Lake Avenue is set to undergo a $1 million reconstruction this year – a project that will include overhauling the busy intersection of Lake Avenue and Cass Street near Hagerty.

Traverse City commissioners will be asked at their Monday night meeting to approve a contract for $1,045,387 with Crawford Contracting for the reconstruction project, which will take place along the full stretch of Lake Avenue between Eighth Street and Cass Street. In addition to experiencing a high amount of cut-through traffic from vehicles avoiding the Eighth and Cass intersection, the deteriorating corridor has also seen an increasing number of visitors in recent years due to the growth of popular businesses like Rare Bird Brewpub and The Parlor.

The capital improvement project calls for the complete reconstruction of Lake Avenue, as well as installing a new water transmission main, sanitary sewer, and storm sewer.  The new road will feature reverse angle parking on one side of the street, replacing the existing parallel parking. City staff also included an add-on component in Crawford’s contract to raise the Cass and Lake intersection as part of the project. “The raised intersection would ramp the street to meet the sidewalk grade, which is opposite of the normal treatment where the sidewalks are ramped down to the street grade,” according to City Engineer Tim Lodge.

The final stage of the project calls for approximately $80,000 in streetscape improvements, including new sidewalks, lighting, street trees, and grates. Property owners along the corridor are being asked to pay for half of the streetscape costs through a special improvement district (SID) assessment of approximately $40,000, to be shared among the owners. City staff have already spoken with property owners and received informal support for the SID, Lodge tells The Ticker. He says the final estimated cost for the SID is lower “than we had previously discussed with the property owners.”

Staff are now collecting official petition signatures of support from property owners and will present the SID request to commissioners at their August 6 meeting. If the SID turns out to not have property owner or commission support, commissioners can either eliminate the streetscape improvements from the project or choose to fund the improvements another way. Lodge says the streetscape improvements were built into Crawford’s contract now to ensure the materials would be available and the project wouldn’t be delayed; however, they can be removed from the contract or staff can scale back work in the future if needed.

According to Lodge, the reconstruction project is anticipated to start “as early as August 20, (with) a completion date of November 2.” He adds that the start date will depend on the timing of contract executions over the next few weeks following Monday’s commission approval of the project.

Also on Monday’s commission agenda…
> Commissioners will consider awarding several contracts in relation to improvement projects at Hickory Hills Ski Area, including a $336,300 contract with the Zelinski Brothers to build a new 4,224 square-foot maintenance building on the property. The building will house the park’s ski patrol room, a public restroom, and an employee restroom and locker room. The commission will also consider approving a $243,679 contract with Molon Excavating for snow-making pipe installation and construction of Nordic trails in the park.

> Commissioners will consider approving a $57,478 contract with Bridge Brothers for a steel pedestrian bridge that will be installed over the Boardman River at Brown’s Landing in the Brown Bridge Quiet Area. The 90-foot long and six-foot wide steel bridge with wood decking will be installed with the combination of volunteers and contractors, according to a memo from Lodge.

> Commissioners will consider approving a resolution of intent to issue $4.9 million in capital improvement bonds for a citywide sidewalk project. The resolution does not actually authorize issuing bonds, but instead empowers the city clerk to notify the public about the city’s impending intention to issue bonds. If residents submit a petition within 45 days objecting to the bond issuance – and the petition is valid and has the legal number of required signatures – the city cannot issue bonds but instead must first go to the public for a vote. If no such petition is filed, the city can proceed with issuing bonds.

> Commissioners will consider going into closed session to conduct personnel evaluations of City Manager Marty Colburn and City Attorney Lauren Trible-Laucht. The board will also consider accept the resignation of City Commissioner Brian Haas from his position on the city’s planning commission, and appoint another commissioner to serve the rest of Haas’ term on the board through November 12.