Sussex Will Consider Condemning Main Street Business Properties

Sussex Trustees will decide later this month if it will condemn and purchase Main Street business properties to repair and reroute Spring Creek, reported the Sussex Sun. 

Last year the Department of Natural Resources awarded Sussex with a to be spent on various storm water projects, one of which is rerouting Spring Creek, an ongoing problem in Sussex. 

Alternatives for Spring Creek will be reviewed on May 14 at a Village Board meeting. 

The village is looking at daylighting the creek due to damage sustained to a parking lot north of Main Street, which contains a 470-foot-long pipe where the creek runs through until it empties on the south end of the road. The pipe is in poor condition and therefore is considered to be adding to the damage to the lot.

Even though village trustees are reluctant to condemn Main Street business, they may not have a choice. If construction on Spring Creek doesn't begin in 2014 the village could lose the grant, reported the Sussex Sun.

One alternative would need a large portion of a parking lot between two buildings to be used as a new pathway for the creek. Another alternative would be to reroute the creek.