OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Board of Public Works Meeting Summary: March 9, 2026

Common Council & Committees — Monday, March 9, 2026
BodyLa Crosse, Wisconsin
SessionCommon Council & Committees
DateMonday, March 9, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 1:33:12

Transcript — Verbatim
0:03

All right.

0:04

I'm gonna call this meeting to order at 10.03 a.m.

0:07

on March 9th, 2026.

0:11

Uh let the record reflect that uh Director Gallagher is excused from today's meeting.

0:17

Other than that, all Board of Public Work Commissioners or members are present.

0:22

Uh take a motion to approve the minutes from March 2nd, 2026.

0:29

Motion made by Director Train, second by Council President Dickinson.

0:34

Uh any discussion or corrections.

0:37

Seeing none, please vote.

0:45

All right.

0:45

I'm going to be moving some things out of order, and I believe we have to vote on those things being no, we don't.

0:53

Okay, great.

0:54

So we're gonna start with agenda item 260237, approval of lease of outdoor patio for the rustic LLC.

1:09

And we do director train.

1:12

Sure, I can give a little bit of background on this item.

1:14

So this is for the outdoor patio space that used to be, as we all know, Dublin Square.

1:20

So the former some of the former owners of Dublin Square are reopening a establishment there called the Rustic, and they're looking to reenact that lease that was similar to the one that was there with Dublin Square.

1:32

So it's for the two outdoor patio spaces.

1:33

It's not right of way, it's actually part of just city property from when the parking ramp was built.

1:39

So they already have the fence enclosure along third street and then the indoor enclosure along Main Street.

1:47

So typically when we do these leases, we look at the assess value based on the assessor's office, which was about 2200 a year.

1:54

They are asking for this to be a thousand dollars for the first year.

1:57

I did talk to the just council member Chris Kellow of that district, and she's is in support of changing that to a thousand dollars a year.

2:05

And this is just for a one-year lease.

2:07

After that, they're looking at a longer term lease, which would then go to the council.

2:11

And then also the insurance requirement.

2:13

It is uh it is less than typically the city asks for their standard insurance, but I did talk to our insurance consultant for the city, Arlene Peterson, and she thought that the insurance in the current lease is sufficient for what they're looking to do.

2:27

Awesome.

2:28

Thank you.

2:30

Uh, and we do have someone here to speak.

2:32

Uh Tim Larson.

2:34

Are you gonna?

2:37

You good?

2:37

All right.

2:38

Any questions from uh Board of Public Works members?

2:43

All right, motion to approve by Councilmember Goggin, second by Director Train.

2:48

Seeing no discussion, please vote.

2:55

And that motion passes unanimously.

2:59

Moving on to the next agenda item, we're gonna move to our 260134 approval of 2027-2031 capital equipment budget.

3:18

So um, what was request asked last week was for departments to come today to present on their particular items, uh, specifically those that have not uh been present.

3:32

Um I'm trying to let me see which departments do we have here.

3:40

All right, I'm gonna call a departments that I think are here, and then I'll just let you all start.

3:46

But first, let me pull up the CIP.

4:10

All right, so we'll start with those with 20 uh 27 items.

4:15

Uh sanitarian sewer, storm water.

4:32

Good morning, board.

4:33

How's everybody today?

4:35

Doing good.

4:36

How are you?

4:36

Say uh going through our capital equipment replacement budgeting process.

4:43

So at the sanitary sewer utility, it could be a number of different items.

4:47

It could be a new pump that's needed at the wastewater plant, maybe a new pump that is needed at one of the 27 sanitary lift stations, or maybe it's our fleet, whether it be flushing equipment, um fleet trucks that maintain sanitary sewer lift stations.

5:00

Or maybe it's our fleet, whether it be flushing equipment, um fleet trucks that maintain sanitary sewer lift stations.

5:05

So it's a multiple array of different uh pieces of equipment.

5:10

Uh so our bigger trucks, uh, whether it be hook trucks, dump trucks, flushing trucks, you know, their larger pieces of equipment.

