Clark County to vote on $8 million loan
Clark County supervisors will vote in October on a proposal to borrow $8 million to finance new highway department facilities in Neillsville, Loyal and Owen.
If approved, the loan would fund an ambitious construction project to replace “ancient” highway facilities at the three sites, including addition of a main shop and administration office in Loyal, and new truck storage, washbays and other improvements at all three locations.
The 29-member county board of supervisors was informed of the construction proposal at a Sept. 9 meeting in Neillsville. With the 2022 annual budget now under development, the board would need to approve the financing plan in October to have the funds available to start the highway department improvements next year.
The board will vote on the borrowing proposal at its next meeting on Oct. 14, and will then approve a final 2022 budget on Nov. 9. The highway funding proposal will require a three-fourths majority vote for passage.
According to information presented by finance director Terry Domaszek, the highway loan would be taken for a 10year repayment period at 2.95 percent interest. The money would be drawn over a two-to-three year period as the construction is proposed for separate phases in 2022, 2023 and 2024. The county would pay only interest in that initial draw period, and would then pay full principal and interest payments for the remainder of the 10-year period.
Domaszek said the principal and interest payments, which would average a little more than $1 million annually, would be worked into the county’s annual budget with no increase in property tax rates. With expected gains in property growth in the coming years, the tax rate should remain at roughly $8.02 per $1,000 of value, Domaszek said.
Some of the new borrowing costs would be offset with a plan to refinance the county’s existing debt. The county currently has a balance of $1.31 million on a $3 million loan it took out in 2015 to finance a new radio communication system, and that can be refinanced now at 3.25 percent. That would save the county $46,146 in interest over the remaining four years of the loan.
The county also has a $5.37 million balance on its 2017 remodeling/expansion project at the Rehabilitation & Living Center near Owen. The county can also refinance that package now at 3.21 percent, with a $66,358 savings on interest.
Both refinancing plans also need threefourths approval from the county board, with a vote on them to take place Oct. 14.
Rebuilding the county’s aging highway department facilities is not a new idea. The county board considered a building plan in the 1990s, and even purchased 40 acres of land west of Loyal for a new central shop/office site. The board later backed away from that plan and sold the property.
County Highway Commissioner Brian Duell said the latest round of discussions on new facilities has been ongoing for more than a year. The county has made small land purchases at its Loyal and Neillsville facilities in the last few years to prepare for an eventual building project.
The county hired an architectural firm in the last year to study various building options. Several options were considered, Duell said, with consideration given to items such as cost, land availability, departmental priorities and location.
“We kept essentially circling back to the same idea of trying to get things more centrally located,” Duell said. “We’re trying to get as much as we can centrally located in the Loyal area.”
The county currently owns about five acres of land at its Loyal location on Highway 98 West. A garage built in 1940 is on that site now, as well as a quonsetstyle storage building. Under the proposed plans, the 1940 building would be removed and replaced with a central main shop/office facility. That would move all the department’s central functions into Loyal from their current location in Neillsville.
The main shop now in Neillsville — which was built in 1968 — would be repurposed for heated truck storage and a 1940s-era building there would be removed. The plan would also call for the department to consolidate its Neillsville operations at the current highway office site, rather than maintaining that location as well as a garage and salt/sand storage building across town at the fairgrounds.
The salt/sand storage shed has been in need of replacement for several years, Duell said, but has been delayed because the state has not had funds to pay for its share of a facility (the state pays a portion because the county uses the salt/ sand to maintain state roads). That state money is now available, Duell said.
“The state funds a portion of a new salt/sand shed but they have not had any funds to proceed with that project until now,” Duell said. “That kind of really started this (larger building plan).”
Current low interest rates are also a factor in the project proposal timing.
“With the interest rates as low as they are right now, that’s what sparked it off,” Duell said. “We can get this for half the interest rate we were considering.”
If the county locks in the low interest rates now, it can move ahead with a multi-year building project and may even be able to save more money as recently high construction prices flatten.
“Hopefully in a year or two from now, building prices will come down,” Duell said. “Building prices are starting to return to normal.” According to the tentative building plan, work would start in 2022 with the following projects:
_ Salt and sand shed/Neillsville -$125,000 _ Fuel island/Neillsville -- $250,000
_ Site work/Loyal -- $200,000
_ Cold storage/Loyal -- $425,000
_ Site work/utilities/Owen -- $50,000
_ Cold storage/Owen -- $150,000 The main project for 2023 would be construction of a new centrally-located maintenance shop and administration office in Loyal. It would replace the main shop/office currently located in Neillsville and will be built at the current highway department garage site on Highway 98 West in the city. That building alone is estimated to cost $3 million, including demolition of the old garage and site work.
Other projects for 2023 would include $1.5 million for a truck storage garage in Loyal, $125,000 for utilities upgrades in Loyal, $225,000 for a washbay in Loyal, and $150,000 for a fuel island in Loyal.
The work would then conclude in 2024 with construction of an $800,000 truck storage shed in Owen, and $500,000 for washbays in Owen and Neillsville.
A $500,000 contingency fund for all the work brings the total to $8 million.
Domaszek said low interest rates are an incentive for the county to do the highway department upgrades now.
“The interest rate is at an all-time low. Expect that the interest rates will go up in the coming years,” Domaszek said in her presentation. “Doing the entire project during the 2-3-year period instead of every few years will allow the county to take advantage of the rates when they are low and not have multiple notes on the entire project.”
Duell said he is bringing the project forward for consideration now due to the interest timing factor, as well as the overall need to replace facilities that Domaszek described as “ancient” in her presentation. Some of the garages were built 7080 years ago, Duell said, and were not designed to house the size of the trucks and other equipment the county needs.
“Stuff just doesn’t fit in them and they’re very inefficient all around,” Duell said.
The county has more than 20 large plow trucks to store, as well as four end loaders, two graders, a fleet of pickups and paving/construction equipment.
Duell said the Highway Committee has endorsed this plan, and wanted to propose new highway facilities now as the county has moved forward in recent years with improvement projects at the Rehabilitation and Living Center and the fairgrounds.
“Something needs to be done at some time,” Duell said of the highway facilities. “My responsibility is to at least bring it forward. Part of my job as commissioner is to make sure we have the facilities to operate.”
