ASHWAUBENON SITE PLAN REVIEW/PLAN COMMISSION
Hampton Inn site plan backed
A site plan to construct a four-story Hampton Inn hotel with 89 rooms at 830 Morris Ave. was recommended Tuesday, Feb. 2, by the Ashwaubenon Site Plan Review Committee and the Plan Commission.
Community Development Director Aaron Schuette said the property currently has a blighted steel warehouse and is located between the Moose Lodge on the west, Home2 Suites on the east, Capital Credit Union to the south and Green Bay Distillery to the north.
Schuette said the hotel’s first floor would have a pool, fitness center, meeting room and a lobby/breakfast area.
“It’s a nice-looking building,” he said. “I think it will fit in well with the existing development in the area.”
Schuette said the site is in the Sports and Entertainment zoning district, where hotels are a permitted use, and the proposed Hampton Inn meets the dimensional requirements of the district.
He said the site plan requires final approval from the Village Board, which will consider it on Feb. 22.
HOWARD-SUAMICO SCHOOL BOARD
Costume director recognized by board
Bay Port High School Play Costume Director Jaynie Timm received special recognition from the School Board Monday, Jan. 31, for her years of dedication to the high school’s theater department.
Timm has led the charge in costume design, hair and makeup for 41 Bay Port productions.
Open enrollment spaces approved
The Howard-Suamico School District won’t have any open enrollment spaces for general education students in 2022-23 – except for high school and 4K.
The School Board approved 20 open enrollment spaces for 4K, with a projected enrollment of 300 and capacity for 320.
In grades 9-12, the board approved 40 open enrollment spaces, based on a projected enrollment of 1,877 and a capacity of 1,917.
For special education, the board approved 15 available open enrollment spaces districtwide, including two for community-based early childhood, one for self-contained early childhood and 12 cross-categorical spaces in grades K-4.
The board’s action comes prior to the 2022-23 open enrollment application period, which takes place from Feb. 7 to April 29.
Resident survey
The district is looking for feedback from its residents in a survey set to be mailed out this month.
“To me, this is one of the best sources of information that we can get from the community,” Superintendent Damian LaCroix said, “because it represents such a broad cross-section of stakeholders, and (it really influences) our thinking and our planning at the administrative team level.”
Director of Communications Brian Nicol presented the board with the final draft of the survey, Monday, Jan. 31.
Nicol said the survey – which the district worked with School Perceptions, a Slinger-based firm, to create – was designed to make it “as visually appealing and easy to read on the page as we could.”
He said the survey will be able to be accessed digitally as early as Feb. 15.
Nicol said the entire survey will be able to be completed on paper or online, and be available until March 7.
He said, as drafted, many of the survey questions have rankings, which range from “great” to “poor” or “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree.”
$15 million bond sale approved
The Howard-Suamico School Board approved the sale of $15 million in general obligation promissory notes to help finance the $98 million capital referendum district voters backed last April.
The bonds are the second phase of financing, after the board approved selling $83 million in bonds in June.
Mike Juech, assistant superintendent of operations, said the remaining $15 million being borrowed will have five-year notes, which will be callable or eligible to be paid off early starting in 2023.
Juech said financial institutions bid on the $15 million bond issue, with Hilltop Securities submitting the low bid at slightly less than 2.09%.
“This (interest rate) is outstanding,” he said. “We had a conservative estimate (we would receive) around 2.5%, so great news.”
Juech said the district is in a strong position to borrow money with a Standard & Poor’s bond rating of AA.
He said the district originally projected it would have more than $37.7 million in interest costs to borrow the $98 million for the referendum projects, compared to the current anticipated interest costs of around $18.5 million, a difference of about $19.2 million.
According to information Juech presented to the board, the district previously projected two phases of financing with higher interest rates and a 22-year payback having $50 million in notes borrowed at 2.75% and another $48 million borrowed at 3.5%.
Erik Kass, director of public finance for PMA Securities, the firm the district worked with to bond for the referendum projects, said the payment structure for the $15 million being borrowed includes $2 million in principal due March 1, 2023, with the remaining $13 million in principal not due until March 1, 2027.
However, Kass said the district could pay the $15 million in principal back in three years to save interest costs, which would then total $531,400.
“You’re not locked into those principal repayments (over five years) – you do have that early call date,” he said. “The board and administration has a lot of flexibility in how to repay that (remaining) $13 million over the next five years.”
ALLOUEZ VILLAGE BOARD
Sanitary sewer relocation deadline extended
An engineering agreement between the Village of Allouez and the owners of a property at 2354 Riverside Dr. to relocate an existing sanitary sewer was unanimously extended by the Village Board Feb. 1.
A home, which used to sit on the property, was moved in the fall, but the owners, due to circumstances outside of their control, have been unable to meet the original deadline to relocate the sanitary sewer, Public Works Director Sean Gehin said.