5:17

We have a plan for replacement on those.

5:20

Uh, some of it's based on hours, some of it's based on uh mileage, uh, but we want to make sure we have equipment that's available ready to work uh when we need that uh do maintenance on the sewer collection system.

5:34

We also in the budget, you'll notice that we've incorporated in some electric uh vehicles.

5:40

So proud to say the Code Gen is running today, and we're making our own electricity at the wastewater plant.

5:45

Uh, we have electric golf cart and our new uh electric electrician's vehicle is in and becomes part of the fleet.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Water And Wastewater Management█████████████████████████████████████████████50%
Budget Equity Analysis███████████████17%
Fiscal Sustainability████████9%
Engineering And Infrastructure██████7%
Procedural█████6%
Parks and Recreation████4%
Transportation Safety██2%
Public Engagement██2%
Food And Beverage█1%
Summary of Proceedings

Board of Public Works Meeting - March 9, 2026

The Board of Public Works met on Monday, March 9, 2026, at 10:00 AM in the City Hall Council Chambers. The meeting was called to order at 10:03 AM and adjourned after approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes. Commissioners present: Andrea Trane, Erin Goggin, Shaundel Washington-Spivey, Tamra Dickinson. Matt Gallager was excused. The agenda included approval of minutes, a lease approval, a construction contract final payment, a presentation on utilities business services, and a discussion on the 2027-2031 Capital Equipment Budget, which was referred to the next meeting.

Consent Calendar

  • Approval of Minutes (March 2, 2026): A motion by Trane, seconded by Dickinson, carried unanimously to approve the minutes.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • No public comments were made. Tim Larson was present but did not speak.

Presentation: Utilities Business Services Quarterly Update

  • Tina, Utilities Finance Compliance Manager, provided a comprehensive overview of the water, sewer, and stormwater utilities. Key points included:
    • Infrastructure: 220 miles of water main (oldest from 1890), 198 miles of sewer main (oldest 1882), 153 miles of storm main (oldest 1936). Asset values (2024): water $61M, sewer $126M, stormwater $27M.
    • Statistics: 3.1 billion gallons of water pumped in 2024; 1,400 hours of after-hours staff time for water distribution; 2,000 hours for sewer; 4,993 tons of street sweeping debris collected.
    • Challenges: Aging infrastructure, regulatory requirements (e.g., phosphorus treatment, emerging contaminants), workforce shortages, technology upgrades, and customer affordability. The utility aims to replace 1% of mains annually but currently falls short.
    • Financial: Water utility has a rate application pending; sewer utility saw a 65.72% expense increase in 2024 due to plant upgrades; stormwater utility now funds 100% of capital projects since 2022.
    • Billing: Over 19,400 accounts, 77,000 bills processed in 2024. Residential sewer credits are applied based on winter average usage. The presentation was for information only; no action taken.

Discussion Items

  • Approval of Lease for Outdoor Patio for The Rustic LLC (Item 26-0237):

    • Director Trane explained the lease is for two outdoor patio spaces on city property formerly used by Dublin Square. The assessor’s value is $2,200/year, but the applicant requested $1,000 for the first year. Council member Chris Kellow expressed support. The lease is for one year, with a longer-term lease to follow. The insurance requirement was deemed sufficient by the city’s insurance consultant. Motion by Goggin, seconded by Trane, to approve. Carried 4-0 (1 excused).

  • Construction Contract Final Payment (Item 26-0239):

    • Staff reported a negative $41,000 final payment due to a formula error in the spreadsheet tracking work for the miscellaneous concrete contract (Fowler & Hammer). The error was caught by staff, and the city will invoice the contractor for the credit. Motion by Dickinson, seconded by Goggin, to approve. Carried 3-0 (2 excused).

