Business investment

Marathon assists with Menzner Hardwoods addition

The Marathon Village Board last Wednesday agreed to help Menzner Hardwoods, which has operated in Marathon since 1894, with a developer’s agreement to help the company relocate its water and stormwater utilities during its building expansion project.

Andy Kurtz, village of Marathon administrator, credited Marathon’s three major employers Menzner Hardwoods, County Materials and Marathon Cheese for continuing to invest in the community with their building additions during the past four years.

“All of those investments have resulted in new infrastructure and jobs in the community,” Kurtz said. “These companies could be making those investments in other communities but they chose to make them here, which is a positive sign that we have a solid work force. Two thousand people a day drive to work in Marathon and we have a population of 1,576, so we are an employment center for the region and these companies continuing to invest here helps drive that.”

“We are very appreciative of what these companies have done here and we want to help them out when we can. Our village sold land to Marathon Cheese for its building addition and a few years ago we did some utility extensions for County Materials so it could construct a new maintenance shop. These companies’ building additions help the village fund other things so we can keep the tax rate lower for our residents, so the more value they bring to the community helps.”

Kurtz told the village board last Wednesday Oak Park Place of Madison will go ahead with constructing a $7 to $9 million 40-unit workplace housing structure, consisting of two and three bedrooms, on land the village purchased from Herman Hilmerhausen north of STH 29. Construction is anticipated to begin next year and building should be completed in 2024.

“Oak Park Place approached the village a couple years ago with a desire to build a workforce housing project, which will be funded by Wisconsin Economic Development Association (WEDA) tax credits,” Kurtz said. “They applied in December of 2021 for the tax credits and they received some of them in April. Two weeks ago, Oak Park Place let us know it has received the rest of the tax credits so it can go forward with its workforce housing project in Marathon. It is in our village’s TIF district so we are putting together an agreement related to that project. Based on where we are with our TIF district, we anticipate there will be some TIF incentive there for this workforce housing project.”

Kurtz said Oak Park Place will sell the tax credits it receives from WEDA to reduce its construction costs for the workforce housing structure, which it’s then able to charge residents less money for rent each month. He said this workforce housing structure is mainly for young people who are just entering the workforce and they can’t afford to buy a house or pay a large amount in monthly rent for an apartment.

“There are income requirements for people wanting to live in this workforce housing building,” Kurtz said. “People will need to have a job, but even if they have one they can’t earn above a certain threshold of money each year and they can’t have a criminal record.”

The village needs to first build an industrial access road and install utilities on land north of STH 29 before Oak Park Place and Rib Falls Repair, along with other businesses who are considering coming to Marathon, can build their structures on this land. Kurtz expects the village will bid out the project yet this year to companies for construction work to begin this winter, which will consist of installing a water line across the Rib River and connecting 154th Avenue in the business park south of STH 29 to the new development north of STH 29.

“We have three or four businesses looking to come here and we anticipate once the industrial access road and utilities are installed that these parcels of land north of STH 29 will sell fast,” he said.

In other news:

n The village of Marathon has an estimated $1.8 million budget in 2023 but Kurtz expects the village will have a lower tax rate for residents because of the village’s equalized value increasing by 15 percent.

He said the village selling land to Marathon Cheese for its building addition will help the village have a lower tax rate for residents in 2023 compared to 2022. He is still waiting to receive the village’s assessed value. The village budget hearing is on Wednesday, Nov. 16.

n Kurtz gave an update to the newspaper on Friday about the youth baseball and high school softball field complex the village wants to construct along CTH NN on the outer east edge of the village.

He has spoken to Larry Buchberger and Terry Witberler who help organize Knock MS Out of the Park at Veteran’s Park each summer about their concerns with the new fields not being large enough to play men’s softball. Kurtz is still waiting for the project engineers to tell him what the extra cost would be make this happen.

“All of the new ball fields are really geared toward youth athletics, which has exploded over the last decade, but we are trying to make accommodations as long as they are cost effective,” Kurtz said. “Right now the new ball fields are not designed for men’s softball because we don’t have a need for men’s softball three quarters of the year.”

Kurtz said he and the village board are listening to residents’ concerns about the village selling the old Veteran’s Park for redevelopment so the village can afford to construct the new ballfields on CTH NN.

“Ultimately there have been some concerns by some citizens about the project from what we are doing, why we are doing it and where we are doing,” he said. “They don’t want to see the old Veteran’s Park go away and we get that but we can’t build a new modern park in the new location without digesting the old park.”

“We can’t build a new park without redeveloping Veteran’s Park and generating the tax money in order to make it tax neutral, and we need to do that otherwise it’s going to be a significant expense on the village’s general tax levy, and from day one we said we didn’t want to do that to our residents.”