Working together

City Council approves working with school district on FEMA grant

The city of Medford will work with the school district in seeking federal grant funds for a proposed storm shelter addition to the high school which would also include additional tech ed and gym space.

At Tuesday’s city council meeting, council members voted 7-0, with Laura Holmes absent, to approve a formal agreement with the city and to file the grant application on behalf of the school district. One of the conditions of the grant is that it be part of a hazardous weather plan. While the school falls under the city’s plans, having the city make the application satisfies the grant requirement.

At last week’s committee of the whole meeting, council members had been hesitant, wanting more information about the project and guarantees the city would not incur liability or costs associated with it. School district administrator Pat Sullivan was at Tuesday’s meeting to address those concerns.

See CITY on page 3 Sullivan walked through the project noting that when the district had first applied a year ago, it was for a dome-shaped structure. However he noted the grant only requires the structure to be large enough and be able to withstand 250 mph winds. With this new information, the district looked to address some needs including additional tech ed shop spaces and connecting the current tech ed building to the high school to address safety and security concerns there. The amount of gym space was also reduced in the plans. He explained that first and foremost the addition is a place for area residents to go in case of bad weather and where they can wait out a storm.

The total cost is estimated at about $8 million and if successful the federal grant would cover $5 million of the cost. “We would have to come up with the local share of $3 million,” Sullivan said, noting he had pledges from the Fulcrum Foundation, as well as Prevail, Forward and Nicolet Banks as well as a private anonymous donor totaling $655,000 of that match. He said the district would look in its budget, additional community donations, fund balances and savings to come up with the local match. He noted some districts have also gone to referendums for their local matches. All of these would be considered if the grant was successful, something that will not be known until next summer.

Council member Ken Coyer questioned what would happen if the school was not able to get the local match.

“We would say thanks, but no thanks,” Sullivan said, explaining they would have to turn down the grant.

Aldermen also questioned the potential liability and costs to the city. City attorney Ruth Ann Koch was at the meeting and said she reviewed a draft agreement between the city and the school district that was patterned on one in place in Darlington. She said she made a few tweaks to the agreement but overall said it would protect the city from incurring any costs with the district agreeing to pay any of the costs the city may see from having to do any audits or reporting of the grants. Under the agreement, the school district would prepare the grant application with the city filing the application. The city would serve as the pass-through for funds received. In addition the school would pay for the required audit of the project funds.

Sullivan said they would have to have the school’s attorney review the changes made by Koch, but said he did not see anything that would be an issue.

Koch noted that if for some reason the project was terminated and there were any fees or penalties, the agreement puts those costs on the school district.

Council member Christine Weix brought up a resident’s concern that if the district was unable to get the local funding would there be pressure on the city to pay for the project. Sullivan replied that the only pressure would be if the city council wanted to make a donation to the local match of the project.

However he said, if they were unable to get the local funding match for the project “it would literally just go away then.”

If approved for the grant next summer, the district would have three years before the project had to be completed. Council member Greg Knight said that would give them the option of having two budget cycles to come up with the money Council member Mike Bub spoke in support of working with the school district on the project. He noted that he is one of the few people who has served on school board, city council and county board and noted that question from the public is always why these governmental bodies don’t work together on things since they all represent the same people.

“With anything there is risk, but in this the city’s risk is very minimal. I think it is a good opportunity,” Bub said calling on the city to work with the school district on the grant. “I think we should do this,” he said.

Coyer questioned if it would impact the city’s ability to get other grants in the future. Jordan Buss, who was hired by the school district to write the grant, explained that while they could not use other federal grant funds as the local match to these funds, it would not prevent the city from applying for another grant or even one under the same program.

Following the vote to approve working with the school district and applying for the FEMA BRIC grant, Sullivan thanked the council members. He also expressed his thanks on behalf of the school district for the city donating two building lots in the Pep’s Drive subdivision for students in the building trades class to build houses on. He said the class is working on building the new concession stand at the high school this year, but would be beginning on the first house next school year. “You will be making sure a lot of kids get some real life experience,” Sullivan said.

In other business, council members:

  Formally set the final municipal tax rate for city residents, the rate includes taxes paid to the city, county, school district and technical college district. The combined tax rate is about $18.93 per $1,000 of assessed value. This is down from a rate of about $19.04 last year. The impact on property tax payers will be a savings of about $10.63 on a $100,000 home.

  Approved following a closed session to approve the sale of a city-owned lot at 228 S. Wisconsin Ave. to Ed and Michelle Wisnewski in the amount of $2,500. This is the former laundromat lot located on the Southeast corner of Wisconsin Ave. and State Street.

  Approved starting the hiring process to replace public works employee Charlie Motte who is retiring after more than 25 years with the city. “He has been here for 25 plus years, he has a lot of information we are trying to pull out of his head,” said city coordinator Joe Harris. Council members also approved a leave absence request for a public works employee from December 2022 to January 2023.

  Approved contracting with Dirks Group to install a local network to the public works shop and wastewater treatment buildings to connect to the primary internet fiber that connects to city hall. The cost would be split out with $10,000 from the federal ARPA funds, it would be split out at $5,994.06 for Electric, Water, Wastewater and Public Works utilities.

  Approved switching from Revize to Town Web to make upgrades to the city’s website to make it more user friendly and useful to residents. The cost will go from $1,375 per year to $3,399 per year but will include 24/7 support and redesigns.