Boyceville applies for grants for Main St. improvement project

The Village Board approved a number of Resolutions to allow the village to apply for a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) to help fund the planned improvements to the village’s Main Street.

Dave Rasmussen of the Engineering firm of MSA out of Rice Lake addressed the board with details of the project that he said was estimated to cost $1.3 million.

The plan is to rebuild Main Street from west of Ash Street east to Highway 79. Included in the project will be a new street, replacement of the water and sanitary sewer lines, new storm sewers and new utility laterals into the buildinga along the street and new fire hydrants.

Rasmussen told the Board that the grant application that his firm will be filing needs to be completed by May 24 and the village will not know if they are successful until the end of July. He noted that the application will ask for a half million dollars to help fund the project. He reminded the board that the village has already receive a grant in the amount of $300,000 toward the project, but the village must come up with the remainder of the money.

A couple of the resolutions that the board passed were to address the village’s ability to come up with the necessary funds to complete the project. Rasmussen praised the board on the completion of the community survey that was needed in the application by noting that the village had nearly a 60 percent return on the survey. Village President Gib Krueger quickly praised Lonna Borgert and Trudie Chernak for their work on the survey.

Safe Route To School

Erik Evenson, also from the MSA firm brought the board up to date on the current construction of the Safe Route To School sidewalk and street crossings that are now being done. The work is at a stand still at present until a couple of design items are worked out with the state DOT. Also yet to be done are the moving of a couple of fire hydrants that are currently in the middle of the proposed new sidewalks.

Part of the program includes a new sidewalk along Granbakken Way, which abuts the Boyceville School property at the football field. The Village scheduled a Public Hearing on the matter of assessing the school for 50 percent of the cost of that sidewalk along their property. School Board President Tim Sempf and School Superintendent Kevin Sipple attended the hearing and voiced their concern about the school not being notified in a timely manner about the assessment. Sipple noted that their budget was constructed in October and then in November they got a notice of assessment, and he noted that the $16,000, would come from the educational material of the school. But both parties were agreeable that the safety of the children was of foremost concern. The board approved levying the assessment.

The board also held a public hearing on a proposed change to the zoning in Agricultural District which would allow for the construction of a church in  land zoned Agricultural. After a short discussion the board approved the change.

Audit Report

The Village Board heard a report from a representative of Audit firm of CliftonLarsonAllen who give the village a good financial report. The report indicated that in 2017 the village under spent budgets in several departments and the Public Works had a $50,000 surplus and he noted that Don was “paying attention to his expenditures. The representative called the village, “financially healthy.”

The report also noted that the village had about $3.7 million in fund balances, but a big portion of that money was pledged to projects that have been approved by the village.

The report noted that the village has two TIF districts and that district number 2 must be closed out by February of next year, while district number three can finance improvements until 2029. He noted that a good portion of the income from the water utility came from cell phone rent on the water tower. He also touched on the village indebtedness that was at $413,000, indicating that the village had a lot of room to borrow before they reached the legal limit of $2.2 million.

In other village business, the board approved a CMS map for TMS Tire who are buying some property from the railroad on the west side of Center street at Main Street.

They approved an operators license for Francesca Bourgerie and a picnic license for the Boyceville Firefighters Assoc.

Approved extending a water line into Freedom Park and doing other improvements at that site.

In her report, Village Clerk/Treasurer Darlene Lee noted that they would be holding an open house at the new village offices on Friday, May 18 from 9 to 3 p.m.