Colfax village president candidates answer questions at forum
By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — Economic development. Finding another medical clinic to locate in Colfax. The industrial park. Residential development.
These were some of the topics the two candidates for Colfax village president spoke about during a forum sponsored by the Colfax Commercial Club March 5 at the Colfax Arts and Antique Mall.
Chris Olson and Gary Stene both filed nomination papers for the village president position by the January deadline for the April election.
Olson has previously served as a trustee on the village board.
Stene has previously served as the village president and currently serves as a supervisor on the Dunn County Board and as vice-chair of the county board.
Colfax Commercial Club members formulated the questions, and Pat Eggert, a Town of Colfax resident, acted as moderator for the forum.
Approximately ten people attended the event.
Question: What are your plans for economic development in Colfax?
Gary Stene: I would be interested in leveraging our money with some borrowed money to move the village forward. Two things I would like to see that would be important for our village is to try to get a clinic in town. It would be good for the residents to have a clinic here. And I would like to see the development on the east side of Colfax get a foothold and get going. And I would like to see the industrial park develop more. If someone said, “I want to put up a $10 million business” we are out of land to make that happen. My experience has been that if we actually own the land, the village is able to do a lot more with helping businesses through the TIF.
Chris Olson: The clinic is important and residential and industrial growth are important. But we also have to sell the Colfax community as a town to visit. That’s where economic development comes in. You get people interested in coming into the Colfax area and being part of the school district and part of the churches and part of Colfax day-to-day life. We can expand them on purchasing a house. The development on the east side is great. The industrial park is great. But one thing I differ with is we should have a developer to develop the properties instead of the village, because if we have a developer come in to do the property, they are required to pay and negotiate with the village for the upgrades.
Question: Where do you see the growth in business and industry in our village?
Chris Olson: The growth, once again, on the east side and on the west side. We can do a lot. We do have one building that is partially being used by a major company in town. Part of that could be used for a call center that could employ up to 110 to 120 people. That would bring people downtown. When we did the Power of 10, we looked at the downtown proper. But we also have businesses on the south side of town that we have to embrace, too. Just north of Kyle’s, there’s a spot of land that you could use for a strip mall. And then the Schindler property right next to Dollar General.
Gary Stene: I want to promote the village, too, and I want these things to happen. I’m pretty firm in my idea that the village is going to have participate, at least in the first part of the development, because unlike Somerset, where you get $50,000 a lot, they can’t recoup the money here. The way I look at it is, if we can find a developer that wants to work with us, yes, it will cost us some money, and yes, we might give him some good deals, but it doesn’t mean we are going to give any other developer that deal. One thing to remember is that every community is looking for the same thing. They all want to grow. They all want to entice people to come there. We have 40 going through here. We have 94 eight miles away. We have the railroad. And an excellent school system.
Question: In your opinion what is the biggest issue facing Colfax?
Gary Stene: The biggest thing is trying to get people to move here, trying to sell our real estate, and keeping up on our infrastructure. There’s never enough money on this level or the county level or the state level. Just keeping on top of things. Being smart with our money. Having a program for replacement of our equipment. Having a schedule for road replacements. Try to be as informed as you can be and try to use as many resources as you can.
Chris Olson: “If somebody (says), ‘you know, it would be nice if we had this.’ Two weeks later, you read it in the newspaper, we have this. We’re not planning ahead. If it’s something we can use in the future. The skid steer for example. It was brought to my attention when I was on the board before. I said, ‘plan for it.’ We got it within a year with no preplanning of the financial. We need to look at everything and pre-plan for major purchases We have to look collectively to see what the smartest way is to repair things. The other thing is, and we’ve heard this on the national level, is transparency.
Question: The Colfax Plan Commission recently spent a year updating the Smart Growth Comprehensive Land Use Plan. How would you envision the Colfax Village Board using the plan to its best advantage?
Chris Olson: It’s right here. I’ve been reviewing it for a week. It’s basically our one, five and seven year plan. My opinion is, we take and use this 100 percent of our capabilities. Some things in here are not financially feasible right now. Groundwater. Make sure our lagoons are good. How to use the properties on the east side and the west side. It’s 160 acres. How to work with property owners to improve their corners so the snowplows don’t ruin the yard. That’s why we are putting in curb and gutter. There is a law that we have a Smart Growth plan.
