By Tim Hundt
VIROQUA, Wis. — Viroqua’s Public Works Committee on Monday signed off on a long list of street and infrastructure priorities that will shape city projects for the next several years, from neighborhood sealcoating to major reconstructions on Education Avenue and West South Street.
Meeting June 2, the committee approved an updated capital improvement priority list, authorized bidding for 2026 sealcoat work, and moved ahead with design steps tied to state transportation grants that come with firm deadlines.
Public Works Director Sarah Grainger told committee members the city is now at a point where timing on several grant-funded projects is driving decisions.
“The reason that I wanted to do this now is because this needs to get moved forward, so that we can keep the capital improvement process moving,” Grainger said as she walked the committee through a color-coded spreadsheet of projects. “Three and four are the big ones, and the reason they’re big ones is because there’s money hanging out there with them and it has an expiry date.”
Current and near-term reconstruction work
Center Avenue
Grainger said the Center Avenue reconstruction is already underway and no longer a discretionary item on the list.
“Center Avenue reconstruction projects, we’re literally doing that right now,” she said, noting the current pay request on the job later in the agenda.
East South Street
East South Street, long on the city’s radar for its rough condition and heavy use, has shifted from a large capital borrowing item to an in-house project funded through non-lapsing street funds.
“East South Street has been one of my biggest concerns, just because there are some streets that are just as bad, but East South Street takes a lot of traffic, so it’s like getting worse progressively faster than other streets,” Grainger said.
Originally envisioned as a three-block reconstruction, the city scaled it to two blocks and reworked some sewer issues so it can be handled as a resurfacing job through the operations budget rather than major borrowing.
West South Street (grant deadline in 2026–27)
One of the most time-sensitive projects is West South Street from Rock Avenue to Elm Street, just past the skate park. The city has a $400,000 state grant for the surface work that must be fully spent and closed out by July 27 of the grant year, including construction, billing and paperwork.
“The catch with West South Street is that the grant sunsets July 27, and when it says sunset, it means like not just being finished built, but I have to have the whole project, like all the paperwork, every last bill paid … by that time,” Grainger said. “It ideally could be a late ’26 project, or it could be really early ’27, but it has to be super well thought through.”
The project was split so that the piece without major water and sewer work could move ahead with the grant, while the utility-heavy segments wait for a future, larger rebuild of West South Street.
Grainger said the street is in poor condition and carries event traffic, with cars parking on both sides and narrowing the roadway to one lane. She said design work could also address bikes and pedestrians.
“Instead of a sidewalk where everybody drives their bike already, make that a multi-use path to connect with Rock Avenue, and eventually up to the school,” she said. “We could fix some retaining walls that are in pretty bad condition, and we could potentially widen the road a little bit, so that when there’s big events there, people can park on the street.”
Education Avenue (design starting now, build 2029–2030)
The other major priority is Education Avenue in front of the school, which is already programmed through the Wisconsin Department of Transportation process for construction around 2029–2030.
Grainger said the city has been trying to delay starting the lengthy DOT design and consultant-selection process but is now up against a firm timeline.
“I have been trying to push off the DOT for a while, and they’re like, ‘Why haven’t you done this yet?’ And they told me, okay, you need to do this in the next month or two, and that was at the end of March, so I have pushed them as long as I can,” she said. “They always have sunset dates for the funding and they want this built in 2029 to 2030 and they want us to start the process of acquiring a consultant.”
Some residents and committee members questioned whether Education Avenue feels as bad as other city streets, but Grainger said its heavy school bus and truck traffic is accelerating the wear.
“If you’re a school bus driver, you’re like, ‘Holy cow, this thing is the bumpiest road ever,’” she said. “Is it the worst road in town? Absolutely not. But it’s one of the ones that I’m more concerned about getting worse faster.”
Under the grant arrangement, the city would put in about $300,000 while DOT funds about $550,000. She noted the cost is higher than an in-house project because the city must follow full state and federal procedures.
