By Beacon Staff
Chris Roepke is used to being the lone voice of dissent.
That’s
usually because he has a lot of questions, commonly directed towards
the financial side of a project. He wants to know how much it will cost
to maintain and how much it will cost if something breaks. These
are the kind of questions a homeowner would ask before starting a
remodel, keeping an equal eye towards quality and financial frugality.
Roepke wants to protect taxpayer money as if it were his own finances –
very carefully.
“A lot of people don’t like questions, because we all like things to be simple. But they’re not,” he said.
The pastor of Concordia Lutheran Church in Burlington, Roepke is a
defender of what he calls “the old Burlington neighborhoods.” These are
areas of the city that continue to decline in value due to poor roads,
increased violence, and abandoned homes.
Roepke
said those neighborhoods have been too often ignored in favor of huge
development projects, particularly in the downtown district. There isn’t
anything wrong with taking advantage the TIGER grant to spiff up
Jefferson Street, Main Street, and the riverfront, but he said the
project has its limits.
The
dilapidated alleys emptying into Jefferson Street, for example, won’t
be touched during redevelopment. Roepke doesn’t see how downtown
Burlington can be a tourist attraction if the rest of the city is
blighted. He
also worries about the cost to the city outside of what grants cover,
arguing that additions such as a million-dollar boat dock take away from
projects that could be developed elsewhere in the city.
“Does that really help the neighborhoods?” Roepke said.
Always
one to welcome nuance into his arguments, Roepke said he doesn’t
believe the boat dock is a bad idea — just an expensive one. Determining
how expensive is too expensive would be his primary goal as a council
member.
“I want the city to have amenities,” he conceded.
Roepke
has applied his hawkish spending attitudes to the smallest details,
even calling into question the permeable pavers in the TIGER grant
project. The downtown development project is built around a green
infrastructure, which also will help separate stormwater from sewer
water.
Once
again, Roepke likes the idea, but worries about the longevity and
repair cost. The pavers allow water to run through the pavement to
prevent flooding, and Roepke has heard accounts from other cities of the
material falling apart after a few years.
Roepke
hopes to bring his pragmatic approach to the recently closed Cascade
Bridge. For the time being, he suggests replacing it with a cheaper
pedestrian and bike bridge. He would like to see something capable of
carrying automotive traffic in the future and said it might be possible to have a new
bridge if spending is cut elsewhere.
“You’re isolating part of downtown from traffic, and that’s not good,” he said.
Service,
both of the public and also of the spiritual kind, seems to run in
Roepke’s family. His father was a police officer in the suburbs of
Chicago, where Roepke grew up. Chris heard his call from God years ago and has involved himself in the Burlington community for nearly three decades.
His call to public service is more recent, taking root when he led a
petition against swapping on-street parking for bike lanes on Madison
Avenue.
“There is no magic wand I can wave. We just need to take this money we’re spending downtown (aside from grant dollars) and spend it on the old neighborhoods,” he said.
Editor’s
note: This is part four of a six-part series profiling the city council
candidates. There are six candidates vying for three open seats. In
Burlington, all city council seats are at-large, meaning anyone from
anywhere in the city may run for a seat on city council. The council
election is Nov. 2.