The Finance Committee met 04/21/2025. Most of the meeting was taken up with discussion on the request to spend $107,000 to hire a climate action consultant and the request to allocate $20,000 for signage in the City Center/Fox Commons complex; however, they also took up four additional items—the request to award the $850,000 Lundgaard Park Pavilion Project to Milbach Construction Services, the 2024-2025 budget carryover request for Valley Transit, the request to award the $190,000 Green and Yellow Ramps Roof Replacement Project to Weinert Roofing, and the request to establish a reserve fund for ARPA-related obligations. All four of these items were recommended for approval unanimously by the committee.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
LUNDGAARD PARK PAVILION PROJECT – The contract was for $804,440 with a contingency of $46,944 for a total not to exceed $851,384. As discussed in the committee, the bulk of the cost was being covered by private donations. The $804,000 base contract cost was raised through private donations. The contingency was covered by funds left over from Phase 1 of the park project.
Milbach Construction Services Company was the lowest bidder. They renovated the Department of Public Works building and also renovated the fifth and sixth floor of City Center. The city had experienced issues with their performance on the City Center renovation related in particular to two subcontractors, but eventually the work was completed to the city’s satisfaction and at no additional cost, and Milbach was not disbarred from future projects.
When Milbach submitted the lowest bid for the Lundgaard Park Pavilion Project, the city took extra care and precaution by having the architect and engineer meet with Milbach and go through the project line by line to make sure that Milbach’s bid did not miss anything. City staff also spoke with Milbach and explained to them that before they signed the contract and started the project they needed to assure the city that all their subcontractors would be able to perform according to the timeline, the scope, and quality. Per Director of Parks and Recreation Dean Gazza, “They assured us that they want to make it right. They want to learn to relationship with us, and they want to show us that they will get this project right and we will not incur the same problems as last time. […] And I think they know this is their last opportunity to work with the city. If they don’t—the project doesn’t turn out this time and meet all of our goals and objectives, they won’t be working with the city again.”
BUDGET CARRYOVER APPROPRIATIONS FOR VALLEY TRANSIT – Valley Transit was requesting to carryover $26,800,000 associated with the Downtown Transit Center project and $15,000,000 associated with the Whitman Remodel Phase 2 project. These requests had been submitted but inadvertently left out of the regular carryover request that came before the committee in March.
GREEN AND YELLOW RAMPS ROOF REPLACEMENT CONTRACT – The contract was for $176,860 with a contingency of $15,000 for a total not to exceed $191,860. Public Works Director Laura Jungwirth told the committee that the city had originally solicited bids to replace the roof of not only the green and yellow ramps but the red ramp as well. The bids came in higher than expected, so in order to stay under the $200,000 budgeted for the project city staff removed the red ramp from the project. They will do the yellow and green roof replacements this year and then put the red ramp roof replacement in the budget for 2026.
ESTABLISH A RESERVE FUND FOR ARPA-RELATED OBLIGATIONS – The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars the city received in 2021 and 2022 were deposited into a separate interest-bearing bank account. Since that time, they have earned interest of almost $1.5 million. That interest earned is no subject to ARPA or federal grant restrictions. City staff requested to place that accrued interest in a reserve fund to cover potential increases in ARPA-related project costs with any left-over funds being allocated in accordance wit the city’s General Fund Excess Fund Balance Policy. The General Fund Excess Fund Balance Policy requires that 75% of left over dollars be put toward debt reduction with the other 25% allocated to different projects subject to Council approval.
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) asked where the money was invested that resulted in $1.5 million in interest. Finance Director Jeri Ohman said the money had been deposited in the Wisconsin Local Government Investment Pool. The interest rates had been quite favorable since late 2021 or early 2022 when interest rates went back up. The city had over $14 million deposited and did not spend a lot of it right away which is why it accumulated so much.
Alderperson Hartzheim asked if staff anticipated any cost overruns on ARPA-related projects. She was also curious what projects were still even out there that might have overruns because she thought that more recently a lot of the ARPA dollars had gone toward grants, not projects that could have cost overruns.
Director Ohman said that there were still some internal city projects going on that were covered by ARPA funds. She did not have the details available off the top of her head. They did not necessarily anticipate costs going up, but it was a possibility, and having this reserve fund would give staff the ability to come forward to the committee and Council for approval to use the additional money to cover those extra costs.
Alderperson Brad Firkus (District 3) noted that the city had other reserve funds already established and they see those in the budget every year.
The committee voted unanimously to recommend each of the four items for approval.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1283589&GUID=A9618171-A757-4284-835B-B7C99C938E10
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