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Abby looks to rehab fish pond

Abby looks to rehab fish pond
READY TO DEVELOP - Abbotsford’s newest street, Grube Drive, will be extended south from Opportunity Drive in order to accommodate future development in the industrial park west of STH 13. The city council voted Monday to pay for additional feet of roadway and utility lines into a new cul-de-sac that could serve two potential developments. The solid line is what was previously approved, and the dotted line is the new extension approved Monday.
Abby looks to rehab fish pond
READY TO DEVELOP - Abbotsford’s newest street, Grube Drive, will be extended south from Opportunity Drive in order to accommodate future development in the industrial park west of STH 13. The city council voted Monday to pay for additional feet of roadway and utility lines into a new cul-de-sac that could serve two potential developments. The solid line is what was previously approved, and the dotted line is the new extension approved Monday.

An algae-covered fishing pond at Abbotsford’s Shortner North Park would get flushed and aerated next year under a proposal presented to the city council Monday by DPW Craig Stuttgen.

Located off Wuertzburg Road just north of the city limits, Shortner North features a couple of picnic pavilions and open space for unleashed dogs to run around. The 10-acre park also has a pond, less than a half-acre in size, that has attracted a lot of anglers recently, Stuttgen said.

“We had three picnic tables out there by the pond, and they were all full,” he said. “There are a lot of parents and kids out there every night.”

Stuttgen said kids have been pulling 13inch crappies out of the pond, so it’s already an attractive fishing spot, but unfortunately, the surface of the water is covered in thick algae.

“The pond itself is not very appealing, and it makes it not a place where people are wanting to spend time,” he said.

Looking for a solution, Stuttgen said he discovered that the water is held in place by concrete staves that can removed so the pond can be temporarily drained. This would allow the city to dig out some deeper holes in the bottom of the pond and install an aerator so the fish population could thrive.

“Right now, we could spray it all we want, and the algae is just going to keep growing back,” he said.

Stuttgen said it would cost about $6,000, plus mobilization fees, to rent a specialized backhoe to do the digging. He said it would take about a week to dig out a few 14 to 15 feet holes, with the goal of improving the fish habitat and making it look nicer.

City administrator Josh Soyk said the project would be scheduled for 2026 and included in his proposal for next year’s budget.

Council members seemed to agree that improving the pond was the worth the investment.

“I think we need to do something with it,” Ald. Sarah Diedrich said.

Stuttgen said the work could get started as soon as this December once the frost is in, and wood mats could be placed along the pond to access the water. If an opportunity to do that came up, the billing for the work would be delayed until January so it’s drawn from the 2026 budget, he said.

Stuttgen said he and Soyk had talked about budgeting as much as $50,000 for improvements at Shortner North, which would also include reshingling the pavilions, but Stuttgen believes he could get the pond “shaped up” for about $20,000 total.

“There is maintenance for a pond like that, when we have to spray it three times a year,” he said. “They look nice when they’re maintained.”

Stuttgen said the city would also look at re-stocking the pond with fish.

Mayor Jim Weix said he has seen firsthand how popular the park is even with the way the pond looks now.

“I drove up past the retention pond Sunday morning after church,” he said. “There were a good dozen kids up there having fun, and it’s nice to see that.”

Grube Drive to be extended further

With two developers looking to possibly build on what is now city-owned land west of STH 13, the council voted to approve an additional extension of roadway and water and sewer utilities going south from Opportunity Drive.

The council previously awarded a $591,134 contract to Haas Sons to extend Grube Drive south from Opportunity Drive in the city’s western industrial park, along with extending East Linden Street in the eastern industrial. Monday’s council action will add up to $165,162 in work for extending Grube Drive roadway and utilities further to the south into a new cul-de-sac.

“We have two developers and one lot open up there,” Stuttgen said. “Both of them seem ready to go for next year, and you need to have turnkey-ready lots – with the water and sewer and everything in – so when they’re ready to go, you’re not slowing things up.”

The industrial park land is located within a tax-incremental finance (TIF) district, so the city is hoping to get as much development there as possible so it can collect the property taxes and use it for paying off improvements such as the road and utility extensions.

“The way it stands right now, if we didn’t get another building in there by the end of the TIF, it would not be profitable,” Stuttgen said. “But, if we get two more in there, we’d in pretty good shape.”

Even if neither one of the potential developments materializes, Stuttgen said the city would still have utilities in place for another developer in the future.

Looking at the list of extra work that Haas itemized, Stuttgen said there’s “a lot of fat to trim,” so the final cost is likely to be less than the $165,162 included in the bid tabulation.

Stuttgen said he and Soyk plan to meet with one of the developers again to walk through the available land and show him other TIF developments in the city.

“There’s no commitment yet,” Soyk said. “It sounds promising, but we’ve had that in the past and it never happened. The fact is, it’s never going to get cheaper to do this road than it is now.”

Stuttgen said TIF district 7, which includes both the western industrial park and the Schilling Subdivision on the north end of the city, is “doing very well,” with 10 apartment buildings having been built since the city invested $2 million into developing the area north of Fourth Street. Because all of those apartment building are located in TID 7, the city collects about $600,000 per year in taxes that would normally be split with other taxing jurisdictions such as the school district.

“We have areas that are going to be very profitable, and we have areas like this (industrial park) that are going to be a little slower to develop,” he said, noting that TID 7 is not in danger of running a deficit.

Work on the Grube Drive and Linden Street extensions is slated to begin next week and scheduled to be completed by the end of October.

Other business

■ After meeting in closed session, the council awarded raises to public works employee Grant Blair, from $27.50 to $30 per hour; clerk-treasurer Erin Clausnitzer, from $27.50 to $30 per hour; and deputy clerktreasurer Linda Filtzkowski, from $20.50 to $23 per hour. Soyk said Blair’s wage was increased to the same pay rate as his co-workers, and the raises for Clausnitzer and Filtzkowski were approved to make their compensation comparable to other clerktreasurers in the area.

■ Library director Jenny Jochimsen said Clark County is still looking at eliminating payments for Marathon County patrons who use Clark County libraries, but she and the library directors from Colby and Dorchester are hoping to make a presentation to the county board about the impacts of the cuts before the board votes on the 2026 budget in October.

■ Soyk said new pickleball courts have been installed at Christensen Park and are already being used. Some landscaping still needs to be done at the park, and Uhlig Construction will be building a new gazebo there as a part of improvements funded by the Christensen Foundation.

■ The council voted to cancel a certificate of deposit at Nicolet Bank, which had a maturity date of Aug. 14, and transfer the $1 million balance into the city’s money market account to take advantage of a higher interest rate. Soyk said he is looking into a special municipal checking account at Nicolet Bank that would offer 4.25 percent interest as long as the city moved all of its operating funds into the account.

“They’re going to get me a proposal together that I’ll put before the council, but that’s not going to happen before this CD matures,” he said.

■ The council authorized Soyk to purchase a replacement pump for the sewer lift station on Linden Street. The city has already received a roughly $25,000 quote from B&M Technical Service for a new Shin-Mywa pump, but Soyk wanted to get a second quote before deciding which one to buy. B&M also offered to rebuild the existing pump for about $13,800, but considering the pump is already 10 years old, Soyk thought it would be better just to replace it.

■ The council reviewed and approved a total of $248,063 in monthly bills.

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