“Before they start construction on the new home, they need to move the sanitary sewer,” he said. “We have spoken to them. They would like to get the work done in the near future.”
The amended agreement moves the completion date to June 1.
DE PERE CITY COUNCIL
Borrowing agreement
The City Council approved a contingency plan at its Tuesday, Feb. 1, meeting, if it’s nearly 30-year-old ladder truck runs into mechanical problems before the new one arrives, hopefully in May.
The temporary agreement with the Village of Ashwaubenon allows the city’s fire department to borrow one of the village’s two ladder trucks, if the need arises.
Though unusual, both municipalities’ legal departments agree the arrangement is kosher.
De Pere Fire Chief Alan Matzke said his department’s goal is to keep its existing 1993 ladder truck in service until the new one is ready for deployment.
“As our truck nears its 30th birthday, we continue to face a myriad of maintenance issues,” he said. “The team and I are currently monitoring an issue that could lead to operational failure of the ladder and bucket.”
At the same time, Matzke said he doesn’t feel that a catastrophic failure of the ladder is imminent.
“However, I would like to have an alternative in place,” he said. “Hopefully, we will not have to ask Ashwaubenon for the use of the truck. But if we do, having the agreement in place will dramatically speed up the transition period.”
Area fire departments have mutual aid agreements.
Matzke said Ashwaubenon is a primary partner in the Fox River Fire District, and the fire departments are “extremely intertwined in so many functions.”
BELLEVUE VILLAGE BOARD
Stormwater plan discussed
The Village Board heard from Cedar Corporation at its Jan. 26 meeting on future plans for water treatment within the village.
With the need for expansion on the horizon to adequately treat wastewater, Project Manager Thad Majkowski discussed three possible sites for treatment ponds to be constructed in the village.
“When we did the one on South Huron Road, the property owner donated the land, and we built the pond,” Majkowski said. “So the cost of land was nothing. But in these other areas, there may be a different scenario to it.”
The first site, Cedar Corporation Engineer Jason Pingel said is off of Hoffman Road, behind Bellevue Senior Living, and currently home to a pair of underperforming ponds,
The plan would utilize existing elements of the two inefficient ponds for construction of a new pond at the site.
The second location, also off of Hoffman Road, would share space with the Brown County Sheriff’s Office.
One challenge PIngel said the site presents is it would have to spill over into the area currently used for parking at the Sheriff’s Office.
A dry pond at the Home Depot site, constructed for volume control but does not offer any help with the removal of solid waste or phosphorous treatment, is also being considered for conversion to a wet pond.
More discussion on the matter is planned for future meetings.
ASHWAUBENON VILLAGE BOARD
Bellin Health project sidewalks
The Village Board agreed Jan. 25 to recommend additional sidewalks near the Bellin Health ambulatory surgery center project, located at the southwest corner property of Waube Lane and Interstate 41, which are included in the village’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Comprehensive Plan.
Parks, Recreation and Forestry Director Rex Mehlberg said the village’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee reviewed the project.
“Some of them were already in the plan, others were not,” he said. “The (committee) kind of kicked around a little bit (of) what’s appropriate (and) what’s not for that particular area. What will Bellin do to that area in terms of the increasing traffic? Quite honestly, increasing business, because once Bellin goes in, I have a feeling you’ll see some of the other things start to develop around there as well.”
Virtual meeting changes
The board discussed proposed changes and recommended revisions to its ordinance regarding virtual meetings at its Jan. 25 meeting.
Village Manager Joel Gregozeski said the new provision being considered would allow for remote attendance by the board, as well as any of the village’s commissions or committees.
“We’ve effectively been operating in that premise under kind of more of an emergency order as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
Gregozeski said information the board received from the League of Wisconsin Municipalities recommended creating an ordinance to formally establish a rule for remote or virtual meeting participation.
The topic will be up for possible action at the board’s Feb. 22 meeting.
HOWARD VILLAGE BOARD
Grant application
The Village Board gave the fire department the go ahead to apply for a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant for more than $1.389 million.
If awarded, Public Safety Director Ed Janke said the grant would fund the hiring of five firefighters for three years, which would allow the department to incorporate its current staff, and schedule two firefighters per day, seven days a week.
“That will give us other opportunities to provide more services in the future,” he said. “This is certainly not accepting the grant. We have a long way to go, but we felt that a resolution from the board supporting these efforts would maybe give the grant some more gravity.”
Janke said he expects Howard has a 20% chance of being awarded the grant, which has no cost share or matching fund requirements.
“This is a very, very competitive grant,” he said.
The Suamico Village Board approved a resolution in support of a SAFER grant application a week earlier.
Press Times Staff Writers Kevin Boneske and Josh Staloch and Correspondent Lee Reinsch contributed to these briefs.