Starting fresh

County forgives shelter for land purchase, but holds lien for future

NEWS EDITOR

Sometimes starting over is the fastest and the least costly option.

Jessica Mudgett of Taylor County Supportive Housing (TCSH) told members of the Taylor County board on Thursday that a new opportunity could get a planned homeless shelter open much sooner and at far less expense than renovating a structure purchased earlier this year will.

Mudgett, president of the private non-profit organization looking to open a homeless shelter in the community, said they were approached about the possibility of purchasing the former Deerview Manor property located near North Second Street in Medford that was previously used as an assisted living facility. Mudgett explained that the last resident had moved out in mid-December and the owner was looking to sell the property.

She said the property, which has separate secure bedrooms and shared kitchen and common spaces would be essentially turn-key as far as being converted for use as a shelter. The building the organization currently owns located on 4th Street in Medford is in need of extensive renovation and accessibility and fire safety upgrades in order to be used for a shelter. The amount of work needed was discovered as part of the engineering study done as part of the grant program which had initially paid for the purchase of the building.

The county had been the conduit for those state and federal grant funds and after finding out the extent of the needed renovation and time frame for the project to get done, supervisors at the October board session had balked at the potential for risk of having to repay the grant funds if the timeframe was not met and voted to discontinue the grant.

This left TCSH in a lurch by pulling the grant funds they had planned to use to get the shelter open and operating. Due to the wording in the agreement between the group and the county, TCSH was also on the hook to pay the county back the approximately $130,000 spent to purchase the building.

Earlier this month, the county’s executive committee had voted to recommend forgiving that obligation and treating it as the county’s contribution to the shelter project. Mudgett came to the county board with the request that the full county board approve forgiving the amount for the purchase of the current structure and allow TCSH to apply any funds from selling it to the purchase of the new location. She said the group is in negotiations with the current owner and could not move forward with those talks until after the county agreed to forgive the previous amount.

The group is hoping to use funds from the sale of the 4th Street building to cover about half the cost of the purchase of the estimated $260,000 structure. She said they were negotiating a land contract with the current owner to pay for the structure over time as fundraising continues. Given the building’s current use, she said it would be ideal for them and require very little in terms of renovations in order to open and begin serving clients. She also reported that TCSH is in the grant application process for organizations and foundations and said that what she has heard back so far has been positive in their support and they were awaiting notifi cations. She also reported they have received private donations for the project.

Mudgett said they would have to seek a conditional use permit from the city planning commission for that property. She said that if they had that, she anticipated they would be able to open the doors of the shelter within 30 days of the closing date on the purchase of the building. She noted that need for the shelter remains strong in the community with the Salvation Army having funded $22,000 worth of room vouchers in the county in the past year. She said those needing this service include people who live, work and attend school in the community who just do not have access to housing.

County board members were divided about forgiving the purchase price, with some noting the shelter was originally planned to use the grant funds and not cost taxpayers any money. When the county board voted to cancel participation in the grant, the amount in grant funds received for the purchase was repaid to the state through county reserve accounts.

Supervisor Mike Bub supported forgiving the money noting the money has already been spent. He suggested that the funds could come from the forestry department land acquisition account to balance where the funds had been taken from in the budget. Money from the land acquisition fund comes from a portion of stumpage revenue in the county forest.

Supervisor Gene Knoll suggested putting a safeguard in place that if in the future the shelter would be closed that the county could be made whole at that point in the future. Supervisor Scott Mildbrand also supported this idea noting that things could change at the state and federal level in the future and it would make sense to protect the county’s interests.

County attorney Courtney Graff said it would be possible to amend the current agreement with TCSH to include that sort of language.

Supervisor Rollie Thums was opposed to any sort of forgiveness of the previous purchase amount. “It has been a fiasco,” Thums said about the homeless shelter project.

He said the county needed to look out for their own before assisting an outside group. He said county employees have taken a beating in the budget. He cited the wage study presented to the finance and personnel committees earlier last week showing that more funds are needed to be spent on county wages saying that needed to be a higher priority. “I think the project needs to stand on its own,” he said. Thums said forgiving the money would be a “slap in the face” to the county employees.

Supervisor Lester Lewis said the county has already paid out the money and urged the board to cut their losses and write off the debt, noting that collection of the funds could involve going to court.

County finance director Larry Brandl said he felt the county should support the project but that he felt forgiving the entire amount would be too much and said other groups should also come forward and support it. Thums clarified that he supports the shelter project and what they want to do, but said he thinks there is a better way to fund it.

County board members voted unanimously to amend the initial resolution to forgive the purchase amount to include a stipulation that if the TCSH group disbands, the county would have a claim to the amount of the approximately $130,000. Mudgett noted that she is only one member of the TCSH board and could not make the decision on behalf of the organization without consulting with the other board members. Thums said the action was the county’s offer and they could either take it or leave it.

Lewis noted that in the case of the organization dissolving in the future, the county would be among potentially other creditors in having an interest in whatever assets remained. He cautioned that it was not a guarantee that the county would be made whole in the future.

In a roll call vote on the amended resolution, it passed 15-3 with Thums, Tim Hansen and Earl Hinkel opposed. Supervisors Ray Soper and Chuck Zenner were absent.

In other business, supervisors: Approved accepting the settlement agreement over the opioid class action lawsuit. The county had previously agreed to join the class action lawsuit with the state of Wisconsin seeking damages from pharmaceutical companies for the opioid addiction crisis. Graff recommended the county accept the settlement agreement which will bring an estimated $446,000 to the county. Of that, 85% must be earmarked for approved uses dealing with opioid issues. The county would be able to use the remaining 15% on other purposes. Graff also advised board members that the state suggested they set aside 20% of the total amount for potential legal fees to cover the cost of the class action lawsuit.

Approved the contracts with the Taylor County deputies and sergeants unions. The contracts call for across the board pay increases of 1.5% in January and July of 2022 and 2023. It also includes a side letter allowing the sheriff’s department to switch to a 12-hour shift schedule for a one-year trial. The change, patterned off what is in place in other departments around the state, would allow deputies more regular weekends off versus the current scheduling system. The agreement provides options for both the county and the union to back out of the trial if there are issues with it.

Received an update from Bub on the status of the broadband project and reviewed a potential for the county to work with Bug Tussel LLC to build off of the county’s network and add another 75 miles of fiber cable as well as network of 13 cellular towers that would provide not only wireless to the home but improve cellular phone coverage. In order to make this happen, the county would have to agree to allow Bug Tussel to use a portion of the county’s unused debt service amount. This was described as the county cosigning on the bond allowing Bug Tussel to secure the financing for the project with the county being paid 40 basis points of the loan amount for their participation as well as having the agreement secured by an interest in the assets being built. The company is currently working with several other counties including Marathon County with similar agreements. Bub said the advantage of this is that it will greatly speed up the access to broadband internet for more rural areas of the county and serve as a bridge providing this access until fiber to the home becomes a reality throughout the county.

Larry Brandl