LAKE MILLS — The Lake Mills City Council voted unanimously to solicit bids for the Sandy Beach restaurant plan Tuesday night. Several Lake Mills residents have expressed objections to the project.
“I feel like they’re trying to expand it further than people want,” resident Leah Heidemann said.
Drake Daily, the city manager, said he will now hear bids for contractors to build the restaurant. The bidder that offers the lowest cost will be what Daily presents to the council on August 20. If the council approves of the bid, they will then evaluate language for an advisory referendum, which residents could vote on during the November election.
“We look forward to finding out what the bids are, and if the council decides to move forward, I’m excited to see what the community thinks,” Daily said.
Heidemann said she doesn’t object to a restaurant on Sandy Beach. She liked the former establishment, Sandy Beach Bar, when it was there. She thinks there should be food at the beach.
“Ideally it’d be nice to see something like the Sandy Beach Bar, just not as big as they’re thinking,” Heidemann said. She would also like to see something more representative of Lake Mills as a historic small town.
And Heidemann isn’t the only resident to object to the restaurant proposal.
Patrick Doyle, longtime Lake Mills resident and owner of Doyle’s Dogs, is also concerned that the restaurant wouldn’t fit the style of the area.
“I want to keep Lake Mills Lake Mills and I don’t want it to become Madison,” Doyle said.
Doyle added that he is concerned about parking and that there wouldn’t be enough space to accommodate many extra guests at Sandy Beach. Another concern he brought up was whether the city would work to maintain the new restaurant. He said that the old Sandy Beach Bar was demolished because the city did not properly maintain it, and he is concerned that this would happen again with the new restaurant.
Liesa Kerler, the city council president, said the city did maintain the old restaurant, but the building got to a point where necessary maintenance would require a large investment that the city determined was not worth keeping the building. The council approved a bid for removal of the restaurant in early 2020, and it was demolished in spring of 2020.
“Over time the building was maintained, but it reached the point where it was too much work,” Kerler said.
Kerler said they plan to invest in this building and use revenue from the restaurant to help the building pay for itself.
“The city is designing the building to use sustainable and low maintenance material so it’s designed to last,” Kerler said.
Michelle Quednow said at the meeting Tuesday night that it’s important to consider these concerns from residents, but she said there is value in moving forward with the restaurant proposal.
“I think it’s important that we acknowledge that yes we would love to go back to nostalgia and keep things the way they were,” Quednow said. “However, things have moved on and we need to move with them.”
“There will be more nostalgia, and it can be with new buildings,” Quednow added.
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