The city of Rushford purchased 23.5 acres of farmland from Wallace Himlie in 2007. The $699,999 parcel sold for $31,000 an acre and was purchased as a potential site for Tri-County Electric to build a new complex after the 2007 flood destroyed their facilities and as an opportunity for potential growth and job development for the community. The city platted nine commercial/light industrial lots. Working with local real estate agency Darr Realty for the last several years, the city sold several lots.
At the February 12 meeting, the Rushford Council approved the purchase of one additional lot, leaving just two for sale. Carl Schollmeier, owner of Carl’s Electric, offered $34,100 to purchase 1.1 acres at the intersection of Miller Circle and Himlie Drive. Schollmeier intends to construct a 50-foot by 100-foot commercial building on the site within five years. The offer did not include payment towards the $21,528 of infrastructure costs. The city incurred $49,015 per acre in installing water and sewer mains, street, curb, gutter, and electric in 2009 as the developer. Historically, the city has required buyers to pay 50-100% of the infrastructure costs to regain some investment.
City Administrator Tony Chladek and Mayor Terri Benson both noted another entity had expressed verbal interest in Lots 6 and 7 and was in the pre-planning stages but had yet to submit an offer to purchase the lots. Schollmeier stated he’d looked at other areas within the city and neighboring Rushford Village but could not find a suitable space for his business.
Benson also noted that during discussions with realtors, there was potential to reassign or reimagine the remaining lots. “How do we get the most for our community in reimagining that space up there?” she asked. Lot 7 has been notoriously difficult to move, being a pie-shaped 3.5 acres at the base of the hill and subject to a 50-foot right-of-way for a gas line. “Is there a way to work with both of these entities?”
“I wish we could go back and not have paid $31,000 an acre for it,” said Councilor Andrew Linder.
“We are the developer. We need to recoup our costs,” said Councilor Jim O’Donnell. “You say you’re going to build within five years; circumstances can change greatly. If we sell this land and circumstances change, you’d be the owner of that land at a premium price.”
Chaldek suggested a revolving loan for $10,764 to cover half of the infrastructure costs as a gap financing. However, Schollmeier wasn’t amenable to this, noting he’d instead use that funding to construct the building. Each year that passes, the city pays down its bond for the land, and the infrastructure cost also reduces, with City Clerk Kathy Zacher estimating it lessens by $1,000-2,000 annually.
“The problem with these lots is the price is fine, but then you see the infrastructure cost,” added Councilor Leigh Volkman.
O’Donnell voted to reject the purchase offer, but his motion died for lack of second. Benson then motioned to counter Schollmeier’s offer to include the $10,764 infrastructure cost with a total purchase price of $44,864. Councilor Sally Ryman seconded the motion, which the council approved with three votes. O’Donnell voted nay, and Volkman recused himself, noting a family relationship with Schollmeier. Schollmeier then presented a counteroffer to the city for 25% of the infrastructure cost, or $5,382, with a total purchase price of $39,482. Ryman motioned to accept the counteroffer. The council approved it with four votes, and Volkman recused himself again.
The sale leaves just lots 5 and 7 remaining in the business park. Benson suggested the city review the lot layouts for other interested parties.
The council also heard from new Ambulance Director Joey Busse during the meeting. He is updating policies and procedures for the service. He is also upgrading the monitoring system and furthering staff recruitment and retention.
Since being hired, Busse has hired seven additional ambulance service volunteers – a driver and one Emergency Medical Responder (EMR), two additional EMRs completing schooling in March, two Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) in school, and one additional EMT already certified and doing ride-along training.
“It’s a good shot of new blood into the system,” said Busse. “That being said, there’s still a lot of gaps where we need coverage. What we need is nights and weekends.”
The city will now offer $1.50/hour on-call time and reimbursement for time worked. “We need incentives for people wanting to pick up shifts,” added Busse. “People waiting around for their pagers to go off… that generation has gone by.”
“If this does show we are getting improvement with increased signup and coverage… if this does prove effective, there’s always the potential down the road that we can increase it,” said Busse. The service is still looking for additional volunteer members. “With new staff coming on and the ones in service already working, I think we have a good crew base. We’re going to want as many hands on deck as we can get. The only thing we can do is be proactive.”
As a buffer to cushion the budget, the ambulance service is considering increasing the per capita rate currently charged to surrounding cities and townships using the service. It is currently just $5 per capita, and the service is looking at increasing it to $10. They are also considering increasing the base rate to $8 and mileage cost to $20 per loaded mile. A letter noting approved changes will go out to local cities and townships.
The state is also considering a one-time $125 million payout to ambulance services. “The one-time concerns me,” said Benson. “If you’re going to maintain service in rural areas, they have a larger problem to solve.”
The next regularly scheduled council meeting is Monday, February 26, at 6:30 p.m. at city hall. The public is encouraged to attend.
Leave a Reply