Dog Daycare CUP

The parcel in question is 807 Elm Street. The parcel is currently accessed from a shared driveway on Main Street just north of Tyranena Veterinary Clinic at 805 N. Main Street. The petitioner is requesting approval to use the building as a dog daycare facility and related site activities. The subject lot and building are currently leased to users who would move into another building at the site. The currently use is commercial and zoned B-4, Low Impact Commercial District and the proposed use is permitted by Conditional Use under the Zoning Code. 

A Public Hearing concerning the requested Conditional Use Permit was held on November 26, 2013, after due notice, to solicit testimony from the public; and the Plan Commission reviewed the evidence and testimony submitted at the public hearings and considered all of the available factual evidence concerning the requested action. The Plan Commission recommended that the City Council grant said Conditional Use Permit for the subject site with the conditions listed in the planner’s memo. The planner’s memo and the applications are included in the packet.

The adoption of this resolution awards the conditional use permit.

LMC CUP

The parcel in question is 375 W. Tyranena Park Road. The parcel is located on W. Tyranena Park Road just north of Rock Lake Cemetery. The petitioner is requesting approval of a freestanding sign as required by the Lake Mills Zoning Code in the PB, Planned Business District. 

A Public Hearing concerning the requested Conditional Use Permit was held on November 26, 2013, after due notice, to solicit testimony from the public; and the Plan Commission reviewed the evidence and testimony submitted at the public hearings and considered all of the available factual evidence concerning the requested action. The Plan Commission recommended that the City Council grant said Conditional Use Permit for the subject site with the conditions listed in the planner’s memo. The planner’s memo and the applications are included in the packet.

The adoption of this resolution awards the conditional use permit.

Municipal Dam Grant

The State’s 2013-15 Biennial Budget provided $4 million for Dam Grants, of that, approximately $3.5 million has been committed to fund eligible engineering and construction costs associated with the maintenance, repair, modification or abandonment and removal of municipally owned dams. The updated Municipal Dam Grant Application Form 3500-088 (Rev. 8/13) and instructions have been out since August 21, 2013. The grant application deadline is January 22, 2014.

The Municipal Dam grant program provides a cost-sharing opportunity for eligible engineering and construction costs for dam maintenance, repair, modification or abandonment and removal up to a maximum of $400,000. Funding sources outside the applicant's own resources can be used toward the local match for this grant.

A fully completed application and all required attachments must be received on or before close of business on January 22, 2014 in order to be considered for funding.

Applications are scored based on the following program criteria, as defined in the application:

• dam size;
• dam hazard potential based on existing land use;
• land use controls in place in the hydraulic shadow;
• dam repair costs;
• financial need of the municipality; and
• stream navigability.

Applications are ranked based on score. Beginning at the top of the ranked list, DNR will award grants until all funds are exhausted.
Projects on the rank list-but not funded will be considered in subsequent grant funding cycles should additional funds be made available by the Legislature or returned from completed projects.

This resolution authorizes the City Manager to apply for the grant and sign required documents.

Today's Quote

Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't.    Eleanor Roosevelt

Today's Quote

Whether you’re right or wrong doesn’t always matter. It’s important to stick to your principles. Don’t be persuaded or compromised. Do what’s right and you’ll always come out on top. Don’t be afraid to make the tough decisions and don’t be afraid to move on – those are the choices that build your character and will make you a better manager.

 Thomas Hoover

The Job

The job of City Manager is very public. The job is like playing a violin solo in public while learning the instrument (Samuel Butler). The desire to do the best job possible is difficult enough as information changes on a daily basis and there is a constant stream of made-up or misinterpreted facts used to evaluate your violin solo. The unrelenting muckraking is draining and can lead to apathy and cynicism.
Small organizations lack the resources to counter the seemingly limitless muckraking of individuals. While quick communication is an effective tool, how and who presents the information can be as important as the information.
All in all, the hope that you will be able to continue the violin solo is what motivates the desire to stake higher ground while continuing to become better. I am a child of God and should act as such.

Water Tower

Introduction
The City received a proposal regarding the purchase on a portion of a lot located on Tower Street. The parcel is located on south side of Tower Street east of Ferry Drive adjacent to the lot owned by the Light and Water Utility. The Public Works Board is being asked to make a recommendation on the purchase of the property.
Context
The City Light and Water Utility owned a multi-column water tower on the south side of Tower Street east of Ferry Drive at the dead end above Campus Field. The tower was constructed in 1957 by Pittsburgh-Des Moines Corporation. The tower had a capacity of 250,000 gallons of approximately 130 feet.

In 1995, the City took bids to remove the existing paint and repaint the tower. The low bid was $197,000. The paint on the tower contained lead and conditions with regard to space to remove the lead paint from the tower made the cost of repainting the tower 50% of the cost to constructing a new tower.

After an in depth analysis of the tower’s condition, it was determined that the remaining life of the tank, cost of repainting, need for additional storage and the need for a larger site were listed as reasons for constructing and new tower and removing the old one.

The old site had several advantages and was considered a valuable site for a water tower if more space could be acquired.
Issue
The Homann’s are offering a portion of parcel 246-0713-1144-064 to the City Light and Water Utility for $38,181.92. The parcel is 129.08’ x 66.01’ or total square feet of 8,520.57. The portion being offered is 129.08’ x 56’ or 7,228.48 square feet.

The Light and Water Utility owns the lot immediately to the east. The lot is 10,367.28 square feet. The Utility owned lot has unusual dimensions (127.66’ deep and 64.37’ wide on the south end and 132.84’ wide on the north end. The additional 7,228.48 square feet would make the lot a better option for future use as a water tower site.

The Water Utility has the poorest financial position of the three utilities. The additional cost of the lot combine with future expensed on major project will significantly increase the debt burden of the Water Utility.

The Utility may never have another opportunity to acquire space for future use of the site as water tower. The risk is that if the site is purchased and at some point it’s determined that the site still isn’t viable for the type of structure to be built. In the long run, real estate is still a pretty safe investment.

It would be advised to have the engineer’s do some level of assessment to determine if this proposal has any value to the utility at this time.

USA Soccer

Olbermann's interpretation of Grant Wahl's tweet about the Costa Rican's refusing to provide soccer balls to the US team for practice, "the Costa Rican's have no balls." Keith still has great insight.

Ordinace Changing Residency Requirements

Residency rules that require a public employee to live within the jurisdiction have come and gone since the 1800s. The political machines of several American cities used similar requirements to give jobs to their friends and supporters in the late 1800s. As the progressive movement swept the country in the early 20th century, many jurisdictions did away with the requirement of having to live in the community to be hired, arguing that the best person for the job should be hired regardless of where they live as long as they moved to the community after they were hired. In the 1960s and 1970s, residency requirements made a comeback as many municipalities, mostly financially struggling cities, were looking to boost their economy and provide opportunities to minority residents. By the mid-1990s, almost all requirements fell out of favor as the middle-class increasingly moved to the suburbs and cities struggled to recruit good employees.

In the years of their revival, municipal employees and their union groups looked to the courts to strike down municipal residency requirements under the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution and under the recognized constitutional right to travel and move freely across jurisdictional lines. In their decisions, courts have had to decide the balance between the personal interests of public employees and the public interests of government and its citizens. The U.S. Supreme Court and various state courts have tended to uphold the constitutionality of the municipal residency requirements, generally siding with the public interests of government and its policy reasons for such requirements. Specifically, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that residency requirements do not infringe on an employee's constitutional right to travel and in effect has maintained that there is no constitutional right to government employment. While some decisions have placed specific limitations on residency requirements, the ability to impose those requirements has remained. 

