Haas low bidder for city work

With a nearly $150,000 spread between the high and low bids, the city of Medford is looking to hire low-bidder Haas Sons, Inc. of Thorp for the 2024 capital improvement project.

The city opened the bids for the project on Feb. 8 and at Monday’s city council committee of the whole meeting, city coordinator Joe Harris recommended going with the low bidding company.

The city will be replacing water mains on Whelen Ave from the Wastewater Plant to Perkins St. and on Musky Lane from Shattuck St. to Musky Ct. The city’s engineers at Ayres & Associates reviewed the bids and recommended going with Haas Sons bid of $599,408.80.

Other bids were received from Switlick & Sons, Inc. for $706,030.00 and from A-1 Excavating LLC for $742,247.

Harris said the main project will be to See COMMITTEE on page 4 replace the line along Whelen Ave. with the work on the north side to address a choke point in the system where there was a smaller diameter pipe in place. He said the larger pipe will help with water flows and fire protection in the northern part of the city.

Harris said the intention is to do most of the work through directional drilling and pipe bursting, where the new pipe is forced into where the existing pipe is located. This will minimize the amount of excavation required in the road surface.

“It won’t be a full trench,” he said. Council members recommended giving the bid to Haas Sons for the 2024 project.

Patrol truck

The city is looking to save money in the future by ordering a new patrol dump truck now before new emissions controls go into effect.

Harris proposed the purchase of a new 2025 International patrol truck with plow and equipment at a cost of $233,661.00 from Mid-State Truck Service International.

The city plans to sell the 2010 patrol truck on Wisconsin Surplus auction when the new truck is delivered. It was noted that similar plow trucks have been selling for $35,000 to $45,000 on the auction site.

The city will not receive the truck for another 18 months, which will allow the public works department to budget additional funds for it in the 2025 budget as well as money that has already been set aside for the vehicle purchase.

Harris said the timing for placing the order now, is to avoid a complete redesign of the emissions system that is coming in the next year. He noted that changes in the emissions typically have resulted in issues during the first few years after changes are made as bugs in the systems are worked out.

Estimated delivery on the new truck will be later 2025 or early 2026. The quote includes the truck chassis, dump box, wing, belly blade and front plow.

Committee members recommended purchasing the new truck.

Planning update

The city of Medford is looking to hire an outside company to update its comprehensive plan.

The plan was last completed in 2008 and state statute requires municipalities to update their comprehensive plans every 10 year. According to Harris, the city contacted the engineering firms of SEH and Cedar Corp., which have both worked with municipalities in doing plan updates.

He said the companies presented to city clerk Ashley Lemke, Wellner and himself and said that he felt either would do a good job. He recommended going with SEH because that firm had the lower cost at $34,000 compared to Cedar Corp. which had a price of $52,500.

The price of the project will be split between the city and the four utilities (water, wastewater, electric and recycling) with each of them paying $6,900.

Harris noted that the Leadership Medford class is working on some of the elements of the plan, which will be a cost savings to the city.

“What happens if we don’t do it?” asked council member Peggy Kraschnewski.

Harris said the law currently has no teeth in it as far as punishments for municipalities who have expired or non-existent plans. He said the state is looking at local governments without it not being eligible for future grant opportunities.

Mayor Mike Wellner said it will mostly be a grant issue. He noted the grant applications ask if you have a plan in place. “That is one box you can’t check off,” he said, which depending on how competitive a grant is, could push the city to the back of the list.

“Nobody is going to jail because we don’t have it,” Wellner said, assuring the council members that there is no punishment for being out of compliance with the deadline for updating the plan.

In other business, committee members:

 Recommended approving an update to the city’s election day emergency response plan. According to city clerk Ashley Lemke, the changes reflect the addition of the new electronic voter book and detail what needs to be done and who needs to do it if there is an issue during an election.

 Recommended approving raising the rates charged to outside municipalities and companies to use the city street sweeper and the jetter/vac truck. The current rates are $197.65/hr for the sweeper and $225.30/ hr for the jetter/vac truck. The last time the rates were changed was about 10 year ago. Jason Viergutz, Street & Water Superintendent, proposed increasing each of the rates by $40 per hour to cover wear and tear and repair costs for the equipment. He explained the city hires out the jetter truck in particular to area sewer utilities and has hired out the sweeper to local industries for their parking areas.

 Recommended purchasing a recirculating pump for water tower No. 1 located on Whelen Ave. This is the city’s oldest tower and was built in 1974. With the way the older tower is designed, the top 1/3 of the water in the tank never really gets used. In the spring and summer this requires the city to overfill the tower and pump water on the ground to prevent it from getting “old” in the tank. In the winter, this water freezes which can damage the paint and access pipe going to the top of the tower. The plan is to hire Lane Tank Company of Menomonie to install a pump in the base of the tower and run a 2-inch pipe to the top of the tower to keep recirculating the water. This would be similar to what is already in place in the city’s other two water towers. The cost will be $16,500 with $15,000 to come from remaining city ARPA grant funds and $1,500 from a city maintenance account.

 Received word that the Medford Police Department requested having its own K-9 unit — the Taylor County Sheriff’s Department currently has one. The idea is that they would work different shifts in order to have greater coverage for the community at large. Mayor Wellner said he and Harris spoke with police chief Chad Liske and gave the go-ahead for the police department to begin fundraising for the $75,000 to $100,000 needed to get a program implemented, including training, purchase of an animal and purchase of a dedicated custom vehicle for the K-9 officer. Wellner said the goal would be for the police department to raise the funds from the community and grants to get it set up and that the yearly maintenance cost of $3,000 to $5,000 would come from the police budget.

Wellner said he wanted to bring it to the council’s attention so that if they saw material about a fundraising campaign going on, they would know what it was all about.

 Recommended approving a change in agent for the liquor license for Krist Oil, to Pamela Gebert. In other license action, committee members recommended granting a Class B combination license to Uncommon Ground. The coffee shop has been on a waiting list for a tavern license for some time and with the surrender of the license from when 8th Street Saloon closed there was one available. There is currently one local restaurant on the waiting list for when a license becomes available. It was noted that El Jovensa took over the license that was held by the Brass Rail when they purchased that building and they still currently maintain the license on their previous location across from Nicolet Bank on Hwy 13.

 Recommended approval of setting reserve accounts totaling $1,257,708.57. This is money the city has set aside for specific purposes such as park developments, capital construction, swimming pool upgrades and public works equipment. There are 17 such accounts in the general fund with set asides for refuse and recycling for replacement of the tub grinder and end loader and in the waste water utility for vehicle replacement and the jetter truck.

 Reviewed the building permit reports showing that 9 permits were taken out in the month of January with $255,576 worth of estimated work to be done including the construction of new storage units on Pep’s Drive.

Open water early February in the Black River in Medford doesn’t happen too often. This winter has been an exception with temperatures well above normal and little snow. The mild winter so far has area residents worried about being hit with storms this spring. ARIANA FARRIS/THE STAR NEWS