Colfax Village Board denies request to help fund “welcome wall”
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DOWNTOWN COLFAX — The mural on the south wall of the Blind Tiger in downtown Colfax, designed and painted by Jenna Wood, depicts different aspects of life in Colfax, both past and present. —photo by LeAnn R. Ralph
by LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — The Colfax Village Board has denied a request from Nick and Jess Anderson, owners of the Blind Tiger, to help fund the mural that has been painted on the south wall of the building.
Jeff Prince, village president, said at the June 12 village board meeting he liked the mural that had been painted but feared the village board would be “opening a can of worms” if the village board agreed to pay half of the cost after the mural was finished,
The Andersons approached the village board in May about paying for half of the mural’s total cost of $4,000.
At that point, the mural, which faces south on Main Street/state Highway 40, had been started and was well on the way to being finished but still needed additional work.
The “Welcome to Colfax” mural is painted in colors of red, black, white and yellow and includes aspects of Colfax’s history, such as an image of a tornado and a dairy cow.
Jenna Wood of Creative Wood LLC out of Menomonie designed and painted the mural.
At first Wood had intended to include the image of a tobacco leaf on the mural, but while she was out there working, a number of people had stopped and asked why there was not a tornado in the mural, so Wood decided to include a tornado, the Andersons told the village board at the May meeting.
This year marked the 65th anniversary of the June 4, 1958, tornado through Colfax that killed 12 people, injured dozens of other people, and destroyed many of the homes and businesses in the village.
Prince said at the June 12 meeting he was concerned that the village board agreeing to pay for half after the mural had been finished would “set a precedent.”
Margaret Burcham, village trustee, said she agreed.
“I would love to help out, but —,” she said, noting that Anne Jenson had said at the May meeting that she, too, would like help in paying for painting her building as would other business owners in the village.
Jenson owns and operates A Little Slice of Italy across Main Street from the Blind Tiger.
Gary Stene, village trustee, said he would like to have the village board contribute to the mural.
Clint Best, village trustee, also said he would not have a problem with contributing toward the mural but that he could see how the other businesses would want help as well.
Asking the village board for money after the mural was started “was an afterthought,” Jenson said.
The mural “is beautiful,” but if the village is going to help out one business, the village would have to help all of them, Burcham said.
“I think it’s a good idea,” Stene said.
“It’s opening a can of worms,” Jenson said.
Lynn Niggemann, village administrator-clerk-treasurer, said
she had hoped the Andersons would come to the June 12 meeting and had hoped they would have come to the village board ahead of starting the mural.
The discussion never reached the point of where the money would come from if the village board voted to fund part of the mural.
Because the village board did not know the Andersons were planning a mural, it was not part of the budget discussion last fall and was not included the village’s 2023 budget.
A motion to not contribute to the mural passed on a voice vote.
Village trustees Carey Davis and Jen Rud were absent from the meeting.
Other business
In other business, the Colfax Village Board:
• Awarded a bid to Andy’s Custom Concrete for replacing the concrete on the north side of the Department of Public Works building at an estimated cost of $9,500. The existing concrete heaved during the cold weather this past winter so that the service door would not open, said Rand Bates, director of public works. Another bid from J&K Concrete out of Menomonie was for $11,382.
• Approved contracting with the Dunn County Highway Department to complete the 2023 Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating (PASER) report for the Village of Colfax. In the past, the county has charged $600 or $700 for the service, said Niggemann said. If the PASER report is not completed, then the village would not be eligible to receive state transportation aid.
• Approved the updates to the Village of Colfax municipal emergency operations plan, which included updated contact information.
• Received an update on the Colfax Community Fire District Board’s decision to purchase a new fire engine at an approximate cost of $565,000. The fire district has invested in certificates of deposit for $320,000 in equipment replacement fund money and other funds at .45 and .475 interest for 13 months to earn about $15,000 in interest that will be put toward the purchase. The new fire engine will not be delivered for at least two years, giving the fire board the opportunity to set aside another $40,000 from the tax levy ($20,000 each year from the tax levy is put into the equipment replacement fund). If money is left over from the previous budget year, that amount also has been transferred to the equipment replacement fund.