The Governor, as part of the most recent State Budget, recommended prohibiting local units of government from passing ordinances or other policies which require residency within the jurisdiction of the local unit, unless as required by state law. The new approved State Budget disallows local units of government, except as required under state law, from instituting or enforcing residency requirements on current or prospective employees.

This ordinance brings the City into compliance with the new State law. 

Reality

Someone came to the office the other day and offer to raze a building for us. They indicated that the methods they used would save us on our income tax. When they were informed that we don't pay income taxes, they were dumbfounded. Really... what school did you attend? Eighth grade social studies should have provided you with all the information you needed. It reminds me of the time we eliminated the funding for lifeguards at the beach. A person want us to keep the lifeguards. When we asked if they were willing to pay a higher tax to maintain lifeguards - they said "no". When asked how the lifeguards would be fund, they said " have the government pay for it."
I forget - who is the government?

Signs, sign everywhere signs

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this memo is to provide background information on general directional signage for local businesses. For this discussion, signs can be broken down into two categories: permanent signs and temporary signs. Permanent signs are those intended to last for a long time in a fixed location. Temporary signs are those intended for a finite time period and may be mobile. Temporary sidewalk signs appear to be the key contributor of the City’s recent uptake in sign issues. The Code requires sidewalk signage have a permit, is only allowed in the B-1C District, must comply with the design standards of the Downtown Design Overlay District and the Visibility Standards. The sign must be on the sidewalk adjacent to the business property and may not be affixed to a permanent structure. Many of the current signs being placed in the right of way currently fail to meet many of these requirements.

Recently business owners outside the main business district have struggled with how to attract business in stressed economic times. Temporary signage, specifically A-frame signs, has been suggested by some representatives of the business community as a business friendly solution that the City should consider in light of the current economy. The use of temporary A-frame signage with a changeable message has been presented by some businesses as a very effective means of advertising. For local businesses, the improvement in visibility and customer awareness may help increase store traffic and result in increased sales.

This agenda item is placed at the direction of the Council President for discussion by the Council.

ESTABLISHING CONTEXT

Temporary signs can be broken down into several categories: those allowed in residential v.commercial/industrial areas, and those allowed on private property v. within a public right-of-way.

The Code allows the B-1C commercial zone to have temporary sandwich board signs in the in the right of way adjacent to the commercial use. They are allowed only during business hours, limited to two per property frontage (per street), may be placed on a sidewalk provided reasonable clearance is available for pedestrians including ADA requirements. A permit is required. These signs were not intend as off premise directional signs.

Several businesses have started to use temporary signage in the right of way for off premise directional signage. The Zoning Inspector has been receiving complaints about a specific sign placed in the downtown right of way for several months. He had been working with the sign owner regarding placement and had problems maintaining compliance. The Council President asked the City Manager to assist in enforcing the sandwich board signage regulation. I personally removed some signage and after discussions with the Zoning Inspector and Police Chief, had police officers authorized to remove illegal signage. The business owners who were using the illegal off premise signage are now complaining about the city’s enforcement of the signage regulation.

The primary philosophy of zoning enforcement in Lake Mills has been enforcement by complaint. There is no staff inspection time scheduled to do a systematic discovery of code violations. This requires the residents to know and report zoning violations. Once there is a complaint, there is an attempt to confirm the violation and initiate enforcement. This approach does not generally provide consistent, equitable or fair enforcement. Many times the complainant considers an issue a code violation when it is not and has expectations of staff that cannot be fulfilled. The complaint system encourages retaliation, neighborhood fights and lack of expectations of zoning benefits. The business owners complain most about equity of enforcement of the sidewalk signs.

The issue the Council is being asked to resolve is rewriting the Code to allow off premise sidewalk signs. The current Code does not allow any off premise signage. It also requires specifically designed sandwich boards which are not followed regularly. Off premise signage is not allowed by the State in the right of way of a state highway. Wisconsin §86.04 states “If any highway right-of-way shall be encroached upon, under or over by any fence, stand, building or any other structure or object, and including encroachments caused by acquisition by the public of new or increased widths of highway right-of-way, the department, in case of a state trunk highway, the county highway committee, in case of a county trunk highway, or the city council, village or town board, in case of a street or highway maintained by or under the authority of any city, village or town, may order the occupant or owner of the land through or by which the highway runs, and to which the encroachment shall be appurtenant, to remove the encroachment beyond the limits of the highway within 30 days. The order shall specify the extent and location of the encroachment with reasonable certainty, and shall be served upon the occupant or owner of the land through or by which the highway runs, and to which the encroachment shall be appurtenant.” Encroachments may include, but are not limited to, improperly located mailboxes, trees, signs, crops, fences, headwalls, etc. The issue was addressed when the wayfinding sign policy was passed in 2007.

The directional signage could be placed in City right of ways if the Code were changed by the Council. The problem is that signs propagate signs. The posting of signs at the intersection of Main and Lake Streets has resulted in others doing the same. The area becomes cluttered with signs that cause problems for the businesses at the intersection, traffic using the intersection and pedestrians. It also results in trash. Even if temporary signs for community businesses are allowed only, that may be a catalyst for others who seek general advertisement. Experience shows when one sign is placed on a corner, others also follow, detracting from the overall character of the community.

The temporary signs will encourage other types of illegal signage as businesses compete for value advertising frontage. The history of sign regulation has led to the standard of on premise signage requirements to reduce the competition for prime advertising space. There are few prime advertising spots in Lake Mills and eventually the locations will become cluttered and cause problems for the businesses actually located in these areas. A crucial goal of all businesses is to have the opportunity to advertise in a prime location to entice customers into their store. The standard process for controlling the demand is purchasing the location or space from the owner for advertising. The problem of allowing public space used freely is defined in the Tragedy of The Commons. The questions start with how many signs can be placed at these space limited locations. Who gets to use of the free public benefit or who gets the most use? What other purposes, such as, pedestrian and bicycle traffic, traffic control signage, and access to the businesses at those locations will be impaired. Will public safety be impaired as the clutter begins to create traffic confusion, distraction and visibility issues? Again, experience has led most cities and states to prohibit signs in the right of way.

The picture below is an example of sign creep; illegal sandwich boards, banners and posters can become an enforcement issue with businesses complaining about the equity of enforcement and that the city isn’t business friendly.

Temporary signs also have a tendency to become refuse left in the street. The photo below is not an uncommon event.

RECOMMENDATION

The City’s Code is clear on the use of temporary signs and when enforcement is driven by a complaint, it must be enforced equitably. The sign regulations consider sign design, aesthetics and location as an integral part of a development. Temporary signage, when allowed, is regulated as to size, location, duration of display, attachment, quantity and maintenance. It may be considered Misconduct in Public Office to direct a staff member to intentionally fail or refuse to perform a known mandatory, nondiscretionary, ministerial duty of the officer's or employee's office or employment within the time or in the manner required by law.

The policy question is whether during periods of special economic circumstances, the City can balance the general public interest for safety, aesthetics, compatibility, and wayfinding against the economic interest of business. During suspension of certain signage regulations there is a possibility that overall community aesthetic values are eroded. Consideration of allowing sandwich boards should include whether the deviation from adopted standards would enhance economic value in the community and whether those values outweigh aesthetic values. Do A-frame signs increase the visibility of a business and thereby serve to improve the financial condition and interests of individual businesses?

