County breaks ground for law enforcement center
The jail’s footprint continues to expand across the courthouse yard.
Members of the county's jail committee took a turn at the groundbreaking site during the day.
Kraemer Brothers and construction contractors began work on Crawford County’s property two weeks ago. Part of Beaumont Road and Haydn Street have been closed to through traffic due to the utilities work.
State Senator Howard Marklein speaks with Kraemer Brothers workers at the job site.
City officials, Kraemer Brothers employees and politicians were also in attendance for the groundbreaking. Representatives for Van Orden and Tranel were present along with Senator Howard Marklein.
Crawford County’s Board of Supervisors participated in a ground-breaking ceremony at the courthouse grounds on August 20. Supervisors Sara Nelson, Linda Munson, Owen DuCharme, Craig Anderson, Mary Kuhn, Gari Lorenz, Mark Gilberts, Gerald Krachey, Tom Cornford, Brad Steiner, Carl Orr, Derek Flansburg, Harrison Heilman, Bruce Strnad and Gary Koch are pictured. (Steve Van Kooten/Courier Press)
By Steve Van Kooten
The Crawford County Board of Supervisors each picked up a shovel and a hard hat after their August 20 meeting to commemorate the start of construction on the new law enforcement center in Prairie du Chien. The new facility, which will include a jail and dispatch center, will be constructed on the county’s lot next to the current sheriff’s office and courthouse.
While the supervisors symbolically broke ground that day, Kraemer Brothers actually started work this past week. According to Greg Callin, vice president of client services for Kraemer Brothers, utilities work, which closed off sections of Haydn Street and Beaumont Road, will relocate utilities services to accommodate the new building.
That same day, the full board of supervisors approved a resolution that awarded the first set of bonds to Robert W. Baird & Company, a financial investment firm based in Milwaukee. There were six bidders, including three based out of New York and one from Boston. The first set of bonds totaled $13 million, but due to several factors, the county received significantly more money from the bond issuance.
Carol Wirth, president of WPFP, a financial consultant to Crawford County, said the activity between the investors and the underwriters resulted in a total financial price of $13,721,573. The underwriter — RWB — will keep $247,528 to pay for expenses from the bond issuance, which leaves a total purchase price for the bonds at $13,474,044.
“So, you’re selling $13 million, and you’re getting $474,044 in addition to that. That is the premium,” Wirth told the board.
The premium is money received in excess of the bond issuance, but the county cannot spend the money on anything it wants. The premium has to be used to pay off debt.
According to Wirth, the money will be used to lower the interest rate on the county’s debt.
“With the premium, we took the principle that was originally planned to be paid 20 years from now and brought it up to the first year,” she said. “So, we used that premium to offset some of the debt.”
Paying the additional money up front helped lower the interest rate from the projected 4.83 percent to less than 3.9 percent. That will result in $444,390 less interest costs over the life of the debt service, according to Wirth.
Crawford County received another piece of fortunate news after their ratings call with Moody’s, a service that rates companies’ viability for investors. The county’s rating was upgraded one level from an A-1 to an AA-3.
Wirth attributed the upgrade to the county’s “strong financial performance” and said, “The county has a long history of strong performances. It’s not just one year.”
She added that Moody’s took the full $35 million in bond issuances into account when determining a rating, which means the county will be in a better position during the investment calls for the second and third rounds of bond issuances in 2025 and 2026.
The bonds will result in an increase in the county’s levy and mil rate. The mil rate is estimated to increase by .86 per $1,000 of property value, which will put the county at approximately 6.08 for next year, barring any further changes. In 2023, the county’s rate was 5.22, and in 2022, the county had a 6.08 mill rate.
The county will receive all of the funds on September 9. Wirth said the county will immediately place the $13 million into the project accounts and pay itself back for expenses incurred from the jail project. Interest drawn from that money will be used to pay for the county’s new mobile command center in the future. Crawford has two years to spend the money.
The jail is expected to be completed by July 2026.
At the groundbreaking, county and city officials joined workers from the construction crew, politicians and county employees at the site of their new building.
For the supervisors and county workers, it has taken years to make that first shovel full of dirt happen, but the real work has just begun.