Gary Stene: Our Smart Growth plan should be followed. I was on the board [at the start of the Smart Growth planning]. We were one of the first municipalities, if not the first in the county, to put together a Smart Growth plan. I thought we needed to do it, and the board agreed. As we go along with the Smart Growth plan, sometimes circumstances arise that don’t fit. For instance, what would we do if someone came to town and wanted to put up a $10 million factory not here, but over there? Our Smart Growth plan says we don’t do that. I’d have to take it under advisement. It’s a plan, and it should be followed — if it is feasible to do so. You have to approach these things with a common sense attitude. Can it get done? And at what cost can it get done?
Question: The village board has discussed the possibility of the village offices and the police department moving to the DPW building. The library board has committed to the library staying in the the Colfax Municipal Building. The village has already spent about $700,000 on the DPW building to purchase it and to remodel it. What are your thoughts about moving the village clerk’s office and police department, which would require additional remodeling?
Gary Stene: I thought it was a good idea to buy the building. [Stene was serving as village president at the time.] The old building (on Evergreen Street) was in terrible shape and almost condemned. We could not get all of our equipment in (the old building). I thought, when we first started, it would be a good idea to get all of our equipment into one building. The other part of the puzzle is the Colfax Rescue Squad. The fire department owned the fire department building, and the village owned the rescue squad building, and we had a big squabble over that. To put that to bed, part of spending the money to move the rescue squad over there, was to clarify and solidify that situation. In the meantime, there was a wrangle over who owned the fire department building. In the end, that was satisfied by the fire department auctioning it off and each entity, the village and the townships, got their share of the money. If you don’t know the background, these were two prickly things. The townships and the village could not agree. For what it’s worth, it’s done now. We’ve got a building, and we’ve got the rescue squad down there. I think we did the best we could. I had envisioned moving those people over there, but if you did, then you’d still have all your costs at the village hall.
Chris Olson: I’m sort of torn on it. My feeling is that the village hall should be downtown. At the time the fire department was being sold, Jean Olson was president at the time, and it got to be a heated meeting. [Olson was serving on the village board at the time.] I think I almost put my fist through the table when one of the board members said it would cost a million to replace the roof on the firehall — as Karl was putting one on his building (Karl’s Chevrolet) for $120,000. His was a bigger building than the firehall. Looking back in history, the garage was designed by an engineer/architect for a shop. The village did pay for that to be designed. There were supposed to be three offices. The building was professionally designed for a maintenance shop. That little spot in front of the rescue squad was $27,000 all together (for the blacktop area). If we do the rest of it, that’s over $120,000. I think just that alone is too burdensome on the taxpayers. Yes, it would be a nice handicapped accessible building, but cost prohibitive. The rescue squad cost $253,000 for those renovations, and that was with (EMTs) doing some of their own work. My opinion would be $300,000 or $400,000 to put in a secured area for the law enforcement and for the clerk’s office, and a mezzanine for records. I personally think it is cost prohibitive at this time.
Question: Over the past 20 years or so, Colfax has become more of a bedroom community with people not showing much interest in the Colfax Woman’s Club, the Russell-Toycen American Legion Post No. 131, the Colfax Kiwanis, the Colfax Municipal Building Restoration Group, and events such as the Colfax Free Fair and the Colfax Firefighters’ Ball. What, if anything, can the village, the village president or the village board do to help regenerate a sense of community?
Chris Olson: One thing I would like to do, and Elk Mound has been doing this for years, is a newsletter. Everybody in the village gets one on a monthly basis. That could be mailed or e-mailed. It would have minutes and the groups could use it for meeting nights. It is a problem. Look at the dwindling numbers of everything. Church attendance. Twenty years ago, we didn’t have all the big box stores. We didn’t have the movie theater open on Sunday mornings. I see three main things that are big draws to Colfax. The Colfax FFA Alumni Farm Toy Show. The car show. They brought that from Menomonie. It’s booming. And the Barbershop show. We set up 750 chairs, and the bleachers seat 150 or 200. It’s been packed. Standing room only. That’s economy coming into Colfax. But how do you get people involved? Just like today (for the forum). It was in the paper. We have to be discovered. I think that’s one thing we need to do is promote ourselves. Keep current events on the website.
Gary Stene: I agree with Chris. I’ve got trouble running my phone. I’m not a tech guy. But I’ve got no problem approaching things that way. Because that’s what the kids are doing, the younger generation. I think what you are seeing is a generational change in our community and in our country. That’s why a lot of these groups are not current at all. The Legion — almost all of our World War II veterans are dead now. The younger vets haven’t got as involved as the older vets were. I don’t know what the answer is to that. I think there’s a changing of the guard. What I think of as younger people are going to get involved in the governing process. And if they aren’t, they should be. They look at things different. We’re busier than we ever have been before. When I was young, to play sports was a big thing. We didn’t hardly ever go to Eau Claire. Now they’re going to Eau Claire all the time. They’re going to Menomonie all the time. It’s tough for the businesses. We never used to have Country Fest and all of that, and now you bump up against that. Every village has a certain weekend when they have their celebration. Maybe we’d be better off to have one major blowout where everyone participates that would be our niche. And if we all go together, we’d be able to afford more than individual clubs. We are a bedroom community. We tried to have more industry here. Cell phones and social media. That’s how people communicate. It’s how my grandkids do it. It’s how my great-grandkids will do it.
