County leaders met behind closed doors on Friday to discuss striking a possible deal with the city. (City-Times photo)

City Claims County Turns Down Sweetheart Deal That Would Envision Dreier’s Campus Concept Wish

By Brandi Makuski

After a series of miscues in communication, leaders from the Portage County Lease Negotiation Team on Friday met in closed session for the latest in two years of discussion over several offers on the future of the library’s main branch, as put forth by the City of Stevens Point.

The county has been the sole tenant of the library Main Street building since it was constructed in 1991. The county’s lease with the city expired in 2012 and both parties have been in negotiations ever since to either renew the lease, move the library or give the building to the county outright. Most of the negotiations to this point have taken place in closed session, something both Mayor Andrew Halverson and County Board Chairman Phil Idsvoog say will not happen again.

On Sept. 5 the county sent an official response to an offer made by the city three weeks earlier by mistake, but rescinded offer on the following Monday, saying it was sent in error. On Friday Mayor Andrew Halveson said the city has made several offers to the county, some of which involve giving the building to the county free of charge.

“There’s four or five offers on the table, and all of which still stand,” Halverson said. “Most recently, we said we’d vacat this building (city hall), the PD (police department) and the Arlington Street parking lot- we’ll turn all of that over to you for your space and planning analysis.”

Halverson said the move was designed to fit in with County Executive Patty Dreier’s “campus concept”, which envisions all county government offices in the same place close to downtown. In exchange for turning over all the space to the county, the city would retain the library building for use as a formal city hall and police department. The library, since it’s not a form of government, could be moved elsewhere, Halverson said.

“We’ve already done the analysis; it’s over 40,000 square feet and we know it can work. There’s plenty of parking for squad cars and visitors and it the PD would be face-to-face with its biggest sorce of calls (downtown),” Halverson said.

The city suggested moving the library space to the former Copp’s South location on Church Street. Halverson said the city would buy the building for the county, but county leaders would be responsible for moving and renovation costs. The current location, Halverson said, isn’t in walkable distance to residential neighborhoods.

“Downtown isn’t what it was 20 years ago; it’s not what it was two years ago,” Halverson said. “We literally did our homework on that location: you’re a third of a mile away from a junior high, a third of a mile away from an elementary school with 500 students with hundreds more within walking distance, and it’s the exact center of the geographic urban center of (Stevens) Point, Plover and Whiting on two major north- south roads serviced by public transportation. You’ve got 15,000 people who drive by it every day. It’s perfect.”

Library Director Bob Stack said the library needs to stay downtown, and insists the city hasn’t been living up to its end of the original lease, which puts requires the city to pay for major repairs.

“Anybody who reads the lease will understand it’s the city’s responsibility to take care of some of the bigger things around this building,” Stack said. “Look at the vapor
barrier on the windows- all this glass needs to be replaced. You wouldn’t want the windows in your home looking like that, would you? It doesn’t set a very good example for the library.”

Stack said the city pushed for the county library be located downtown-in part- in order to increase foot traffic in the area.

“Why they changed their mind about it now is a mystery to me,” Stack said. “We’re going to do the best we can under the circumstances; we’re going to be here as long as the city wants us here, and the taxpayers want us here.”

Members of the team negotiating for the lease include County Executive Patty Dreier, County Board Chairman Phil Idsvoog, Committee Chair Don Jankowski, Facilities Director Tood Nuenfeldt, County Board supervisors Tom Mallison, Jim Krems, Jim Gifford and Finance Director Jennifer Josie, as well as members of the Library Board. In April the negotiations team was created and began discussing a possible lease renewal.

Corporation Counsel Mike McKenna called the original agreement between the city and the county a “standard commercial lease” that has been extended while municipal leaders work towards new conditions that both parties can agree upon. Earlier this year the county offered to cover 25 percent of the major repairs needed for the library building, which County Executive Patty Dreier said exceed $500,000. Under the existing lease, the city is responsible for major repairs to the building in excess of $3,500. Dreier also said County Facilities Director Todd Neuenfeldt worked with the city in 2012 to create a master list of major repairs needed on the $4 million structure.

“On the list were such things as roof repairs of almost $126,000; a boiler replacement at $68,000; and so it goes- air handling system, window replacement, masonry and concrete work, etc. That was a great day for both partners, because it (the assessment) needed to become part of a routine,” Drier said. “We need to keep this on our radar, and it seems for decades before they didn’t come together to put that before our eyes so neither the city nor the county had the appropriate capital planning for this facility we both have a stake in.”

Dreier said the county’s offer of a 25 percent capital cost share was turned down.

“That’s where we encountered the offer from the city to basically give us a building that needed over half a million dollars in repairs and $100,000. These aren’t needs that are new; these aren’t surprises. (The city) should just move in for as much as we’ve had to call for nickel and dime, band aid repairs instead of just getting the facility cared for as we need to,” she said.

County Board Chairman Phil Idsvoog said he agreed with Dreier- something he admits doesn’t happen often.

“This is going to be a first for me, but I agree with everything Patty said,” Idsvoog said. “I’ll be real simple and real blunt about this: I’ve talked to about 50 people on this and people want the library downtown, they want it where it is. As far as I’m concerned the city needs to be a responsible landlord and fix the building.”

Major repairs to the building haven’t been started and likely won’t begin until an agreement can be reached on terms and ownership of the building- something the negotiation team could work towards.

McKenna said in April if the negotiation team and city can’t come to an agreement, the library may have to move outside of the downtown area.

“The city has the duty of a landlord,” McKenna said. “The tenant is not entitled to the greatest roof of all time but we should have a functioning roof, and thus we have the issues that bring us to today.”

On Friday the negotiation team decided to propose extending the lease for another 10 years under its current conditions with the county paying for capital improvements to the building, as agreed upon by a team of 5 individuals from both the city and the county. The current list of capital improvements totals almost $600,000, though county leaders stopped short of using that amount in its proposal.

A response from the city could come as early as next week.