MARINETTE — The Marinette Common Council voted unanimously on a resolution Monday night that said they may have an interest in the administrative and library buildings on the University of Wisconsin — Green Bay, Marinette Campus, subject to negotiation between the city and the county. Alderpersons Mike Wolfe and Liz Mikutowski were absent.
Mayor Steve Genisot said the next steps are to hire a firm to bring a proposal to the June Common Council meeting to evaluate the two buildings and estimate the renovations’ cost, along with an analysis of the National Guard Armory.
“We’d like to have a discussion,” Genisot said. “We’re not going to have all the answers. [It’s] three to six months before that funding would be available by a grant process for repurposing the building.”
After Genisot opened the floor for an alderperson comment, the room was silent momentarily.
Alderperson Rick Polzin started the discussion, saying the city was interested in the administration and library buildings. However, if nobody takes action or decides, discussions may start on knocking the buildings down.
“I think unless somebody steps forward, the continuing costs are not going to be able to be born by anyone at the table,” Polzin said.
Alderperson Doug Oitzinger said his discussions with the mayor have indicated that the city has no interest in the fieldhouse. He mentioned a meeting last week at which a representative from the River Cities Community Pool Association mentioned that their costs had gone over what they anticipated.
“As much as I thought that would be a nice addition to our recreation department, it’s becoming more and more obvious to me that that’s probably not on the table for us,” Oitzinger said.
He said the city still needs a financial analysis for long-term operating costs.
“I also don’t get a sense that we want to be a landlord,” Oitzinger said, for the pool or the theater.
What would the city actually use? Oitzinger continued with the answer: the administration and library buildings.
“I think we have an interest in them — that may be both, it may be one,” Oitzinger said.
Oitzinger said the county recently showed a financial analysis at a meeting, which showed that roughly the university and county each pitched in $300,000 a year for operation and maintenance.
“We don’t have an extra $600,000 a year,” Oitzinger said. “Just to pay utilities, cut the grass, maintain some buildings, plow the snow — we don’t have that.”
Operationally, the city spends around $33,000 on the city hall building, Genisot said.
“Our expression in the past that we wanted to keep a dialogue going has been misinterpreted that we will take all of this property,” Oitzinger said.
Alderperson Jeff Skorik agreed with Oitzinger.
“It’s a very large facility,” Skorik said. “The city is not interested in being a landlord. The buildings are too large for the city to occupy completely. What do we do with the extra space?”
Alderperson Debbie Klegin spoke.
“Have you ever moved from an 800-square-foot apartment into a 2,500-square-foot house? It’s not long before you’re overflowing,” Klegin said. “The city has been contained on all sides for so long.”
Alderperson Ken Keller spoke.
“I’m almost hesitant because we don’t know which way the county’s going yet,” Keller said. “We’re not totally committed even if we go with the resolution.”
Genisot confirmed Keller’s statement.
Alderperson Dorothy Kowalski also agreed with everyone in terms of keeping the city’s options open.
“I don’t want to lock us into, ‘Yes, we’re going to take them,’ or ‘No, we don’t want anything,’” Kowalski said.
Tom Karban said there are a lot of unknowns.
“Without more information on what we would use all of this space, I feel like that’s very expensive storage,” Karban said.
Oitzinger suggested the language changes that were adopted by the council.
“What I would not be happy with is if the resolution passed and then somebody took the language and said, ‘Well, you said you’d take the administration and the library building,’” Oitzinger said. “Well, no. We want to look at it.”
Polzin said money is the deciding factor.
“To me, unless we get the $2 million and are able to negotiate something, we aren’t going anywhere anyway,” Polzin said.
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