The committee later voted unanimously to authorize staff to start the RFP process for a consultant on Education Avenue, a step Grainger said will “buy us time” while keeping the 2029–2030 build window.
Other reconstruction priorities and stormwater work
Beyond West South and Education Avenue, Grainger reviewed other major street and stormwater efforts that sit behind them in priority but are on the long-range list:
Court and Western
Grainger said lower Court Street has been left unfinished by design.
“If you looked at Court Street condition at Center Avenue, and you’re like, well, why didn’t you keep going? That next block’s terrible,” she said. “But it’s because the next block is terrible, and the next block is terrible, and it would be its own project.”
Stormwater projects
A stormwater project tied to Tax Increment District 7 is also on the reconstruction list. Grainger said the city needs to keep looking for spots in town that can store or detain water and slow flows through the city, even as the council continues to debate a formal stormwater ordinance.
“There’s a few areas in town that we could use as storage or detention that would help slow just the movement of water through town,” she said. “We can certainly do our own projects without having a storm water ordinance,” she added, though she agreed an ordinance is still needed.
Parking lot projects: Mr. G’s moves ahead of Eagles
One of the committee’s clearest decisions was to reshuffle the order of two downtown parking lot projects that have been competing for attention: the lot behind Mr. G’s on Main Street and the Eagles/Jefferson Street lot near Parkview Manor.
Previously, the Jefferson Street/Eagles lot had been next in line. On Monday, committee members agreed it made more sense to fix the Mr. G’s lot first.
“Personally, I think the easiest one is to switch the Mr. G’s around with the Eagles of all of the choices we have, because Mr. G’s to me seems worse than the Eagles,” Chair Cyndy Hubbard said. “Honestly, they’re both terrible, but if I had to rank them…”
Grainger described the Mr. G’s lot as highly visible from Main Street and important for both public parking and deliveries to nearby businesses such as the Driftless Cafe.
“I would say the Mr. G’s parking lot is right on Main Street, and we really could do a better job of letting it be more of a public lot,” she said. “There are spots available that people would not even know they could use.”
By contrast, she said the Eagles lot still has serious issues, particularly with erosion and runoff down to Parkview Manor, but recent work by the apartment owners has reduced some of the stormwater impact. She told the committee staff can handle some immediate stopgap work on the steep Jefferson Street segment by tearing out the worst pavement and replacing it with grass, even if the full lot reconstruction waits.
After discussion, the committee voted to approve the overall project priority list with the Mr. G’s lot moved ahead of the Eagles lot.
Development and traffic signal projects
Grainger also outlined several development-related transportation projects that are effectively locked in by state and regional planning:
Walmart/Hanson Farm traffic signal (2027)
The DOT has committed money to install a traffic signal at the Walmart/Hanson Farm intersection in 2027, coordinating with the city’s ongoing Hanson Farm subdivision work.
“I would say there’s really no ability to take it off the table,” Grainger said, adding that it will be needed once the new connection road is completed.
County B/BB (Quik Trip North) traffic signal and intersection rebuild (design in 2028, build 2031)
Another surprise grant from the DOT will fully rebuild the County B/BB intersection near Quik Trip North around 2031, with design costs starting in 2028. Grainger said the project was flagged regionally because of crash history and outdated left-turn lane alignments that limit sight lines.
“There’s a pretty small commitment from the city in comparison to the total cost,” she said. “We pay 25 percent of the engineering design, and they pay the 75 percent plus the entirety of the construction cost, which is great, because if it goes up, we’re not on the hook for it.”
Downtown placemaking and bike-ped projects
A smaller “phase three” downtown placemaking effort remains on the list to follow earlier downtown street work. That project would fund a plan for trees, benches, art and other amenities that could then be added gradually through the operations budget.
Two larger bike and pedestrian projects are also listed as future “placeholders,” likely tied to TID 7 and dependent on outside grants. Grainger said she has been applying for large federal awards.
