Funding approved for walkway design

The Hill City Business Improvement District (BID) is working on purchasing a 10-foot portion of the walkway between Jon Crane Gallery & Custom Framing and the Tin City Saloon on Hill City Main Street. The vision is to create a walkway from Main Street to the public restrooms at the Hill City Center. 

This project has been discussed for around 20 years with various designs and drafts to direct visitors to the public restrooms and businesses on that side of town. 

Contingent to selling, owner Lori Nonnast requested that Ray Berberich do a conceptual design. 

“She wanted to know what it would look like in order for her to sell us that,” said BID board president Chuck Voorhees. “I would get a letter of intent stating, if we come up with this design concept, that she would sell it so we have something in writing before we spend any money.” 

Previously, the BID Board approved hiring Berberich at a $110 an hour rate for general consulting. For this project the initial design study for the lot is expected to be approximately $3,200. According to Voorhees, Berberich suggested the contract be left open-ended up to a dollar amount. 

In a separate interview, Voorhees said, “He’s (Berberich) definitely really well-versed and experienced in community design projects.”

Since the project exceeded finance officer Stacia Tallon’s spending authority, Voorhees came to the Hill City Common Council Nov. 12 to get its approval on the BID board’s Design Consultant Agreement. 

So he would not have to return to the council every time the design changed, Voorhees proposed that the council approve the agreement with it not to exceed $10,000, $7,500 or whatever the council was comfortable with. 

In light of the multi-million dollar projects the council is looking at, alderwoman Lori Miner said, “I would prefer that every time you want to spend money, we know what dollars are going out the door.” 

Voorhees clarified the funds would be coming out of the BID Funds, and Miner said she understood that but the council still approved expenditures from that fund. 

“I think we can work something out with this agreement to cover the project you’re talking about, but I’m concerned about our expenditures. I mean, right now it seems like if I understood Stacia right, once we take the $90,000 out for the loan payment this year, that would leave about a $60,000 some—and I’m ballparking number here—balance in the BID Fund. 

“And then we’re talking about possibly making a $20,000 end-of-the-year appropriation so we can reduce from four years of payments down to three. And now we’re down to $40,000 so I guess that’s a pretty slim account,” said Miner. 

Miner said $40,000 can go pretty quickly, and she’d prefer to have a better handle on the budget. 

Mayor Tana Nichols asked if the BID board needed the whole $10,000 for the design, and Voorhees said $3,200 was for the design. Nichols suggested capping it at $5,000, and Voorhees said that would be fine. 

Alderman Ethan Walker asked Tallon how much was borrowed from the BID for the Hill City Center remodel. 

Tallon said, “In 2021, the BID asked for $500,000 to be transferred to their funds to pay for what they didn’t have in their coffers to be able to pay for the rest of the project—the alley being paved and the rest of the building to be done.

“So we had transferred that over, and then it was supposed to be paid back at $80,000 in principle, $10,000 of interest to the general fund every year. And we had to defer a payment the first year in 2022 because we did not have enough money in the coffers to pay that at the time.” 

Effectively, Tallon said it was an internal loan. Walker asked if money could be transferred from the Triple B fund to the BID fund. After consideration, Tallon said the city could purchase land with Triple B funds. 

For the walkway, Voorhees estimated that between the land acquisition, concrete and design it would be roughly $150,000. 

“Because the senior center held up the BID funds for so long, we were going to try to borrow money,” said Voorhees. “We were going to obtain outside bank funding, and then repay that back. We thought there was only two years left on the BID. Having that extra year kind of makes that more complicated for sure.” 

Voorhees said the BID board’s projects would help generate more revenue for the city and be great for the businesses.

“Do we really want to wait three or four years to get these projects that are going to be great for the city in place?” asked Voorhees. 

Walker said, “Personally, I’m all about doing whatever we can, allocating money that can’t be used for water or sewer. It’s not helping anything sitting in a bank account besides making us feel good.” 

