Madison Five-Year Plan: $5.2M for Infrastructure

...and right behind ICAP for subsidy: East River.

The Madison City Commission is looking into spending a million dollars a year to upgrade our streets and utilities. Tomorrow night's agenda includes the five-year Infrastructure Improvement Plan, which proposes to spend $5,234,000 on water mains, storm and sanitary sewer, and street work. The biggest ticket items: Center Street water works in 2012 and 2014, then Southeast Fourt Street water works in 2015. I would hope the Center Street project also includes fixing the bombed-out pavement from Washington Avenue east to Division and the stockyards.

Not included in the five-year plan: paving—not resurfacing, but just surfacing—of South Division, Southeast Third, or other stretches of gravel within city limits. Perhaps paving is in another budget? Or perhaps Madison just likes offering some select residents the dusty joys of country living in the big city.

Also on the agenda: East River Electric is asking the city to split the cost of improvements on South Harth Avenue. East River would like us to kick in $127,254 to help rebuild the street, improve draingage, and make it all look pretty. East River supports its request by saying the project will "improve the appearance of the city," improve traffic flow, "increase pedestrian safety," and support the city's effort to revitalize downtown (wait, the city has a downtown revitalization effort?).

East River's justifications are reasonable—well, except maybe for the traffic flow argument: how is it that in four decades of living in Madison, I've missed out city's terrible traffic jams? And East River's request is maybe only half of the subsidy the city handed ICAP on its Rosebud purchase.

Now if we could see the city offer some downtown revitalization subsidies to retailers actually on Main Street, we could be in business. I wonder, can Country Café apply for the city to split the cost of that new yellow paint job? How about a subsidy for Mochavino's new outdoor furniture? Or maybe a buyout and renovation of the Masonic Temple? Oh, the possibilities!

East River to Build Lines for Groton Wind Farm

I suppose I can't be too crabby with East River for enjoying a boost in business from the Keystone pipeline, any more than I can begrudge the folks at the Stop-n-Rob for selling more gas and coffee to TransCanada's construction crews.

East River will also get a boost from a big wind project near Groton. Its co-op parent Basin Electric and Florida-based NextEra will put up 66 turbines that will crank out 99 megawatts of green power. NextEra is apparently a good partner: Basin Electric has already worked with them on three other wind farms, including that 27-turbine farm up by Highmore.

The Groton wind farm is intended to help Basin Electric reach its goal of generating 10% of its power from renewable sources. 10%? Is that all? Why not aim for 20%, or even 40%? It sounds like we could build a lot more wind turbines just to provide for power needs here within our own coops on the prairie before we even get to worrying about building transmission lines to export this power to Chicago or other more populous areas. A little cap-and-trade might be just what we need to encourage Basin Electric to boost that goal and capitalize on wind for local use.

East River Hearts TransCanada and Keystone Pipeline

Veteran journalist and greenhorn blogger Bob Mercer notes that my friends at East River Electric, part of Madison's Democratic mafia (counterweight to the Republican mafia at Heartland), stand to gain nicely from the increased demand for electricity brought by TransCanada's Keystone pipeline. It will take a lot of juice to pump 590,000 barrels of tax-free oil each day across South Dakota. East River's 2008 annual report touts the promised increase in construction of power lines and substations, as well as the pipeline's potential to "relieve our dependence on Mideast oil by importing oil from a friendly nation." (At least they recognize it's still foreign oil.)

Boy, and I gave Senator Russell Olson a hard time for taking money from a TransCanada lobbyist. My guy Scott Parsley is assistant general manager at pipeline-loving East River.

At today's annual meeting, East River officials will likely express agreement with Tony's comment yesterday that increased energy consumption is good. I suspect the Sibsons and other South Dakota landowners might offer a reason or two to the contrary.