Are sandwich board signs the only solution for these businesses? “Put Your Best Sign Forward,” an article that appeared in the March/April 2005 Alliance Review, provides examples of effective and ineffective signage. The main example on the front page of the magazine shows a sandwich board sign and a cluttered storefront as compared to a storefront with interesting window displays that are intended to catch the eyes of passersby.

The Plan Commission must review and recommended changes to the zoning code.

Standard Drain

The city has a set of standards it provides to engineers designing capital improvement in the City. The street and drainage improvements are usually combine with the water and sanitary sewer improvements to result in minimal pavement replacements. The specific purpose is to provide information required to prepare construction plans for the City’s capital projects. The design standards cannot separate street design from the drainage design because the street is a significant part of the drainage system.

The closed underground drainage system of a street is generally designed to a storm frequency based on rainfall intensity and flow concentration. The design varies based on peak runoff conditions and infrastructure type being built, but ultimately the goal is for the total right of way to be designed to handle the 100 year storm. The design of the street should have the edge of the right of way below the first floor elevation of the buildings along the street. The sidewalk and tree lawn should have a grade that runs towards the street. The curb allows the flow off the tree lawn and into the gutters which deliver the water to the closed underground system. The street pavement is also designed to move the water to the gutter and to the closed underground system. If the storm intensity and concentration exceeds the closed underground system, the right of way, the area from property line to property line will hold up to sixteen inches of water at the streets low point.

The design generally has an overland swale in the low area that will deliver water exceeding the right of way capacity to an open drainage system. The open systems in the City are generally detention ponds, ditches, the creek or lake.

Leadership and Culture

The constant shifting on leadership philosophies has brought us to servant leadership. With people changing their leadership styles every couple of years we become nothing more than dust in the wind. So, is servant leadership a significant change from existing leadership styles or just a slight modification?

Participatory leadership is a style of management where decisions are made with the most feasible amount of participation from those who are affected by the decisions. Participative leadership, as servant-leadership, incorporates the leader’s ability to “include, discuss, take ideas, look for ways to help people come on board, and celebrate every success that comes along”

Good leaders carry qualities of the servant leader, the ethical leader, and the situational leader. Servant leaders place more focus on personal and professional development of the stakeholders and followers. This quality is an important element in situational and ethical leaders as well. The highest value of servant leadership has to be the culture established within the organization.

An effective situational leader adjusts to the leadership demands of the situation and then hopefully a culture of people looking out for other people will be ready to step up when they are needed and most importantly, take responsibility for their actions. “A good leader develops the competence and commitment of their people so they’re self motivated rather than dependant on others for direction and guidance” ” (Hersey, p.91).

Legislative Budget

PURPOSE: The City Council is the duly elected legislative and policy-making body of the City of Lake Mills. The fundamental job of the City Council is to make policy decisions for the city based on full, relevant and accurate information from the City Manager and his staff. The boards, commissions and committees of the City Council render recommendations to the Council regarding municipal projects, facilities, services, finance and personnel as well as issues of health, safety, and welfare of the community at large. The Council solicits and receives the support of many volunteer citizen committees to ensure a democratic, citizen-centered process.

RESPONSIBILITIES: This Budget includes direct expenditures of the City Council and its commissions and committees, including salaries, per diems and travel for members and dues paid to various organizations.

Balanced Budget

The money collected by the City from taxes, grants, fees, and other sources is called revenue. The money spent on salaries, materials, and equipment to provide services and facilities is called expenditures. By law, revenues and expenditures must be equal in the Annual Budget.

The City Manager must propose, and the City Council must adopt, a balanced budget. The City Manager sets the expenditures of the budget and establishes the revenue estimates to finance the budget. The City Manager initiates the budget process by submitting the proposed budget for the next fiscal year to the Council. The Council, as a body, evaluates and amends the proposed budget at its discretion. The Council then adopts a finalized, balanced budget, prior to the beginning of the fiscal year. A balanced budget requires that the proposed budget expenditures shall not exceed estimated revenues and applied fund balance, if any. The Council also adopts an ordinance to authorize the appropriation of the required funds for the annual budget.

The City’s budget may seem complex and written so that only a bureaucrat could understand it, but this is because the City is called upon to provide financial detail that is necessary for making budget decisions.

Work Orders

The staff in November of 2012 began the search for an on-demand work management tool that could streamline the entire work order process including request generation, completion status tracking and reporting.

The wanted the software to enable either internal or external requesters to submit work requests and check the status of requests online. The system should automatically notify internal requesters via email as work is assigned and completed. The system needed to feature enhanced routing with programmable logic for managing and automating approval and assignment of work requests. There was a desire to have technicians receive and complete work orders online and be able to receive the work order assignments by email or text message. The system should enable technicians to record notes, set reminders and email supervisors regarding a work order. The system must associate budget codes, projects, and equipment with work orders. The system will track all email related to each work order, including system generated notifications and include interactive calendar for resource scheduling – displays corrective, PM and event-related work by all employees or individuals. The system needs to record transactions for labor and purchases and download the data into existing City systems.

Through subsequent review of the cost components of the proposals from FacilityDude, EworkOrders and PubWorks; we have determined that the price-related element determined the selection.

Lake Mills Market

The purpose of this item is to consider issuing a liquor license to Lake Market, LLC., Mitchell P. Eveland, agent. The sale of alcohol-containing beverages in Wisconsin is subject to different kinds of licensing. Class “A” (beer) licenses and “Class A” (liquor) licenses are issued for the sale of beverages for consumption off the premises, Class “B” (beer) and “Class B” (liquor) licenses are for sale for on-premises consumption. A “Class C” license allows restaurants to sell wine for on-premises consumption.

The city has adopted the provisions of chapter 125 and sections 66.053(2) and 66.054, Wis. Stats., relating to the sale of intoxicating liquor and fermented malt beverages, except sections 125.66(3), 125.04(5), 125.09(6), 125.69, 125.11(1), 125.12(2)(a) and 125.14(4), exclusive of any provisions thereof relating to the penalty to be imposed or the punishment for violation of said Statutes.  (1971 Code, sec. 8.01; amd. 1984 Code)

The code determines that no person shall sell, barter, exchange, offer for sale, or have in possession with intent to sell, deal or traffic in any fermented malt beverage or intoxicating liquor, unless licenses as provided by the City Council of the City, nor without complying with all the provisions of city code and all applicable regulations of the State of Wisconsin.  (1984 Code)

The license is being requested for use at Lake Mills Market, 375 W. Tyranena Park Road, west of the intersection of S. Main Street and Tyranena Park Road. The site is 18 acres and includes several retail opportunities. Lake Mills Market is the 48,000 square foot grocery store that is anchoring the development.

The applicant has submitted a license application and a site plan (included in packet) to be considered by the Council when issuing a license. The submitted application, site plan and narrative provide documentation of how access to the area where the Class “A” Liquor sales will be controlled. The sales will occur in an access controlled room in the southwest corner of the store immediately west of the transactions area. The room will be completely enclosed with by walls and a security. The alcohol overstock will be kept in secure in the liquor department at all times. There would be times that alcohol would be merchandised in other areas of the store.

The Lake Mills Comprehensive Plan designates the Lake Mills Market site for commercial development within the current growth period. The area has immediate access to sanitary sewer, water, electric and emergency services. The site is currently zoned PB Planned Business.

The City Council of the City is authorized and empowered to make reasonable and general rules for the sanitation of all places of business possessing licenses under Chapter 3. Such rules or regulations may be classified and made applicable according to the class of business conducted.

