The Economic and Community Development Commission met on Wednesday, February 25, 2026, at 3:05 PM in City Hall Council Chambers. The meeting was called to order by Mayor Washington-Spivey and adjourned at 4:32 PM in closed session. Commissioners present: Linda Lee, Vicki Markussen, Mary Rohrer, Gina Miller, Tamra Dickinson, Erin Goggin, and Shaundel Washington-Spivey. The agenda included approval of minutes, a property purchase, an update from the Coulee Region Business Center, a development agreement amendment, and a closed session discussion on HOME ARP funds.
All right. We're good to go. All right, we're gonna call this meeting order at 305 p.m. on February 25th, 2026. Um all commissioners are present. I have to make sure I was saying that correctly. Um moving to the approval of the minutes. Is there a motion for the approval of the minutes? Motion made by Council President Dickinson. Is there a second? Second by Commissioner Markinson. Any discussion or corrections? Seeing none, uh please signify by I'm used to this voter thing. With a thumbs up, uh, if you approve of approving the minutes for 20 to 26 last month, all right. And that motion carries unanimously. Moving to our next agenda item 260212 action on approval to purchase 622 Avon Street, Lacrosse, Wisconsin, 54603. Jonah. Thank you, Mayor. Uh lacrosse County is auctioning off 622 Avon Street. It's uh tax foreclosure on the north side of lacrosse. They're accepting bids on this property uh as well as three or four others until Friday at noon, I believe. Uh minimum starting bid on this parcel is 27,000. Uh I want to offer them 35 and in hopes of uh you know having a good shot at this one. This is a vacant parcel. I included some photos uh with the item. It's a vacant parcel, two blocks away from a uh our 823 Avon house, so it fits our program really well. All right. Any questions from commissioners? Council President Dickinson. I'll kind of tie in with two questions. So how soon do you think we'll know about this? And if we are approved, um how long does it usually take for a project like this to come to fruition? Um did you ask me when we'll start developing on this one? Was that your first question? Yeah. Um I'm not entirely sure. Uh we we have uh I've I've bought a few parcels here in the last six or eight months. Um I think we'll end up probably end up starting development on it in September. I need two parcels, one for Western, one for Central in September. I think if I if I get this parcel, uh this would be a real good fit for uh Western. They built a house on Avon. Um that Avon Street House broke ground uh about this time a little bit later in the year last year, and that house is just about done. So it takes a little over a year before we're ready to move somebody in. Thank you. Any other questions? Commissioner Markinson. Is it challenging to find parcels for those projects for Western to work on? Uh challenging is putting it nicely, yes. Um there aren't, as you know, there aren't a whole lot of vacant residential parcels in the city. Um I tend to it it's it's fuser famine quite often, you know, like all of a sudden I'll I'll get a call where there's a couple condemned homes.