The Rhinelander Common Council is expected to decide Oct. 12 whether streets in the city’s planned Spruce Street utility and reconstruction project will be widened and whether sidewalks will be added. A group of neighborhood residents has urged the council to leave both alone.
At its Sept. 28 meeting, the council voted 8-0 to have the city’s engineering firm, Town & Country Engineering, prepare concept plans for two alternatives Mayor Kris Hanus outlined in a memo. While several council members said they were not ready to vote that night, it was stressed that a decision needs to come at the next meeting so design and bidding can stay on schedule.
“We absolutely need to have a decision by next meeting,” Alderman Thomas Barnett said.
The action came four days after a Sept. 24 public information meeting attended by approximately 40 residents. At that meeting, and again during public comment at the council meeting, residents largely delivered the same message: fix the streets and replace the aging utilities, but don’t widen the streets or add sidewalks.
The project
The base project covers Balsam, Birch, Hemlock, Sanns and Spruce streets. Crews would replace sanitary sewer, water main and storm sewer, then install new curb and gutter and pavement. Two bid alternates could be added if bids and funding allow: Davenport Street from Hillandale to Maple, and Maple Street from Davenport to Phillip. Barden put the rough total cost at $15 million: $10.5 million for the base project and $4.5 million for the alternates.
The city has applied for grants and low-interest loans through USDA Rural Development and the Wisconsin DNR’s Safe Drinking Water and Clean Water funds. Hanus said at the Sept. 24 meeting that awards should be known within the next couple of months. If the funding doesn’t come through, he said, the project won’t happen next year and could be delayed a year or two. Barden said property owners will not be assessed for any work within the city right of way, including sidewalks and utility services.If the schedule holds, the project would be bid in January or February and construction would start around April 2027. Utility work, curb, sidewalk and the first layer of asphalt would be finished by fall 2027. The final asphalt layer would go down in 2028.
What engineers proposed
The city’s complete streets ordinance calls for residential streets 36 feet wide from curb face to curb face, with sidewalks on both sides. Hanus said the council adopted the ordinance several years ago. It allows exceptions where the standard isn’t financially feasible.
Town & Country worked with Director of Public Works Tom Roeser on its proposal. The plan calls for 36-foot streets throughout, with sidewalks on one side only: the north side of east-west streets and the west side of north-south streets. Maple, which already has sidewalks on both sides, would stay as is.
Balsam is already 36 feet wide with a sidewalk on its north side. Town & Country project engineer Nik Dorava said it offers a good preview of what the rest of the neighborhood would look like.
Birch is 36 feet wide and Sanns about 35. Spruce is about 30 feet and would widen 3 feet on each side. Hemlock would see the greatest change. It is mostly asphalt without curb and gutter, and its width varies from 24 to 30 feet.
All of the streets sit within 60-foot rights of way, and engineers stressed that no work would take place on private property. Residents countered that much of that city-owned land is front-yard space they have maintained for decades.
Plans presented Sept. 24 marked every tree that could potentially be removed. Dorava called it a worst-case scenario meant to prompt conversation with property owners. Barden told the council retaining walls will be needed if sidewalks are built. His preliminary estimate is that none would be taller than 4 to 5 feet.
Residents speak out
Fourteen people addressed the council during public comment Sept. 28, and a letter from two more residents was read into the record. All but one speaker who addressed the project opposed adding sidewalks, widening the streets, or both. A resident of Spruce Street said a new sidewalk would be within arm’s length when he stands on his porch while a Hemlock resident observed the plan would take nearly her entire front yard, including eight or nine trees.
Council President Carrie Mikalauski read a letter from a couple that resides on Birch Street. They wrote that Birch is one block long with 12 homes and asked that money saved by skipping sidewalks there go toward the Maple and Davenport alternates.
Mayor’s options
In a memo to the council dated Sept. 28, Hanus said he agrees with Town & Country’s proposal for Davenport, Maple, Phillip and Balsam streets. For Spruce, Hemlock, Sanns and Birch, he offered two alternatives:
Option 1 would expand the street surface to 34 feet wide, with no sidewalks. At the meeting, Barden asked whether the mayor meant 36 feet, the ordinance width. Hanus said no.
Option 2 would keep those streets at 30 feet wide and add a sidewalk on the side Town & Country proposed.
Under both options, all the proposed utility work would be completed, and the streets would be fully replaced with new curb, gutter and road surface. Because either option would shrink the project from what the city described in its funding applications, the memo lays out how any freed-up funds would be used. The first priority would be the rest of Phillip Street between Hemlock and Maple, covering walkability, storm collection and road surface. The next would be redeveloping the West Side Park parking lot off Phillip Street.
“I believe these options take into account the concerns of all parties,” Hanus wrote. He called the options budget-friendly and said they address the failing infrastructure.
Council members’ comments showed no clear consensus.
Barnett and Alderwoman Linnea Newman, whose district borders Hemlock, said they lean toward Option 1. Newman said she drove through the neighborhood daily and never saw anyone walking or biking. She also raised the loss of shade trees and its effect on residents’ energy use.
“You have spoken very loudly about no sidewalks,” Barnett told the audience.
Mikalauski represents the neighborhood. She said most residents she has heard from oppose widening, though some have privately emailed in favor of sidewalks for safety, including parents worried about children walking to the park. She said Option 2 sounds like the compromise she has been hearing. If sidewalks go in, she said, Hemlock and Spruce make the most sense as the main routes to the park.
Alderman Luke Krame serves on the city’s bike and pedestrian committee. He also favored Option 2, with a north-south sidewalk on Hemlock but none on Spruce or Birch. He said about 24% of people 65 and older need a mobility device. He asked whether residents who use one would want to be in the street in winter. Alderman Gerald Anderson said he generally supports sidewalks and opposes narrowing any street. He noted that neighborhoods turn over and young families move in. Alderman Steven Jopek said he taught his three children to ride bikes on the sidewalk in front of his home in the city. He wondered whether future families living near an improved West Side Park would want the same. He said he had not settled on a position.
Barden told the council fire trucks need roughly 28 feet to operate. A 36-foot street, he said, allows parking on both sides with two 10-foot travel lanes. If the council goes with 30 feet, he recommended banning parking on one side. Hanus asked whether wider streets lead to faster traffic. “Absolutely,” Barden said. Barden said Town & Country will prepare concept plans, rough estimates and a summary memo for the Oct. 12 meeting. He said about three months of design work remain once the council sets a direction.
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