The River Falls City Council heard a trio of presentations, one from the St. Croix Valley Business Innovation Center, one on housing and the final on water/wastewater at the July 23 meeting.

Director of the St. Croix Valley Business Innovation Center, Sheri Marnell, said the center exists to work with small businesses to help with entrepreneurship and innovation.

With data from the US Small Business Association showing just a third of startups lasting 10 years, the innovation center is determined to keep startups alive. Of 23 businesses that have graduated from the innovation center, 20 are still in business.

Statistics from the center’s members include retaining 159 jobs, adding 120 jobs and investing $34 million in capital.

River Falls Community Development Director Amy Peterson said in a 2018 study the city learned they had a projected total housing need of over 2,000 units. This need was down to over 1,700 during a 2022 update. The 2022 update showed an increase in need for senior housing. Some of the demand has been addressed since the original study and the update, but the need in the city is still there.

Projects that helped address the need include Depot/City Station, Milltown, 1300 Residences, The Sycamore, Lake George Lofts and The Uplands, which account for about 450 units.

The presentation showed units needed by 2030, with senior housing at the top, still needing 693 units, multi-family for rent housing in need of 317 units, single-family housing in need of 306 units and multi-family for sale housing in need of 135 units.

River Falls Utility Director Kevin Westhuis and City Engineer Todd Nickleski discussed a handful of things going on in the city involving wastewater and groundwater.

The wastewater treatment plant site dryer project is 4-6 weeks away from having a three-story building on site.

A groundwater availability study found that in the event of a 40-year drought,  River Falls would still have a surplus of about one billion gallons of groundwater per year.

Westhuis said they did a sample at every well in town for the EPA and three rounds of testing for the DNR, and no Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAs) were detected.

“We have to feel very fortunate about that,” Westhuis said.

Fire hydrant caps are now being painted based on how much water can flow out of them.

City compost site

The city’s compost site was the topic of discussion for Town of Clifton resident Dana Linscott’s public comment for the second week in a row. During the administrator’s report, City Administrator Scot Simpson fact checked some of the points that have been brought to the table at the two meetings.

Linscott has asked for the yard waste site to be moved for a multitude of reasons, and claims to be willing to help the city through the process. Linscott’s reasons include the risk of dangerous pollutants eventually washing into the Kinnickinnic River and biotoxins harming nearby residents. Linscott said there are no laws or regulations that prevent the council from discussing the issue and asked them to sit down and have a conversation.

“I want to be careful about rebutting public comments, but I think we’ve seen repeated inaccurate statements from at least one member of the public,” Simpson said. “The compost site is licensed. It’s inspected by the state. We’ve recently had two inspections, and no violations were noted. That site does have stormwater management active on the site. It’s not true that the water goes directly to the Kinni.”

Water Wells

The council heard the first reading of changes to the municipal code covering water wells. The additions to the ordinance are as follows:

• A permit may be granted to existing well owners for the use of non-potable water only; the non-potable water system must be separate from the potable water system connected to the municipal water supply
• Well permits will be issued in April of the renewal year
• The private well must not be capable of producing more than 100,000 gallons per day so as to not be classified as a high-capacity well under Wisconsin Administrative Code Chapter NR812.09
• A private well may not negatively impact quality or quantity of groundwater available to the City of River Falls municipal wells
• Well construction reports shall be provided for each private well

Other business

• Approved the change of the Plan Commission make-up from including the chairperson of the Park Board to adding another citizen seat instead. Multiple city officials said this change is because it becomes difficult to fill board spots if the members become automatically tied to a second board seat’s responsibilities.
• Approved a joint submission of an Economic Development Administration public works application. The resolution allows the city to jointly apply for a grant that would provide necessary funds to expand the St. Croix Valley Business Innovation Center.
• Approved the submitting of an application to the Wisconsin Community Investment grant program for Bodhi Studios. The grant would go toward renovations.