Finance Committee - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. I would like to call to order this special meeting of the Finance Committee for Wednesday, September 2nd, 2026 at 5.30 p.m. Please rise and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Roll call of membership. Let the record show that all members are present, with the exception of Alder Van Zeeland, who is excused. We have no public hearings or appearances, so we will move directly to our action items, the first of which is 26-1138, request to approve subdivision development agreement for Wilden Portfolio Park Development, North Meadows Investment, LTD. Can I get a motion to get it on the table?

Move to approve.

All right, I'll second for discussion. Director Holman, are you going to talk to us about that?

I do. OK, Director Holman. All right, so this is a subdivision development agreement primarily related to the installation and maintenance of infrastructure. Director Youngworth, myself, and then Deputy Director Neuberger worked very closely with the city attorney's office to put this together. Like all the development agreements for subdivision infrastructure as of late, we started with the template that Attorney Abshire created for us. AND NEGOTIATED FROM THERE. A COUPLE HIGHLIGHTS IN THIS CASE IS THE DEVELOPER, WHICH IS NORTH MEADOWS INVESTMENTS LTD, WHICH IS A SUBSIDIARY OF THRIVENT FINANCIAL, WILL BE RECURRENTLY FINALIZING ENGINEERING REVIEW, AND THEY WILL BE INSTALLING THE PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE. In particular, exhibit three really lays out the various responsibilities for installation and maintenance of different pieces of infrastructure. One of the components that we have kind of pivoted as of The last, I'd say, two years since Director Youngworth started is for stormwater facilities. We're only agreeing to take those that are regional in nature. So in this case, Ballard Pond, which I believe we already maintain, it's just being modified. We will continue to operate and maintain while all other stormwater facilities they will construct and then the developer or their successor or assign in the future will maintain that with regards to bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure if you look at the the map that Follows the table in exhibit 3 there's two categories of trails There's the public trails which are trails that will be Installed by the developer, but ultimately owned and maintained by the parks department those were negotiated with director flick ensuring that it aligned with the trails master plan and And then for the other category of trails, those are ones that the developer will install, and the city would not be maintaining or owning those. However, the ultimate easement document would ensure we still have public access to those trails. Director Youngworth, is there anything you wanted to add?

Director Youngworth. Thank you. The only additional item I did want to point out or at least provide some clarification on is the dam agreement portion. There's nothing changing in the way of the setup of the detention facility that's already there, the regional stormwater pond. There are just embankments that are a part of that that are being reconstructed that frankly, if they were reviewed now by the DNR, if they were put in new, they would be required to be dam structures. Because there's some reconstruction, kind of bringing things up to current standard, those dams are going to be classified as a part of this project. So we'll have a little bit of additional paperwork that'll need to get completed as a part of that, that is a little bit unique to this project that we don't normally deal with on a standard subdivision project. It's just because this facility is part of a navigable waterway that flows through the system. There's just another level and another layer that we have to work through with that. But other than that, I think Director Holman did outline everything relatively clearly. One item to note would be that they are intending to put the trails and sidewalks in in their final grade, final pavement condition initially. So we won't have to worry about designating those networks. later on. They'll be installed right away upon construction.

Thank you. Anything else from staff on this?

All right. We'll bring it up here. Alder Hartzong. Thank you, Chair. Since this development agreement directly references the TIF agreement, I cannot vote for it, but that's my reason for not voting for it. Thank you.

Anyone else? So I just have on the exhibit six just a clarification for my own purposes. When we're talking about the concrete pavement and the assessments for that, am I correctly understanding that this will work like it does for any other? the developer will put in the temporary asphalt, and then the city will come when that's reached the end of its life, and then the property owners will be assessed for the new concrete pavement.

That is correct.

Okay. Okay. All right. That's the only thing I have. Alder Crowe.

Thank you, Chair. I feel a need to say a couple things. I'm going to vote for this tonight. And I generally agree with Alder Hartzheim on the reference to the TID, which I also didn't vote for. But since the council voted for this, I'm going to support this project going forward and also help get it out of committee since we have a 2-2 or a 4-member vote tonight. Thank you.

Anyone else? All right. Hearing none, let's take a vote. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Nay. All right. No abstentions. That passes 3-1. So moving to our next item, 26-1139, request to approve Fox City's Exhibition Center Sound Mitigation Project. Move to approve.

Second.

All right. We have a motion and a second. And I assume that everyone has had... to review the documents that we were given.

I understood that the bids only came in.

So apologies again for harassing the Director Messerschmidt all week about the attachments. Director Flick, good evening.

All right, Director Flick, you are on. Thank you, Chair, and thank you to the committee for your time today and making this happen, this meeting. Like you mentioned, this afternoon we opened up bids to improve the acoustics in the Exhibition Center. We received two quality bids with very reputable companies happy to receive those bids that we did receive. And we're within budget. Just to recap, the city designated $985,000 of ARPA funds for improvements to the exhibition center. To date, we roughly spent about $358,000 on some equipment and carpeting and consulting services, which brings us today. The primary focus is the perimeter walls of the exhibition center. So that's the base bid that's before you tonight. for 251,331 from Cardinal Construction. So that addresses installing four-inch thick wall panels throughout the entire facility for sound absorption and bounce back, reverberating back and forth, et cetera. And then we had some alternates in there for the ceiling. And yes, we would love to be able to do the entire ceiling. The facility is broken into three sections. So we had it bid out per section as the alternate, and we're able to at least do one section of the ceiling. Maybe someday in the future we can address the acoustics if we can build up our maintenance fund over time. But for now, this is what we have available, and we're recommending to move forward with the base bid and the alternate as presented.

So go ahead, Alder Crow. You're probably going to ask this.

Oh, maybe not. Thank you, though, Chair. My question is... and I'm trying to find a good way to word this, but originally when we talked about doing this, the goal was to make it so that this facility would be attractive to certain events and useful for those events. What does not doing the remaining two spots do to that goal?

So just to give like a quick comparison, let's say it took, 10 seconds for the sound to dissipate prior to installing any of these walls or the ceiling. Ideally, we'd like to get it down to three seconds. This might get us to four and a half to five. So it's not 100% improved, but it's grossly improving the acoustics in that building.

Okay. And to follow up, Chair? That's good. What would the cost be? Do you know what the cost would be today to do alternates two and three or the rest of it?

Yeah, we have those bids from today.

Okay.

And what is that number? I can look real quick. They're not in the memo what the other base bids are, but it'd be like another 500 and some thousand. Okay. So it's a substantial amount. I don't need the exact number. Number four. Yeah, it'd be about $503,000 to do the other two remaining sections. That's it.

Alderhart sign.

Thank you, Chair. May I address to the directors? Please. Either Director Flick or Director Holman, we had some activity come through as far as grants that were granted to the city from I can't even recall, but it was something having to do with tourism. Would any of this money be attributable to this fund to be able to do this more quickly in the future?

All right, you're on, Director Holman.

So we did just accept a Convention of Visitors Bureau grant for $300,000 to establish our capital reserve fund. I would hesitate to deplete that, given that's the only cushion we have in case something major would break, like a mechanical system or something that we need to run the building. Because at that point, then our options would be limited as to how we could solve that without needing to go to the general fund.

Thank you. Director Messerschmitt, may I follow? Oh, please. Director Messerschmitt, are these funds, these grant funds, going to be set aside and then interest accumulated on them? And then perhaps that fund will grow to be able to use some of it for this part of what we're discussing, just based on what Director Holman just said before?

Oh, I apologize. I told you I would get them wrong.

So we have established a fund balance for this. The agreement was silent on whether it's interest-bearing or not. So that's just, depending on how we house those funds, would have to be something I could bring back to you.

OK, I would appreciate that, because I think that this is a good place to kind of grow some funds, if we certainly can. Also, Director Flick, the portion that is proposed, Section 1, so to speak, Is that a piece that can be sectioned off and then rented separately so that that particular piece will then have the best acoustic environment that we can provide and then the other two are something to come along eventually?

Yes, the exhibition is set up so that it can have walls put in between each section. The section that we're going to do first is there, we'll call it like the front of the house, the main portion that would be rented like where the stage would be if you were to have an event that had a stage set up on either end. So we're putting it in where it's going to be the most impact and mostly used, I guess, by renters.

And then will the cordoned off walls, so to speak, be able to also continue to absorb some sound so that that becomes a very nicely enclosed area that sound will be much better conducted?

Yes, the accordion walls that are in place currently, they do absorb some sound, so it will help. So between the carpeting that we purchased this spring and they're currently using, which they have received fantastic reviews for just that helping with acoustics, this will help a lot too, even if it's only one section.

Okay, thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you, Chair.

I just have a technical-ish question. So We talked about the ability to possibly go back and do the alternative. Is the application of what we're doing on the walls such that if we went in to do the other portions of the ceiling, we wouldn't have to disturb what had already been done on the walls?

So the walls will be completed 100%, so nothing will impact that with what's in front of you tonight. The section that we're doing in the ceiling that's proposed will not impact the other two. Nothing will impact each other. They're all separately staged. We have all the specifications, design. We could go out to bid at any time in the future to re-bid out the ceiling if we had funding available.

Okay, without any effect on what's already been done. Okay, awesome. Thank you. Anyone else? Alder Croak.

Thank you chair I say this with the full understanding that funds are limited and and we can't do that right now But is this a scenario where if we did it now? It's 500 and if we do it in three years.

It's a million dollars I Don't know what the increase would be for the ceiling, but I can comment on the walls, so What would have been about ten years ago that so there's currently one inch of? padding on the walls and it's just not sufficient, but that's what the budget allowed 10 years ago. That's why we're going to a four inch. I think it's only like an extra $20,000 from 10 years ago to now for what the price we're getting for the walls to be installed. I don't have a comparison for the ceiling. Will the price go up? Absolutely, yeah. Okay, thank you.

Anyone else? All right, are we ready to vote? All right. All in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. That passes 4-0. We have no information items.

Move to adjourn.

Second. All right. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. We are adjourned.