Before the authorization was granted, council received a presentation about the project from Whitewater Parks and Recreation Director Eric Boettcher.

Boettcher began his presentation by responding to a question asked by council members during their last meeting regarding monies spent on the project to date. Boettcher shared financial information associated with the project beginning in 2016. 

What’s been spent so far? 

Aided by slides, Boettcher said the city thus far had spent $152,307 on the project. He broke expenditures and budgeting into several categories, including: “Lakes Drawdown Project Planning History: Planning Grants and Engineering,” “Lakes Drawdown Project Services,” and “Current Project Budget 2018-2022.” 

Within the first category — Drawdown Planning History, — Boettcher noted that between 2016 and 2017, the city spent $20,932 on a “Lakes Dredging Feasibility Study,” performed by Middleton-based Nahn and Associates. According to the company’s website, it focuses on “providing services to developers, municipalities, industries and nonprofit groups,” with such services focusing on the areas of stormwater erosion and control planning, hydraulics and hydrology, and environmental permitting, among others. (More information about the company is here: https://www.nahnandassociates.com.) 

Between 2018 and 2021, Boettcher noted, the city spent $36,214 on “lakes drawdown project and dredging planning,” with those funds paid to Madison-based Ayers and Associates. According to its website, the company provides a full range of services including engineering, mapping, environmental, architectural and survey services, among others. (More information about the company is here: https://www.ayresassociates.com.) 

In 2021, Boettcher continued, the city spent $24,845 for the creation of bid-ready plans drafted by Ayers and Associates.

In total, within the category, Boettcher said, the city has spent $81,991.

Looking more closely at lake drawdown project services, in 2019, the city spent $30,656 to purchase and install three siphons. 

Between 2019 and 2020, the city authored the removal of a rock and ledge south of the railroad bridge, and performed dams and gates clearing for a total cost of $25,880. 

In 2021, the city employed a contractor — Cottage Grove-based Field and Stream Restoration LLC — to mow and cut vegetation within the Trippe and Cravath lake beds, at a cost of $12,711. 

According to its website, Field and Stream Restorations “specializes in building beautiful, healthy, and sustainable natural areas.” (More information about the company is here: https://www.fs-restorations.com.) 

In 2021, and continuing into 2022, the city is projecting a total expenditure of $45,000 for several controlled burning events within the two lake beds. 

Looking at total costs versus the city’s approved budget for the project, Boettcher said the project had a total approved budget of $1.47 million. With approved project-related expenditures to date, a remaining budget stands at just over $1.32 million. 

In a final slide, Boettcher noted that, when including the $20,932 spent on the feasibility study authorized in 2016, the city’s total expenditures for the project to date are $173,239. 

Dredging options

Boettcher next shared options the city might employ to continue with the project. A slide enumerated six options, including: 

• Option 1: No dredging, begin restoration.

• Option 2: Contract with A-1 at the “full bid scope” at a cost of $2.5 million.

• Option 3: Contract with A-1 to perform dredging within one lakebed. Dredging costs associated with Cravath Lake only are $1.87 million 

• Option 4: Contract with A-1 to perform dredging within one lakebed. Dredging costs associated with Trippe Lake only are $1.74 million. 

• Option 5: Contract with A-1 for a “reduced bid scope” keeping the project to the budgeted amount of $1.38 million. 

• Option 6: Contracting with Whitewater-based Kowalski Excavating to perform dredging as a two-year process, with dredging occurring in one lake each year. The full project comes at an estimated cost of between $2 million and $2.3 million. (More information about Whitewater-based Mark Kowalski and Sons Excavating is here: https://www.facebook.com/Mark-Kowalski-Sons-Excavating-459537640908538/.) 

Citing Option 6, Boettcher said the plan would include dredging Trippe Lake first. 

“This gives us an option that is less expensive than the original bid and still gets us the 82,000 cubic yards of material removed, and it also keeps it with someone that’s local that we can work with,” Boettcher said. 

A-1 and Kowalski 

After the presentation, council members discussed next steps for the project. 

City Manager Cameron Clapper noted that, after further discussion with Kowalski, it was determined that Option 6 would likely come with a cost ceiling of about $2.3 million. 

Citing cost differentials would council choose to fund the full project as bid by A-1, Clapper said the increased cost would bring a change of “about 10 cents per $1,000 of (home) value” for taxpayers. 

“So if we were to go ahead and have an action tonight, to say: go ahead with the project, up to an amount not to exceed $2.5 million, which we are not saying that, but even if that was the recommendation, that would, at this point (amount to) $20 more per year for someone with a $200,000 house. It would be $25 more for a $250,000 home, and so on. Essentially, 10 cents per $1,000,” Clapper stated. 

