First in series on city achievements

By Robert Cloud

The city of New London took major steps forward with its library project, reconstructing several streets, work on the Newton Blackmour State Trail and economic development.

Mayor Mark Herter noted that new faces on city council have brought fresh perspectives on old ideas.

“Council has taken action on several old ideas like the Newton Blackmour trail,” Herter said. “This trail has been on the back burner for about 15 years. Council along with city staff made it priority to see this project move forward. This has not come without a lot of road blocks and struggles this past year.”

Herter said the city at one point was at a standstill due to a number of obstacles, “and it seemed like it was time to throw in the towel.”

“Thankfully, city staff, City Administrator Chad Hoerth and New London’s alderpersons … never quit and put in the extra work. We can now see this trail taking shape and is on target to be complete by the end of 2022,” Herter said.

Hoerth said the city received an $850,000 grant with assistance from Outagamie County.

Economic development

Hoerth said the city’s outreach and planning efforts for economic development really started to show in 2022.

“In the past few years the city has created three TID districts to encourage that growth,” Hoerth said. “Because of that, in 2022 the city saw the groundbreaking of the Celestial Hills multifamily development on Beckert Road and the extension of Southland Lane to accommodate 20 new future single family homes.”

The city has been working with SC Swiderski for another multifamily development on land along the riverfront that has been vacant for 15 years.

“Although increasing inflation and interest rates forced the original project to pivot before it could begin, the updated plan allowed for additional housing units and a new design which is being looked at as a catalyst for downtown growth,” Hoerth said.

Hoerth also noted the importance of Tax Incremental Financing Districts (TID) as tools for economic development in New London.

“The city’s manufacturing TID, located in one of the city’s southeast industrial parks, allowed for a large expansion to Titan Industries, creating additional growth opportunities and job creation for the company,” Hoerth said.

The city and the New London Area Chamber of Commerce regularly communicated and worked closely throughout the year to assist new business creation or expansion in 2022.

An example of those unified efforts were shown by promoting and assisting applicants with the $10,000 Wisconsin Main Street Badger Bounce Back grant, Hoerth said.

Eighteen New London businesses received the grant that helped start or expand growth in the city and represented an investment of $180,000 in New London.

“Downtown New London has very few vacant buildings currently with many new private business investments in 2022,” Hoerth said.

First State Bank, library project

“First State Bank, which has been an anchor in downtown New London for decades, showed their continued commitment and investment into the community by deciding to build their new 9,000 square foot Bank headquarters in the downtown and donate their existing facility to house the collection and future expanded programming planned for the New London Public Library,” Hoerth said.

Noting that plans for remodeling the library have been discussed for nearly 20 years, Herter said city council worked together with the library and museum commission to see their vision of a new annex building.

The mayor added that the city is grateful that First State Bank decided build its new headquarters in New London and donate its old bank building to the library.

“We will see a new look to old First State Bank in 2023 in the form of a state of the art library,” Herter said.

Street improvements

Herter said 2022 was a big year for street improvements in New London, with $1.4 million put into streets in the city’s District 3.

“Those streets were long overdue for some TLC.” Herter said. “Avon, Lima and Lyon streets all had complete makeovers. This was done with the aid of wheel tax monies, bonding and CDBG grant funding.”

Herter noted that District 3 residents, as well as city staff and officials, played a role in securing the grants that helped fund the street projects.

“Our city staff wrote an application for this grant and needed some feedback from area citizens to make the grant possible,” Herter said. “A few of our alderpersons along with myself went door to door asking residents to fill out information to help aid in the CDBG grant application. This was a huge success for our application and as you can see, we have some new asphalt out in District 3.”

“Staff continue to research and aggressively apply for grant opportunities to increase road conditions and decrease the burden on local taxpayers, Hoerth said, noting that the city has been granted nearly $5.5 million for recent or upcoming street improvement projects.