Curtiss, OWC fire district cannot come to agreement for fire hall
The Curtiss Village Board and Owen-Withee-Curtiss Fire District entered into a heated negotiation over the village and district’s fire hall agreement at the Curtiss Village Board meeting on September 5.
Representatives Dan Goessl and Travis Serocki from the Owen-Withee- Curtiss Fire District said they were disappointed in Curtiss during the ongoing talks over a rental agreement for the fire hall. They said they had invited the village board to attend their fire district meeting and the board responded by saying they wanted three good reasons to show up.
The board’s most recent proposal to the district would have had the district paying $26,000 in rent to the village by 2029. The proposal would have cost the district $20,000 in 2024 with a $2,000 increase until 2028. The district would have then paid $26,000 in 2028 and 2029 to rent the hall.
On top of the rent payment, the district would continue to be expected to pay for utilities, snow removal, general upkeep and building repairs needed that are caused by OWC staff and personnel.
Goessl started the discussion on the topic saying that if the district were to have to put the amount of money into the hall that the village would like, the district would like some sort of payoff. He mentioned that the district would like some sort of equity in the hall if they are paying that much.
He said the rental agreement was too much for the district as it is a non-profit. He said there could be another option if the village is not willing to come down in its rental price.
“I think if we’re going to get this high, we should just build,” Goessl said.
Serocki said because the district is a non-profit organization, they would have to charge the eight municipalities that are a part of the district more in order to pay the rent.
Goessl said it wouldn’t be fair to the other municipalities to have to pay for a village of Curtiss building. He compared it to the village of Curtiss helping to purchase a grader for the township of Hoard.
In 2021, discussion was had by both the village and the district on a similar $26,000 proposal.
Goessl said he doesn’t want the district to be paying Curtiss for giving the village its fire protection.
Board trustee Jonathan Unruh said the village is paying 65% of the principal and interest for the fire hall which totals a $52,000 tab each year. He said Curtiss is also a non-profit and would have to raise taxes on village residents to pay for the hall. He said the village’s tax levy is around $150,000 making the yearly $52,000 fire hall payment over a third of the village’s total tax levy.
Both parties alluded to the fact that past boards had been the ones to approve the construction of a building that is too big and over engineered for what the district and village could afford.
Unruh went on to explain that the district would not be able to pay $26,000 per year and earn equity in the building. He said the original plans for the building totaled $2.3 million. Unruh said the village has already paid at least $500,000 on the building so having the district pay half of what is left in payments would not suffice for the village surrendering over the title to the district or doing a partial title split.
Both sides agreed that they did not want the district to move out of the building. Goessl said if the district had to move out of the village, residents of the village would see their insurance rates rise and nobody wants that.
“We tried picking the budget apart,” Goessl said. “I know its unfair for you guys to pay for a hall that someone else signed for but here we are. We need to find a way to make this work.”
Unruh suggested that the district should find out what it would cost the district to build a new fire hall. He said if they came back and felt they could build a hall that suited the district’s needs while keeping monthly payments below $26,000 it could force the village’s hand in order to keep the district paying some sort of rent.
Goessl eventually agreed that the district could do that but did not agree that a new fire hall would be good for either entity.
Unruh said the district could pay the remaining $750,000 on the loan in order to purchase the building outright. Goessl offered a rebuttal saying the district could not justify raising the rates of the seven other municipalities to pay for a building that is out of the district’s budget.
He said the district could agree to pay the village $20,000 over the next three years. Unruh said he wanted to get something figured out that night and did not want to revisit the proposal in three years’ time.
Curtiss board president Betty Rettig said on multiple occasions that she did not want to see the district leave Curtiss. Serocki noted that the fire district could not kick Curtiss out of its fire agreement without going through civil court.
After about 45 minutes of discussion, the two sides agreed that the district would dig into how much a new building would cost and would come back to the board with an estimate in hopes of driving down the yearly rental price of the current building.