Clapper continued by saying: “Looking at the longterm benefit for the community of this project and process, and having worked with him (Kowalski) thus far, we favor as a staff, or I do anyway, exploring further with Mr. Kowalski or moving forward with Mr. Kowalski. There are some things that are costs for him, that after discussion … we might be able to find ways to alleviate, for example matting that is required to make sure trucks can actually get out onto the lakebed; that’s an expense that is significant for the excavating company, whether it be Mr. Kowalski or others. That may be something you might be able to purchase rather than have them lease, and then resell  or lease ourselves. 

“It’s out of the box, I think, in terms of one possibility of thinking, but there are things that we can look at to reduce that amount.” 

Clapper said he was aware of individuals within the community who had expressed interest in aiding the city with its project through fundraising.  

“We had anticipated looking at that once we had a solid bid specification and some response to that from competitive bids,” he said.  

“I’m looking at the Kowalski piece, thinking that is a better option for us. We know that we would not be able to begin still until January, but it gives us some time to even look and see what other ways we can reduce costs,” Clapper continued.

He said a second option might be to work with both A-1 or Kowalski to reduce the scope of the project, bringing it more in line with the city’s budget. 

Clapper said the city had learned over the last 2-1/2 years how to more smoothly draw down water levels in the lakes, which, he said, could help reduce costs by spreading the project out over two years. 

Offering his thoughts, Councilman Jim Allen said: “Well, people are fed up. The drawdown should have taken one year instead of two. I understand that wasn’t the city’s fault; we didn’t anticipate that, and neither did the citizens. So, they’re frustrated; they want something done and fixed. Or fill the lakes back up. I’m going to suggest that maybe the drawdown, as explained by the DNR, carved deep enough a path from the south ends to the north ends of the lakes for fish habitat, by just naturally the water carving that channel. I think we should continue to work with both companies and scale back, and clean out a large area in front of the park on Cravath and in front of the dam on Trippe and stick to our original budget, and if there’s anything left after that, then we go dredge towards the south end of the trench. 

“I just don’t want to go over the budget or take another year.”  

Councilman Greg Majkrzak II asked for clarification about why the city’s proposed budget for the project was so different from the bids received. 

“Were we just wrong or were there rising costs?” he asked. 

Boettcher responded: “I think it was more of the rising costs. The trucking, that’s the expense. Trucking went way high.” 

Boettcher continued: “We know a lot more now after this process of how to drawdown a lake. We did remove that rock ledge so we can bring down Cravath pretty well. Trippe is a little bit more difficult; we’ve had a hard time even with the syphons drawing that down; we’ve had issues with the siphons during the summertime with wildlife getting caught up in them. Also, this year, with Trippe especially, with a drought season, this is about as low and dry as we can probably get it even with the siphons. It’s not to say we couldn’t add some siphons in the future, or do something else, but this is kind of been like the perfect summer of drought to get Trippe down and dried out. 

“If you look at now, now’s the time to try and do this.” 

Boettcher said that he did not anticipate that future trucking costs would go down.  

“They may go down, but everything else, as we find out, as we go on, it goes up in price. I don’t see this getting less expensive to do in the future, but I can’t say for sure,” he said.  

Clapper noted that contributing to costs were those associated with mats used to allow trucks to drive on the lakebed and fuel, “and we would be looking to get the (dredged) materials out in the 90-day period,” he said, adding that one contractor calculated it would require 100 truck loads a day. 

“That’s quite an intense process with trucks,” Clapper said. 

A resident of George Street, addressed council from the podium, said sediment was coming from the lakes through the navigational channel that had been dug and emptying into Whitewater Creek. 

“That creek needs to be cleaned out. There’s so many trees, garbage, you name it, you went through and cleaned it out, what? 10 years ago? give or take, and ever since then, there’s a lot of trees that came down. 

“Back in the 1800s that was a trout stream, not a lake. Personally, I like it the way it is. This is the way nature intended it,” he said, adding, that after a rainfall, he often experiences flooding in his yard.  

Said Councilwoman Lisa Dawsey-Smith: “I would say negotiate, keep it on budget. Refill it in the spring as anticipated. If nothing else, the community has pretty clearly spoken that they are ready for this project to be completed.”  

Council President Lynn Binnie, referencing the estimate from Kowalski, asked: “Do we have a cubic yard price that’s apples to apples as what we got elsewhere?”

Boettcher and Clapper noted that Kowalski was working with the same bid package that had been received by all the responding bidders.  

By extending the project over a two-year period, Boettcher said, some cost savings could be achieved by using less matting. 

As far as the comparison between A-1 and Kowalski, Boettcher said, “It’s still the same project.” 

Council unanimously approved a motion, as stated by Clapper, “to direct staff to approve staff entering into an agreement with a contractor for dredging of both lakes in 2022 at a cubic yardage amount that allows us to stay within the originally anticipated budget and entering into that agreement contingent upon approval by the parks and recreation director, the public works director, city attorney and city manager, and to authorize fundraising and take that into account if ultimately successful.”  

An earlier story about bids received for the lake dredging project is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/whitewater-city-rejects-trippe-cravath-dredging-bids-explores-new-bids-scope/.