BRODHEAD - Citizens gathered for an open house at the proposed site of a new Senior/Community Center on Sunday. Taking a cue from the cold and damp fall day, the event was riddled with a mix of concerns, criticisms and fledging optimism for the project.
"The first question is, 'How is this going to be paid for,'" resident David John said. "There are some concerns that some of these things haven't been publicly talked about. There's a wonder of what's going on behind the scenes. I don't think the question has been answered about this in terms of taxes. Is this going to be a pro-revenue source for the city, or is this going to be a hit on the city tax system?"
Many residents, including Renata Olsen, have concerns on how much the project would cost, as well as whether a new center is needed.
"I just think it's too much money for Brodhead, even if they do get grants," said Olsen, who mentioned hearing $2 million as the proposed cost. "Our town hasn't gotten any bigger, and having this (building) isn't going to help get it any bigger."
Senior/Community Center Committee member Nancy Sutherland said she, the nine other members of the committee, and the city have been working on upgrading the current structure for more than 10 years.
"We don't have anything in town that is large enough for banquets, dances or fundraisers," Sutherland said. "We're losing the one room we have (currently) that held about 250 people, and that will be going next year because they are razing that building. We've been working on this for 10 years now to find a building that we think we could handle and what it could do for us."
A nearly vacant building located at 804 23rd St. on the city's south side, across the street from Brodhead Chevrolet Buick dealership, is what the committee is proposing to purchase. The building is currently owned by local dentist Julio Rodriguez.
A day care facility still operates a portion of the east side of the facility, which has six other rooms available for tenancy of small businesses. The rest of the east side of the building would become the senior center.
On the west side, a large banquet hall that has been used for galas would become the community center. The west side has a mezzanine that currently holds a walking track, an item that would stay, and also has space for tables and chairs to be used for receptions or other events. A new elevator would be installed to make the mezzanine more accessible to elderly and handicapped patrons.
The committee chose Keller Inc. to head the proposed project. Keller is based out of Kaukana and has locations in Sun Prairie, Germantown and Wausau.
"We had several different (contractors) in to look at the building," Sutherland said. "Keller has listened to our ideas, they've checked the building down minutely to how strong it is and what the possibilities would be. And we had several recommendations about Keller and saw some of their other projects."
Doug Sutter of Keller Inc., design project manager, said the company currently has two proposals for the side of the building that would house the senior center.
"One of which is a complete remodel of over there," Sutter said. The second proposal is a re-working of the first with "a very little amount of remodeling. It includes mechanical upgrades and better insulation so that the building is more energy efficient."
While some citizens want to build new, Sutherland noted that renovating the proposed building would cost nearly half as much as building from scratch.
"I don't have any figures on it, but I think they were saying (building new) would be 60 percent more than what we would be doing here," Sutherland said.
The committee displayed information on every wall and doorway at the open house, giving those visiting a chance to get an idea of how the facility would look after renovations. Renovations would include new duct work and ceiling remodeling, new insulation, adding an elevator, tearing down some existing walls for larger rooms, such as the nutrition center, and new doorways so both the east and west sides of the building will have open access to each other. The exterior would also get a facelift, and the land south of the building would be used for more parking.
"They obviously put some thought into this," John said. "Today, they are being pretty open and showing you what they want to do. I think a lot of the negative ideas could be dispersed really quickly if they just came out and said, 'Here's the conversations we had, this is how we've come about it,' because I think that's where a lot of people's fears sit. You want to do it with as much exposure as possible and alleviate anyone's fears or uneasiness."
The building, built in 1999, would have computer access throughout and upgrades would allow for better energy efficiency.
"Everything's made out of steel and concrete (in the proposed building)," Sutter said. "We inspected the building and looked for tell-tale signs of serious problems, and there weren't any. The steel is in good shape, the foundation's in good shape, there's no major settling cracks or tell-tale signs of major structural failures. Everything is real solid."
Even still, the skeptics remained.
"I'm friends with a number of seniors from here, and they are not pleased with (the proposal)," said Opal John, David John's wife. "They are content with their senior center and are not sure why we need this. I can see why we'd want a community center, I just don't know if this is it.
"It's a small town and it's in a lot of the local ether right now. You can feel it, people talking. It might be all misconstrued, but that's what all we're hearing - back door dealings and they're pushing us out and this and that. That's what you feel."
Renata Olsen, who was at the open house with her husband, Kent, said some of the changes going on around Brodhead have made her skeptical of the future.
"With the bowling alley going away for a Kwik Trip, and in 15 years we have this (proposed) building and nothing else downtown? That scares me. We're close to retirement. I would like to stay here in Brodhead, but if there is nothing here, then we're gone," she said.
"We know people who are moving out of town already," Kent Olsen added.
The committee plans to hold a public referendum in April to decide if the project will move forward, which would mean the project could possibly be completed before the end of 2018.
"The committee that has worked on this for 10 years has looked at every building around town. Nothing was quite this big or adaptable," Sutherland said. "There is a lot of talk from people that we should build new, but there is so much here that we can work with without going to that expense."