Question: Would you be willing, when available, to attend as many civic clubs and organization meetings to keep open communication with the overall well being of the village in mind?
Gary Stene: The answer to that is ‘yes.’ But I’m on the county board. I’m on executive committee. I’m on the human services committee. I’m on the ADRC [Aging and Disability Resource Center] committee. I’m on the traffic safety committee. If I’m elected, that will be two meetings a month and possibly more. And I like to attend the sporting events at school. Yes, I would like to. But in all honesty, I probably could not attend as many as I should. If you’re the village president, you should know what’s going on. If you can’t attend, you should be able to get the information from people who were there. By not attending, it wouldn’t mean that I’m not interested.
Chris Olson: Unlike Gary, I don’t have all of those committees, and even though I don’t like sports all that well, I do attend. I’m more tech support. Yes. I’d like to go the meetings and see what they’re doing. I think what every group is doing is wonderful. I would like to see a committee for community relations that would be (so trustees) could go to the committees and see what they are looking for from the village. We wouldn’t be able to offer all that much. But there’s been good cooperation with the village with the Kiwanis and the softball association. It’s a matter of getting it implemented.
Question: A while back there was a proposal to put a sand processing plant in or near Colfax. If the idea resurfaced, would you be in favor of putting a facility in the village or near Colfax?
Gary Stene: I’m in favor of development. You’d have to look into what it would entail. What kind of a setup it would be. And then the impact on the community. For me to say, no, I wouldn’t want it, or yes, I would want it, would be pretty premature on my part. I would have to get the information and think it over. Having said that, I’m pro-business. You’d have to look at the situation. See how many it would employ. See what it would do to your tax structure, if anything. See if you think it’s worth the nuisance. Unlike the ethanol plant, and to do this day, I’m upset about that. The public never allowed us to get to the part where we could discuss the facts. It was a big uproar. I think that was an opportunity missed. That would have been $250,000 in tax money every year for very little disruption, in my mind. [The ethanol plant was built in the Town of Hay River and has been operating for ten years.]
Chris Olson: When the sand mines first started, I didn’t like them. They destroy God’s given earth. In the job I was working in at the time, I was working on a copier for a company over in Chippewa that was a sand mine. He said, “How would you like to come and work for us. We need a tech guy.” He gave me the numbers and said I would need a Visa because I would need to spend six months in Quebec and then come back and do IT stuff and go back and forth. I said, “what’s the guarantee?” And he said, “you do our work, and we’ll compensate you for it.” I thought, “there’s a catch.” I knew a guy who left a good union job to drive truck. He got $10 more an hour. I saw him about year later. He had been laid off. The jobs were there. Then they weren’t. Go up on Hwy. 53. I think there’s three or four sand mines that are in bankruptcy right now.
Final summation
Gary Stene: I’m encouraged. This is the first forum I can ever remember that we’ve had for the office. I’m happy to see the people here. I’m appreciative of the questions. If I’m elected, I’ll do the best I can do for the village. And I’m sure Chris will do the best he can do if he’s elected. Talk to your neighbors. Get more interest in what’s going on here. Get more interest in what’s going on in the county. Because we respond to you, the taxpayer. I would say a lot of people don’t understand the job of a board is to set policy on how they want the village run. Then they hire someone to run it. We hired Lynn (Niggemann). We’ve got our other people. The board sets policy, and we hire people to run it. And if it doesn’t run right, it comes back to us. It’s a change from how it used to be.
Chris Olson: We moved here in 1970 from Menomonie. I was hired on the Colfax police department in 1979 … I’ve been on EMS. I’ve been on the fire department … we have to embrace all the people who have created those things. I’m chagrined to see Mark (Halpin) is the only board member here. We’re going to be working with these people. Some of the (village board) meetings are short lately. Twenty minutes. It takes longer to conduct village business than 15 or 20 minutes. You’ve got to talk things out. You’ve got to be part of the system. There’s a lot of questions to answer. I enjoyed doing the research. I appreciate the Commercial Club putting this on.