Council reviews construction updates
By Steve Van Kooten
The Prairie du Chien Common Council convened on September 17 with a slim agenda to work through; however, the council received numerous construction updates from City Administrator Chad Abram and a progress update on the city’s future public safety center during the evening.
In attendance were alderpersons Nate Bremmer, Kayla Ingham, Mark Bowar, Bob Granzow, Andy Ringgold, Nick Crary, Vicki Waller and Jaaren Riebe. Along with Abram, City Clerk Tina Fuller was present for the meeting. Mayor David Hemmer was absent.
Construction updates
During the City Administrator’s Report, Abram gave the council several updates on construction projects in the city, including Prairie Bluffs Court (the former Blackhawk Junction Mall area) and Haydn Street.
For Prairie Bluffs Court, Abram said an asbestos abatement was in process at the time of the meeting. Once that process is completed, the portion of the building that housed Royal Bank, Driftless Development and H & R Block will be taken down. Robinson Brothers Environmental is handling the demolition and abatement tasks.
On the other end of the building, a separate contractor is working on remodeling the existing structure. The parking lot will not be finished until the city completes the expansion of sewer and water lines under the property.
Construction and demolition activities will continue until mid-November, according to Abram.
On the Haydn Street project, which will extend the road and expand utilities, city officials had pre-construction meetings earlier in the month. Construction work on the project is expected to start in early October.
“We’re still waiting to acquire a small parcel of land that the council knows about, but we’re going to start in early October regardless because we can run some utilities prior to that acquisition, but that acquisition should be completed by the end of the month.”
2023 audit
Krisztina Dommer, a certified public accountant with Lauterbach & Amen, LLC, presented the city’s 2023 audit during the meeting. Dommer said the audit took longer than expected because it was the city’s first year working with the accounting firm.
The city’s final audit had an unmodified opinion — the best outcome for a municipal audit — which means the city presented their financial statements accurately and did not require significant adjustments.
“Overall, the audit went off really positively,” said Dommer.
Qualified and adverse opinions are less desirable outcomes and mean financial statements contained significant errors or a lack of evidentiary material for the auditors to utilize.
Dommer noted the relationship between L&A and the city was positive, with all deadlines met, all filings completed and a positive outcome from the audit process.
The audit included suggestions for the city to improve their documentation process in preparation for future audits, but Dommer reiterated that the audit did not find any significant issues with the city’s financial statements.
“A lot of the legal jargon can sound scary if you’re reading it with an unprepared mind and not as an item we found. We did not have findings of that nature,” she said.
She reviewed the city’s net position, which she described as “everything you own and then everything that you owe netted against it.” The net position shows the municipality’s total assets and liabilities, including taxes, assets with the retirement systems and capital assets, among many others.
The city’s total net position was $44.2 million as of Dec. 31, 2023, which is an increase of more than $700,000 from the previous year, according to Dommer.
The water and sewer utilities both operated with a positive cash flow of approximately $200,000 and $500,000, respectively.
The council accepted the audit as presented.
Public safety center
On September 18, the Public Safety Building Committee met in the council’s chambers. The committee announced a public information meeting for the building on October 9 at 6 p.m. in the second-floor community room at City Hall.
The meeting should include renderings of the building’s exterior design, and members of the committee and representatives from the city will be on hand to answer questions from the public.
Other business
• Abram said the city went through a revaluation to bring properties up to fair market value. The city’s assessor, Derek Flansburg, said it’s too early to tell what the mil rate will be because most of the city, county and school budgets are not finalized. The city will hold an open book for residents on October 1 at 8 a.m. at City Hall. On October 15, the city will host a board of review at the same location at 10 a.m.
