Fish lab proposal in La Crosse’s Riverside Park gets another hearing Monday night

A second chance to speak out on plans for the old fish lab building in Riverside Park on Monday.

A second public input session starts at 5 p.m. at the Southside Neighborhood Center in La Crosse (map).

La Crosse Parks and Rec. Department spokesman Dan Trussoni says city leaders want the entire community to be able to use the remodeled building.

“Our biggest goal here … is to create an amenity in that park that the entire city and all the residents can utilize, not just a specific group that wants to have a wedding or an event there,” Trussoni said Thursday on La Crosse Talk.

Residents of an apartment complex near the fish lab have opposed ideas of using the building for wedding receptions, dances or other parties.

Trussoni said the building would not be an extension of 3rd Street, as some critics have claimed.

He also said there have been some positive comments about the proposed “Hatchery” development, although many of them at last week’s hearing were in opposition to the proposal.

“I’ve heard a lot of coffee shops, I’ve heard a lot of art galleries, and all that’s wonderful,” Trussoni said. “This group wants to do something similar to that. Anybody that is interested in coming to the facility and renting it can really do whatever they want.”

There have also been suggestions of turning the building into a museum, Trussoni said. He noted that a local history museum moved out of the hatchery building last year, and a city committee that’s trying to develop a new local museum has not shown interest in the hatchery.