Colfax agrees to Soo Park survey to settle 100-year-old question
By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — It’s kind of funny, sometimes, how a trail can go cold in a hundred years.
Since 1915, the area directly south of the Colfax Railroad Museum, known as Soo Park, has sat empty and with no official property owner.
The Colfax Village Board, at the May 9 meeting, agreed to contract with Cedar Corporation in the amount of $2,750 to survey the parcel.
The parcel was platted in 1916, said Scott Gunnufson, village president.
The contract with Cedar Corporation will be for completing the survey and recording the deed, he said.
So how does it happen that a parcel of land ends up without an owner for a hundred years?
A small article in the November 26, 1916, edition of the Colfax Messenger was able to shed some light on the situation:
Colfax Expands.
A company has been formed and a move is on foot to annex the tract of land just south of the Soo Line station as an addition to the village, and a portion of the survey it is planned to set aside as a park to be beautified with trees and flowers. Then a park drive is to be part of the addition, which in all will be a fine improvement to the village, if carried out according to present plans. Geo. T. Vorland, G.W. Emmerton , etal, are the promoters, and the company is styled the “Colfax Improvement Company.”
The Messenger is pleased to note this move for local improvement and wishes it the success is deserves.
Park Drive
So there you have it.
A company called the “Colfax Improvement Company” was formed to annex the land.
And the intention was to turn it into a park “beautified with trees and flowers,” along with a “park drive” to be part of the addition.
Somehow, the land was never annexed, or if it was, the annexation was never recorded.
And according to Lynn Niggemann, village administrator-clerk-treasurer, the Colfax Improvement Company dissolved in 1919.
Future plans
Surveying the Soo Park parcel will determine just exactly how much land is available, Gunnufson said at the May 9 village board meeting.
Ackerman Dairy Products borders Soo Park to the east, he noted.
If the parcel is large enough, the village could consider selling it as the site for a duplex. And if other property owners in the area of Soo Park should want to sell their parcels, then they should know, too, what the boundaries are, Gunnufson said.
Mark Halpin, village trustee, wondered if the parcel would be too close to the railroad tracks for a duplex.
Duplexes are usually built as rental properties, and people move in and out on a regular basis, so they probably do not care whether it is somewhat close to the railroad tracks, said Casey Rihn, village trustee.
Niggemann said she has received several telephone calls about multi-family homes. People have expressed interested in the multi-family homes that will be built in East View at some point in the future.
There is quite a lot of interest in duplexes and four-plexes, she said.
People who have lived in Colfax and the Colfax area all of their lives have expressed disappointment to the Colfax Messenger that when they are ready to retire, there is “nowhere to live” in Colfax. They are at a point in their lives where they do not want to own a home and would like a duplex or a four-plex. But since there is very little available, they have moved to Bloomer, Menomonie or Eau Claire.
The Colfax Village Board unanimously approved moving forward with the Soo Park survey with Cedar Corporation at a cost of $2,750.
Other business
In other business, the Colfax Village Board:
• Approved a license for keeping domestic chickens from May 9 until June 30 of this year for Lisa Ross at 609 First Avenue. The village’s ordinance stipulates that licenses for domestic chickens run until June 30 of every year and then must be renewed for the next time period of July 1 until the following June 30.
• Approved paying Colfax EMTs double-time, for a total of $14.50 per hour or $15.50 per hour, for covering horse shows at Otter Creek Farm. Before EMTs became hourly-wage employees paid $7.25 per hour or $7.75 per hour, they were paid $17.50 per hour to be at the Otter Creek Farm horse shows, noted Don Knutson, director of the Colfax Rescue Squad. Being paid double time will still represent a pay decrease for the EMTs, but it is a better rate of pay than $7.25/$7.75 for a weekend of providing service at the horse shows, he said.
• Approved a proclamation designating the week of May 15 to May 21 as Emergency Medical Services Week to recognize the service provided by the EMTs serving with the Colfax Rescue Squad.
• Approved donating the cost of three regular and one handicapped portable restrooms for the Colfax Free Fair. Last year, the cost was $370. In years past, the village board alternated between businesses in the area that provide portable restrooms. The village board has since decided that the Colfax Fair Board should make that decision about which company to contract with for the fair and that the village will pay for the rental.
• Approved withdrawing from the Local Government Property Insurance Fund. The premium went from $7,800 last year to $13,567 this year, Niggemann said. The LGPIF had a surplus, did not charge municipalities any premiums for a year, and then ended up with a record number of claims and now does not have enough money to continue insuring municipalities, Gunnufson explained.
• Approved insurance coverage for the village with Municipal Property Insurance Company at a cost of $9,800 for the year. MPIC has been recommended by the Wisconsin League of Municipalities.