All sales of liquor, beer and wine shall take place in premises for which provisions have been designed, reviewed and approved by the Council, which minimize the ability of underage persons to handle, sell or purchase alcoholic beverages, unless those underage persons have an operator’s license and are employed by the licensee and are on duty at the licensed premises, and unless those persons so licensed are acting within the scope of their licenses.

Special conditions upon a license may be imposed by a majority vote of the City Council if those special conditions are not in conflict with the provisions of Chapter 125, Wisconsin Statutes. These special conditions shall be as determined by the Council on a case-by-case basis, given the unique aspects or characteristics of the premises or other business activities conducted on the premises. These special conditions may be imposed at the time the license is initially granted by the Council or upon application for renewal when the principal use of the premises is modified by the applicant.

Legal issues related to the new license control policy on quotas will need to be referred to the City Attorney.

Externalities

INTRODUCTION

Zoning can be an adaptive control tool. It attempts to simplify, categorize and ultimately codify what has already occurred and what is yet to take place. It is the result of a community trying to making sense of a prohibitively complex, and constantly evolving process. Zoning can be a static tool that tends to use the communities goals of what makes the city healthy, safe, and prosperous from a rather small time period. But healthy cities are dynamic, and thus the zoning process is never fully complete. Zoning that quickly adapts can more efficiently allow the city to evolve. Yet an overly adaptive zoning code begins to unravel the certainties that give it much of its power and legitimacy — namely serving the interests of existing users by protecting property values and preserving community character. The power to preserve or adapt could be desirable to an extent, if it actually achieved these goals at minimal cost.

Economists have long argued that market exchange – where the choices of individuals reflect their own values and firms make choices to maximize their profits – will lead to an efficient allocation of scarce resources. Efficiency in this sense requires that individual buyers and sellers cannot affect the price at which exchange takes place in a market. In addition, markets must exist for all goods. If these conditions are met, markets are competitive and complete and there will be an efficient allocation of resources. In reality, these conditions are rarely met.

Sometimes the benefits of consuming a good may not accrue solely to the consumer. Others may also benefit. This is the case of positive externalities. Conversely, an individual or group may not be the sole bearer of the costs of a use or the producing a good – and a negative externality arises where the community bears a cost of producing that particular use of good which is greater than the private cost. Even if there are no market failures, the workings of the economy may produce a distribution of benefits that is perceived as inequitable. Often, this is because of the unequal distribution of wealth and of unequal opportunities.

An externality may be said to exist whenever a decision made by an individual or group has effects on others not involved in the decision. That is to say, an externality occurs whenever some activity imposes spillover costs or benefits on persons not directly involved in the activity of interest.

Negative externalities, or external diseconomies, are costs that flow outside of market transactions. Noise, air pollution, congestion, water pollution, and visual pollution, as well as blocked or otherwise altered natural light, are examples of negative externalities that lower (industrial) uses might impose on higher use (residential) land. Thus, with cumulative zoning, each zone that produces negative externalities can injure the uses in all higher zones and, in turn, can be injured by negative externalities produced in the lower zones. A resulting problem is that, in the presence of externalities that flow primarily in one direction, the market’s allocation of land to various uses will be inefficient.

The kind of market failures noted above provide the necessary conditions for public action. But public action needs to be informed when working on the effective design of public policies.

Zoning is a complex and controversial process involving competing values. An example is a property owner imposes an aesthetic externality on a neighbor by painting a fence on the shared property line hot pink and the neighbor imposes a burden on the property owner by being sensitive to the color. While most people favor reducing negative externalities affecting their enjoyment or the value of their property, there is some disagreement as to what constitutes a negative externality that needs regulating. So most people look to government intervention and the assumed consensus process to eliminate, limit, or internalize negative externalities. In addition to looking to government intervention to eliminate negative externalities, most people want government to enact rules that will encourage positive externalities, such as large yards or tree-lined streets.

ISSUES

“Externality zoning” is zoning which is in response to the phenomenon that one person’s use of land may have external effects-positive or negative-on the uses of neighboring land. The City’s zoning is cumulative, or hierarchical, all land uses are placed somewhere in a hierarchy. So called higher uses (residential) are allowed to locate in lower use zones (industrial), but not vice versa. This form of zoning is based on the belief that negative externalities flow primarily in one direction, from lower to higher land uses.

The main objective of this type of zoning is to reduce the total social cost of externality generating uses. For example, if a user (industrial) produces negative externalities which affect another user (residential), then externality zoning could restrict industrial users to a number of contiguous parcels of land reserved for such a use. This could reduce the harmful external effects of the industrial uses by minimizing the length of the boundary between conflicting uses. An industrial user, such as Madison Kipp, whose residential neighbors regularly complain about environmental issues would benefit from spatial separation and/or limited boundaries with residential uses.

Boundary effects concern the impact that higher use areas suffer from their proximity to lower use areas. Scale effects suggest that the quantity of land in the lower use affects higher uses equally throughout the relevant area; boundary effects suggest that the impact is limited spatially to a boundary strip. If negative externalities do not travel very far, then boundary effects are the more important determinant of efficient land use.

Furthermore, the definition of an optimal externality zoning policy is one which produces an economically efficient (Pareto Optimal) allocation of resources. For example, if for simplicity we neglect spatial considerations in the location of industry and assume that land is similar in quality, the optimal policy in the above example might segregate industry in a compact area and would locate this area in order to minimize its boundary with residential areas.

One of the main problems of land use is the question of the optimal use of a specific site. This should be combined with the most profitable use of that specific site. To address this problem the concept of the highest and best use is applied. The most profitable use of a site will be that which provides the highest residual to that piece of land. The residual may be calculated by subtracting the conversion cost from the present value of that piece of land. The residual may vary depending whether the site is used as a parking lot or a grocery store. The highest and best use is not necessarily the most socially desirable use because various negative and positive spillovers may arise from different land uses. The most profitable use may be to erect a grocery store on a specific site although it may not be the best in a social and ethical sense.

 “Fiscal zoning” will be defined to mean zoning which creates a different pattern of land use than externality zoning because policy-makers have an objective other than economic efficiency. For example, assume that a suburban community desires local public services of a high quality but also desires a low property tax rate. Such a community might zone vacant land in large lots for high-value commercial uses because it believes that owners of commercial developments will pay more property taxes than the cost of providing additional public services to meet their needs. In such circumstances, the possibility that a community’s vacant land might be better suited to apartments than to commercial uses would make no difference to the community. It would prefer that the land remain vacant to its being used for apartment buildings, since such a use is seen as a fiscal drain on the community. An optimal fiscal zoning policy can be defined only with reference to the community’s objectives but it will not in general lead to the same pattern of land use as would an optimal externality zoning policy.

Budget Category 6

AGENCY: General Government

DEPARTMENT: Financial Administration

SUBAGENCY: Treasurer - Finance

DEPARTMENT HEAD: James E. Heilman

FISCAL YEAR: January 1, 2014 - December 31, 2014

PURPOSE: The City’s goal is to produce, maintain and preserve all required City related financial, accounting, and investment documents in accordance with State Statutes and City Codes.

RESPONSIBILITIES: This budget provides the Treasury-Finance Department with the resources to produce, maintain and preserve the financial resources of the City. This allows the Treasury-Finance Department to serve the residents, elected officials and employees of the City by being able to meet their relevant financial information needs

The Treasurer-Finance Director is responsible for managing and integrating a program of broad, comprehensive financial services for the City, including utility rates and customer water and sewer billing services, license fees and other permit fee administration and collection and the management and investment of City funds. The Treasurer-Finance Director serves as Risk Manager and ensures sound programs of insurance coverage and loss control.

