Minocqua town officials are learning what it will take to replace or rehabilitate the historic fishing pier in downtown Minocqua.
This week, Dan Sydow, a professional engineer with Ayres Associates, outlined the issues surrounding the 92-year-old structure popular with fishermen and others.
“You have a real good asset there, but you are at a critical point from a structural condition perspective. The Ayres representative said there are a number of design considerations as the board moves forward with the project. Obviously public safety is number one when you are talking about something like this. Cost is another big one. This is an expensive piece of infrastructure for the town. Deterioration we talked about. Boat slips. ADA accessibility. That is a big one. .... That goes a long ways when you are looking at these different grant programs.“
Keeping the structure at the same size with total rehabilitation would cost $550,000. A new structure the same size would cost $660,000. But rehabilitating a smaller size pier would drop the cost to $380,000. And a smaller, entirely new structure would cost $450,000. Former town chairman Don Gauger is assisting in the pier study.
He offered some advice about reducing the cost...
“In the meetings that we’ve had prior to this, we’re pretty much in line with (that) it shouldn’t be the same size for one. I think that’ll significantly change the cost figure. I know we talked about that it looks like it could reduce it twenty-five percent relative to the length."
Town supervisors say they will hold a public information meeting to gather citizen input. In the meantime, Ayres Associates will return with additional cost figures, including assisting with grant writing.
