Listing for former utilities property for sale delayed

CLINTONVILLE – The Clintonville Common Council took no action at its Aug. 11 meeting on listing the Clintonville Utilities property located at 260 7th Street in Clintonville for sale after legal questions and concerns were brought up about, as well as a possible future use of the property by the city of Clintonville.
At the meeting, Ald. Jim Supanich told the council that the property has been used for storage by Clintonville Utilities, adding that when the city approved the construction of a new building for Clintonville Utilities, part of the financing for the project was predicated on the sale of this property covering some of the construction costs.
“We’ve been holding on to this for a little while, and now the utility, because of the financial situations, wants to sell it,” Supanich said.
An analysis of the property, including the land and the building, showed that the property is estimated to be worth $235,000, Supanich said.
“The Utility Committee has decided to approve the idea that we would set this up as a surplus item as opposed to just selling it outright,” Supanich said. “And the main reason is, if you can sell it as a surplus item, we don’t have to pay the 6% that you would normally pay for a real estate deal. That is handled by the person that is buying that.”

Supanich said the Clintonville Utility Committee recommended listing the property as a surplus item for two weeks with a $235,000 minimum bid.
Ald. Brandon Braden said a few members of the Clintonville Fire Department recently toured the building on the property to see if it would be suitable for use by an ambulance service if the city of Clintonville would decide to operate its own ambulance service.
“I know that Dave (Tichinel, manager of Clintonville Utilities) needs to make the Utility whole and that we need to probably do our best to make sure that the Utilities gets the money that they were going to get from the sale of the building, but would there be any reasons why the city wouldn’t potentially purchase the building from the Utilities temporarily until we know what’s going on with the ambulance side of things?”
If the property were sold, Braden said it would no longer be an option for use for an ambulance service.
Supanich said that was discussed at the Utility Committee meeting.
Clintonville Mayor Jeannie Schley said the Rural Development loan for the new Clintonville Utilities building required the sale of the property at 260 7th Street.
“We’re kind of dragging our feet on it (selling the property),” Schley said. “Something needs to happen with it.”
Schley added that if the city wants to purchase the property, it can bid on it when it is listed as surplus because the city and the utilities are separate entities.
Tichinel said the sale of the property has to be “properly done.” He said he would need to speak with Clintonville City Attorney Keith Stechbauer about that.
“The agreement was with this council was to sell that building and we’re looking at nearly almost two years ago to paying us back,” Tichinel said. “This building needs to be sold and we need to recoup the money because it needs to replace our cash funds.”
Steckbauer said he has not seen the loan agreement for the new utilities building or how the property at 260 7th Street would be sold.
He asked the council to give him “a month or so” to review the documents so he understands the obligations of the parties involved.