More information on the project and the committee is available on the City of Brodhead's website.
"The first question is, 'How is this going to be paid for,'" resident David John said. "There are some concerns that some of these things haven't been publicly talked about. There's a wonder of what's going on behind the scenes. I don't think the question has been answered about this in terms of taxes. Is this going to be a pro-revenue source for the city, or is this going to be a hit on the city tax system?"
Many residents, including Renata Olsen, have concerns on how much the project would cost, as well as whether a new center is needed.
"I just think it's too much money for Brodhead, even if they do get grants," said Olsen, who mentioned hearing $2 million as the proposed cost. "Our town hasn't gotten any bigger, and having this (building) isn't going to help get it any bigger."
Senior/Community Center Committee member Nancy Sutherland said she, the nine other members of the committee, and the city have been working on upgrading the current structure for more than 10 years.
"We don't have anything in town that is large enough for banquets, dances or fundraisers," Sutherland said. "We're losing the one room we have (currently) that held about 250 people, and that will be going next year because they are razing that building. We've been working on this for 10 years now to find a building that we think we could handle and what it could do for us."
A nearly vacant building located at 804 23rd St. on the city's south side, across the street from Brodhead Chevrolet Buick dealership, is what the committee is proposing to purchase. The building is currently owned by local dentist Julio Rodriguez.
A day care facility still operates a portion of the east side of the facility, which has six other rooms available for tenancy of small businesses. The rest of the east side of the building would become the senior center.
On the west side, a large banquet hall that has been used for galas would become the community center. The west side has a mezzanine that currently holds a walking track, an item that would stay, and also has space for tables and chairs to be used for receptions or other events. A new elevator would be installed to make the mezzanine more accessible to elderly and handicapped patrons.
The committee chose Keller Inc. to head the proposed project. Keller is based out of Kaukana and has locations in Sun Prairie, Germantown and Wausau.
"We had several different (contractors) in to look at the building," Sutherland said. "Keller has listened to our ideas, they've checked the building down minutely to how strong it is and what the possibilities would be. And we had several recommendations about Keller and saw some of their other projects."
Doug Sutter of Keller Inc., design project manager, said the company currently has two proposals for the side of the building that would house the senior center.
"One of which is a complete remodel of over there," Sutter said. The second proposal is a re-working of the first with "a very little amount of remodeling. It includes mechanical upgrades and better insulation so that the building is more energy efficient."
While some citizens want to build new, Sutherland noted that renovating the proposed building would cost nearly half as much as building from scratch.
"I don't have any figures on it, but I think they were saying (building new) would be 60 percent more than what we would be doing here," Sutherland said.
The committee displayed information on every wall and doorway at the open house, giving those visiting a chance to get an idea of how the facility would look after renovations. Renovations would include new duct work and ceiling remodeling, new insulation, adding an elevator, tearing down some existing walls for larger rooms, such as the nutrition center, and new doorways so both the east and west sides of the building will have open access to each other. The exterior would also get a facelift, and the land south of the building would be used for more parking.
"They obviously put some thought into this," John said. "Today, they are being pretty open and showing you what they want to do. I think a lot of the negative ideas could be dispersed really quickly if they just came out and said, 'Here's the conversations we had, this is how we've come about it,' because I think that's where a lot of people's fears sit. You want to do it with as much exposure as possible and alleviate anyone's fears or uneasiness."
The building, built in 1999, would have computer access throughout and upgrades would allow for better energy efficiency.
"Everything's made out of steel and concrete (in the proposed building)," Sutter said. "We inspected the building and looked for tell-tale signs of serious problems, and there weren't any. The steel is in good shape, the foundation's in good shape, there's no major settling cracks or tell-tale signs of major structural failures. Everything is real solid."
Even still, the skeptics remained.
"I'm friends with a number of seniors from here, and they are not pleased with (the proposal)," said Opal John, David John's wife. "They are content with their senior center and are not sure why we need this. I can see why we'd want a community center, I just don't know if this is it.
"It's a small town and it's in a lot of the local ether right now. You can feel it, people talking. It might be all misconstrued, but that's what all we're hearing - back door dealings and they're pushing us out and this and that. That's what you feel."
Renata Olsen, who was at the open house with her husband, Kent, said some of the changes going on around Brodhead have made her skeptical of the future.
"With the bowling alley going away for a Kwik Trip, and in 15 years we have this (proposed) building and nothing else downtown? That scares me. We're close to retirement. I would like to stay here in Brodhead, but if there is nothing here, then we're gone," she said.
"We know people who are moving out of town already," Kent Olsen added.
The committee plans to hold a public referendum in April to decide if the project will move forward, which would mean the project could possibly be completed before the end of 2018.
"The committee that has worked on this for 10 years has looked at every building around town. Nothing was quite this big or adaptable," Sutherland said. "There is a lot of talk from people that we should build new, but there is so much here that we can work with without going to that expense."
More information on the project and the committee is available on the City of Brodhead's website.