MILWAUKEE COUNTY

State approves Estabrook dam transfer

Don Behm
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The state Department of Natural Resources has approved Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele's request to transfer ownership of the Estabrook Park dam on the Milwaukee River to the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, department officials said.

Estabrook Park dam on the Milwaukee River would be demolished later this year following a transfer of ownership from Milwaukee County to the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District.

The change in ownership opens the door for MMSD to hire a consultant and prepare plans for demolishing the deteriorated, 1930s-era dam.

DNR Dam Safety Engineer Bill Sturtevant on Thursday notified Abele of the approval at the same time Sturtevant rejected a Glendale property owner's request for a contested case hearing on the transfer.

State law sets a deadline of 30 days for the property owner, Brian Kreuziger, to file a lawsuit asking a county circuit judge to review the DNR's decision and block the change in ownership, Sturtevant said in correspondence to Kreuziger. Kreuziger lives upstream of the dam and is a long-standing opponent of removal.

Kreuziger's request for the contested hearing failed to show that the county's transfer permit application was incomplete, according to Sturtevant.

Last month, MMSD Executive Director Kevin Shafer signed an option to purchase 45.7 acres at Estabrook Park at a cost of $1. Abele agreed to a deal that requires the district to return most of the property to the county for park use at the time of the sale closing.

At closing, the district would hold on to a narrow 3.9-acre parcel along the river on the north end of the dam, and an island at midstream, for equipment access during demolition. Removal of the dam is estimated to cost $1.7 million and work is expected to begin in late 2017.

The smaller parcel would be returned to the county for park use when demolition is completed in early 2018, under the land transfer deal.

To clear one possible legal hurdle to the land sale, Abele and David Misky, assistant executive director of the Milwaukee Redevelopment Authority, certified their approval of the deal to comply with a 2015 change in state law. The law authorizes a Milwaukee County executive to sell county-owned non-park land without County Board consent if either a municipal representative or the county comptroller approves the transfer.

On Nov. 1, the Milwaukee Common Council approved rezoning of the property as non-park land at the request of Mayor Tom Barrett, Abele and Shafer.

On Nov. 22, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Rebecca Dallet refused to block the proposed property transfer to MMSD. Dallet rejected the claim of a group of Glendale residents, including Kreuziger, that the property could not be sold since it was zoned parkland at the time the law took effect in 2015.

Dam gates have been open since state inspections in 2008 found numerous safety problems and confirmed the need for extensive repairs. In 2009, the DNR ordered the county to remove or repair the dam.

Proposed dam repairs and upgrades, including a fish passage, were estimated to cost the county $4.1 million — $600,000 more than the project's available budget, according to county parks department officials.