The Treasurer-Finance Director is responsible for collection, receipting, depositing and dispersing of all monies paid to the City; performs cash management analyses and makes investments of City funds; ensures compliance of investment activities with policy requirements; monitors and evaluates investment performance; stays abreast of law and regulations governing municipal financing and capital financing strategies; monitors current debt payments and ensures compliance with reporting requirements; evaluates alternatives for financing or refinancing of debt; works with financial advisors and bond counsel as required for the issuance of Council-approved bonds.

The Finance department is responsible for accounting, cash management, utility billing, permit billing and collections, impact fee administration; risk management and loss control, payroll and benefits administration and related functions; the department develops, implements and monitors long-term plans, goals and objectives focused on achieving the department's mission and assigned priorities; participates in the development of and monitors performance against the annual department budget; manages and directs the development, implementation and evaluation of plans, policies, systems and procedures to achieve annual goals, objectives and work standards.

STAFF: Treasurer-Finance Director
              Bookkeepers
              Financial Assistant

Electric System Outages

We’ve experienced four significant outages this year.  In three cases, key electric equipment or components failed.  As noted in the attached recap of outages, old equipment at the Downtown substation failed, a high voltage underground terminator failed outside of the Pine Street substation failed, and a large breaker in the Pine Street substation failed when it was damaged by a leaky roof.

 

In the case of the other significant outage, the typical “3-shot” system was switched to a “1-shot” setting designed to shut the power off quickly for safety reasons. The series of breakers were set to 1-shot only for a one week period during the construction on the Main Street culvert. The breaker settings were changed because workers were using cranes very close to power lines. Breakers are now set to normal operation. The outage was cause when a lightning arrestor on Owen Street failed.  Because the breakers were set on one-shot, once the breaker saw the fault and opened, it did not reclose as it would have under normal conditions.  Under normal conditions the outage may not have occurred at all or would have been limited to smaller area.

 

The breaker is an overcurrent device that can have an autorecloser which is used in a distribution system circuit and when tripped, will cause one or several brief outages followed by either normal operation (as the breaker succeeds in automatically restoring power after a transient fault has cleared) or a complete outage of service (as the breaker’s autorecloser exhausts its retries). If the fault is on an adjacent circuit, the customer may see several brief "dips" (sags) in voltage as the heavy fault current flows into the adjacent circuit and is interrupted one or more times. A typical manifestation would be the dip, or intermittent black-out, of domestic lighting during an electrical storm. Autorecloser action may result in electronic devices losing time settings, losing data in volatile memory, halting, restarting, or suffering damage due to power interruption. Owners of such equipment may need to protect electronic devices against the consequences of power interruptions.

 

Breakers may cooperate with down-stream protective devices called sectionalizers, usually a disconnector or cutouts equipped with a tripping mechanism triggered by a counter or a timer. A sectionalizer is generally not rated to interrupt fault current and is therefore cheaper than a recloser. Each sectionalizer detects and counts fault current interruptions by the circuit breaker. After a pre-determined number of interruptions, the sectionalizer will open, thereby isolating the faulty section of the circuit, allowing the recloser to restore supply to the other non-fault sections.

Water Main Breaks

A water main is an underground pipe that delivers water to the customer's service pipe. In Lake Mills it usually runs under the street. If a hole or crack develops in the pipe, the water will typically find its way to the surface. Because the water main is under pressure, water will continue to flow until the break is repaired.

Water main breaks can occur from a combination of issues. First, water main breaks are more likely to occur when frost penetrates deep into the ground, to a level of 5-6 feet, usually from late January until early April. While cold temperatures may send the frost deeper, the level of snow cover is also important. Snow will act as a "blanket" insulating the ground. In years when there is plenty of snow, the frost does not go as deep. The soil shifts as the frost penetrates and leaves the ground. This shifting can cause main breaks.

Water main breaks can also result from external corrosion of the pipe. Lake Mills has areas where the soils can be highly conductive and corrodes the metallic pipe from the outside in. Changing soil conditions can then cause the weakened pipe to break.

The water main repair starts with controlling the water by closing valves. Then we contact other Digger’s Hotline to make sure we can dig without damaging other services or endangering staff or the public. We then dig down to the pipe and depending on the type of failure; we may apply a repair clamp or replace a length of pipe.

This year has been “average” regarding water main breaks. The largest malfunction this year was a 4” hole in the water main on East Lake Street on Friday, 4/26. That main contributing factor to this breakage was due to incorrect installation. Other notable breaks this year due to incorrect installation were on Grove Street and O’Neil Street.

Gutters

Rain gutters interact with a building in a number of ways, all of which can solve or create problems on their own. So, it can be a matter of balancing the benefits and downsides before opting for or against gutters and downspouts. The primary purpose of rain gutters is to move water away from the building’s foundation. When the building is situated on level or downwardly sloping land, proper drainage may occur naturally, without requiring gutters to act as conduits. Because the municipal building was designed not to have gutters and the topography is naturally well drained, gutters were not used. The landscaping around the foundation is designed to assist with water issues. Gutters added to the building will over concentrate the storm runoff and create problems with erosion and water quality.

The bricks used on the building were not the original selection and the porous nature of the material may impact the gutter discussion. However, there has been no determination on the impact of gutters on the brick and any action should first have an engineer determination completed. Gutters would require the addition of an underground storm system of drainage ditches with a detention basin.

Ice buildup on the eaves is another problem that gutters will exaggerate. The transition of snow melt coming off the roof is abrupt as the ice falls on to the gutter and splatters breaking into smaller drops.  Smaller drops are more likely to freeze and the ice is spread out more from the splashing snow melt.  Worse, the mounting of gutters positions the accumulated layers of ice underneath the first row of slate. The large amounts of snow and ice have a tendency to tear the gutters off of the building.

Finding Vision

Stephen Covey points out that people often focus on the near term issues and fail to invest in the future, only to pay a higher price later for not having dealt with more significant, but longer term issues until they become crises.

Competition and Equity

Tax increment financing (TIF) is the most widely used local government program for financing economic development in the United States. TIF is used in almost every state and has been implemented in virtually every kind of city—central business districts, urban industrial neighborhoods, small towns, suburbs, and even farmlands on the urban fringe. TIF is the only real economic development tool that cities can pull out of their toolbox.
Tax Increment Finance policies are generally development focused. When using TIF, cities are required to consider the development needs within the identified area and determine the potential need for change based on assessed value, job creation and public improvements. While most TIF districts (TID) succeed in creating a “solid and robust” revenue base of new assessed value which is normally the primary policy goal, it can be debated as to whether that economic growth creates benefits across the entire city. The policy rarely analyzes potential equity impacts across the whole city because scoping the impacts creates so many variables that projects become worthless.

The State of Wisconsin and the City of Lake Mills consider the creation of new tax base as the only option for generating additional tax revenues and TIF as the only City tool for generating new tax base. The analysis of the revenue generated by new development is easy and very accurate. Consistent with most cities in the United States, we use TIF to stimulate new private construction by installing new public infrastructure. The required project plans provide detailed analysis of both the new revenues generated and the cost of public infrastructure. 

TIF projects usually involve large-scale investments in public infrastructure to create the physical foundation for the long-term development of relatively sizeable areas. A Project Plan is primarily written to provide new public infrastructure investment which is not easily financed out of the city’s existing local tax base, especially because of the legal limits on raising taxes. TIF works well because cities are largely dependent on their own resources to finance the public infrastructure. The city’s ability to increase revenues by raising taxes is constrained by local politics, competition with other cities and towns, and state constraints on the city’s ability to increase property taxes. The city’s primary fiscal goal is to increase the value of taxable properties which results in increased net new construction revenues. This process is sometimes referred to as fiscalization. As already stated, TIF is an ideal tool for creating a “solid and robust” revenue base of new assessed value.

This fiscalization is evidenced, and underscored, by TIF’s increasing use for vacant or undeveloped land on the urban fringe and for commercial projects. Truly blighted areas are less likely to attract new investment, even with substantial public-supported and infrastructure investments; because of the enormous costs of brownfields, lack of adequate traffic counts and deteriorated structures. Vacant land in less developed areas of the city or on the urban periphery is more likely to yield a significant increase in assessed value and, thus, in tax revenue growth. Commercial projects are attractive because commercial land is typically assessed at a higher percentage of value than industrial.

The public-private relationships encouraged by TIF and the public funds used to recruit or retain private investment continues to be a source of political conflict and adds to the debate about city policy direction. The state constitutional public purpose requirements are a reminder of the longstanding concern about the potential for public sector corruption. 

City policy has to consider the equity of public intervention into private competition when the City is providing direct aid to a private enterprise and balance that with the goal of achieving economic well-being for its citizens. TIF is simultaneously popular and controversial because of its central role in enabling the City to work closely with private businesses in promoting development that has the potential to impact competition and the well-being of citizens.

When TIF projects include commercial uses that might impact nearby competition, the classical assumption is that market economies work on forces, such as supply and demand, where the best determinants of what is right for the citizens’ well-being is determined by private competition. Lake Mills would be classified as having a mixed economy. Mixed economies allow market forces to drive most of their activities, typically engaging in government intervention only to the extent that it is needed to provide stability. Although the market economy is clearly the system of choice here, there is significant debate regarding the amount of government intervention considered optimal for efficient economic operations. The city has used TIF to intervene for the public purpose of creating jobs, increasing tax base and providing needed public infrastructure.

Cities’ policies are used to create competitive markets where more than one producer competes with others to satisfy the wants and needs of a large number of consumers. In a competitive market no single producer, or group of producers, and no single consumer, or group of consumers, can dictate how the market operates. Nor can they individually determine the price of goods and services, and how much will be exchanged. The Federal government has historically considered it in the public interest to encourage competition and discourage monopolies.

Competitive markets theoretically form when the possibility of profits provides an incentive for firms to enter the market. The markets will form because entrepreneurs are willing to take risks associated with producing and supplying goods. This is because consumers would be prepared to pay for the good, and producers can charge consumers at the point of consumption, from which they can earn revenue and make a profit.

Tax increment programs can have the potential of distorting the tax system, and it could be argued that whoever is given a break is benefiting at the expense of their competition. This could distort the basic economics of businesses and costs the city revenue needed for services essential to economic activity. The city could possibly be served better by targeting the incentives to achieve particular results, such as, traffic flows or leeds building projects.

However, the Lake Mills proposed policies on TID incentives in the Gundlach Development Agreement are designed not to be giveaways, but instead are a method to level the competitive playing field. We took the position that when a company decides to locate in Lake Mills it has certain disadvantages, not the least of which are the required city regulations that add substantial costs to a project that existing businesses are grandfathered under, such as, landscaping, traffic islands, driveway separation, stormwater quality and quantity management, traffic lanes, water and sanitary sewer line extensions, traffic light modifications and electric system upgrades. These regulations have added hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cost of opening a business in the city and the TID was the City’s method of reducing the impact of these regulations.

The City has remained extremely conservative by determining to use tax increment financing only in cases where the City has the financial capacity to provide the needed public assistance, are when the Council deems it fiscally prudent to provide such assistance and the developer can clearly demonstrate that the development will be able to meet its financial and public purpose commitments.

With the recent adoption of the Project Plan, the City Council is enabled to make TIF-eligible expenditures for development within TID#4, as well as out of District expenditures if they are related to the District. Financing for the proposed project will be done through bond issuance as reimbursement to the developer for certain identified project costs. The City will use the authority of a Tax Incremental District to finance the public improvements. The City anticipates financing the entire cost of the public improvements included within Table I assuming the developer is able to achieve the development benchmarks contained within the approved term sheet between the City and developer. With the proposed financing contained within the Project Plan, the developer will finance the improvement costs upfront and will be reimbursed after a City bond issuance based on final construction.

The TID#4 area clearly has the potential for stagnant or improper use because of defective or inadequate layouts of streets, faulty layouts of lots in relation to size, shape, accessibility or usefulness, or for other causes and also should be re-planned with assembly of land for development in the interest of the general welfare because of widely scattered ownership, tax delinquency or other reasons.

The Economic Feasibility Study provides a summary of project costs, proposed debt service schedule, and projected tax increment revenues on an annual basis during the duration of the District. Current projections indicate that all project costs of the district should be financed by tax increment revenue within the twenty-seven year statutorily-required retirement period.

The Project Plan can be utilized to direct and manage growth in a neighborhood in consideration of both a neighborhood-specific and citywide policy framework. The Council may want to add requirements to the development in exchange for TID incentives, such as, requiring a LEED design of the buildings.

Cities like to use experts to tell them what economic impact a new project will generate, or how the cost and benefits should be measured, or how many TIF dollars will be generated. Decision-makers want a clear answer to point to, and the experts projection becomes its own living creature. The fundamental problem remains the same. Eventually an unexplained and unexplored uncertainty that is buried in the assumptions and methods behind the projection changes the number. Some seemingly innocuous assumption will change and the actual impact of the project will change dramatically. Councils and their staffs appear to have as their only choice to run with the experts projection and deal with the inevitable down the road.

Instead of accepting the projection, it is preferable to demand to know the plausible range of jobs, tax dollars, economic impact, etc., given what we know. Or ask for a range of scenarios — what happens to the projection if the building doesn’t fill up as fast as they project, or the average payroll turns out to be less, or the cost of steel spikes in the middle of construction. Will the city remain fiscally sound?

Experience

I have worked as a heavy equipment operator running track hoes, wheeled hoes, graders, bulldozers, compactors, rollers and wheeled loaders; I have been a trench bottom man, pipefitter, foreman, competent person, safety officer and construction tech. I’ve assisted in the design and construction of hundreds of construction jobs that have dealt with storm water issues. All this experience means nothing because I’m appointed and not elected.

Budget Category 5

AGENCY: General Government

DEPARTMENT: Financial Administration

SUBAGENCY: Assessor

DEPARTMENT HEAD: Jim Heilman, Treasurer – Finance Director

FISCAL YEAR: January 1, 2013 – December 31, 2013

PURPOSE: The City’s goal is to maintain equitable market value assessments and to serve as an informational resource to the community while being timely and cost effective, continually analyzing market trends, maintaining accurate records and providing easily accessible information to the community, other City departments and the Council.

RESPONSIBILITIES: The City Assessor’s Office budget provides for assessment methods in accordance with the Wisconsin Property Assessment Manual, Wisconsin State Statutes Chapter 70, and professionally accepted appraisal practices; review personal property (new and existing accounts); inventory and onsite inspection of new and remodeled properties; review building permits to determine if they affect a property’s value, inspect and value all appropriate permits; handle requests for review from property owners with questions and/or valuation concerns; conduct ratio studies, monitor assessments and adjust values as necessary; submit timely and accurate reports as required by the Department of Revenue; continue with data conversion issues, accurately update and maintain Market; and complete assessment roll in a timely manner to hold the first meeting of the board of review prior to August 15th.

STAFF: The City uses a qualified contractor for the provision of Property Assessment services.

 

Establish Significance

The past is everything that has ever happened. The past is recorded as history, but there is too much history to remember it all. Historical significance would of structures would be defined as structures that are associated with events that resulted in great change over long periods of time for large numbers of people. Significance can depend upon one’s perspective and purpose. A historical structure can acquire significance if it reveals larger trends and stories about something important for us today. While perspective is important, saying “It is significant because it is in the history book” and “It is significant because I am interested in it” are inadequate explanations of historical significance.

The outfall at the Legion has seen the dam moved, buildings built over the creek, pipes installed, roadways modified, mill razed and concrete poured into the channel. The outfall has changed so much that there is no historical significance if there ever was any significance. Removing the dam and all the buildings from the creek floodway would do more to restore historical significance.

Fix It

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this motion is to have the Council consider awarding a contract for wastewater treatment plant improvement work. The Work includes miscellaneous improvements and repairs to facilities and equipment at the wastewater treatment plant.

The City of Lake Mills received sealed bids for the 2013 Wastewater Treatment Plant Improvement Project, WWTP contract 1-2013 at 1 p.m., local time, March 28, 2013 at City Hall.

The bids were opened and August Winters and Sons, Inc, 2323 North Roemer Road, Appleton, WI 54911 was the low bidder with a bid of $815,000.00. The low bidder provided a 10% bond as required.

BACKGROUND

City staff reviewed the maintenance issues at the plant and prepared a maintenance plan for the wastewater treatment plant, realizing the need to focus on replacement of aging equipment and improving inefficient wastewater treatment processes at the wastewater treatment plant.

Due to the age of the major mechanical equipment at the wastewater treatment plant, the City needs to complete maintenance rehabilitation of the roof; leaking tank; remove wall panels and paint the walls in the gravity belt thickener room; replace the polymer feed system; rebuild the gravity belt thickener; provide a fume hood over the lab oven; rebuild the influent wastewater screen and wash press; provide additional phosphorus removal chemical piping from the chemical feed room to the oxidation ditches; rebuild existing oxidation ditch aerator drives and replace impellers; repair the oxidation ditch influent splitter box, rebuild existing clarifier drives and paint clarifier mechanisms; refinish the fiberglass final clarifier domes; provide high level float alarms in sludge storage tank no. 1 through 4 and install check valve in piping near sludge storage tank no. 5.

The contract ultimately added concrete joint repairs to the oxidation ditches and removal of a slide gate. The laboratory also added painting of walls, new ceiling and some counter to accommodate the muffle furnace. A third PRC feed location was added. Equipment and Scada allowances were added for rebuild issues and additional monitoring. New baffles were added to the final clarifiers. The engineer’s memo is attached.

DECISION

Staff recommends the Council award the contract to August Winters and Sons, Inc, 2323 North Roemer Road, Appleton, WI 54911 with a bid of $815,000.00. The funds for this project are coming from the Wastewater Maintenance account with total project costs of approximately $907,000.00. 

The Public Works Board is has recommended awarding the bid to August Winters and Sons, Inc, 2323 North Roemer Road, Appleton, WI 54911for WWTP Contract 1-2013, Wastewater Treatment Plant Improvement Project in the amount of $815,000.00.

The motion authorizes the City Manager to take such actions as required to award the contract to August Winters and Sons, Inc, 2323 North Roemer Road, Appleton, WI 54911. The Engineer’s recommendation and plan set are included in the packet. The preliminary bid tabulation is included in the packet.

Two Less Substations

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this motion is to have the Council consider awarding a contract for purchase of equipment and materials that would replace the Downtown electric substation behind the Parks and Recreation Building on Campus Street. The Work includes miscellaneous transformers, switchgear, materials and line upgrades at various locations in the system.

The City of Lake Mills received sealed bids for the electric equipment and materials at 1 p.m., local time, March 27, 2013 at City Hall.
The bids were opened and there were several low bidders with a total bid of $413,615.81. The low bidder provided a 5% bond as required.

This motion allows Lake Mills Light and Water to purchase equipment and materials to begin the process of removing the Downtown and Shorewood Hills substations as budget resources are developed. The transformers will provide additional capacity and flexibility to manage load growth and improve reliability on the west side of the electric system. The engineer’s memo is included in the packet.

BACKGROUND

Forster Engineering has recommended several system upgrades that eliminate two substations from the electric system. The substations are at the substation located in the Downtown behind the Parks and Recreation Building and the other is the Shorewood Hills substation located at the intersection of CTH “V” and Shorewood Hills Road. Three of the transformers will be placed at locations on the west side of the City and one will be located on the west side of the lake. The transformers proposed to be located in the City will have one on Catlin near the High School, one near the Municipal Building and one on Church Street near the Old Middle School Gym site. The one on the west side of the lake is proposed to be near the west edge of Shorewood Meadows Subdivision.
The proposed improvement will loop the electric system on the west side of the lake which improves reliability addresses the Light and Water’s emerging energy needs.

DECISION

Staff recommends the Council accept the bids listed in the motion with a total bid amount from all supplies of $413,615.81. The funds for this project are coming from the Electric Utility Fund account with total project costs of approximately $450,000.00. 

The Public Works Board is has recommended accepting the bids listed in the motion for electric equipment and materials in the amount of $413,615.81.

The motion authorizes the City Manager to the bids of the lowest responsible bidders and purchase the equipment and materials. The Engineer’s recommendation and memos are included in the packet. The bid tabulation is included in the packet.

RLF

The City’s Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) is a flexible source of loan funds for commercial and industrial projects. The purpose is to encourage the creation of quality jobs and to increase the tax base.

The City of Lake Mills has capitalized the Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) with money from the federal/state Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. The RLF provides gap financing in the form of loans to businesses when private financial institutions won’t cover the entire amount needed for the project. Also, this program requires a commitment to create jobs within the city limits.

The City lends the funds to businesses for start-up, retention, and expansion projects through the grant funding. Funding levels depend on the number of jobs to be created or retained.

The former Department of Commerce (now Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation) launched an initiative in 2005 to assist communities with maximizing regional business development. The goal was to promote more effective economic growth and vitality and find creative and collaborative ways to work more efficiently through consolidating the individual Revolving Loan Funds (RLF) into Regional Non Profits (RNP). 

Jefferson County communities resisted the regional nonprofit concept and all RLF cities and the county were notified in November of 2012 to update their RLF policies to meet HUD requirements as interpreted by WEDC. WEDC notification stated that the CDBG program for RLFs would now require low to moderate income standards, loan balance availability and anti-pirating requirements.

The Finance Director and the Economic Development Committee have reviewed the policy and recommended the Council approve the new policy.

Commons Street Lights

The specific light fixtures we have are no longer manufactured and access to replacement/repair parts is inadequate. An LED retrofit kit and newly designed globe have been developed and is available at an approximate cost of $700 to $800 per light. However, the fixtures with these changes are still not dark sky compliant.

The existing decorative streetlights in Commons Park and at the city Municipal Building are King Luminaire K124 (old version). They are 120 VAC, 70 watt high pressure sodium fixtures with a plastic globe mounted on 18’ decorative fiberglass poles (an example is shown below). The lights are not dark sky compliant.

