City council tied up on developer choice

After 4-4 vote at committee of the whole, mayor says he will break a tie at next week’s city council meeting

For the city of Medford it is a question of additional green space or the convenience of single-story dwellings for a proposed income-qualified apartment complex on Progressive Ave.

Last month the city council heard presentations from two firms wanting to build a 40-unit complex on the 4.4-acre city-owned parcel. Both seek to utilize a WHEDA tax credit program which makes the projects more affordable to developers. The apartments, which are targeted as “workforce housing” would be open to those making a mixture if 30%, 50% and 80% of the adjusted median income of the county.

Commonwealth Development’s proposal calls for the city giving them the land as part of the project and for the construction of two-story apartment buildings with apartments either on the upper or lower level and centrally located garage structures. They would manage the property into the future.

Northpointe Development’s proposal includes the company purchasing the lot from the city for a price of $55,000 and developing it with single-story cottage style apartments on the parcel.

At Monday’s meeting council members came to a 4-4 tie on a motion by Mike Bub to award the project to Northpointe. He was joined by Clem Johnson, Tim Hansen and Christina Weix. Favoring the Commonwealth plan were Greg Knight, Dave Brandner, Laura Holmes and Dave Roiger. Rather than casting a tie breaking vote at the meeting mayor Mike Wellner said it would go to next week’s city council meeting with no official recommendation and if it was still a tie vote then, he would break the tie.

For Holmes one of the major issues was with accessibility. She said with no elevators the two-story apartments would not be accessible, something she was concerned could open the city up for lawsuits.

All aldermen were in support of doing something and clarified that the apartment complex is primarily intended for low income housing for young people and families starting out. Wellner said there have been some misconceptions about it in the community and he has been getting contacted by senior citizens with interest in them.

“It is supposed to be aimed at stopping the bleeding of the young people in this town,” Knight said, noting that young people and young families are having trouble finding affordable housing here to get a start, which makes it difficult to fill positions.

A major point of disagreement between aldermen was the amount of open space in the design. Roiger said he spoke with people who are renting in similar complexes who said that hands-down they would favor the two-story units because of the amount of outdoor space for kids to play. He said that in the Northpointe plan, the only available spaces for kids would be behind the back bedrooms. He noted that for second and third shift workers having kids run around there would not be ideal.

Weix said she was concerned with the retention pond included as part of the Commonwealth proposal, noting that even with a fence around it children would likely find a way into it creating a hazard.

Knight took a different angle on the pond, noting that Northpointe did not include any plans for drainage and suggested there would be other mistakes in the plans the city would find in the future. He said he felt cramming that many single story units into a property that size would be too much, comparing to the firm’s similarly designed Sturgeon Bay location which has 8 units per acre compared to Medford’s plan for 9 per acre.

Johnson reported going to see a similar complex in Mosinee and was told by the manager that she had major need for one-bedroom apartments.

When asked his opinion by Holmes, city coordinator Joe Harris said that speaking as a parent of younger children he preferred the Commonwealth design with more green space noting there is enough space there to play a football game or fly a kite.

Roiger said the other factor to consider is how long people will be living there. He said the goal is for people to be there about two to three years to get established and pull together a downpayment on a house.

After a lengthy discussion aldermen were unable to come to a consensus and will bring it back next week for a final decision.

Striping bids

A motion to spend an extra $29.75 to go with a Medford- based business over an out-of-town contractor came down to a debate on if doing so would undermine the bidding process.

Hansen has made the motion to go with Jensen Chip & Seal Coating at a cost of $6,950 rather than go with the lower bidder Seal it & Striping LLC of Dorchester for a bid price of $6,920.25.

Wellner spoke out against going with anyone but the low bidder cautioning that if the city were to start going down that path, they would lose people from bidding on projects in the future.

Hansen said he understood the argument, but that for the approximately $30 difference, he felt they should go with the Medford company.

“Where do you draw the line,” Knight said, noting it puts the city on a slippery slope.

Hansen disagreed. “I think it is pretty simple,” he said. “We are talking $29.75.” “If you don’t follow bidding it sends a message,” Knight said. Wellner said it is hard, because you want to give business to the locals. “The problem is you are going to start losing bidders if you stay local.”

Bub compared it to the mayor’s push each Christmas season for people to buy local. He said the city doesn’t promote buying local in its own business dealings.

In the end, aldermen decided to table the street striping bid to get additional information about Seal it and Striping. Harris noted that about seven years ago, the city had an issue with their work.

Pool

While the city is taking a wait and see approach on setting the formal opening time and access to the pool this year, they did have a discussion on the pool fees charged for family passes.

The last time the city raised pool rates was about three years ago, and the current rates at $60 for a city resident family pass is less than half a similar pass in Thorp and $40 less than what is charged in Marshfield or Merrill.

Knight said it was important to keep fees up to cover additional costs for maintenance and lifeguard salaries. Weix agreed, noting the council had just increased the pay for returning lifeguards. Weix said she did not support a large increase, but felt they needed to keep pace with costs.

Bub said he felt the city needed to stick by the message given last summer when the city opened the pool a month later than normal and told people then that they would not be raising it this year.

Bub said the pool is operating within its budget and that the city’s finances were in good shape. He opposed the idea of raising the fees just because other municipalities charged more for their pool passes. He also noted the Medford pool does not have the large slides or equipment that some of the other pools have.

No decision was reached on if the pool rates should change for the coming year.

In other business, aldermen:

_ Recommended approval of a “comfort resolution” for Great Lakes Utilities (GLU) to continue with developing generation capacity to help with peak times or when other power supplies such as solar are not available. The city is a founding member of GLU, which is a consortium of power utilities. The organization works to collectively purchase power needs. GLU is looking at using Reciprocating Internal Combustion Engines for power generation and is doing the engineering work to ensure it will be cost effective. The resolution does not bind the city to participating in the project in the future, but only shows the city is aware of it and supports the continued exploration of it as a power generating option.

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Harris noted that fellow GLU member Cornell is not participating in the project and was pushing for the “comfort resolution” to ensure all the utilities’ governing boards were aware of it and wanted to proceed.

_ Recommended awarding the capital construction bids for this summer’s projects. The work includes the reconstruction of Shattuck Street and repaving of Allman Street with a separate project of water main replacement on South Whelen Ave. The engineering estimate on the projects was $1.1 million for the first contract and $260,600 for the Whelen work. Francis Melvin, Inc. was the low bidder $919,441.56 for the Shattuck St. and Allman St. work and $239,343.50 for the Whelen Ave. work. There were seven firms that bid on the work with the highest bid coming from Merrill Construction at $1.2 million for the road project and $266,05.70 from A-1 Excavating at $317,079 for the water main work.

_ Recommended approving the materials and equipment bids. These are bid out to area vendors on an annual basis and the city routinely accepts all the labor and equipment bids giving the flexibility to hire crews as needed. Harris noted the city did not seek any bids for crack sealing this year, choosing to hold off on it for right now. “We would have been doing streets to just do them,” Harris said.

_ Recommended the annual pool rental agreement for Rib Lake School District to hold summer school classes at the city pool next summer. The rate was increased slightly over past years to reflect the increase in labor costs for the pool.