Civil Municipal Magazine - Dec 2023

184 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 12 that we matched with just under $300,000 in local money,” says Christianson. “The big thing that we accomplished was finishing looping our whole city water system. There was a dead end out in the park and a dead end on the other side of the river. This project allowed us to connect those two dead ends by boring under the river. That side of the industrial area now has sufficient water pressure. The buildings out there that are jointly owned by the city and the county are still available for lease or purchase, as are the vacant lots that are still available for sale. We also built two roads in our industrial park that were town roads that hadn’t had a whole lot of work done to them since the park was developed back in the 1980s. We feel that this project will be a really nice catalyst for future growth in that industrial area.” Other infrastructure projects in Ladysmith include the construction of a concrete, lighted walkway along the Flambeau River in Memorial Park, with plans to create a similar pathway in another city park this coming spring, and the purchase of an ADA-accessible canoe and kayak launch on the river with funding from one of the city’s local banks. Next spring, the city plans to construct a farmer’s market pavilion downtown with a grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. “We received another grant from the WEDC to acquire a downtown retail building that sat relatively vacant for two decades and we’ll be working with the IndianHead Community Action Agency to locate a thrift store, a food pantry, and also to create some retail incubator space so entrepreneurs can rent it at an affordable rate,” Christianson adds. “To be able to take a building that was underutilized for two decades and give it new life is something that will pay dividends down the road.” Repurposing older buildings Taking over underused real estate is something that Ladysmith has been doing for some time. Christianson says that the city has a history of saving, and then putting to work, some