County board pulls back on shelter grant
Supervisors cite concerns over risk of having to repay grant funds spent if project not completed next year
Taylor County is putting the brakes on being a conduit for grant funding for a planned homeless shelter in the community.
The county had previously applied for and secured community development block grant funds for the private nonprofit group Taylor County Supportive Housing (TCSH) for the purchase, renovation and administration of the Taylor House shelter located in the city of Medford. That grant totaled $320,000 and about $130,000 of it has been spent on the purchase of a building and administrative costs. The county is the fiscal agent for that federal and state grant with the state reimbursing the county for funds spent.
The project had a rocky road from the start taking more than a year to locate a building to purchase. Ultimately a vacant multi-family residential building was acquired on Fourth Street in Medford. The county transferred ownership of the property to TCSH with the intent that the county would just serve as a pass-through for the grant. The grant required that the shelter be open and serving clients by December 31, 2022 with the condition that if the terms are not met the county would be on the hook to repay any funds spent.
The purchased home requires extensive renovation. The estimates based on the federal requirements for the property are about $550,000. This is well in excess of the amount of the original grant.
TCSH, which is actively seeking other grants and donations in the community and elsewhere approached the county asking the county to apply for an additional CDBG grant which could be used to supplement the original grant. The risk is that if the project was not completed in a little over a year from now, the county would be on the hook for repaying the total amount totaling well over $800,000. With $16 million in that grant pool, the county’s chances of securing the additional grant funds was pretty good, however there were serious questions about the ability of the project to get completed on time due to ongoing supply chain and worker shortages.
At Wednesday’s county board session, supervisors were asked to consider applying for the additional state grant on the group’s behalf.
This met with strong opposition from those who supported the overall project, but felt the federal restrictions tied to the grant presented too many hurdles to overcome in the time left to be open.
“I fully support the shelter, I just can’t support it for getting the extra money,” said supervisor Chuck Zenner.
Supervisor Rod Adams said he did not understand why the shelter needed to add things such as a sprinkler system to the existing building. He said to someone who is homeless going from living in a box or in their vehicle having any kind of roof over their head would be an improvement.
Jessica Mudgett, president of the TCSH board, explained that they are currently seeking a separate grant to cover the $35,000 cost of the sprinkler for the second floor of the shelter. Supervisor Lester Lewis noted that state building codes may require the sprinkler in the building regardless of where the funding is coming from. He also cautioned against trying to use the federal American Rescue Plan Act money received by the county to help fund the shelter because he did not believe it qualified under the program guidelines.
Mudgett noted that there has been a strong showing of support from the community with multiple donations and grants arriving. “We intend to move this project forward, we want to continue to help those who are homeless in the community,” she said.
Supervisor Ray Soper questioned the scope of the shelter and how many people it would be able to serve. Mudgett said that when renovations are completed, Taylor House will be able to accommodate 12 people with separate spaces for women, men and families. The program would provide housing support for 30 to 60 days with the goal of getting people into employment, connected to necessary services and “graduating” them into their own apartments within that time. She noted that they could extend that time to 90 days if adequate housing was not available. The plan is for the facility to have one full time and one part-time employee.
Supervisor Scott Mildbrand reminded board members that when the grant was first approved the county was told there would be no additional money needed. “It seems to me that those parameters have already been broken,” he said.
The question weighing on many supervisors was if the project could be completed by the December 31, 2022 deadline and how big of a risk the county would be taking to have to repay the entire amount. Supervisor Gene Knoll said that in the past he would have been confident it could be done in that timeline but given current struggles for workers and materials, he was doubtful. “There is a pretty good chance it can’t be done,” he said.
After a lengthy discussion, supervisors voted 15-2 against a motion to apply for the additional grant funds for the project. Supervisors Lisa Carbaugh and Myron Brooks were the only votes in favor.
This triggered a discussion on if the county felt the existing grant should be maintained or be stopped. The board went into recess for the county’s executive committee of Zenner, Mildbrand and board chairman Jim Metz to meet and discussed a docketed resolution to discontinue the grant program. During the executive committee meeting, discussion focused on minimizing the risk to the county if the project was not completed on time. “The county is in the hot seat,” said county attorney Courtney Graff.
The risk to the county now is to have to repay the approximately $130,000 that has been spent from the CDBG grant funds. “The way it is being presented right now it is just not going to work,” Mildbrand said of the project suggesting TCSH should give the county the keys to the building and allow the county to sell it and then come back when they have a “reasonable” project.
The question of ownership of the shelter was also raised. The Taylor House building is owned by TCSH. Graff said there was a side agreement with the nonprofi t that could be used to reimburse the county for the property purchase, but suggested that would be a matter of negotiation between the county and the group rather than requiring formal action at this time.
Zenner agreed with stopping the grant at this time, but saw it as a way to open the door to more community involvement to get the project done at a far less cost than under the federal rules. “Let’s work together,” Zenner said.
