City does not fully fund PdC Main Street request

By Correne Martin

For the first time in Prairie du Chien history, according to city administration, the city’s common council failed to pass a proposed budget, during a special meeting Thursday, Dec. 1.

“We cannot leave the building without passing a budget this evening,” City Administrator Aaron Kramer said.

With that understood, an amended budget was ultimately approved, after Mayor Dave Hemmer broke his second tie council vote of the meeting, also a first-ever occurrence.

The entire conversation centered on the stability of the PdC Main Street program, which has faced its share of hurdles in recent years. The entity originally requested a $15,000 contribution from the city for 2017. The finance committee decreased that to $14,000 and, Thursday night, the final motion cut it much further, to $4,000.

Chris Mara, Christine Panka and Marlene Dyer, representing the organization, spoke during the public hearing and answered council questions.

The first vote on the proposed budget included $14,000 for PdC Main Street. Ron Leys made the motion and Mike Jones seconded it. With Jean Titlbach and Edward Hayes-Hall absent, only Leys, Jones and Todd Crotty voted in favor of the initial proposal, while Todd Myers, Karen Solomon and Nate Gilberts opposed it. Mayor Hemmer voted “no” to break the tie.

Several council members shared concern about the proposed reduction in the city’s contingency fund from $100,000 to $76,550.61, due to recent personnel developments. That generated nearly an hour of discussion, mostly about PdC Main Street.

The main street entity continues to rebuild since Prairie du Chien Downtown Revitalization Inc. (PDRI) disbanded in early 2014.

This year, the organization 1) held a branding brainstorming session and executed a survey to gain community input; 2) implemented the Journey Through Time event that generated an estimated $25,000 into the local economy; 3) paid for hanging baskets and planters and organized maintenance of those; 4) created a fall display of corn shocks on Blackhawk Avenue; 5) held regular PdC Palette art events; 6) cleaned the streets downtown through Operation Clean and Green; 7) welcomed American Queen passengers with story telling, music and a root beer float stand; and 8) hosted Coffee Communique weekly discussions. Currently, PdC Main Street is moving forward with a professional branding and marketing campaign and also developing a historical walking audio tour using cellular technology.

Mara said the group’s mission is to have an annual budget of $35,000 and a part-time director in place by June 30 in order to be restored as a full member of the state main street program. He also discussed a potential $10,000 in funding from the Crawford County Economic Development Corporation, which is scheduled to be considered later this month. He said PdC Main Street would likely need to raise another $11,000 in funding from the downtown business community and other sources.

“The fact is, they’ve only accounted for $850 from the businesses (at this time),” Kramer said after the meeting. “This is not an indictment of the main street program. It’s just that dollars are so tight and they have not raised a lot of money to support hiring a part-time director.”

Kramer added his belief that the city, chamber and main street volunteers “desperately need to come up with a viable, long-term plan to support the downtown together.”

With all concerns on the table, Gilberts motioned to reduce the funding for main street to $4,000 and increase the contingency fund to $86,550.61. Again, the vote on the amended budget resulted in a 3-3 tie, which, when broken by the mayor with a “yes,” was approved.