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their fees, too” he said. “But, hopefully, they don’t lose players.”
Tax dollars have already been allocated for maintaining the park in 2025, but Cherek wanted to know if the board wants to continue doing that going forward without knowing the true cost.
Board members expressed mixed feelings about whether to start charging club teams, but there seemed to be at least some support for having the groups help pay for running the new facility.
Village president Kurt Handrick noted that teams are often sponsored by local businesses, which helps offset the costs that are passed on to individual players.
“I’m sure the businesses would bump it up a bit to cover that, but you don’t want to lay it all on the businesses, either,” he said.
In order to soften the financial impact, Cherek suggested phasing in the new fees over time, but he also said the village should start charging teams to use Veterans Park as well.
“That’s the way I would approach it,” he said.
Instead of passing the costs onto local clubs, trustee Jeff Lawrence suggested that the village raise more money from hosting larger tournaments now that three fields are available. He thought that the village could potentially host up to 10 tournaments a year at the new park.
“I just don’t think we should charge the city leagues for the use of these fields,” he said.
Trustee Keith Paul expressed doubt that collecting tournament fees and 10 percent of concession sales would be adequate, and said he was OK with the idea of charging $25 to $50 per player to raise enough revenue.
“We should not be making money at it – at least that’s my opinion – but we should at least be covering our costs,” he said.
Trustee Barb Parlier, however, wondered how residents would react to the village asking local clubs to start paying for a new ballpark built for the community to enjoy.
“We wanted people to buy into this,” she said. “So, right off the bat, if we’re going to start charging, does that leave a bad taste in their mouth?”
Cherek said another revenue stream to consider is businesses sponsoring outfield banner signs as advertisements. He said the city of Mosinee is able to generate a total of $15,000 a year with two-year sponsorship contracts.
Parlier said she wants the village to do whatever it can to avoid passing the ballpark costs on to local families whose kids just want to enjoy summer sports.
“I feel that, in this day and age, we price kids out of playing things,” she said. “I feel like if these kids just want to play in Marathon, we should let them play.”
Cherek, whose own kids play youth baseball, said he sees both sides: the village wants to keep baseball and softball affordable for local families while also covering its costs.
“We have bills to pay, too,” he said. “It’s a hard balancing point.”
When asked about the electricity for lighting the ballfields, Cherek said he could develop an estimate based on what the village currently pays for Veterans Park.
Trustee Connie Ruplinger said the board needs get a better handle on the total cost of running the new ballpark before deciding how much to charge.
“I think we need to get it all down on paper and then decide,” she said. “I think we have more questions than we have answers right now.”
Because the newly planted grass will still be taking root next year and drainage issues need to be resolved, Cherek said the ballpark may not even be fully ready to host all of the local teams right away next year, so implementing facility fees in 2025 could be premature.
“I’ll work on getting a better breakdown,” he told the board.
Other business
â– Cherek told the board that KC Industries, which sold the village a faulty fluoride tablet system, has offered to settle out of court for $24,721 after trustees voted last month to pursue legal action against the company. The village has spent $34,248 of its own money trying to get the system to work, and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) also provided close to $26,000 in grant money for the system to be installed.
“We could easily eat up that $10,000 in attorney’s fees,” Ruplinger said, referring to the gap between what KC Industries is offering and what the village has spent.
Cherek said the village is not expected to reimburse the DHS for the grant money as long as the utility resumes fluoridating its water using its previous treatment method.
Trustees agreed to discuss the settlement offer with their legal counsel in closed session at a future meeting before making a decision.
â– The board approved a motion to rezone a parcel of land north of STH 29 from agricultural to industrial in order to accommodate a new production facility planned by Menzner Hardwoods. Menzner purchased the 32.5 acres of land, which is located
See BALLFIELDS/ page 16 Ballfields
Continued from page 2
within the new northern industrial park, from the village at $1 per acre as part of a developer’s agreement that will require the company to build a facility worth $8.1 million in 2026. Cherek said Menzner still needs to apply for a conditional use permit and submit site plans before the building itself is approved.
â– Trustees discussed a renewed effort to get the state of Wisconsin to correct its funding formula so that Marathon City gets its fair share of shared revenue every year. For years now, the village has been getting far less state aid than other similar-sized municipalities in the area due to an error that was reportedly first made back in 2001.
Former village administrator Andy Kurtz tried to resolve the issue but was unable to get state legislators to take action. Trustees talked about sending letters to Rep. John Spiros, Sen. Cory Tomcyzk and even Gov. Tony Evers to try and get the discrepancy fixed.
“This seems like a cut and dry case,” Trustee Lawrence said. “We just need to get it in front of the right person.”
■The board approved a letter of engagement with KerberRose to conduct the village’s 2024 audit, at a cost of $22,900. Cherek said a representative from the accounting firm has already been working with village staff on an interim audit, with the goal of getting a final audit report to the board earlier next year.
â– Trustees took no action on replacing a sewer lateral at Veterans Park that has at least three breaks between the concession stand building and the sewer main on Cedar Street, which were discovered after a backup this past summer. Cherek presented the board with an estimate from Summit Plumbing, ranging from $18,000 to $23,000, but trustees decided to hold off on replacing the lateral until more is known about the future of Veterans Park.