  • Approval of 2027-2031 Capital Equipment Budget (Item 26-0134):

    • Departments presented replacement needs: sanitary sewer (Jared), water (Derek), parks and forestry (Mr. Sonny), streets and recycling (Ryan). Key discussion points included:
      • Councilmember Goggin questioned replacing vehicles in “good” condition with low mileage, citing cost savings. Staff explained that idle time (1 hour = 30 miles equivalent) and a 10-year replacement cycle maximize trade-in value and reliability (e.g., a 2017 truck with 33,387 idle hours equals 145,000 miles of wear).
      • Director Trane and Chad from finance discussed how residual values from trade-ins are not shown in the budget but are captured in a sales account, reducing future borrowing. The city borrowed $2M less in 2025 due to such offsets.
      • Tina clarified that utility budgets are cash-funded, not borrowed, and unused funds do not carry over.
      • Councilmember Jansen requested a cost-benefit analysis for vehicle replacement decisions.
      • Parks presented a leaf vacuum collector (first of five) that will improve leaf collection and allow quick switching to snow plowing. A video scoreboard for the La Crosse Center was discussed as a potential revenue generator (estimated payback 4-5 years).
    • Motion by Goggin, seconded by Dickinson, to refer the item to the March 16, 2026 meeting. Carried 3-0 (2 excused).

Key Outcomes

  • Minutes approved (unanimous).
  • Lease for The Rustic LLC approved (4-0-1 excused).
  • Construction contract final payment approved (3-0-2 excused).
  • 2027-2031 Capital Equipment Budget referred to the March 16, 2026 Board of Public Works meeting (3-0-2 excused).
  • The Utilities Business Services Quarterly Update was received for information. No action taken.

Meeting Transcript

All right. I'm gonna call this meeting to order at 10.03 a.m. on March 9th, 2026. Uh let the record reflect that uh Director Gallagher is excused from today's meeting. Other than that, all Board of Public Work Commissioners or members are present. Uh take a motion to approve the minutes from March 2nd, 2026. Motion made by Director Train, second by Council President Dickinson. Uh any discussion or corrections. Seeing none, please vote. All right. I'm going to be moving some things out of order, and I believe we have to vote on those things being no, we don't. Okay, great. So we're gonna start with agenda item 260237, approval of lease of outdoor patio for the rustic LLC. And we do director train. Sure, I can give a little bit of background on this item. So this is for the outdoor patio space that used to be, as we all know, Dublin Square. So the former some of the former owners of Dublin Square are reopening a establishment there called the Rustic, and they're looking to reenact that lease that was similar to the one that was there with Dublin Square. So it's for the two outdoor patio spaces. It's not right of way, it's actually part of just city property from when the parking ramp was built. So they already have the fence enclosure along third street and then the indoor enclosure along Main Street. So typically when we do these leases, we look at the assess value based on the assessor's office, which was about 2200 a year. They are asking for this to be a thousand dollars for the first year. I did talk to the just council member Chris Kellow of that district, and she's is in support of changing that to a thousand dollars a year. And this is just for a one-year lease. After that, they're looking at a longer term lease, which would then go to the council. And then also the insurance requirement. It is uh it is less than typically the city asks for their standard insurance, but I did talk to our insurance consultant for the city, Arlene Peterson, and she thought that the insurance in the current lease is sufficient for what they're looking to do. Awesome. Thank you. Uh, and we do have someone here to speak. Uh Tim Larson. Are you gonna? You good? All right. Any questions from uh Board of Public Works members? All right, motion to approve by Councilmember Goggin, second by Director Train. Seeing no discussion, please vote. And that motion passes unanimously. Moving on to the next agenda item, we're gonna move to our 260134 approval of 2027-2031 capital equipment budget. So um, what was request asked last week was for departments to come today to present on their particular items, uh, specifically those that have not uh been present. Um I'm trying to let me see which departments do we have here. All right, I'm gonna call a departments that I think are here, and then I'll just let you all start. But first, let me pull up the CIP. All right, so we'll start with those with 20 uh 27 items. Uh sanitarian sewer, storm water. Good morning, board. How's everybody today? Doing good. How are you? Say uh going through our capital equipment replacement budgeting process.

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