County weighs needs for capital spending

New computers for a library are in, but radios for sheriff deputies and iPads for county supervisors are out, as Shawano County officials debate capital spending priorities for 2016.

It is the part of the county budget where officials try to fund the county’s most pressing infrastructure needs separate from traditional road maintenance.

Officials have identified more than $1 million in projects for next year, including park improvements, courthouse upgrades and bridge repairs.

But the introduction of two new proposals midway through the process has raised the possibility that the reshuffling of priorities is not over yet.

The Shawano Area Agricultural Society is seeking funds to renovate a county fairgrounds building, while the Shawano Area Waterways Management group wants help with its water-quality protection efforts.

County Supervisor Kevin Conradt, chairman of the committee overseeing the county’s capital projects review, said he finds it objectionable that outside groups would step forward with funding requests long after the review process has started.

“I think they should meet the deadline and go through the proper channels,” Conradt said.

County officials gather information about infrastructure needs and assemble funding requests earlier in the year. An advisory committee then reviews and ranks each project’s significance before deciding which projects to recommend to the County Board for funding.

The County Board is scheduled later this month to take action on a final list of capital spending projects to include in the 2016 county budget.

The largest project approved so far is $510,625 for interior improvements to the Shawano County Courthouse, mostly re-carpeting and removal of asbestos from outdated flooring. The project also includes some repainting and woodwork refinishing inside the building.

County Administrative Coordinator Brent Miller said the courthouse upgrades have been planned for years.

Although the County Board could still make changes on capital spending, Miller said he believes the advisory committee conducted a thorough review of proposals and gave careful consideration to the county’s infrastructure needs.

“I do think they did a good job,” he said.

In addition to the courthouse renovations, the committee tentatively recommended $100,000 for waste-water treatment lagoons, $93,500 for Heritage Park improvements, $76,000 for new sheriff’s department ventilation equipment, $71,500 for Hayman Falls County Park repaving, $50,000 for bridge repairs along the Mountain Bay Trail, and $15,000 for a new parks lawn tractor, among others.

The Shawano City-County Library won approval for $20,000 to acquire new computers for its downtown Shawano library. Under the city-county cooperative arrangement in the library system, the city of Shawano would contribute another $5,000.

Library director Kristie Hauer said the $25,000 would be enough to replace about 37 computers in the library, some as much as eight years old. Hauer said the capital investment would provide new computers both for public use and library staff use.

Computers provided for library patrons drew about 17,000 users last year, Hauer said.

“It’s definitely an area where we see a lot of demand and a lot of use,” she said.

Three proposals that committee members have recommended defunding include equipping all County Board members with iPads at a cost of $16,000, providing new radios and communication equipment to the sheriff’s department for $53,200, and conducting a lake management study at White Clay Lake for $6,000.

White Clay Lake spokesman Dennis Muck said he was disappointed but not surprised that county officials were unwilling to support his lake improvement project. Doing so, Muck said, probably would mean other lake management districts would line up for county funds.

However, he added: “The county should be willing to invest in lakes.”

Of the two projects proposed recently, the county agricultural society is seeking $125,000 to renovate the Junior Fair Building on the county fairgrounds, and the waterways management group is seeking an unspecified amount to conduct weed removal on the Shawano Lake system.

Gary DeFere, president of the waterways group, said the nonprofit organization did not request funding sooner because members were unaware of the county’s schedule for soliciting and examining such projects.

DeFere said he asked county officials to reconsider, and he apologized for being late to the process.

“This is possibly our fault,” he said. “I’m not blaming anyone.”