Superior May Receive Million Dollar Investment Through Capital Improvement Program

About $60,000 could also could go toward improving parks.

SUPERIOR, Wisc. – Millions of dollars could be invested into the city of Superior if changes are made to its Capital Improvement Program (CIP).

The mayor is asking the City Council to allocate funds to improve everything from the streets and sidewalks to police squad cars.

The Superior City Council is expected to formally adopt the 2019 CIP and tentatively adopt a plan for the next five years.

What Superior Mayor Jim Paine is most excited about is the street and sidewalk improvements.

Funding for those projects would be almost $18 million through 2023 for general street maintenance.

“Half a million dollars annually going into sidewalk improvements and that’s up from $200,000 of only federal money, which limited how we could spend it,” said Paine. “So now we’re going to be investing into sidewalks improving accessibility.”

Some of the general street maintenance is for key road construction projects like the re-pavement of U.S. Highway 2 and additional work on South Tower Avenue.

Meanwhile, for the Superior Police Department passing this new plan could mean new marked and unmarked police squad cars on the roads.

Squad cars typically need to be replaced every three years, because most run 24 hours a day and function as a mobile office for officers.

“That’s basically the funding mechanism we use to purchase our squad cars equip them with lights, sirens, radios computers camera systems,” said Superior Police Department Chief Nicholas Alexander.

A big part of the proposed equipment budget is for portable radios, since there have been some issues with communication.

“When they’re on a call and they need help or something doesn’t go right that they can trust that radio is going to be their link to be able to alert their co–workers that something’s not right and have help coming their way,” said Alexander.

A quarter of a million dollars would go toward a neighborhood improvement program that rehabs historic or potentially historic properties.

One of the main sources of funding for the CIP comes from the terminal tax revenue.

“It’s time to make some real investments in the community,” said Paine. “That’s what the Council has determined that money to be for.”

Once the work begins Mayor Paine says the city of Superior will look different in a year or two.