Power of the Athens people
By Casey Krautkramer
Normally it seems residents in a municipality want to complain about how their local government keeps raising their property taxes. It’s unheard of for residents to band together to raise money to help their local government succeed. This is the case in the village of Athens.
In early 2021, a small group of Athens citizens developed the idea to raise money to purchase the U.S. Bank building that was for sale so the Athens municipal hall, police department and library could be moved there to free up space for long overdue renovations needed in the Athens Community Hall.
Athens residents Tom and Lorene Mueller, Jessica Frahm and Tracy Westfall presented this idea to the Athens Village Board to give its members time to see the value in it and thus Progress Athens, which is now the Progress Athens Foundation, was formed with an initial goal of fund raising $390,000 to allow the village to purchase and renovate the former U.S. Bank building.
“As the idea spread throughout the community, the generosity of a lot of its current residents, business owners, village board and people that have ties to our community but no longer live here
See GRAND OPENING/ page 16
RIBBON CUTTING FOR NEW MUNICIPAL BUILDING- Tom Mueller, president of the Progress Athens Foundation, utilizes a large scissors to cut the ribbon for the grand opening of the new village of Athens municipal building in the former U.S. Bank that has been renovated in downtown Athens. Other Progress Athens board members in the photo taken on Saturday include secretary and treasurer Jessica Frahm, Andrea Janke, Katelyn Haugstad, Tom Peter, Sherri Nehrbass, Lorene Mueller, Kim Heller and vice president Tracy Westfall.
STAFF PHOTO/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER Grand opening
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and with Jessica Frahm’s dogged pursuit of outside the box thinking for other forms of free money, we far exceeded that goal,” Tom Mueller, president of the Progress Athens Foundation, said at Saturday’s ribbon cutting ceremony for the new village municipal building.
Progress Athens raised enough money and gifted the village of Athens $100,000 to submit an offer to purchase the former U.S. Bank building in December of 2021. U.S. Bank accepted the village’s offer to purchase the building in April of this year. The village then hired contractors with money gifted from Progress Athens to remodel the bank into the current new space for the village clerk’s office, village board meeting room, police department and the Marathon County Athens Branch library. The new municipal offices opened to the public on Oct. 30 and the new library opened on Nov. 13.
“I am very pleased but not surprised that you all came together to make this happen,” Tom Mueller added during Saturday’s ribbon cutting ceremony for the new village municipal building. An open house for the public occurred after the ribbon cutting. “This is one of the many things that makes our Athens community so special. We have started the process of planning and renovating the community hall, which was the original goal of our group, but this has grown into something much bigger than that. The Progress Athens Foundation has a very strong group of new members and hopefully we can continue to find more projects to develop and fund raise for the benefit of everyone who lives and works in Athens.”
Tracy Westfall serves as vice president of the Progress Athens Foundation and Jessica Frahm is secretary and treasurer of the foundation. Other Progress Athens Foundation members who participated in Saturday’s ribbon cutting ceremony for the new village municipal building are Andrea Janke, Katelyn Haugstad, Tom Peter, Kim Heller, Lorene Mueller and Sherri Nehrbass.
Village of Athens president Randy Decker also spoke during Saturday’s ribbon cutting ceremony for the new municipal building.
“This project was a total community effort from the early meetings involving the community and village board members who were both interested in reviving one of the major buildings on Main Street in Athens,” Decker said. “After initially waiting two years to purchase the property, through the work of Progress Athens, the project started in spring. There were some bumps in the road but with the help of all involved including volunteers, the project was completed in November. There are a few outside things to do which will be completed in spring. The village of Athens says thank you to all who were involved in this project.”
Kitty Roesler, Athens Branch library coordinator, and her branch assistant, Sahara Falk-LeFay, were busy on Saturday afternoon giving people tours of the new library space during the open house for the new municipal building. Roesler describes the advantages of the library in the new municipal building compared to it being in the former municipal building next to Athens Community Hall.
“The library is now centrally located right off The Square; it’s in a great spot,” Roessler said. “The old library was 1,400 square feet and the new library is bigger at 1,600 square feet so we now have separate children’s and tween rooms that we didn’t have before.”
Tom Mueller said the second phase of the project that has already begun includes remodeling Athens Community Hall to add changing rooms behind the stage for children who use the gym and a commercial kitchen. A handicap assessible ramp will be built between Athens Community Hall and the former municipal hall. New bathrooms will be constructed in the back portion of the old municipal hall where the library was located.
Mueller said Trinity Lutheran School in Athens would love to operate a daycare in the front portion of the old municipal hall where the clerk’s office, board meeting room and police department were located. The idea still needs to receive approval from the state and there is some doubt whether it would be able to fully staff a daycare.
CHILDREN’S AREA IN THE NEW ATHENS LIBRARY- Kitty Roesler, Marathon County Athens Branch Library coordinator, speaks to attendees at Saturday’s new Athens municipal building ribbon cutting and open house inside the library’s separate children’s area.
STAFF PHOTO/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER
