Fox Crossing, Neenah school district strike deal for construction of regional stormwater pond

Duke Behnke, Appleton Post-Crescent
·2 min read
Fox Crossing is building wet and dry stormwater ponds on property owned by the Neenah Joint School District south of West American Drive.
Fox Crossing is building wet and dry stormwater ponds on property owned by the Neenah Joint School District south of West American Drive.

Reader question: What’s happening on the land formerly owned by the Neenah school district at Irish Road and West American Drive in Fox Crossing?

Answer: The 57-acre property at the southwest corner of Irish and American still is owned by the school district. The land is for sale, and prospective buyers have inquired about it, but no sale is imminent.

The activity on the site — blasting, excavation and grading — is for the construction of a $1.6 million stormwater management facility, called Rocket Pond, that is being built by the village of Fox Crossing.

The village acquired a 16-acre permanent stormwater easement from the school district in an agreement approved in November. Essentially, the school district provided the land on which Fox Crossing will construct a 1-acre regional wet pond and a larger dry pond for flood storage.

In return for the easement, the school district or a future developer can use the wet pond to meet stormwater requirements established by Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. In addition, the work will reduce the property's floodplain from 19 acres to 14 acres, providing the school district with another 5 acres of developable land.

"It's really a win-win situation for the school district and for the village," Fox Crossing Village Manager Jeff Sturgell said. "It's a great project."

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Fox Crossing will use $1 million in federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to pay for the construction. The Fox Crossing stormwater utility will pay the $600,000 balance.

A sign posted on the property says the wet pond will remove suspended solids and phosphorus before stormwater is discharged to a tributary of Little Lake Butte des Morts. The dry pond will reduce flooding on American Drive that's been occurring for years.

An excavator dumps soil into a truck near the intersection of West American Drive and Dublin Trail in Fox Crossing.
An excavator dumps soil into a truck near the intersection of West American Drive and Dublin Trail in Fox Crossing.

School administrators think the improvements will make the property more desirable to developers.

"It raises the value of that land," communications manager Jim Strick said. "I don't know if anyone wanted to buy it with the way that it floods all the time."

Proceeds from the sale of the land could be used to offset the cost of the district's new high school that's under construction off Winchester Road in Fox Crossing. I reported in March that the project was running $14 million over budget.

Post-Crescent reporter Duke Behnke answers your questions about local government. Send questions to dbehnke@gannett.com or call him at 920-993-7176.

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This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Fox Crossing, Neenah schools strike deal for regional stormwater pond