ALBANY — A loan recently approved by the state may help one area public works department that has outgrown its current space.
Albany Public Works Superintendent Lonnie Gill said the village applied for the loan to purchase a 2018 Ford F-350, pay off another loan, put a new plow on the truck and install a new box on another truck. But the most notable purchase was that of a building the department currently uses for storage of extra tools and other equipment.
“In time, we’re trying to slowly transition it to our main Public Works building,” Gill said. “We’ve been in our shop forever and we’ve just basically been outgrowing it.”
Gill added that the facility built in 1850 where they currently still work and another small shed were becoming inadequate for department use.
The State Trust Fund Loan totaling $81,000 was approved by the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands during its meeting Tuesday in Madison. The disbursement to the village was one of eight loans totaling nearly $3.49 million.
The five-year loan has an interest rate of 4 percent.
It was also the smallest request approved Tuesday, with other cities, towns and villages throughout the state asking for hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase land or finance infrastructure projects. The town of Winchester in Vilas County, which applied for $1.3 million to construct a town shop and renovate its town hall, received the largest amount.
Albany Clerk and Treasurer Lauri Keepers said the building, 300 N. Cincinnati St., was owned by Insight FS, an agricultural cooperative with a number of Wisconsin locations.
“They don’t use it any longer,” Keepers said. “We’ve been able to rent it for storage. We just decided it would really work out well if we could buy it.”
According to Albany Village Board meeting minutes, Gill attended a meeting of the board March 12 to explain the building could be purchased for $30,000 and that renovations could be made later to make the process more affordable. The board agreed to apply for the state loan in a 4-1 vote during that meeting and approved the purchase of the truck and truck equipment May 14.
According to the BCPL website, municipalities have a general process to follow which is “both simple and efficient.” The board uses program revenue, not tax funds, earned through interest from BCPL State Trust Fund loans to distribute to municipalities.
Keepers said the village specifically requested $81,000 in its application. She noted the process is simple and that the interest rates are “decent.”
“They’re very easy to work with,” Keepers said.
Gill said the loan has been used a number of times in the past, mostly for the department. In 2000 and 2001, the village took out a combined $254,000 to construct an EMS addition. In 2007, $200,000 from the fund was used by Albany to finance street, water and sewer extensions. Three years later, a loan was secured for $150,000 to perform water main replacements and street improvements. The village applied for, and was granted, $80,000 to finance a water main project in 2013.
The next year, Albany took out a loan from the state for just over $110,000 to refinance two of the previous loans and was given another $70,000 to purchase a truck and snow plow. In 2016, the village was loaned more than $170,000 to finance capital projects and received $200,000 in disbursed funds to finance street repairs in 2017.
Loan funds will likely be received by the village in two installments; one in June and the other in July, but Keepers did not know the specific dates.
The new Ford will replace the use of a truck roughly a decade old, Keepers said, though the village plans to keep the older vehicle for part-time grounds workers in the summer and other general use within public works.