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Evers' budget includes funding for projects veterans home, cemetery

The Journal Times, Racine - 3/8/2019

March 08-- Mar. 8--MADISON -- Gov. Tony Evers revealed on Thursday his proposals for building projects in his $2.5 billion capital budget and several multi-million dollar projects could be coming Racine County.

The budget includes proposals for safety upgrades at the Wisconsin Veterans Home and urn space at the Southern Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery.

Veterans home, cemetery

The Southern Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery has multiple projects in the capital budget.

The state Department of Veterans Affairs is asking for $5.36 million to expand space for crypts, columbarium and urn garden space at the cemetery.

According to the project description, crypt space and columbarium space "will be depleted by 2022" and the urn garden space "will be depleted by 2025."

If approved, the construction start date would be in April 2021 and the final completion would be in 2022.

The VA also is asking for $2.17 million to expand the administration building and add a fire alarm and suppression system at the cemetery.

The project would add approximately 2,850 square feet to the administration building and some remodeling.

The VA justified the project by saying the cemetery has become the fifth-busiest veterans cemetery in the state, which means the Wisconsin Military Honors program now operates in the lower level of the administration building.

"Although this provides more efficient operations of the state's honors program, it leaves the cemetery without any space for storage, visitor and family meetings or project work," according to the proposal.

If approved, the construction would begin in November 2021 and the final completion would be in April 2023.

Evers is also recommending $3.6 million for the veterans home to replace the telephone system and phones with "voice over internet protocol" and install internal and external security cameras.

If approved, construction would begin in April 2021 and the final completion would be in June 2022.

The proposed capital budget now goes to the state Building Commission and members will make recommendations to the Joint Finance Committee, which will likely cut some projects.

Ellsworth deferred

The largest proposal that would have come to the county was for $39.4 million to build a new housing unit at the Robert E. Ellsworth Correctional Center in the Town of Dover, next door to Union Grove.

However that was the only Department of Corrections project in Evers' capital budget was deferred.

The governor did not allocate any money for improvements on the project in this proposed biennial budget.

It's possible Evers will include the recommendation in the next biennial budget.

According to the project recommendation description from the Department of Corrections, the funds would go to construct a new 800-bed, minimum-security housing unit of approximately 96,000 square feet on the grounds of the correction center, which includes the acreage that was part of the former Southern Oaks Girls School.

Besides space for beds, the new building would have to accommodate space for programming, education and vocational space, staff offices, control center, restrictive housing area, observation area, health service area and much more.

The state did a design study of the Ellsworth Correctional Center and found multiple "concerns," including inmate door locks that are failing and cannot be replaced with the same lock, and a lack of cameras "which is even more important with the lack of staffing and disjointed design."

The study also found hazardous materials such as lead paint and asbestos insulation in the building.

If approved, the construction start date would be in August 2022 and final completion would be in June 2024.

Vos' district

Each of the projects proposed in Racine County are located within the district of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester.

Vos has been a vocal critic of the biennial budget Evers proposed last week and said this capital budget is another example of Evers "spending like a typical tax-and-spend liberal."

Vos said that under Gov. Scott Walker the state tried to spend around $1 billion over the budget "to be able to afford it."

"We borrow about a billion dollars a year to do projects, so I think it's good that he is recommending to us the necessary improvement at the Veterans Home in Union Grove, the prison in Union Grove," Vos said. "Those are definitely good things. But I also think we have to put them in context that if you are spending over 100 percent higher than the norm, that's probably not a number we can live with."

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the Gov. Evers recommended a capital project at the Robert E. Ellsworth Correctional Center. However that project was deferred. The Journal Times apologizes for the error.

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