Marathon City will bid new park project

Village is at least $700,000 short of fully funding the work

The Marathon City Village Board last week Wednesday voted to send its Veterans Park project to bid even though, having not as yet sold its old ballpark, the village remains approximately $700,000 short of funding the $3.8 million project.

Administrator Andy Kurtz recommended the village go to bid although Blenker Construction, Amherst, no longer wants to buy the village softball diamond and Fun Days grounds for townhouse construction.

Kurtz said bids would confirm the funding gap the village faces in moving ahead with the Veterans Park project and have in place a contractor to, possibly, build a new Veterans Park facility that could be in operation by spring 2023.

Kurtz said competitive bids would clarify how much recent construction inflation will impact the bottom line of the Veterans Park project.

The new Veterans Park projects includes two softball and two baseball fields along with two Fun Days pavilions, a playground and parking lot. The park will be located on property east of CTH NN and Marathon Area Elementary School.

Kurtz told board members that an anticipated $450,000 Department of Natural Resources grant would be sent in mid-April, but that a National Guard unit which had been lined up to excavate the park site at minimal cost to the village had been reassigned to Michigan and would not be able to do the work. Loss of that help promises to inflate the project cost.

The administrator said he planned to continue to seek grants to close the project’s funding gap.

The village board has promised to pursue the Veterans Park project without spending local property taxes.

In a related development, Kurtz announced following a closed session that the village was in “the early stages of discussion” with SC Swiderski, Mosinee, to purchase the old Veterans Park.

Board members, too, directed Kurtz to send packets of materials to developers who might be interested in the Marathon City Center Project, a retail store on the 400 Block of Main Street (STH 107).

Kurtz said “several parties” have approached the village with plans to develop the property.

In the past, the village board has unsuccessfully attempted to have companies put up a grocery store with other related retail businesses on the block.

In other board business:

n Board members voted to pay Vierbicher Associates, Reedsburg, $479,400 to engineer the village’s North Business Park. The work includes building an industrial-strength blacktop road north of STH 29 and east of STH 107 to 152nd Ave., extending Cattail Lane, completing a water looping project that will require boring underneath the Big Rib River near County Materials and installing a sanitary sewer main along Northridge Road to an already in place lift station. Administrator Kurtz said the utility looping was planned for when the village’s business park was initially designed.

He said DNR regulations would be followed in running the water main under the Big Rib River. The boring project would take place at a distance from the river bank and the river would not be contaminated, he said.

n Board members discussed, but came to no consensus over a proposed ordinance change to allow hunting with firearms. Currently, the village permits bow hunting with the permission of Marathon City’s police chief. The proposed ordinance would allow hunting on five acre parcels and not within 1,000 feet of a building. Hunting with rifles would be permitted north of STH 29; hunting with shotguns or straight-wall cartridges only would be allowed south of STH 29. All village hunters must obtain a permit from the village administrator.

Trustee Jeff Lawrence said he objected to the proposed ordinance as being “too prohibitive” because it did not allow more than just a handful of Marathon residents to hunt. He said he would “love to hunt” on his own land that only measures three acres. He suggested the parcel minimum shrink to three acres. Lawrence also said that a 1,000 foot setback from buildings was, once again, too restrictive.

Trustee Mark Ahrens answered Lawrence by saying that while he might view the regulations as too restrictive, but a family with children living within 1,000 feet of hunting property might not.

Trustee Keith Paul, who seemed open to voting for the proposed ordinance, said he was wary of changing standard setback distances for hunting. He said any adopted ordinance needed to follow some established guidelines.

Lawrence argued, however, that a properly trained hunter who follows safety rules does not need the proposed restrictions.

Trustee Connie Ruplinger, however, said the village ordinance needed to recognize that some hunters do not follow safety procedures.

“Not everybody is doing it correctly,” she said.

Ruplinger moved not to adopt the proposed gun hunting changes to the village ordinance. Her motion, however, died for lack of a second.

Trustee Paul said he was normally not a “big fan” of village hunting but recognized that some cities overrun with deer, such as Madison, do permit hunting. He said he could see where people who own land recently annexed to the village would want to continue to hunt on their property. Losing the hunting privilege, he said, would “stink.” Kurtz reminded him, however, that all of these landowners requested to be annexed into the village.

Police Chief Kory Gertschen said the decision over whether to allow hunting was up to the village board. He reported, however, that he investigated an incident where a town of Marathon hunter shot uphill during the deer season and a bullet, traveling a quarter mile, went through a home on South Street in Marathon City. Gertschen said he retrieved the spent shell in a bedroom wall.

Kurtz said he would edit the proposed hunting ordinance and bring it to next month’s board meeting for further discussion. n Administrator Kurtz reported that Ryan and Carly Dallman planned to turn the old Looney’s Bar on Main Street into a coffee shop.

n Kurtz said a planned sanitary sewer project on Northridge Rd. would not require the property owners to hook on, but that stub lines will be extended to parcels for future hook-ups.

n Administrator Kurtz said the village would sound its air raid siren on Wednesday, March 9, 10:30 to 10:45 a.m. at the request of a Wisconsin 14-year-old interested in Cold War era sirens. “We are helping a kid and his hobby,” he said.

n Board members voted to approve an engineering contract with Vierbicher Associates, Reedburg, to design a Third Street reconstruction project between East Street and Walnut Street. Cost for the street project is estimated at around $362,000. The village has obtained a $181,000 state MSID grant to pay for half of the cost of the roadwork.

Andy Kurtz