Dunn County Board agrees to start planning for 5-year capital improvements financing
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — The Dunn County Board has agreed to start planning for 5-year capital improvements financing for $62 million in requests from all county departments.
Dunn County has always financed capital improvements on a year-to-year basis in each annual budget, but increases in revenue have not kept up with increases in expenses in recent years, making it much more difficult to pass a balanced budget every year, said Paul Miller, county manager, at a special meeting of the Dunn County Board on Saturday, March 7.
The county now must starting thinking two, three, four or five years ahead, he said.
County board members were not asked to make any decisions on capital improvement projects at the special meeting, but Miller said he needed a direction in which to proceed with a five-year rolling capital improvement plan as part of the county’s budget process.
At some point, the county board will be asked to approve a five-year capital improvement plan, but even after the plan is approved, that does not mean the projects identified in the plan are going forward automatically, Miller said.
The capital improvement projects would still need to be part of the budget for any given year and approved as part of the budget process, he said.
The projects identified in the capital improvement plan would be financed by the tax levy, state sources of revenue, such as transportation aid, other sources of revenue, grants, and borrowing.
A capital improvements plan is a way to manage finances “for what is coming down the road,” said Keith Strey, chief financial officer for Dunn County.
The public’s demand for services versus how to finance those services “is becoming tougher and tougher at best,” he said.
Efficiencies
Sometimes there are efficiencies in combining projects, Strey said.
For example, in 2016, the county decided to combine all “financial” employees and put them in one office, Miller said.
In 2018, Dunn County spent $430,000 to remodel a portion of the Dunn County Government Center on Wilson Avenue for the financial employees, and in 2019, the Dunn County Board decided to sell the Government Center to the City of Menomonie, and remodeled more of the old health care center and moved the financial office to the new location, he said.
If the county had been planning ahead, the $430,000 could have been put toward remodeling offices in the old health care center and not spent on offices that were occupied for only a short time, Miller said.
In fact, the old health care center is an example, he said.
When The Neighbors of Dunn County opened in 2012 and residents moved out of the Dunn County Health Care Center, the county spent about $11 million remodeling the basement and first floor of the old health care center for county offices.
In 2018, the county decided to remodel the second floor of the building for more county offices, at a cost of about $4 million.
The third floor has not yet been remodeled.
Construction costs typically increase about 10 percent per year, so Dunn County probably paid about 60 or 70 percent more for the remodeling project on the second floor than if it had been completed in 2012.
“If we had done the building all at once, we would have saved money … we need a longer view to make better-informed decisions,” Miller said.
Dunn County would have saved a lot of money if the old health care center had been remodeled in 2012-2013 and all county offices had been moved at that time, but the majority of the county board did not want to do that, said David Bartlett, county board supervisor from Boyceville and chair of the Dunn County Board.
For the previous three years, the county has been able to use the general fund balance as a shock absorber, but that has gone away, Strey said.
“It is not our intention to chastise anyone about the past but to find a way to move forward,” Miller said.
Not frivolous
None of the requests from the county departments are “frivolous,” Miller said.
Out of the $62 million identified in capital improvements, the highway department accounts for approximately $44 million.
Capital improvements for the highway department include annual highway improvement and maintenance projects as well as roof replacement on the highway shop in Menomonie, replacing the Rock Falls highway shop and constructing a storage building for plow trucks at the Menomonie shop.
Out of the $44 million in improvements from 2021 to 2025, approximately $30 million would come from the annual tax levy, general transportation aids from the state, and funds generated by the county vehicle registration fee recently approved by the county board (the $20 “wheel tax” which is expected to bring in about $725,000 per year).
For the years 2021 to 2025, here are some of the other capital project requests:
• Solid waste and recycling: new transfer station and recycling center ($10 million; 2021); wheel loader at transfer station ($100,000; 2021); Skid Steer at transfer station ($12,000; 2021); forklift at transfer station ($40,000; 2021); replace 2007 Ford Focus Wagon ($25,000; 2021); replace 2011 Chevy HHR LS (heritage high roof station wagon) ($25,000; 2022); recycling and roll-off boxes at collection stations ($145,000; 2023). The total in capital project requests is $10.347 million.
• Land and water conservation: replace 2007 Ford F-150 truck with topper ($36,000; 2021); replace 2006 Dodge Durango ($35,000; 2022); replace 2007 Ford F-150 truck with topper ($36,000; 2023).
• Planning and zoning: replace 2003 Ford Ranger 4×4 Super Cab ($25,000; 2023).
• Surveyor: replace 2006 Chevy Colorado truck ($35,000; 2021); replace total station system ($12,000; 2023).
• UW Extension: replace printer/copier/scanner ($10,000; 2024).
• Sheriff’s department: replace four truck/SUV squads per year ($152,000 each year for 2021-2025); snowmobile ($14,000; 2021); 25 body cameras, storage and software ($15,000; 2021); jail body scanner ($250,000; 2022); replace interview room recorders ($20,000; 2022); expansion of storage/evidence building ($150,000; 2023). The total in capital project requests is $1.254 million.
• Facilities and parks: Judicial Center roof replacement ($1.7 million; 2021); Judicial Center parking lot replacement ($300,000; 2021); Government Center to Judicial Center bike path ($85,000; 2021); replace pavement at the Rec Park ($200,000; 2021); install restroom facility at Menomin Park ($100,000; 2021); Judicial Center HVAC management system ($300,000; 2022); new maintenance shop Government Center ($400,000; 2022); replace generator at Judicial Center ($200,000; 2023); Government Center abatement/demolition ($350,000; 2024); Judicial Center chiller replacement ($500,000; 2024). The total in capital project requests is $4.385 million.