Coming back into the full county board session, the recommendation from the executive committee was introduced and quickly drew opposition from Supervisor Tim Hansen.
Hansen noted that having the shelter renovation completed and having it able to serve clients were two different things. He said the renovation could be done in phases with the group focusing on the lower level and getting that open first and then working on the upper level. This, he said, would satisfy the terms of the grant to be serving clients by the end of next year.
“I believe we should continue this,” he said.
Mildbrand raised doubts about the ability of that to take place under uniform dwelling code rules about when occupancy could occur. Mildbrand said he favored starting over on the project.
Supervisor Mike Bub objected to the idea of starting over, noting it took 14 months to find the location for the shelter and they didn’t want to go through that process all over again. Bub said he would like to see the county back out of the grant and allow the group to keep the house and work with the community to get the needed renovations done without the federal entanglements.
“I think you bought the wrong house,” Mildbrand said suggesting that they “hit reset” on the project. “Start over and do the project right,” he said.
TCSH board member James Stokes said the risk to the county is very minimal when looking at what the value of the completed shelter will be. He said he felt that building from the ground up would end up costing $600,000 or more.
Following the discussion the board voted on a resolution to pull out of the original $320,000 grant and pay back the state the approximately $130,000 already spent. In an unusual move, the board voted twice on the motion. The first time it failed as Metz joined Hansen, Dave Roiger, Knoll, Adams, Carbaugh, Jim Gebauer, Brooks in voting no. However, Metz indicated he voted in error and subsequently the board approved a motion to allow a revote to take place. In the second vote Metz and Gebauer both changed their votes to be in favor of discontinuing the grant.
Tax levy approved
The county portion of local property tax bills should go down slightly as a result of the passage of a nearly flat county levy for the 2022 budget. As adopted, the total county budget calls for expenditures totaling $27,771,523. Of that amount, projected revenues are $15,394,525 leaving a local property tax levy of $12,376,998. This levy is then apportioned out to the individual municipalities based on their portion of the total equalized value of the county. Property taxpayers got a boost from the county applying $1.4 million of county sales tax revenue to the budget to reduce the levy.
Based on the $1.52 billion equalized value of the county, the projected tax rate to cover the levy will be $8.11 per $1,000 of equalized value. This is a drop of $0.07 per $1,000 of equalized value from last year’s rate.
The county is only one part of the overall tax bill, which also includes the school district, technical college, state and local municipal rates. This number will look different on the tax bills because they are built on the assessed values of properties rather than the equalized value.
Wisconsin imposes a levy freeze on counties based on 1.133% increase over the prior year plus any special levies and debt service levy. The levy adopted by the county board is below the maximum allowed levy of $12,3765,998 by $7,310. Board members approved adopting the budget and setting the levy.
In other business, board members:
_ Approved the highway department equipment schedule authorizing up to $755,900 in expenditures for the potential purchase of two quad-axle patrol trucks and plow equipment, a paint supply truck and miscellaneous equipment needs. Funds to cover the planned purchases come from machinery earnings and equipment fund carryovers, those available funds total $953,000.
_ Approved bridge aid expenses for 2021 totaling $68,294. This covers the county’s portion of the bridges for six projects approved this year. Under the program the county splits the cost of replacing qualifying bridges and culverts with the local municipalities. The county’s portion is then levied across all the participating municipalities.
_ Approved the final redistricting plan setting the districts for the next 10 years. The plan is unchanged from the preliminary plan approved by the county board last month. It makes only minor modifications to boundaries in the city of Medford due to population shifts in those districts.
_ Approved powerline impact fee fund requests from two organizations and tabled action of a third request. Board members unanimously approved awarding $25,000 to Rib Lake Fish and Game Association to help fund the purchase of a trailer for the aquatic weed harvester used by the organization to allow it to be stored over the winter. Approved $6,250 for the creation of hands-on learning spaces at the Jean M. Thomsen Memorial Library in Stetsonville. Board members tabled a request for $10,000 to install new sidewalks at the Taylor House shelter facility. Based on action earlier in the meeting, Thums called for them to table action noting that he felt they were “putting the cart before the horse” based on the status of the overall homeless shelter project.
_ Approved the contract for legal services as county corporation counsel with Schmiege, Graff and Koch Law Firm for 2022. The contract calls for the county to pay $6,800 per month for human services and child support legal services, $190 per hour for general government legal services and $95 per hour for legal assistants and paralegal services. This represents a slight increase over the previous contract.
_ Approved exemptions to the county library tax for the municipalities who support libraries in their communities this includes the village of Gilman, Stetsonville, Rib Lake, the town of Westboro and the city of Medford. The county’s portion of library funding comes from a tax on the municipalities that do not maintain their own libraries.
_ Adopted by unanimous voice votes the Taylor County Farmland Preservation Plan and the Taylor County Forest Annual Work Plan for 2022. Each plan is required for participation in state funding and grant programs.
