Business View - December 2014 131
things have been standing pat.
Myriad projects have been undertaken over the last
several years, including a 212,000-square-foot recre-
ational multiplex that was proposed in 2010 and built
for $48 million.
Four years later, a state-of-the-art high school opened
its doors connected to the Bold Center recreational fa-
cility. Subsequent work has involved creation of bike
paths, sidewalks and boat launches to enhance out-
door user-friendliness and catch the attention of the
professionals and young families that leaders are hop-
ing both to keep local and lure to the area.
The county’s manager of utilities, Gary Siebold, said
one of the challenges faced amid talk of growth is
maintaining infrastructure – at least half of which is
at least 50 years old. Roads and bridges present the
same tasks, said Brian Shapka, the interim manager
of public works, and the municipality’s perpetual race
to catch up and improve is not unlike areas across the
country.
“The idea is not only to refurbish what has to be re-
furbished, but to do it in a way that tries to meet the
needs of the future,” Shapka said. “We’re trying to in-
corporate these pressures for growth into these reha-
bilitations, so that 10 years from now they’re not look-
ing at the infrastructure that was in the ground and
finding out that it was undersized. We’re really putting
significant in-house resources and financial resources
into long-term plans.”
A regional water line has been extended to tie in ru-
ral subdivisions along the lake, and a biological nutri-
PUBLIC SECTOR
