MONROE - The Monroe Common Council approved a new Ad Hoc Parking Ramp Committee Tuesday, March 5 to consider what to do with the downtown parking ramp.
The council voted unanimously to approve forming the committee, as well as 14 mayoral appointments to it.
Mayor Bill Ross appointed Craig Patchin, Fred Kelley, Sherrill Kelly, Louis Armstrong, Robert Duxstad, Marilyn Pfarr, David Riese, Tom Miller, John Glynn, Ryan Wilson, Amy Brandt, Pam Christopher, Al Gerber and himself as members.
The committee will take up the issue of repairing or replacing the 46-year-old downtown parking ramp at 11th Street and 15th Avenue.
A complete engineering evaluation released in August by Arnold & O'Sheridan, Inc., an engineering consulting firm from Madison, showed the facility needed $1.4 million in repairs within a year. Another $145,000 would be needed within the next five years to make additional repairs.
But the report also stated, "Based on the poor condition of the structure and being underutilized, it may be more cost effective to raze the structure and have a surface parking lot."
Some council members, business owners and residents have decried the potential loss of the 224-stall ramp. The downtown Business Improvement District (BID) board has kept the parking ramp as an item on its agendas for many months, so as not to lose sight of its status. The Chamber of Commerce, based on survey responses from its members, has made efforts at city meetings to save the parking ramp.
The ramp is being under-utilized now because of its condition, proponents of a keeping a public parking ramp said, but with better lighting, more security and cleaning up, the ramp would contribute to the downtown parking space, the business and residential environment and event attendance.
The ramp's parking spaces represent about 20 percent of the more than 1,000 total spaces in downtown Monroe, available on the Square, one block off the Square and in seven public parking lots.
The council voted unanimously to approve forming the committee, as well as 14 mayoral appointments to it.
Mayor Bill Ross appointed Craig Patchin, Fred Kelley, Sherrill Kelly, Louis Armstrong, Robert Duxstad, Marilyn Pfarr, David Riese, Tom Miller, John Glynn, Ryan Wilson, Amy Brandt, Pam Christopher, Al Gerber and himself as members.
The committee will take up the issue of repairing or replacing the 46-year-old downtown parking ramp at 11th Street and 15th Avenue.
A complete engineering evaluation released in August by Arnold & O'Sheridan, Inc., an engineering consulting firm from Madison, showed the facility needed $1.4 million in repairs within a year. Another $145,000 would be needed within the next five years to make additional repairs.
But the report also stated, "Based on the poor condition of the structure and being underutilized, it may be more cost effective to raze the structure and have a surface parking lot."
Some council members, business owners and residents have decried the potential loss of the 224-stall ramp. The downtown Business Improvement District (BID) board has kept the parking ramp as an item on its agendas for many months, so as not to lose sight of its status. The Chamber of Commerce, based on survey responses from its members, has made efforts at city meetings to save the parking ramp.
The ramp is being under-utilized now because of its condition, proponents of a keeping a public parking ramp said, but with better lighting, more security and cleaning up, the ramp would contribute to the downtown parking space, the business and residential environment and event attendance.
The ramp's parking spaces represent about 20 percent of the more than 1,000 total spaces in downtown Monroe, available on the Square, one block off the Square and in seven public parking lots.