County poised to borrow for capital list
The Marathon County Board of Supervisors on Thursday discussed a proposal to borrow $24 million to move forward on a list of long-stalled maintenance projects. Supervisor John Robinson, chairman of the Finance, Property and Human Resources Committee, told supervisors the borrowing was intended as “catch up” to deal with needed county maintenance and other projects.
In the past, he said, the county called on a Capital Improvements Committee, which included county citizens, to use collected department surpluses to fund county capital and maintenance projects. With tighter budgets, however, Robinson continued, there wasn’t enough budget surpluses to take care of routine maintenance. A library roof leak and jail floor sag turned out to be more expensive to fix because they were not addressed early, he said.
A decision was made, he explained, to disband the Capital Improvements Committee and borrow funds, as needed, to keep up with maintenance.
The list of capital projects was approved as part of the 2022 budget. They include:
n Move the Social Services Department to the North Central Health Care campus, $6,710,637.
n Turn the old aquatic therapy pool at the North Central Health care campus into a conference center,
$3,866,510.
n Update two parking lots at the North Central Health Care campus,
$1,808,451.
n Repair the courthouse exterior envelope, $657,260.
n Remove roof asbestos from North Central Health Care, $841,352.
n Update HVAC at North Central Health Care Professional Plaza,
$812,188.
n Mount View Nursing Home exterior painting, $398,530.
n North Central Health Care HVAC steam removal, $9,662,175.
n HVAC replacement at jail administration and kitchen, $1,011,675.
n North Central Health Care Professional Plaza parking lot and sanitary sewer repair, $178,099.
n CTH E box culvert, $225,000.
n Playground equipment, $200,000. n Restroom equipment, $50,000. n Big Eau Pleine Rd. repairs,
$275,000.
n Marathon Park cattle barn roof replacement, $90,000.
n Mission Lake parking lot pavement, $129,000. n Jail portable radio replacement,
$437,000.
n Jail flooring replacement, $150,200.
n Elevator modernization, $385,000. n Wall covering replacement,
$71,000.
Board members will vote on the debt at their Tuesday, May 24, meeting. The
$24 million in bonds will be added to
$6.3 million in tax levy and $8.4 million in budget surpluses to pay for this year’s list of capital projects.
Finance director Kristi Palmer reports the county currently has a AA1 bond rating from Moody’s.
