Council approves public property purchase program

Onalaska’s Greens Coulee Community Park will soon get a whole lot bigger. The Onalaska Common Council voted Tuesday to acquire a parcel through the Mississippi Valley Conservancy that would nearly double the park’s size.

Through the deal, MVC will act of behalf of the city to purchase or gain conservation easements for a number of future properties, creating a program that will be known as the City of Onalaska Natural Lands Protection Program.

The first act of that program was to commit $25,000 set aside for land acquisition in the current budget to go toward purchase of a 51-acre parcel that adjoins the park. The overall city cost of the project was estimated at $38,000.

One objective of the program is to purchase properties adjacent to public lands so as to enlarge them, such as with Greens Coulee Community Park.

Parks Director Dan Wick said the Parks and Recreation Board has tried to place money aside in the past several years to purchase land through MVC, but each year those funds were taken away or reallocated to other projects.

“Any time you go up there, there’s people parked there,” Wick said of the Greens Coulee Community Park. “You find people hiking the trail and to have more natural space, more green space, secured for the city, is better for us.”

He also said the purchase price for the bluffland site was “well over $200,000” and if the city tried to buy the property on its own through the state stewardship fund, the city would have to pay half that amount.

“That’s a pretty favorable price tag for us,” Wick said.

The park, now 67 acres off Greens Coulee Road and Stonebridge Avenue, was acquired in 2000 through state stewardship funds. Still in the early stages of development, Greens Coulee Park has multi-purpose trails that begin at a wetland area of the park and end at the rock quarry at the summit of the bluff.

The land acquisition approved Tuesday would allow for creation of a loop, so hikers wouldn’t have to go down the bluff the same way they came up.

Mayor Mike Geise said there are a number of advantages to acquiring lands through MVC, one being that MVC, unlike municipalities, can apply for grants, like stewardship funds, on a noncompetitive basis.

Giese said MVC also takes care of the legal issues and develops and maintains easements on the properties in perpetuity.

All properties or easements in the Natural Lands Protection Program would be handled on a case-by-case basis.

“I feel that fiscally this is a very advantageous position for the city to take,” Giese said.

Alderwoman Kim Smith, who sits on the park board, said she thought the agreement was a good one not only for the city, but for its residents as well.

The city has been working with the Greens Coulee landowner for a number of years and placed $5,000 earnest money down last fall.

MVC could receive other funding for purchase as early as August, that the organization could then use to buy the property, making it open to the public.

Details about how the land would then be transferred to the city were described as “murky.”

City attorney Sean O’ Flaherty said MVC would own the property for least two years prior to turning it over, during which time the land would be evaluated as part of the grant requirements.

Stellner honor

The gazebo at the scenic wayside on Highway 35 will be dedicated to the man credited with creating it, Alderman Clarence Stellner. The council voted unanimously to have a plaque placed at the gazebo thanking Stellner for his service to the city as a council member and mayor.

Alderman Tim Miller, who drafted the request to the Parks and Recreation Board, said Stellner singlehandedly took on the gazeboo, sunfish and viewing area project.

The city will incur no cost for the project.

Tax dispute

The council ended a longtime dispute with a city resident who was charged $170 for a late property tax payment. Dr. Daniel Ecklund addressed the board asking that they penalty be waived.

Ecklund claimed his tax bill has been sent to his former address for at least the last four years.

City officials acknowledged the problem, assured the council that address changes to property tax recipients would be handled properly in the future, and waived the penalty for Ecklund.

Ecklund said that on one occasion, when he called the city to address the problem, the employee he spoke with said tax bills being sent to incorrect addresses “happens all the time.”

Council President Jim Olson asked that the waiver be granted as an exception, not as a precedent.

Other business

Other actions by the council included: