Passing go and collecting while we do

Recently I received an email from someone I consider a friend who wrote to express their opinion about some of the “wheeling and dealing” (not their words) the city has been engaging in over the last few years. Here's just a portion of that email:

I have a problem with city government owning very much real estate. It’s the taxpayers money that’s invested, I can’t understand why. My feeling is there’s little to no chance the money vested into the Chetek Café property will ever be fully recovered. Then the city owns the former Jost law office and the house on Hwy SS South amongst other properties. I understand some of these properties are creating revenue from renting them but when you figure in improvements, updates, maintenance they are likely losing money. These city owned properties generate no tax revenue.

It's true. Since 2016 the city does seem like it's been in the real estate business. We sold Knapp Haven Nursing Home in April 2016 and then by the end of the year had purchased the Jost Law Office building on Moore Street. The following spring we purchased the vacant lot next to Ohde's right across the street from the law office. As everyone knows we bought the old Chetek Cafe last spring and then went and knocked it down last month. Last summer we bought the old Jennie-Os Breeder Farm at the corner of Knapp and 15^th Street and with that purchase came the manager's house. That same house just was sold at February's common council meeting as was the city parking lot on Douglas Street. For the casual observer it may seem like we're playing Monopoly with the tax payer's money.

Well, to my friend's point, the city really doesn't want to be in the real estate business. We aren't trying to control the board. We just want to do what we can to help the city remain viable and continue to be a wonderful place to raise a family.

Going down the list of our presently held properties, here's what our current thinking is:

75 Hwy Blvd South: Located across from the Brass Rail the city purchased this home years ago. It sits right where our future Waste Water Treatment facility will go. The house came up for bid last month – and no one bid. There's a family currently living there. However, when it finally comes time to build the treatment facility they – and the house – will have to go. Until then, they pay the city rent. But my friend is correct: as a landlord when things go awry with a house we are responsible to make the necessary improvements. So while we may be getting regular rent payments when a garage door needs to be replaced (as it did last year), we have to pay for it. While the house is in good shape it's definitely not like owning Park Place.

The Jost Law Office Building (Moore Street). We didn't buy the Jost property just so we could be a landlord to the two gentlemen who presently live there. Our interest in the property is much more practical: for a future parking lot for the Center. While the Plan Commission has given the green light to raze the building presently the Property Committee is assessing whether or not that is the best use for that property. Until they make a recommendation to the council it is the sense of that group to continue to allow the two tenants to continue to live there. If we do go ahead on razing the structure those two individuals will have to relocate.

The Addition to Main Street Park (Moore Street). As for the vacant lot across the street from the Jost building that has become an addition to Main Street Park. We are currently working on plans to improve it and perhaps one day provide public restroom facilities there. Like a lot of things we do, we have high hopes and little cash but at the stage of the game dreaming is cheap.

Vacant lot for sale

The old Chetek Cafe lot (Second Street). We purchased the lot because we were interested in the property as the site of a future multi-purpose governmental building. That interest helped Chetek Cafe expand down the street helping a currently viable business remain prosperous. If the Alano Club prefers to remain in their present location (next to City Hall), the now vacant lot on Second Street becomes a piece of commercial real estate. My friend who sent the email is correct: we will not recoup the money that was spent to purchase and raze the old cafe building. That being said if a business is opened there we will garner something for the sale of the lot and in the long term it will be on the tax rolls. One of the challenges of that specific property is there is no parking lot that goes with it. A future business would have to have a conversation with the Alano Club about leasing space in their parking lot.

Dr. Sather is now the owner of this lot

Lots 16 and 17, Block 6, Second Addition, City of Chetek (118 Douglas Street). Sather Family Dental is planning on expanding. At January's common council meeting, Dr. Nik Sather approached the council asking if the city would be interested in selling the public parking lot that adjoins his present building. His plan is to build a 1,500 square foot addition to his present building which would allow him to hire an additional dentist. According to Dr. Sather, three dentists in the area have recently retired and he is preparing for the need that will arise from those retirements. The Plan Commission had already given the green light on his proposal. The city placed a notice in the Chetek Alert allowing for anyone else to bid on the property. No one did so his bid of $20,500 was accepted. We all feel good that Dr. Sather will remain in town but when that lot finally is closed to the public we are also expecting feedback about it. But like Cafe, we are helping a business not only remain viable but also expand.

Ken Schmidt bought this for $1

The manager's home of the former Jennie-O's Breeder Farm (Knapp Street). The city purchased the thirty-nine acres for one reason: affordable housing (“affordable” does not mean “low-income” housing). Since acquiring the property we have been having conversations with various developers on the best way to move forward on developing this property. One of the issues that has been raised is that any future developer of any section of that property might see the house, which is in otherwise good shape, as being “out of place” with whatever type of homes they would want to build and market. In other words, we need to move it – or raze it. So we put a notice out that we would be accepting bids on the purchase of this home contingent upon the fact that they would be responsible for moving it. Only one bid came in: Ken Schmidt of Schmidt Construction bid $1 for it – a bid that was accepted at the February common council meeting. If you think that's hardly a deal, it will cost Ken plenty to move the thing – money we would have had to spend otherwise. Once it's gone and the bore samples return we will be able to begin moving forward on creating some of the infrastructure we're going to need for this new development.

The property of the old City Shop (Ridgeway Street). These lots were sold in 2017 to Michael Miller of Whitehorse Construction. He is building “twinhomes” on Ridgeway. As I understand it, the difference between a twinhome and a duplex is this: a duplex has one owner who rents out one or both units. With a twinhome, you own three walls and the adjoining wall between the two you own as deep as the sheet rock. These kinds of structures attract both retirees and first-time buyers. He got the three lots for a song - $12,000 – but before he's done he will be also putting in a paved alley between Ridgeway and Tainter. One has already sold and three others remain up for sale. By what I can see he has room to construct two more twinhomes.

Did you know that the city owns the hillside on Ridgeway? Those lots, too, could be purchased and developed. We own a vacant lot on Tainter Street as well (I think it was connected to where the old city shop stood.) There's a vacant lot at the end of Hochmayr Drive (a part of the North Industrial Park). There's acreage in the South Industrial Park. And of course we own the current City Shop, the Police Department, Calhoun Memorial Library and City Hall. I've been told on good authority that when the new City Shop was built there were serious conversations about moving City Hall there – but at the time the consensus was to leave it where it now stands.

Nothing stays the same forever. Today I had lunch at the Center and had a conversation with Jim and Glenyss, a couple from town. Jim has lived in Chetek his entire life and while we were eating he took me down memory lane, as it were, to the days when Second Street was Highway 53, when the building which is Herman Optical today was once a grocery store as was the building which Indianhead Insurance and the Chetek Alert now share. Hope & Anchor was Nelson's Mobile Oil and Unified Body Therapies (next to Skyway Repair) was a gas station, too. Before it was Northlakes Drive In it was Denny's A&W. If my friend Jimmy, who was sitting at the next table, had sat with us he could have added to the litany of businesses that have come and gone in his 88 years of calling the City of Lakes home. And if former alderman Bill Waite had been with us I would have had to keep track of all the changes in our town that have gone on over the decades on pad of paper. Things change.

This is gone too

My friend who sent the email really loves this town and is concerned about its future. I think the people who are presently serving on the city council as well as our city clerk do as well. I prefer to see our purchases as investments in the future of our town. Whether they all pan out I guess we'll see in time. I'm certainly hoping that they do. But I believe that whether or not we agree on individual purchases our common objective remains the same: to continue to make Chetek a great place to live and collect as we continue to move around the board.