“The one I applied for, oh boy, I can’t even remember, I feel it was like $3 million with us not contributing anything,” she said. “You never know, we might get lucky and get one of these giant federal grants.”
2026 sealcoat and maintenance program
In addition to the bigger reconstruction jobs, the committee authorized Grainger to seek bids for 2026 sealcoat and surface maintenance projects funded through the city’s street operations budget, non-lapsing funds, and a small DOT local road improvement grant.
“We’ve got about $202,500 to play with,” she said, noting that the city skipped a resurfacing project last year and rolled that money forward to help cover an in-house East South Street project.
Grainger outlined two types of surface work: chip seal, which uses oil and rock and is common on rural-feeling streets, and microsurfacing, which gives a look closer to new asphalt and avoids the tar “bleeding” that drew complaints after past chip seal work on Center Avenue.
For 2026, the proposed bid package will include:
Chip seal
- Washington Avenue between Broadway and Church
- Washington Avenue between Parkinson and Decker
- Prairie Wind (a project that was started but not sealed last year)
- Maple from Main to Garfield
Microsurfacing
- The full length of the Rock Avenue project completed in 2015
“Really the best way to use sealcoat is to maintain the integrity of roads that are not completely falling apart,” Grainger said. “When we put it on really bad roads, we’re band-aiding it, it’s not really getting the full life of sealcoat.”
The committee voted to authorize staff to go out for bids, with Grainger planning to structure the bid so individual segments can be added or removed to hit the final budget number once prices come in.
Committee adopts overall priorities
After almost an hour of discussion, the committee agreed to keep most of Grainger’s rankings in place, with two main adjustments: confirming West South Street and Education Avenue as top reconstruction priorities due to grant timing, and flipping the parking lot order so the Mr. G’s lot moves ahead of the Eagles/Jefferson lot.
“I like this list,” committee member Kyle Bartlet said before moving approval, “pending the switch” that elevated the Mr. G’s lot. The motion passed unanimously.
Grainger said the ranking will guide both capital planning and what can realistically be fit into upcoming two-year budget cycles.
“It’ll just come down to when we look at the budget, and they start piecing together what’s possible,” she said. “Hopefully West South Street pops up, and Education Avenue we can talk about.”
In other action, the committee approved the purchase of a new John Deere backhoe for utility work, paid two construction pay requests for the Hanson Farm and Center Avenue projects, and adopted the annual Compliance Maintenance Annual Report for the wastewater system, which showed the city’s treatment plant operating well within its permit limits.
Summary of key street and related projects highlighted for this year and near future
- Center Avenue reconstruction – now under construction
- East South Street (Center to Washington via Rusk) – two-block in-house resurfacing using non-lapsing funds, treated as an operational project
- West South Street (Rock to Elm) – grant-funded reconstruction of the surface segment, targeted for late 2026 or early 2027, with a July 27 grant sunset
- Education Avenue (in front of the school) – consultant selection and design to begin now under DOT rules, with construction slated for 2029–2030 using a city/DOT cost share
- Court/Western and other major reconstructions – on the long-range list as future stand-alone projects
- Stormwater detention projects (TID 7-eligible) – concept-level work to create storage areas and reduce fast runoff through town
- Mr. G’s parking lot – moved ahead of the Eagles/Jefferson lot as the next priority downtown parking lot project
- Eagles/Jefferson parking lot – remains on the list with interim in-house work planned on the steep Jefferson Street segment
- Walmart/Hanson Farm traffic signal – DOT-funded signal scheduled for 2027
- County B/BB (Quik Trip North) traffic signal and intersection rebuild – design costs beginning in 2028, construction planned for 2031 with DOT covering all construction costs
- Downtown placemaking phase three – planning for streetscape amenities to follow earlier downtown reconstruction
- Bike/pedestrian projects (two corridors) – future TID 7 and grant-dependent projects, with large federal grants already sought
- 2026 sealcoat and microsurfacing program – chip seal on segments of Washington, Prairie Wind, and Maple; microsurfacing on Rock Avenue to extend the life of the 2015 project
Would you like a shorter, meeting-notes version that just lists each street and its expected year or phase for your quick reference file?
