Council authorizes issuance, sale of promissory notes for Haydn Street
Work has progressed on the Blackhawk Junction Mall area — now called the Prairie Bluffs Court. The northern section of the building has been demolished and remodel work continues. Utilities installation for water and sewer are expected to be completed in the next year. (Steve Van Kooten/Courier Press)
By Steve Van Kooten
The Prairie du Chien Common Council managed to square away their October 1 agenda in less than 20 minutes despite having a public hearing and a presentation about financing the Haydn Street project on the itinerary.
In attendance were alderpersons Jaaren Riebe, Kayla Ingham, Andy Ringgold, Mark Bowar, Bob Granzow, Nate Bremmer and Nick Crary. Also in attendance were Mayor David Hemmer, City Administrator Chad Abram and City Planner Nate Gilberts. Vicki Waller was absent.
The meeting opened with a public hearing for a proposed rate increase to the city’s taxi service provided by Running, Inc.
“Over the last several years, we’ve been running up to our fifth year on the contract Running, Inc., and starting next year, we’re going through the procurement process. It’s going to be quite an increase once again,” said Gilberts.
The added cost for the taxi service comes from an hourly rate charged to the city, which increased from $29.09 per hour to $35.24 per hour in the last five years. Running, Inc. is currently the only bidder for the city’s share-ride taxi service for 2025–29, according to a memo from Gilberts to the council.
Gilberts said the taxi fares have not been increased for more than 20 years, so he recommended a 75-cent fee increase per trip. Adult riders would pay $4 per ride, while senior citizens, disabled riders, students and youth would pay $2.50 after the increase. He estimated the fee increase would add approximately $29,000 in revenue per year.
In his memo, Gilberts suggested the additional revenue will help offset costs not covered by the state of Wisconsin, including the acquisition of two new vans for the share-ride service. The city expects to purchase the new vehicles within the next two years.
“This brought us back [sic] to levels of other cities that are comparable, right?” Abram asked.
“Right. I did comparables to areas with around the same population size,” said Gilberts. “They range anywhere from $3.50 up to $6… $4 puts us right in the middle of the road.”
Gilberts said the high end of that range included Baraboo, which is close to the Wisconsin Dells.
The council approved the fee increase after the public hearing closed.
Haydn Street
The council approved the issuance and sale of $735,000 in note anticipation notes (NAN) during the meeting.
“This is the borrowing for the Haydn Street extension,” said Abram. “The closing was today.”
Kristin Hanson, a director for PFM Financial Advisors, LLC, based out of Milwaukee, remotely attended the meeting to explain the issuance process.
“This is similar to the borrowing you did in 2021 to finance some of the costs that were associated with the development of phase one of the multi-family housing in TID 8,” she said. “So, NANs are going to finance water, sewer, storm and street improvements.”
According to Hanson, there will not be any principle due until September 2029 because the city is waiting for projects in the tax-incremental district to be completed and generating revenue.
The notes are not general-obligation notes, which the county used to borrow for the replacement jail project. NANs, on the other hand, are a form of short-term borrowing used in anticipation that repayment will be done quicker than with general obligation. For example, the county jail has a repayment schedule that is approximately 20 years.
On August 20, the council passed a resolution that provided for the sale of $775,000 in NANs. Hanson said the amount was reduced before bids were taken on October 1.
“The city received three bids,” she said. “The best being BOK Financial Securities out of Dallas, Texas.”
Heartland Securities of Minnesota and Banker’s Bank of Madison, Wisconsin, were the other bidders. She noted that BOK has previously invested in projects with the city as far back as 2001.
The city received a lower interest rate than expected, which reduced the dollar amount for the note issuance to $690,000.
“So, you’re paying less interest with the lower interest rate; you have to pay less capitalized interest, so we were happy about that,” Hanson said.
Because the note issuance was less than $1 million, the city and PFM did not get the notes rated, which Hanson assured did not affect the number or quality of bids received.
Gilberts confirmed that money from the borrowing will help with improvements to storm and sewer near State Street, where flooding has caused disruptions for traffic on the roads.
Abram said work on the Haydn Street project will begin this week.
Reimbursement
Riebe requested Abram address the city’s plan to obtain reimbursement for Donald Trump’s visit to Prairie du Chien on September 28.
“We met at our staff meeting this morning, and the discussion I had with the people involved — so, Nate [Gilberts], Nick [Gilberts], the fire department, Kyle [Teynor] and water and sewer,” said Abram. “So, what we’re doing is we Chief Teynor is our point of contact. He has a contact.”
He continued, saying, “That will be submitted to the campaign to get reimbursed to the city for all the work they did in the week leading up to it.”
Previously, several members of the community received a message allegedly from the city’s social media account, which claimed the city would seek reimbursement through the federal government. Abram clarified that the reimbursement would come from Donald Trump’s campaign.
Other business
• The city passed a resolution declaring October 15 as White Cane Day, a national day that spreads awareness for the vision impaired.
• A public information meeting about the public safety center will be held on October 9 at 6 p.m. in the City Hall community room on the second floor. Site plans and renderings will be publicly available at the meeting. The meeting is a USDA requirement for the project.
• The city had budget meetings with the library and airport. The budget is expected to be complete by November.- The improvements for the Prairie Bluffs Court project are expected to commence this week.
• The comprehensive plan survey is complete, and data will be made available in the future. Data accrued by the survey will inform the city’s 20-year plan.
