he said. “People are blown away that it’s
such an inviting space.”
HELPFUL FUNDING FOUND
All told, Ayres helped the Village of Waunakee obtain
Schmidt agreed, saying the finished
product is more than a collection of
books and convenient place to connect to
$650,000 in grant dollars – a $150,000 site assessment Wi-Fi. It’s a place for people to gather and
grant and $500,000 in idle sites redevelopment interact with one another.
funding, both obtained from the Wisconsin Economic
Development Corporation – to assist with the site’s
cleanup, remediation, and redevelopment. Additionally,
Ayres orchestrated and assisted the Village in securing
over $1 million in remediation assistance through the
“That’s what it’s all about,” Schmidt said.
“Now that the citizens of Waunakee
have come to see this building, they are
believing. They’ve come to believe the
story we’ve told that the library will be a
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund place that’s beyond what people maybe
Technical Assessment and Response Team (START) have imagined that a library is.”
program. These funds enabled the Village to make the
building safe for demolition and redevelopment.
Schmidt said he regards the project as
unique not only for its environmentally
complex back-story but also for what it
went on to become – and how a public
facility project has “integrated with its
environment in a tremendous way.”
“I’m thrilled,” Schmidt said of the
project’s end result. “This is such a gift
from the community to the community,
and to imagine the generations that
will use this beyond the people who
had a role in making the project come
to fruition is really fulfilling for all of us
who’ve been involved.”
Plumb said he was particularly impressed
with the depth of Ayres’ knowledge.
“They truly knew their stuff, and as
complications arose and new pollutants
and chemicals were found, Ayres knew
exactly what to do,” he said. “I was very
pleased that the Village had entrusted
Ayres to help us with this process because
it was pretty daunting. It was a very dirty
site. We wouldn’t have been able to do
what we did without Ayres.”
www.AyresAssociates.com
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