Unfinished business: a lot of moving parts

Old Cafe...

As we draw closer to the end of another year we have a lot of loose strings yet to tie up and hopefully in knots that won't slip. Among them:

The old Chetek Cafe building

Whether or not you agreed with the city purchasing this property, we feel it was a good investment in our community. A business owner who had his property up for sale for years (and years) was able to get out, another business owner whose business was expanding was able to move in and if nothing comes of the idea of a future governmental building at the corner of Stout and Second, at the very least we'll have a nice piece of real estate for a future business to locate to.

...and New

After we purchased the building, we were approached by a couple of local business owners about renting space to them until we had the structure razed. Admittedly, we were open to that possibility recognizing that the process of securing the grant money for demolishing an old structure might take some time. Until we inspected the place after Norbert and Patty had moved on down the street. The building was in worse shape than we could guess. There was no way the city was going to put so much as a dime into it to keep it viable for another season. So we informed the one tenant we inherited at purchase time that he had to vacate by October 1. After he moved out we had the place inspected for asbestos and given its age we were not surprised to learn that it was rife with it.

This past summer and fall, I had a few folks suggest to me that at the very least we paint the place given the eye sore that it was. But we're hoping it won't see the spring and that sometime this winter it will go the way of the dinosaur.

The old Jost Law Office building

Purchased in the fall of 2016, originally the idea of obtaining this piece of property was to raze this structure as well and create a parking lot for The Center. But due to its proximity to the Mosaic building and due to the fact that this old structure has been built upon several times over the years we have been unsuccessful (yet) in attracting anyone to tear it down. A year ago I reached out to Enosh Yoder, a local Amish man who has a knack for this sort of thing but the more he walked through the structure the bigger his eyes seemed to get. You have an old building with at least four roofs on it (shakes, two layers of shingles and metal sheeting to boot), interior walls that have been built out and ceilings that have been dropped down which all spell “buyer beware” to a prospective demolition man.

In the meantime, following some of the conversations that arose regarding property purchases in recent years the “Property Committee” was brought out of mothballs and re-started. While the council will still have the final word future purchases or major renovations will be vetted first by the Property Committee. So the thinking is before we tear down the old Jost building to make way for a future parking lot let's allow the Property Committee to weigh in on it. Of course, that slows the process down – or may gum it up entirely if the committee feels that the property would be better used in a different way. Personally, I still think The Center needs a parking lot but we'll wait and see what the others have to say about it. But just as it is with the old Cafe building, this propety, were we to tear it down, will have to be tested for abestos but we cannot do that until the two tenants presently renting there vacate. And of course we can't terminate their lease until we are in agreement that a parking lot is the best use for that piece of property. As they say, there's a lot of moving parts.

Sadly the eagle has landed...elsewhere (he just wore out)

Main Steet Park

Last year the city purchased the vacant lot on the east side of Ohde's from the Moulettes as an addition to Main Street Park. In the fall of 2017 our guys tore up the cement pavement that was buried under the grass, spread grass seed and kept the yard mowed this past year while the Parks Committee tried to hash out a re-design for the park. After the tragic loss of Natalie Turner last fall, originally the idea was to erect a small piece of artwork in her memory and build a low wall surrounding the small courtyard on Second Street. Some generous individuals from town contributed to this project or volunteered their labor when it was time to roll up our sleeves and begin the work. This past summer around Liberty Fest WEAU-TV 13 did a short interview with Parks Committee chair Donna Bachowski about these ideas. Unfortunately for reasons that were not communicated to me the major donor for this part of the renovations backed out. What's more, the school informed us that a memorial for Natalie was going to be erected somewhere on school grounds which made mute any further conversation about some kind of memorial to her at the park. In the meantime, the weather became colder and now we've pretty much lost our window for any kind of concrete work this year.

Before the crew dug up the old slab and planted grass seed

What of the $20,000 donated to the city this past September from the former tornado relief fund? It's still there and will be used for future improvements at Main Street Park. Hopefully over the winter the Parks Committee can pin down just where we want to start. The general schematics we're presently looking at keep the low retaining wall around the courtyard, involve pavers in the east yard and perhaps an elevated platform for future outdoor concerts and the like (the current pavilion cannot be added onto without endangering the integrity of the structure).

The old Jennie O's breeder farm purchase

The other major property the city acquired this past year was the 39 acres where the old Jennie O's Breeder Farm used to stand. The former manager's home, presently vacant, came with the purchase. One of things we are trying to come to grasp with is what Dave Armstrong, Barron County Economic Development Executive Director, says about our community: “You want people to move to Chetek but they have no place to move to.” We have a dearth of both rental property and affordable housing. Note: when we say “affordable housing” we do not mean “low income housing”. We feel Chetek has plenty of that. No, we're talking starter homes, duplexes, and “twindos” (two homes side by side that share a common wall). We have no interest in developing this ourselves. So we've been listening to some proposals from various companies who might be interested in developing this property. One of the barriers in moving forward with any development is going to be infrastructure, specifically roads, sewer and water. Due to its proximity to Bailey Lake, not one drop of water from this future development can empty into it. Those kinds of things – water and sewer systems – come with big price tags that tend to scare developers away. The good news is one of our Tax Increment Districts (we have three) will be paid off early next year. At November's council meeting the council will vote on extending it one additional year (allowed by law) and use the tax dollars netted in this district toward building the infrastructure we need.

The manager's former home comes with the 39 acres

Lake View Cemetery

While I just wrote on this matter last week (see We may have inherited a cemetery), suffice to say an official arrangement with the Town of Chetek has yet to be brokered. Our current position is we will contribute to the mowing expenses as well as to the salary of the sexton. However, since the front part (on city land) is already full, we feel the Township should be the lead partner on this since the majority of it resides on Township land. Any future full burials will be done in that part. The council will weigh in on this at our next meeting.

So that's a lot of things up in the air that have yet to land or take full shape. I'd like to see some of them get pinned down sooner than later but often municipal government matters move at the pace that military ones do (or so I'm told) and 'hurry up and wait' is our watchword for the time being.