Colfax supports upcoming Colfantastic events for Halloween and Christmas
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — The Colfax Village Board has approved sponsoring the Colfantastic Halloween Spooktastic event with a $100 donation.
Sheila Riemer, deputy clerk-treasurer, received an e-mail message dated September 6 that outlines the various levels of sponsorship, said Lynn Niggemann, village administrator-clerk-treasurer, at the Colfax Village Board’s September 25 meeting.
The Colfantastic Spooktastic Event is scheduled for Sunday, October 29, beginning at 1 p.m.
The event will feature a costume parade on Railroad Avenue from the Synergy tanks just east of Dunn Street to the Colfax Fairgrounds.
“Trunk and Treats” by various organizations will be set up at the fairgrounds, along with a jumpy house, games, face-painting, chili and hotdogs and vendors.
The $100 donated by the village of Colfax is a bronze level donation (“Creep it Real”).
The silver level donation is $250 (“Give ‘Em Pumpkin to Talk About”).
The gold level donation is $500 (“The Ghostess with the Mostest”).
Several hundred people participated in last year’s Colfantastic Halloween event.
The village board waived fees earlier this year for the Colfantastic events at the fairgrounds, Niggemann said.
Event support
Carey Davis, village trustee, said “this is an event we should strongly support” because it brings families to Colfax and those families will spend money at businesses in town.
“But we should make sure we know who we are contributing to and not contributing to,” said Anne Jenson, village trustee.
Over the past 10 years, the Colfax Village Board has made donations to a variety of groups, such as the Red Cedar Sounds, the Dunn County Barber Shoppers, the Zor Tin Lizzies for the Colfax Firefighters Ball parade, for Porta-potties at the Colfax Free Fair to support the American Legion and the Colfax FFA Alumni and has made donations for after-prom parties.
The village board also has waived fees many times for groups using the fairgrounds or other village facilities, such as the Colfax Municipal Building auditorium.
When the Colfax Woman’s Club asked for a donation to help support the Music in the Park Summer Concert Series, the village board declined to make a donation and tabled the issue.
The Colfax Woman’s Club pays a nominal fee of $75 to the 10 or so musical groups that appear over the summer on Thursday evenings to help defray the cost of their mileage to drive to Colfax or to pay for other expenses.
The club sells popcorn and root beer floats to help fund Music in the Park as well as takes donations at the concerts.
The Colfax Woman’s Club also buys, plants, weeds and waters the flowers in the planters at Tower Park as a community service.
At the time when the Colfax Woman’s Club asked for a donation in October of 2022, village board members said they had to be careful about donating money, because if they gave a donation to one group, such as the Colfax Woman’s Club, then they would have to donate to other groups that asked for money as well.
The Colfax Village Board unanimously approved a donation of $100 for the Colfantastic Spooktastic Event.
Heather Logslett and Jeanna Berge are the coordinators of the Colfantastic events.
Christmas
Logslett and Berge also are planning a Christmas in the Village event for December 2 with a parade and Love Light Tree Lighting in Tower Park.
The Colfax Village Board unanimously approved sending a request to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to close Main Street/Highway 40 from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. on December 2.
One village board member asked if the village charged event holders for the time spent by the Department of Public Works for setting up and taking down street barricades when the street is closed for an event.
Niggemann said the village does not charge anything for setting up and taking down barricades to close and then to open the street.
Cedar Street
The Cedar Street reconstruction project has now reached the stage of having a “long punch list” to reconcile with the contractor, Skid Steer Guy LLC, said Rand Bates, director of public works.
The Cedar Street project ran into a long delay earlier in the summer after a period of rain softened up clay that was in the road bed.
One of the issues now is that the manhole cover on the north end of the street is too high and the manhole cover on the south end of the street is too low, Bates said.
The remedy for the manhole that was too low was to use a heat source and rings to raise the manhole cover, but hot mix blacktop was used instead, he said.
Bates said he told the contractor that the village board would never approve the use of hot mix to fix the manhole.
Skid Steer Guy was talking with Monarch Paving, which is the company that actually paved the street, on how to fix the manholes, he said.
Village board members asked about the substantial completion date.
The street was substantially complete by the deadline of September 1, so Skid Steer Guy met the substantially complete date, Niggemann said.
Gary Stene, village trustee, said he was not willing to approve the final pay request until “the street is done right.”
Niggemann noted that there is about $100,000 left to pay on the contract for Cedar Street.
The Colfax Village Board awarded the low bid to Skid Steer Guy LLC for the Cedar Street project in the amount of $348,815 at the March 27 meeting.
The highest bid for the project was $419,827.
Other business
In other business, the Colfax Village Board:
• Approved the final subdivision map for the East View development 2nd Addition.
• Approved reassigning Lots 8 and 9 in the East View Development from GRIP Development LLC to KM Construction. Work on one of the houses is expected to begin this fall, and construction on the second house is expected to begin next spring. To receive the lot free of charge, the developer will have one year to complete construction and obtain a certificate of occupancy.