VIROQUA, Wis. — Viroqua’s Public Works Committee on Monday signed off on a long list of street and infrastructure priorities that will shape city projects for the next several years, from neighborhood sealcoating to major reconstructions on Education Avenue and West South Street.
Meeting June 2, the committee approved an updated capital improvement priority list, authorized bidding for 2026 sealcoat work, and moved ahead with design steps tied to state transportation grants that come with firm deadlines.
Public Works Director Sarah Grainger told committee members the city is now at a point where timing on several grant-funded projects is driving decisions.
“The reason that I wanted to do this now is because this needs to get moved forward, so that we can keep the capital improvement process moving,” Grainger said as she walked the committee through a color-coded spreadsheet of projects. “Three and four are the big ones, and the reason they’re big ones is because there’s money hanging out there with them and it has an expiry date.”
Current and near-term reconstruction work
Center Avenue
Grainger said the Center Avenue reconstruction is already underway and no longer a discretionary item on the list.
East South Street
East South Street, long on the city’s radar for its rough condition and heavy use, has shifted from a large capital borrowing item to an in-house project funded through non-lapsing street funds.
“East South Street has been one of my biggest concerns, just because there are some streets that are just as bad, but East South Street takes a lot of traffic, so it’s like getting worse progressively faster than other streets,” Grainger said.
Originally envisioned as a three-block reconstruction, the city scaled it to two blocks and reworked some sewer issues so it can be handled as a resurfacing job through the operations budget rather than major borrowing.
West South Street (grant deadline in 2026–27)
One of the most time-sensitive projects is West South Street from Rock Avenue to Elm Street, just past the skate park. The city has a $400,000 state grant for the surface work that must be fully spent and closed out by July 27 of the grant year, including construction, billing and paperwork.
“The catch with West South Street is that the grant sunsets July 27, and when it says sunset, it means like not just being finished built, but I have to have the whole project, like all the paperwork, every last bill paid … by that time,” Grainger said. “It ideally could be a late ’26 project, or it could be really early ’27, but it has to be super well thought through.”
The project was split so that the piece without major water and sewer work could move ahead with the grant, while the utility-heavy segments wait for a future, larger rebuild of West South Street.
Grainger said the street is in poor condition and carries event traffic, with cars parking on both sides and narrowing the roadway to one lane. She said design work could also address bikes and pedestrians.
“Instead of a sidewalk where everybody drives their bike already, make that a multi-use path to connect with Rock Avenue, and eventually up to the school,” she said. “We could fix some retaining walls that are in pretty bad condition, and we could potentially widen the road a little bit, so that when there’s big events there, people can park on the street.”
Education Avenue (design starting now, build 2029–2030)
The other major priority is Education Avenue in front of the school, which is already programmed through the Wisconsin Department of Transportation process for construction around 2029–2030.
Grainger said the city has been trying to delay starting the lengthy DOT design and consultant-selection process but is now up against a firm timeline.
“I have been trying to push off the DOT for a while, and they’re like, ‘Why haven’t you done this yet?’ And they told me, okay, you need to do this in the next month or two, and that was at the end of March, so I have pushed them as long as I can,” she said. “They always have sunset dates for the funding and they want this built in 2029 to 2030 and they want us to start the process of acquiring a consultant.”
Some residents and committee members questioned whether Education Avenue feels as bad as other city streets, but Grainger said its heavy school bus and truck traffic is accelerating the wear.
“If you’re a school bus driver, you’re like, ‘Holy cow, this thing is the bumpiest road ever,’” she said. “Is it the worst road in town? Absolutely not. But it’s one of the ones that I’m more concerned about getting worse faster.”
Under the grant arrangement, the city would put in about $300,000 while DOT funds about $550,000. She noted the cost is higher than an in-house project because the city must follow full state and federal procedures.