However, until the council hears back from the state regarding funding for the water and sewer projects, Walker said the could could not entertain any conversations about debt. Miner and alderman Justin Thiry agreed. 

Alderman Dennis Siebert said a walkway project has been talked about for years, so if the city has the opportunity, he would love to make the purchase and open that up. Voorhees agreed, saying that the property might not be available for purchase in three years. 

“Triple B, I mean that’s a perfect state statute land acquisition if it’s something that we wanted to do,” said Walker. 

Miner said for the 2025 budget, the council already diverted the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and the promotion of the Hill City Center to the Triple B Fund to achieve the projects in the general fund. 

“Yeah, but you can’t use Triple B for anything other than what we’ve used it for. Community center, EDC and chamber,” said Walker. “There’s a $250,000 commitment for 2025 for the entire year out of that Triple B. If we didn’t have one single tourist that showed up, we’d still have $150,000 at the end of next year.” 

“If that was an option, I’ve got no issue with Triple B taking on that purchase,” said Voorhees, adding that the city would own the land regardless. 

“Well, we’ve got time to talk about that. At this point, you’re really just looking for approval to get this design done,” said Nichols. 

“Yeah, but it doesn’t really do any good if we can’t purchase the lot so that is important to talk about,” said Voorhees. 

Siebert said, “My thought has been for a long time if anytime we get a chance to buy that walkway, that’s a big, big plus for the business and for the community.” 

Council members said the walkway would provide access to the public restrooms, Hill City Center and the businesses and restaurants on that side of town.

“We could kind of finally bring some of these ideas to fruition,” said Voorhees. 

Siebert said, “If we have that kind of money in the Triple B Fund, that would seem like that could fund this purchase. We’re going to have to do that in the next couple of months.” 

Voorhees agreed if the city was going to acquire the lot, it would have to do it. 

“Triple B revenue is down five percent right now. I don’t know think it was a great economic year. It looks like our numbers are flat. While we can certainly, using these numbers, pay out what we committed to next year, what position are we going to be for 2026 expenditures?” said Miner. “I’m for the walkway. I’m not opposed to the walkway, but I really think we need to look at a bigger picture of how we’re funding things.” 

“But if you don’t continue to fund things that improve and increase our tax revenue, and we stay stagnate because we want to hold a bulk reserve, we’re not benefiting as a city from that either. I mean, I understand the want to be conservative, but we don’t know what our crystal ball in two years looks like,” said Thiry. “I think we have to look at the best ways to conservatively spend the money, and if it’s an opportunity like this that has been a goal for 20 years, I think we need to look at all the options.” 

“I’m not opposed to the project. I support the project. I think it would be a huge benefit to the city. And as you said, the city’s talked about this for years. This isn’t just a fly-by-night kind of idea. I’m just thinking we just need to look at the funding and where are we doing it, how are we pulling it and how are we going to make sure because the primary user of the Triple B fund is the chamber. So if the funds aren’t replenished, then how are we funding the chamber in 2026?” said Miner. 

After a discussion about the city’s debt limits, Walker suggested the BID board could at least acquire the land and open access even if the completed design had to wait a little longer.

“But you can’t really, ‘cause if you design it and you buy the lot, you’re under the agreement that you’re going to do what’s in the design. You can’t just buy the lot and do nothing or tear the fence down and just leave it open grass,” said Thiry. “If you’re going to start the design, you need to plan on spending the money to complete it.”

Voorhees agreed and reiterated that this would approximately be a $150,000 project. 

Thiry asked what the council’s thoughts were. 

Walker said, “I would love to figure out a way to move forward, continue taking baby steps forward in a way that’s responsible.”

Siebert said the debt limit is obviously a big concern, but the council could take money out of the Triple B fund. 

Thiry said the BID Board’s wayfinding project might have to wait three years, but access to the public restrooms and Hill City Center wouldn’t have to wait. 

Ultimately, the council decided to approve the Design Consultant Agreement up to $5,000.