Riverfront project moving forward with Phase 2

PRESCOTT – At the Monday, Jan. 24 Prescott City Council meeting, the council held a public hearing for a street vacancy, discussed the next steps of the ongoing riverfront improvement project and proposed changes to the 2022 fee schedule.

No one spoke at the public hearing held during the Planning Commission report in regards to vacating a part of Second and Lake streets.

City Administrator Matt Wolf spoke about the reason for the street vacation.

“At our meeting in January we approved the site plan for Two Rivers’ expansion of their deck and as a part of that process, we needed to hold a public hearing to vacate the right of way for the expansion of that deck.”

According to a city memo, for the proposed deck to work within the site and be wholly within the parcel currently owned by Two Rivers under the name Prescott Real Estate LLC, the city has to vacate the right-of-way to the southeast of the current building. In total the vacated right-of-way would equal .06 acres.

The motion to approve the initial resolution to vacate portions of those streets was passed by the council after the public hearing closed; after publication of the resolution notice in the newspaper, it will return to the council for a final approval.

Riverfront project

During Parks and Public Property Committee reports, the council heard updates on the

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next phase of the riverfront project. In phase two, there are plans for a boat launch and a fishing pier engineering proposal.

“Part of our budget for 2022 has $125,000 for the construction of a fishing pier and a new boat dock,” Wolf said.

The city worked with Cedar Corporation to submit a Tourism Capital Grant application through the Wisconsin Department of Administration for the trail from downtown to Freedom Park. The Federal Economic Development Administration (EDA) has a Travel, Tourism and Outdoor Recreation Grant that the city is also working on.

Seth Hudson from Cedar Corporation gave a brief presentation of a contract the city will have with Cedar Corporation to configure the plans for the fishing pier and boat dock.

“The contract is for $5,450 to do preliminary layouts, permit applications, final plans, bidding documents, etcetera,” said Hudson.

Room tax

The Ordinance Committee reports included a first reading and final approval for a resolution to repeal and replace Ordinances 83-23 and 83-25, in connection with a presentation from the previous meeting about changing the current room tax.

“Last meeting we discussed room tax and one of the things we brought up was the changing of ordinance 8323, which has the imposition of tax at 8%, so we discussed moving it down to 6% and then 83-25 is the distribution of tax,” Wolf said.

The council approved the first reading and waiver of second and third readings and the ordinances were repealed and replaced. Under the revised ordinance, 30% of room taxes collected will go to the city, while 70% will go to tourism promotion and development (per state statute). City staff will begin collecting the room tax quarterly from lodging establishments on April 1.

Food pantry Hudson also presented a site plan for 911 Pearl St, which will be the new home of the Prescott Area Food Pantry. It’s located in the former River Heights Motel pool and community room building.

The site plan shows a proposed driveway to get to the food pantry from Pearl Street; it will be a route for trucks to pull into the lot for deliveries and loading purposes. The site plan included the blueprints for the building itself as well. No action was taken on this agenda item.

Fee schedule

The final agenda item was the proposal to change the 2022 fee schedule.

“We are not asking for any formal action on this tonight,” Wolf said. “The proposed changes to the fee schedule include a waiver for the permit fee and wrapping this in with the event fee. We’ll be adjusting the golf cart fee from $25 to $50 for the first year and then $10 to $25 for following years, adding a site plan review under development fees.”

There were other fee changes and they are available to read through on the Prescott city website in the meeting agenda packet. The council took no action on this agenda item; it will return to the council at a future meeting for a vote.

Cedar Corporation presented a possible site plan to the Prescott City Council on Monday, Jan. 24 for the new Prescott Area Food Pantry at 911 Pearl St.

Blueprint courtesy of Cedar Corporation