IT MAY BECOME ONLY A MEMORY—The current Glenwood City Community Center could be razed to make room for a new Municipality Building if grant funding is approved. The Council plans to construct a facility to house all city services including the library, community and senior center, city hall and police station in one building at West Oak Street. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
GLENWOOD CITY — The common council took action Monday evening, May 18th to apply for a million dollar grant to aid in the construction of a new Municipal Building.
The plan as it now stands is for a new building that will house a Community and Senior Center, Library, City Hall and Police Station.
Lynn McIntyre, from Cedar Corporation out of Menomonie, explained to the council about making the application for the grant and what the money could be spent on. According to McIntyre, the grant can be used to fund the construction of a Community Center, Library, Senior Center, but it can’t be spent for the construction of a new City Hall or Police Station. She noted that their firm has had meetings with community people over what is needed in a new building.
She noted that grant funds would allow the building of common spaces within the new building like restrooms, hallways, entrances and furnace room. She also explained that the grant application cost could be funded with another government grant.
Kevin Oium, also from Cedar Corporation, spoke about the location of the new building saying that it would be constructed on the site where the current Community Center is located and that present Community Center would be razed to make room for the new structure.
Mayor John Larson noted that the total estimated cost of the new facility would be close to two million dollars.
Approved Agreement for Building a Safe Room at Fair Grounds
The City Council approved an agreement with the State-Local Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program to construct a safe room on the St. Croix County Fair Grounds for use in the event of bad weather.
Members of the St Croix County Fair Board were at the council meeting to discuss the project. Mayor Larson explained the agreement with funding through FEMA, noting that the project has been in the works for some time and the city agreed to take the lead in the funding because as Larson indicated, with the city in the lead funding would be at 90 percent, but if the county were to take the lead, funding would only be 60 percent.
The mayor explained that with the agreement in place the county will be picking up the ten percent cost and the fair board would stand any cost over runs.
New Dump Truck
The council moved ahead with the purchase of a new dump truck for the City’s Public Works Department to replace a unit that is 20 years old.
Dave Caress, head of the public works presented cost estimates to the council that he had obtained. The council accepted the low bid for the truck of $81,238.06 for an International chassis. The two other bids were for a Mack at $99,748.00 and a Freightliner at $114,391.00.
The plow and a stainless steel dump box will add another $66,941.00 to the purchase price.
The council also authorized the spending of up to $7,500 to replace the walking bridge between the swimming pool and the Memorial ball field.
In other action the council elected council member Rob Unruh as council president and Mayor Larson presented the list of committee members and then requested that committees be more active than they have been in the past saying he hoped that many things could be accomplished in committee and be ready for the council meetings.