The committee later voted unanimously to authorize staff to start the RFP process for a consultant on Education Avenue, a step Grainger said will “buy us time” while keeping the 2029–2030 build window.
Other reconstruction priorities and stormwater work
Beyond West South and Education Avenue, Grainger reviewed other major street and stormwater efforts that sit behind them in priority but are on the long-range list:
Court and Western
Grainger said lower Court Street has been left unfinished by design.
“If you looked at Court Street condition at Center Avenue, and you’re like, well, why didn’t you keep going? That next block’s terrible,” she said. “But it’s because the next block is terrible, and the next block is terrible, and it would be its own project.”
Stormwater projects
A stormwater project tied to Tax Increment District 7 is also on the reconstruction list. Grainger said the city needs to keep looking for spots in town that can store or detain water and slow flows through the city, even as the council continues to debate a formal stormwater ordinance.
“There’s a few areas in town that we could use as storage or detention that would help slow just the movement of water through town,” she said. “We can certainly do our own projects without having a storm water ordinance,” she added, though she agreed an ordinance is still needed.
Parking lot projects: Mr. G’s moves ahead of Eagles
One of the committee’s clearest decisions was to reshuffle the order of two downtown parking lot projects that have been competing for attention: the lot behind Mr. G’s on Main Street and the Eagles/Jefferson Street lot near Parkview Manor.
Previously, the Jefferson Street/Eagles lot had been next in line. On Monday, committee members agreed it made more sense to fix the Mr. G’s lot first.
“Personally, I think the easiest one is to switch the Mr. G’s around with the Eagles of all of the choices we have, because Mr. G’s to me seems worse than the Eagles,” Chair Cyndy Hubbard said. “Honestly, they’re both terrible, but if I had to rank them…”
Grainger described the Mr. G’s lot as highly visible from Main Street and important for both public parking and deliveries to nearby businesses such as the Driftless Cafe.
“I would say the Mr. G’s parking lot is right on Main Street, and we really could do a better job of letting it be more of a public lot,” she said. “There are spots available that people would not even know they could use.”
By contrast, she said the Eagles lot still has serious issues, particularly with erosion and runoff down to Parkview Manor, but recent work by the apartment owners has reduced some of the stormwater impact. She told the committee staff can handle some immediate stopgap work on the steep Jefferson Street segment by tearing out the worst pavement and replacing it with grass, even if the full lot reconstruction waits.
After discussion, the committee voted to approve the overall project priority list with the Mr. G’s lot moved ahead of the Eagles lot.
Development and traffic signal projects
Grainger also outlined several development-related transportation projects that are effectively locked in by state and regional planning:
Walmart/Hanson Farm traffic signal (2027)
The DOT has committed money to install a traffic signal at the Walmart/Hanson Farm intersection in 2027, coordinating with the city’s ongoing Hanson Farm subdivision work.
“I would say there’s really no ability to take it off the table,” Grainger said, adding that it will be needed once the new connection road is completed.
County B/BB (Quik Trip North) traffic signal and intersection rebuild (design in 2028, build 2031)
Another surprise grant from the DOT will fully rebuild the County B/BB intersection near Quik Trip North around 2031, with design costs starting in 2028. Grainger said the project was flagged regionally because of crash history and outdated left-turn lane alignments that limit sight lines.
“There’s a pretty small commitment from the city in comparison to the total cost,” she said. “We pay 25 percent of the engineering design, and they pay the 75 percent plus the entirety of the construction cost, which is great, because if it goes up, we’re not on the hook for it.”
Downtown placemaking and bike-ped projects
A smaller “phase three” downtown placemaking effort remains on the list to follow earlier downtown street work. That project would fund a plan for trees, benches, art and other amenities that could then be added gradually through the operations budget.
Two larger bike and pedestrian projects are also listed as future “placeholders,” likely tied to TID 7 and dependent on outside grants. Grainger said she has been applying for large federal awards.
“The one I applied for, oh boy, I can’t even remember, I feel it was like $3 million with us not contributing anything,” she said. “You never know, we might get lucky and get one of these giant federal grants.”
