La Crosse moving forward in dumping public works dept.

Some at meeting against the
move that could save over $100,000

Resistance in La Crosse’s city hall for removing a department head.

Thursday, a La Crosse city council committee voted to eliminate the position and move everyone else in that department elsewhere. The plan should save the city over $100,000 in the coming year, and occurs as the current public works director, Dale Hexom, is retiring.  

During the hearing, however, water utility manager Mark Johnson was one of those to speak in opposition to the proposed cost-cutting move.

“If we were to eliminate the office, I think it would result in, bacially, a net loss,” Johnson said. “So, you might be saving the money, but I think we would also be losing all of the things that public works does.

“They do projects. They have lots of technical expertise. All of us rely on that. SOme of us have relied on that in the middle of the night – sometimes on weekends, sometimes during floods, sometimes during snow storms.”

The city’s finance committee agreed to the change proposed by La Crosse Mayor Tim Kabat but also stipulated a committee study to determine how duties and responsibilities of the department will be distributed.