Village of Somers, WI

Project Description

The Village of Somers has been recently experiencing rapid growth and expansion, and lies just north of the City of Kenosha, on the extended periphery of the Chicagoland area. New development has triggered the need for additional infrastructure, as well as consideration of the adequacy of the existing infrastructure. The Village wanted to identify and account for their upcoming capital improvement needs, and brought in Ruekert & Mielke, Inc. (R/M) to facilitate this process.

R/M worked with the key Village staff to develop an initial infrastructure strategy on which to base the development of the CIP. R/M facilitated department workshops with Village staff and utilized R/M subject matter experts to assess and evaluate the Village infrastructure and operations. By combining expertise of the R/M staff with the extensive knowledge of the Village staff, R/M was able to identify the needs and considerations of the Village over the next 10 years. R/M incorporated life-cycle costs, risk, criticality, and level-of-service analysis in the prioritization and development of a Capital Improvement Forecast.

Developing a funding strategy for the CIP was critical to the Village, and Ehler’s Financial Consultants were brought in to determine funding scenarios based off the Capital Improvement Forecast. R/M and Ehler’s worked with Village officials through the process to ensure that the Village board would be involved and invested in the CIP development. R/M provided a final Capital Improvement Plan that was comprehensive, realistic and had the full support of the Village. The CIP was implemented in 2016.

Project Highlights

  • Multiple priority-based CIP scenarios, each with its own funding strategy.

  • CIP incorporated a potential land expansion scenario, incorporating additional infrastructure needs.

  • Development of a 10-Year Equipment Schedule.

  • Major infrastructure improvements beyond the 10-year window identified within the CIP.

  • Contingency planning analysis done to identify long-term infrastructure needs for reduced risk exposure.