Veterans Park move advances
Village board takes significant steps, but with one split vote
The Marathon City Village Board last week Wednesday took three important steps forward in its plan to move the Veterans Park ballfield to a new location east of CTH NN, but not all of the votes were unanimous.
The board voted 6-1 to hire Vierbicher Associates, Reedsburg, to design and engineer the new sports complex for $331,000. Trustee Mark Ahrens cast the lone dissenting vote. The board agreed, as well, to sell a small softball diamond located east of Chestnut Street and a portion of East Street to Marathon Cheese Corp for $250,000. That vote was unanimous. So was a third vote to establish a fund where individuals can donate towards the sports complex.
Under the approved contract, Vierbicher Associates will design the $3.8 million sports complex, which will include two baseball diamonds, two softball diamonds, two public pavilions, two outdoor basketball courts and a challenge course playground on a 14.5 acre site. A tunnel under CTH NN will provide pedestrian access to the rest of Marathon City.
Trustee Ahrens said he was nervous that the project revenues to date were $1 million short of the target goal and, lacking this funding, that Marathon City taxpayers might wind up paying for a portion of the sports complex.
“We are a million dollars short,” he said. “My concern is that this is not a tax burden for the property owners here.”
Village administrator Andy Kurtz told Ahrens that while all of the funding for the project has not yet been lined up, the funding gap was, in reality, only $350,000.
He said the village will be able to tackle the project without taxpayer money.
“I am pretty confident we will close that gap and make this a tax neutral project,” he said. “We are fortunate to have the tax funding that we do. We have significant support for the project. This will not cost the taxpayers anything.”
A capital campaign flyer lists current support for the project:
_ $1,260,000 in corporate donations from County Materials, Marathon
Cheese Corp. and People’s State Bank.
_ $1,045,000 in governmental funding from Marathon School District and sale of Veterans Park and the Chestnut Street softball diamond.
_ $510,000 in grants from the Goldbach Foundation, the Judd S. Alexander Foundation, the B.A. and Ester Greenheck Foundation, the Dwight and Linda Davis Foundation and the Marathon County Parks Foundation.
The flyer says the village hopes to raise $45,000 in its capital campaign.
The total here is $2,815,045, roughly a million dollars below the target amount, but Kurtz said “there are other donations” for the project that may not yet be listed.
Trustee Connie Ruplinger urged the board to move forward with the project. “Let’s not hold this up,” she argued. “We have over $500,000” in grants to easily pay for the Vierbicher sports complex design.
In related business, the board voted to recommend to the village planning commission to change the zoning of the Chestnut street softball diamond property from Conservation Reserve to Industrial-2.
In other business:
_ Trustees agreed to grant S.C. Swiderski a variance in its business park developer’s agreement to reduce planned housing units from 32 to 30 and to not require the company to use stone or brick on one of its planned buildings. The fewer units are because of the company hitting rock on its parcel and, in consideration of neighboring businesses, not blasting. The request not to use stone or brick follows from a building design that has many windows and door openings.
Trustee Mark Ahrens said he could accept a developer’s agreement variance but was concerned that other business park tenants who have installed brick and stone not feel they are treated unfairly.
_ Board members agreed to hire Ehlers Associates to invest $1.5 million in village reserves to achieve higher yields than in CDs and money market vehicles. The company will invest the village money in municipal bonds and other low-risk investment products.
“They will not be buying Gamestop stock,” said administrator Kurtz. “Everything will have a AA bond rating.”
The company will charge the village an $1,800 annual management fee.
Village president Dave Belanger said these were very low fees and supported hiring Ehlers to invest money on behalf of the village. “This is a steal of a deal,” he said. “It’s a no brainer.”
He predicted the village would only do better in its investments in future years.
_ Board members agreed to shortterm borrow $500,000 for the wastewater utility.
_ The board called for a proposed updated housing code to go through a public comment period. The code includes changes gleaned from ordinances in Merrill, Schofield and Rothschild.
_ It was announced Alicia Lang has been hired as a part-time police officer.