2026 sealcoat and maintenance program
In addition to the bigger reconstruction jobs, the committee authorized Grainger to seek bids for 2026 sealcoat and surface maintenance projects funded through the city’s street operations budget, non-lapsing funds, and a small DOT local road improvement grant.
“We’ve got about $202,500 to play with,” she said, noting that the city skipped a resurfacing project last year and rolled that money forward to help cover an in-house East South Street project.
Grainger outlined two types of surface work: chip seal, which uses oil and rock and is common on rural-feeling streets, and microsurfacing, which gives a look closer to new asphalt and avoids the tar “bleeding” that drew complaints after past chip seal work on Center Avenue.
For 2026, the proposed bid package will include:
Chip seal
- Washington Avenue between Broadway and Church
- Washington Avenue between Parkinson and Decker
- Prairie Wind (a project that was started but not sealed last year)
- Maple from Main to Garfield
Microsurfacing
- The full length of the Rock Avenue project completed in 2015
“Really the best way to use sealcoat is to maintain the integrity of roads that are not completely falling apart,” Grainger said. “When we put it on really bad roads, we’re band-aiding it, it’s not really getting the full life of sealcoat.”
The committee voted to authorize staff to go out for bids, with Grainger planning to structure the bid so individual segments can be added or removed to hit the final budget number once prices come in.
Committee adopts overall priorities
After almost an hour of discussion, the committee agreed to keep most of Grainger’s rankings in place, with two main adjustments: confirming West South Street and Education Avenue as top reconstruction priorities due to grant timing, and flipping the parking lot order so the Mr. G’s lot moves ahead of the Eagles/Jefferson lot.
“I like this list,” committee member Kyle Bartlet said before moving approval, “pending the switch” that elevated the Mr. G’s lot. The motion passed unanimously.
Grainger said the ranking will guide both capital planning and what can realistically be fit into upcoming two-year budget cycles.
“It’ll just come down to when we look at the budget, and they start piecing together what’s possible,” she said. “Hopefully West South Street pops up, and Education Avenue we can talk about.”
In other action, the committee approved the purchase of a new John Deere backhoe for utility work, paid two construction pay requests for the Hanson Farm and Center Avenue projects, and adopted the annual Compliance Maintenance Annual Report for the wastewater system, which showed the city’s treatment plant operating well within its permit limits.
Summary of key street and related projects highlighted for this year and near future
- Center Avenue reconstruction – now under construction
- East South Street (Center to Washington via Rusk) – two-block in-house resurfacing using non-lapsing funds, treated as an operational project
- West South Street (Rock to Elm) – grant-funded reconstruction of the surface segment, targeted for late 2026 or early 2027, with a July 27 grant sunset
- Education Avenue (in front of the school) – consultant selection and design to begin now under DOT rules, with construction slated for 2029–2030 using a city/DOT cost share
- Court/Western and other major reconstructions – on the long-range list as future stand-alone projects
- Stormwater detention projects (TID 7-eligible) – concept-level work to create storage areas and reduce fast runoff through town
- Mr. G’s parking lot – moved ahead of the Eagles/Jefferson lot as the next priority downtown parking lot project
- Eagles/Jefferson parking lot – remains on the list with interim in-house work planned on the steep Jefferson Street segment
- Walmart/Hanson Farm traffic signal – DOT-funded signal scheduled for 2027
- County B/BB (Quik Trip North) traffic signal and intersection rebuild – design costs beginning in 2028, construction planned for 2031 with DOT covering all construction costs
- Downtown placemaking phase three – planning for streetscape amenities to follow earlier downtown reconstruction
- Bike/pedestrian projects (two corridors) – future TID 7 and grant-dependent projects, with large federal grants already sought
- 2026 sealcoat and microsurfacing program – chip seal on segments of Washington, Prairie Wind, and Maple; microsurfacing on Rock Avenue to extend the life of the 2015 project
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