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Stoughton
Thursday, September 27, 2018 • Vol. 137, No. 10 • Stoughton, WI • ConnectStoughton.com • $1.25
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City of Stoughton budget
Council to weigh requests Mayor’s priority: $293k employee compensation plan ALEXANDER CRAMER Unified Newspaper Group
Photo by Amber Levenhagen
Brielle Waltz, 4, paints leaves on her tree at the Stoughton Public Library’s preschool painting event Friday, Sept. 21.
Painting with preschoolers The library hosted its final preschool painting party last week. For several weeks over the summer, children and their guardians were invited to attend painting activities with various themes – the final party, held last Friday, had the kids painting trees with fall leaves. Most of the activities were booked full, with dozens attending each class. For more information about library programs, visit stoughtonpubliclibrary.org.
City of Stoughton
$500k grant aimed at site cleanup ALEXANDER CRAMER Unified Newspaper Group
The City of Stoughton received a $500,000 idle sites grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation for the riverfront redevelopment area last Thursday. The money will help pay for demolition of the Highway Trailers building, construction of riverfront trails, restoring the riverbank and cleaning up the site after years spent in heavy industry. These grants are for sites that have “so many issues, the communities can’t overcome them” without help, Tricia Braun, chief operating officer of WEDC said. Braun said they try to address the issues that make these projects cost-prohibitive, such as
paying to demolish unused buildings or clearing the site to return it to a “blank slate.” “We recognize how hard putting together redevelopment work is,” she said. “The proximity to the river and downtown has so much potential.” Redevelopment Authority chair Roger Springman shared his enthusiasm for the project’s potential, detailing his long-range vision for the project – about $40 million to 50 million in assessed value and home to 200-300 people. It would include biking and walking trails that connect to Stoughton’s trail system within blocks of downtown and in view of a proposed whitewater rapids park. Springman thanked past members of the Common Council and RDA, including former chairs Peter Sveum and Scott Truehl, for the project’s momentum. The current makeup of the authority is markedly different from when the body was started
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in 2007, and even from 18 months ago – only Ald. Regina Hirsch has remained. “Projects and grants don’t just happen,” Springman said. “They happen because people work together.” The city had pledged to match the WEDC grant with $1.5 million of its own, RDA consultant Gary Becker said, and the $2 million project will help clean up the site, fund construction of a riverwalk trail and a pedestrian bridge from the downtown site to Mandt Park and enable the city to complete environmental assessments on the site and restore the riverbank. Included in that number was approximately $700,000 to demolish the Highway Trailers complex. The council authorized Becker to apply for the grant in April. His application combined the MillFab site and the Highway Trailer site for a total of
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• Similar slow growth as past years • $300K compensation plan high priority • Several depts. to request more staff firefighters to bring about 24/7 service, an additional police officer and clerical position in the police department and part-time positions in the planning and HR departments. The city also has been operating without an economic development director. “Once again, we certainly don’t have the resources to fund those positions,” Swadley told the Hub last week. “We wanted to let the council and community know we have additional needs.” With growth continuing at about the same modest pace it has the past few years – 1.6 percent net new construction – the city has limited options for funding new initiatives. One way to overcome such limitations is by moving money between accounts or pushing back projects. Another way is taking on more debt for capital expenses, like vehicles, equipment and road work. But both tactics have drawbacks and, if done frequently enough, can have long-term effects on the city’s bond rating, which affects its ability to take on inexpensive debt. Over the next few weeks, finance director Jamin Friedl and Swadley plan to meet with
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‘Idle Sites’ money will help with riverfront project
If not for an ill-timed phone call that pulled an alder away from a key vote last November, the police department would not have gotten an extra patrol officer this year. That and a 2.25 percent across-the-board wage increase were the major new expenditures in the 2018 budget, with the officer’s salary being paid from an unexpected increase in state transportation aids, rather than growth in the city’s tax base. T h e 2 0 1 9 bu d g e t i s l i ke l y t o b e s i m i l a r l y squeezed, with plenty of requests and not many options to fill them. One priority that has gotten support from firstyear Mayor Tim Swadley is a nearly $300,000 employee compensation plan that would “rightsize” existing salaries for city employees and then raise them by 3 percent. But even the mayor has expressed doubt the budget can accommodate the entire plan without drastic cuts elsewhere. “At this point, we don’t k n ow w h e t h e r t h e r e ’s g o i n g t o b e a ny – o r enough – money to address the (compensation plan) requests,” Swadley said. “Realistically, I don’t see us making a lot of progress on that in 2019.” As alders will begin debating where to put the city’s money next Thursday, Oct. 4, they’ll be asked about several other department requests, such as adding four full-time
Key issues