Marathon signs new lease with Postal Service
By Kevin O’Brien
Marathon City has signed a new five-year lease with the U.S. Postal Service, which includes $6,334 in commission for a third party to negotiate the terms of the agreement.
When the village was first presented with the new lease agreement late last year, village officials objected to paying a fee to Jones Lang LaSalle (LLS), a third-party company that has been hired by the USPS to negotiate leases with local governments.
After meeting in closed session on April 3 to discuss the terms of the agreement, the village board approved the new lease, which takes effect on Nov. 1, 2025 and lasts until Oct. 31, 2030.
The USPS will pay the village $31,720 a year – $158,600 total over five years – in rent for 2,815 square feet of space in the village hall building on Walnut Street for its local post office. This rent is $1,220 more per year than USPS’s original offer and includes 4,380 square feet in parking space and 5,170 feet for its driveway and sidewalks.
Included in the lease is a separate agreement with LLS to pay the brokerage firm a 4 percent commission for representing the USPS in the lease negotiations. According to a 2022 letter to the village, the USPS signed a nationwide contract with LLS in 2017 to provide real estate services for all of its facilities The village is currently paid $28,417 per year for USPS to run its local operations in the village hall, so the new rent starting in November of 2025 will represent a $3,300 increase in annual revenue. Once the next five-year term expires, the USPS can renew its lease through 2035 at annual rent of $34,892, according to the agreement.
Back in December, village officials also questioned the breakdown of maintenance responsibilities between the village and the USPS, but village administrator Steve Cherek said the new lease will remain unchanged in that regard. He said the board was willing to settle on the terms proposed by the USPS in order to guarantee a continuation of the local postal service.
Other news
The village board took the following actions at its latest monthly meeting on May 1:
n Approved the placement of a new light pole on the northeast corner of STH 107 and Fourth Street as part of a Wisconsin DOT project in 2026 that will result in a widening of the intersection and the addition of a pedestrian island.
n Approved a utility easement for a drainage ditch running across the residential property at 311 North Ridge Rd. Cherek said the easement should have been obtained before the current project was underway, and several other easements were missed along the construction corridor. Trustee Connie Ruplinger, who lives at the property with her husband, agreed to provide the easement for $1. She abstained from voting on the easement.
Trustee Jeff Lawrence said the project engineer should have known about the need for the easements before the project started and wondered if the village had any leverage over the engineering firm, Vierbacher, to recoup the costs of obtaining the easements after the fact.
“This is why you hire professionals, to make sure this stuff doesn’t happen,” he said.
n Renewed all of the village’s Class A and B liquor licenses, operator’s licenses and cigarette licenses for local taverns and convenience stores. A temporary Class B license was also approved for the Knock MS out of the Park Softball Tournament, June 14-16.
n Cherek said work on the new Fourth Street sidewalk and walking trail will begin inAugust or September, which is later than originally planned due to the Wisconsin DOT completing its process for acquiring easements from the Marathon School District and Little Lions Daycare.
n Cherek said he spoke to Marathon County about overgrown grass and weeds on the STH 107 medians, and the county plans on spraying a “growth inhibitor” on the medians this year.
n Cherek told trustees that he spoke to Heartland Business Communications about mounting a security camera at the entrance of village hall, overlooking the dropbox for utility payments. The board originally planned to install the camera on the highway garage, but it would have been expensive due to the need for internet service.
n A renewed license for the mobile home park on Fourth Street is still being withheld until the property manager addresses several health and safety issues, Cherek said. He said some of the issues identified by the Marathon County Health Department have been resolved, but there are still problems that need to be fixed.
“If they know what the issues are, we shouldn’t have to babysit them like this,” said trustee Kevin Sorenson.
