By Gary Mays
gmays@
themonroetimes.com
MONROE — The Monroe Common Council is giving Badger State Ethanol more time to consider purchasing part of Honey Creek Park near its existing facility on Monroe’s southeast side.
The council on Monday accepted $6,500 from the firm to extend its option to purchase about 12.5 acres of property at Honey Creek for about $20,000 per acre.
“This is just an extension of the option approved last year,” City Administrator Brittney Rindy told the council, prior to a vote on the matter. “They are paying us for that option.”
The initial contract agreement with Badger State Ethanol was approved by the common council in July, 2023. The company is keeping its options open with the land, with an eye on expanding its Monroe operations significantly, officials said.
The acreage they need is primarily composed of soccer fields, and as part of the agreement, the firm would pay an additional, more than $60,000 to help relocate those soccer fields elsewhere in the city. Existing baseball fields and the city skateboard park would not be impacted by the sale, according to officials.
Ald. Tom Miller said he wondered if replacing the soccer fields would even be necessary with the new high school and its sports fields coming on line in the near future. But officials said such a sharing arrangement with the school district would be unlikely.
“The high school soccer fields serve a different purpose,” said Rindy. “There are (other) options we are exploring to have a plan in place.”
Indeed, she said, if the purchase goes through there are several potential sites in the city that could be converted into soccer fields and other amenities using the money from the sale.
Ald. Andrew Kranig voted in support of extending the option for purchase but suggested capping the number of extensions given by the city on the land “so they don’t string us along.”
In another real estate matter, the council agreed to sell a half-acre piece of land in the North Industrial Park to WW Dairy, LLC for $10,000 plus half of the cost of subdividing the land. That still leaves the city with more than four acres in the park for future development.
“WW Dairy, LLC is a well-established business in Monroe,” the company said in an offer letter for the property. “We are committed to responsible land management and believe this property will be a valuable asset to our operations.”
What’s more, the sliver of industrial park land will help the company expand and perhaps add employees to its payroll in the future, according to the letter.