Just What I Wanted to Know

Bridge: The structure generally consist of a deck or superstructure supported on two abutments and often includes intermediate piers.

Culvert: A structure which is usually covered with embankment and is composed of structural material around the entire perimeter, although some are supported on spread footings with the channel bed serving as the bottom of the culvert.

Here are two types of crossings: bridges and culverts, from a design standpoint, the defining feature of each is how it will perform during expected flows. A bridge allows passage over a body of water without the travel surface becoming subject to the forces of the moving water. Culverts allow flows to pass from one side to the other ranging from a trickle in the bottom of the pipe to both ends being fully submerged. In the most extreme rainfall or runoff events, the excess water that the culvert can’t carry might cross the roadbed itself.

Commons Lighting

Summary

 

The City will need to start replacing the decorative street light poles and fixtures around the commons with new ones because repair parts are no longer available for the current ones. The Public Works Board needs to have a discussion on establishing a new Streetlight Design to be used for the replacement of the decorative streetlights. The Public Works Board will evaluate the lights for safety, aesthetics, light color, and light pollution. In this meeting, staff wants to solicit feedback from the Public Works Board regarding the following goals:

1. Review established lighting styles in the City’s downtown, identify issues, and recommend improvements; and
2. Recommend lighting styles, as deemed appropriate, to address the downtown character while considering fiscal impacts pertaining to maintenance and proposed improvements; and
3. Draft Streetlight Guidelines for Council’s consideration.

This will facilitate the selection process by allowing staff to narrow down the styles for use. Staff will schedule a follow up Public Works Board meeting to present a draft design guidelines after collecting feedback from this meeting. The Public Works Board is requested to discuss and recommend appropriate streetlight styles for the Downtown area to the City Council for final approval. 

 

Background  

 

In 1996, the Economic Development Commission and the Parks Board started discussions regarding street lights suggested for use in the Commons and N. Main Street. The discussion included parameters that were considered desirable for consideration in the selection of street lights.

 

In 1998, the Public Works Board authorized the purchase of decorative streetlights for the Commons area. The presentation to the Public Works Board was primarily regarding street lights for decorative purpose lighting that could also be utilized within street right of ways. The proposed approach was to utilize a King Luminaire twelve foot tall cast ductile iron pole for street lights around the Commons. This approach provided a unified aesthetic theme throughout the Downtown. It allowed the community feature to gain desired streetlight aesthetics including the pole-type and light-fixture style.

 

A decorative type of fixture, that also provided a design to address traffic safety and pedestrian-level light, was approved by the Public Works Board for use in the Commons and for future expansion to N. Main Street. The selected street light fixture type was a King post top luminaire with a traditional style design.

 

In May of 2006, The Council adopted ordinance 981 which updated the city’s lighting requirements to standards that are perceived to reduce light pollution. The proliferation of outdoor light use, particularly that light projecting into the night skies, was determined to be an area of environmental degradation – light pollution. The purpose of the ordinance 981 was to regulate outdoor night lighting fixtures to preserve and enhance the areas dark sky while promoting safety, conserving energy and preserving the environment. One of the most significant features of the Ordinance is the requirement for down cast lighting. The current fixtures used in the Commons do not meet the down cast requirement.

 

Discussion

 

While street lighting systems were originally designed to address traffic safety, the environmental issues of lighting design are recognized as critically important to maintaining quality of life in neighborhoods. These issues go beyond the amount of light produced and include minimizing light pollution, enhancing the urban environment during the day by use of decorative poles and fixtures with underground wiring and at night by the provision of pedestrian-level light, deterring undesirable or illegal activities, increasing safety, restricting unwanted truant light onto private property and minimizing glare, power consumption, cost and visual impacts (day and night).

 

The City currently has 1431 street lights with basically three different styles/variations: cobra head or LED fixture with aluminum pole or on a utility power pole (wood), globe fixture type with aluminum pole, and lantern fixture with wood pole (either round or square). Exhibit ‘A’ is a map showing the locations of the different street lights. Exhibit ‘B’ includes pictures of the light styles/features.

 

Standard cobra head with wood power pole mounted – This is the typical light standard used in most areas of the City. The parts are easy to obtain for maintenance and replacement. The same style is also used by many other local agencies. There are 1028 cobra head lights in the City which is about 72% of the total.

 

These traditional streetlight fixtures are used to illuminate many roadways. They vary in design; some newer ones have their lamps recessed in the fixture, with flat, horizontal glass shields underneath, sending most of their light downward to the street and sidewalks. The majority, though, feature a hanging globe diffuser/shield, sending much of their light output sideways rather than downward.

 

LED Fixture – In 2012, LML&W installed 300 new LED light fixtures on existing wood poles utilizing Federal Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program (EECBG). Compared with other high sodium pressure lights, LED lights are more energy efficient and cost effective. The new lights are mainly installed along Mulberry Street, E. Lake Street and Main Street. More LED lights are being installed with replacement needs. Staff is actively looking for grants when they are available.

 

Cobra fixtures/aluminum poles – This style light fixture used was used in the downtown area. The cobra head luminaire on an aluminum pole is typically only installed in conventional underground network areas. The pole is twenty feet tall. There are total 23 of this style light used in the City.

 

Cast Iron Pole with lantern style light – This is the type of street lighting used in the Commons and around the municipal building. City maintenance crews must remove failed lights and use the parts to maintain the remaining lights due to unavailability of the fixture parts. Chosen for their period appearance, these streetlights feature modern-day high-pressure sodium lamps.

 

Particular concerns when making the selections include the pole style and locations for installation:

 

Pole

 

A utility pole is a pole used to support overhead power lines and various other public utilities, such as cable, fiber optic cable, and related equipment such as transformers and street lights. LML&W uses wood utility poles for all their overhead electrical applications. The Utility has the equipment and resources to easily handle installation, maintenance and removal of wood poles. Decorative wood poles are not what the Utility normally handles. There are wood poles designed specifically for street lighting, but they have to be shorter which means more of them are needed to meet lighting illumination standards in an area. Wood utility poles tend to be the least aesthetically pleasing option. Wood pole treatments are generally not environmentally friendly.

 

Aluminum poles have a longer life than steel or fiberglass and are still light weight. They can also be painted to have the desired color. Fiber glass is light weight and has the lowest cost. Steel poles reduce may reduce installation and maintenance costs while placing dependable and appealing street light pole designs. Steel poles; however, are subject to rusting at the base limiting their life span. There are still a few steel poles in use, particularly in front of the high school, which will be replaced in this year.

 

Location

 

The existing decorative lights are typically located around the Commons in the downtown area and the Municipal Building. However, the selected decorative light fixture needs to be phased out because parts are no longer available. To make modifications, a different light fixture style may require installing new poles, new conduits and bases.

 

Public Contact 

 

Posting of the agenda.

 

Recommendation

 

Staff recommends that the Public Works Board provide feedback regarding the following goals to:

1. Review established lighting styles in the City, identify issues, and recommend improvements; and
2. Recommend lighting styles, as deemed appropriate, to address Downtown character while considering fiscal impacts pertaining to maintenance and proposed improvements; and
3. Draft Downtown Streetlight Guidelines for Council’s consideration.

 

Staff will present at a subsequent Public Works Board meeting to review a draft Design Guidelines after feedback from this meeting.

 

Attachments

I. Exhibit A – Street light location map

II. Exhibit B – Existing street light details

III. Exhibit D –Lights fixture for presentation at meeting