MILWAUKEE — A Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors committee approved a resolution Tuesday that expands the ways the county could repair the aging Mitchell Park Domes building.
The Parks and Culture committee approved the resolution 4-0. The legislation opens up all the different ways the board could approach the Domes' financial woes. That ranges from restoration all the way to full demolition. The committee's chairperson stressed during the meeting that the resolution does not show a preference for any option, including the most radical, demolition.
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 use $19 million in federal American Rescue Plan dollars to fill funding gaps, 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. And a number of county supervisors in an ARPA-money-assigning task force rejected the proposal to fund the Domes using ARPA money.
That $19 million in ARPA funds - that number is 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: to the glazing and glass throughout the Domes, according to a report from Milwaukee NPR affiliate, WUWM.
Tuesday's amendment now heads to a full Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors vote on Dec. 15.
The committee's chairperson, Sheldon Wasserman, hopes to get the right funding for the Domes during the July legislative cycle, according to the Milwaukee Business Journal.
In 2019, a county task force estimated Dome repairs could exceed $66 million.
Read Tuesday's resolution below:
