MILWAUKEE — The future survival of the Mitchell Park Domes may be more uncertain than ever.
On Thursday, the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution that includes a number of options to deal with the aging domes.
That includes demolition but also paths for cost analysis into limited repairs, full renovation, and a proposal for a new botanical park conservatory.
“It’s demolition by neglect. We cannot have that. The pursuit of the resolution as a whole is to move things forward. Doing nothing is not an option," said Supervisor Sheldon Wasserman.
Wasserman and other backers of the resolution say inaction won't solve anything. Those wary of the plan say it puts preservation at too great of a risk.
“I’ll be damned if the domes ever get bulldozed. Anything that will push for demolition, I will fight every step of the way," said Supervisor Juan Miguel Martinez, who still voted for the resolution. He says, "It's what we have right now."
This story goes back to 2016, when fragments of the building's massive ceiling fell to the ground in the Arid Dome. Luckily no one was injured, but the incident sparked the question of how to keep the 60-year-old structure in good condition. The Arid Dome opened in 1967.
At first, the county tried to fill funding gaps by using $19 million in federal American Rescue Plan dollars of the $183 million ARPA funds given to the county during the pandemic.
The county also applied for the Domes to be registered on the National Register of Historic Places list, a classification that could open the Domes up to $7 million in tax credits for restoration efforts.
But Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley vetoed the Historic Places application, arguing it was not the right solution for preserving the Domes into the future. A number of county supervisors in an ARPA-money-assigning task force rejected the proposal to fund the Domes using ARPA money.
The $19 million in ARPA funds is a number based on an estimate from a county committee in 2019. They came up with that number while trying to zone in on the most critically needed improvement at the time, according to a report from Milwaukee NPR affiliate, WUWM.
On Thursday, the board also voted against a resolution that would require the state Interstate 94 between 70th Street and 16th Street within its current footprint of six lanes, or "Fix at Six." The resolution opposed an eight-lane alternative.
