Marathon sees savings with bond issue

With a better-than-expected interest rate and over $400,000 in savings on their Aug. 6 bond sale, Marathon City officials did everything but pop champagne bottles last week as they issued about $5.2 million in promissory notes.

“I was jumping for joy when I saw the results come in,” said village administrator Steve Cherek, describing his reaction to a bond sale that yielded a $310,000 re-offering premium and a 3.78% interest rate. An interest rate of 4.5% had been included as a placeholder estimate before the bonds went up for sale.

As a result, the village will pay a little over $7 million in principal and interest over the next 20 years, which is more than $400,000 less than what was expected, according to financial advisor Peter Meidal of Ehlers, Inc.

“It shattered my expectations on where it was going to land,” Meidal said regarding the sale results.

Bok Financial Services of Milwaukee submitted the lowest of three bids, with the highest interest rate, 4.07%, coming from Northland Securities in Minneapolis.

Of the money being borrowed, over $4 million of it is being to refinance existing debts dating back to 2023, and about $1.5 million will be used for ongoing or upcoming village projects. Refinancing the outstanding debt will save the village money and stretch out the repayments so they match the useful lifespan of the assets they are financing.

By extending the repayment periods of the outstanding debt, the amount of local property taxes needed to make principal and interest payments every year – the debt levy – will stay steady for the next few years, at about $315,000.

The $1.5 million in “new money” will be used to replace the village’s 20-year-old streetsweeper, rehab the water tower, reline thousands of feet of old sewer pipes and complete the new ballpark complex.

The bonds are also set up so the village can fully pay them off starting eight years from now.

“I know this has been a journey,” Meidal told the board. “This has been months in the making, so you always want to see the result we got today. I’m certainly pleased.”

Other business

■ The board granted a six-month probationary operator’s license to Dustin Buchberger so he can serve alcohol at the Arrow Tap Bar. Buchberger’s license application had been flagged by the police chief because of some previous alcohol-related offenses on his record, but after listening to Buchberger describe how he had put that behavior behind him, trustees decided to grant him a probationary license.

■ The following crossing guards were approved for the 202526 school year: Brenda Wirkus, David Martin and Larry Berres, with Kathy Grell, Paige Koch, and Suzanne Martin serving as substitutes.

■ The board approved a rezoning of the property at 1221 CTH B from Agricultural to Rural Residential, which will allow the owners, Clayton and Samuel Phillips, to subdivide the property and build a new house on the new northern lot. Cherek said the owners may need to request a setback variance in the future depending on how the new lots are set up.

■ The board approved modifications to a developer’s agreement with Menzner Hardwoods, allowing the company to slightly downsize its proposed production facility north of STH 29 and change the color scheme from two-tone to solid gray. The changes will not negatively affect the amount of property taxes the company plans to pay into the village’s tax-incremental finance district once the building is complete.

■ Resident Clint Oelhafen spoke to the board about officially allowing golf carts to be used on village roads, just like ATVs and UTVs. Trustees said they supported the idea, so Cherek said he would contact the village of Spencer about their golf cart ordinance before bringing back a proposal.

■ Cherek told the board that most of the work at the new ballpark has been completed, and people are already using the basketball courts and ball fields. The Fourth Street sidewalk and walking trail are also mostly complete, he said, but the village still needs to decide how it wants to finish lighting the tunnel that runs under CTH NN.

■ In response to ongoing internet outages at the fire department, village hall and other buildings, Cherek said he and several department heads were able to find money within their budgets to pay for an estimated $12,000 to $14,000 in upgrades by the Dirks Group. He said the upgrades will save the village in the long run by reducing the number of service calls needed to address the IT issues.

■ The board met in closed session to discuss a possible development on the 400 block, but no action was taken in open session.