In a 6-2 vote during last night’s meeting, the City Council approved a $100,000 contract to produce a study that is supposed to answer one question:
What are we going to do with the breakwater?
It’s an answer that has eluded the city for some time, mainly because the question has never fully been explored. It is a lengthy (and costly) process to produce a study, recommend the next move, take that proposal to Congress for approval, and wait for Army Corps of Engineer recommendation. Unless the Corps decides not to proceed, or to ask for more information if the study is by that time outdated. In which case, the city is out $100,000 with little to show for it.
Councilmembers Gary Delong and Val Lerch voted against the proposal for that very reason, offering instead to delay the vote until next year when the city may be in better financial standing. But the vote went ahead as planned and was passed.
The study is expected to take at least nine months.
By Ryan ZumMallen, Managing Editor