By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
As an attempt to pass a $5.4 million referendum to create a new City of Burlington pool moves forward, there are other capital needs within the city that will garner the attention of city officials in the coming months and years.
A number of different entities – not just the city, but the Burlington Area School District and Racine County – are also contemplating various big-ticket items, including new facilities and a potential joint project.
The question now is: which projects should get priority, and how do separate entities within the same community bring them forward without breaking the taxpayers’ back?
“It’s something that we’re aware of, and we need to be conscious of it,” said BASD Superintendent Peter Smet regarding the number of potential projects on the horizon.
“But it’s something, that, ultimately, we have no control over,” he added.
Breaking it down
The referendum on whether or not to fund a new city pool is on the ballot for the Nov. 8 general election. That project is being estimated between $5.3 and $5.4 million to design and build a new pool with modern amenities, a zero-depth entry and a new pool house.
But coming on its heels are a number of other issues. For starters, the Burlington Area School District began a facilities study about a year ago, working with the Wisconsin Association of School Boards to first set district goals and then moving forward with addressing facility needs.
Plunkett Raysich Architects estimates there is a minimum of about $446,000 in work that is of top priority, and millions of dollars of other work that varies on the importance level.
Right now, the school district is trying to narrow down its priorities after a series of summer public information sessions, and decide how to move forward.
Smet stressed that while a referendum is a “very real possibility,” it’s not the only option – and the district has more planning to get through before it reaches the point of even presenting a referendum.
“We have not made that decision yet,” Smet said. “I think it’s important that we have the right decisions, not necessarily the fastest decision.
“We have to go through this decision-making process,” he added.
Beyond the school district, the City of Burlington is also facing two potential building issues – City Hall and the public library. In addition, new mandates from the Department of Natural Resources are going to result in working being done on at least one city well (Well No. 11) and other potential infrastructure work could be looming.
City Administrator Carina Walters said the City Council would be trying to balance priorities as it gets into its 2017 budget planning process this month.
“Regardless of how many items are on the table … the council is going to have to really identify that complete, comprehensive list,” she said. “There are probably several options that can be looked at for funding.”
Finally, Racine County Executive Jonathan Delagrave has told the city that he hopes to have the county services building – located at 209 Main St. – demolished by 2017. Indications are now that work could potentially be pushed to the end of 2017 or beginning of 2018, but the loss of the building would mean the loss of the city’s senior citizen center as well as several county offices.
A joint venture?
An opportunity to work together on a possible joint facility has been discussed among county, school district and city officials.
The idea is a government services building that would house both city and county services, and possibly school district offices and the public library. A senior center being included to that facility is also possible.
In the case of the joint facility, the idea has been on the board for a number of years. But it didn’t begin to move forward until Delagrave announced in January that he wanted the building demolished by the end of 2017.
Currently, there is a feasibility study ongoing with all involved parties. One of the major questions, though, is finding the space to fit the perceived building size.
“We’re still in the study,” said Mayor Jeannie Hefty. “We’re looking at each piece of the puzzle.”
Among the restrictions the city could be looking at is trying to keep the building in the downtown area. A multiple-story building could be in play – or limiting what goes into any new facility, if there is one.
Former Mayor Bob Miller, who was part of the planning process for both city projects and the potential joint facility, said that it’s going to come down to timing.
“The process is so green right now,” Miller said.
Funding
Each entity is looking at a variety of different funding options. For instance, with the city and its water well issues, a plan to raise water rates by 3 percent every other year is in the works, per a financial study done for the city by financial consultant Ehlers.
There are additional options. With two of the city’s tax incremental financing districts closing in the next two years, the city will have additional tax base as well money coming back to its coffers. City Treasurer Steve DeQuaker said that it’s likely the mill rate will drop due to the increase in property value, potentially creating room for the council to add to the tax levy without a major hike in the tax rate.
In addition, the work the city bonded for in the TIDs will be paid off, creating additional borrowing capability if needed.
“That’ll give the city the opportunity to leverage new debt,” Walters said.
Referendums are also a possibility – as they are at the school district level. BASD’s current referendum debt of $29.9 million for the new high school is set to retire in 2019, and it is possible that a new referendum would simply fill the hole, so to speak.
However, Smet has been cautious even using the word referendum, saying that delayed maintenance is an ongoing issue for most school districts and that “you can make short-term decisions if you need to.”
That would, though, push the work even further down the line.
“If you have a 100-year-old building, and you wait five years, then you have a 105-year-old building, and then that’s something you need to deal with,” he said.
Deferred maintenance has become something that many governmental bodies have deal with over the last 5 to 10 years, due to the recession. Buildings are also used to their maximum lifespan, and budgets at the city or school district level are tight all over, explained BASD Buildings and Grounds Supervisor Gary Olsen.
“You make do,” Olsen said. “Then it becomes the question of what’s acceptable.”
-
-
-
-
-