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 15th 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.
