GAYS MILLS - In a wide-ranging meeting on Monday, July 2, the Gays Mills Village Board touched on a variety of subjects.
Early in the meeting, the board approved the creation, project plan and boundary map for Tax Increment District #2 and TID #3.
TID #2 is an overlay of TID #1, where the BAPI factory and its expansion are located, as well as one residence. As an overlay, TID #2 will exclude BAPI and the residence, but apply to all of the other undeveloped property in TID #1. TID #2 will be in place for 20 years.
TID #3 will include the undeveloped property largely to the east of the Gays Mills Mercantile Center and one lot directly to its north. This Mixed Use TID will include 29 percent residential, 3.6 percent multi-family and 67.4 percent businesses, according to a report prepared for the village by Vierbicher and Associates.
TIDs allow a government entity (in this case, the Village of Gays Mills) to retain all of the increased revenues from the developed property to pay for certain infrastructure improvements-like streets, sidewalks, water, sewer, electrical service and more. This makes the property desirable to develop because the new owners will have this infrastructure paid by the village rather than facing those costs.
In a TID, the vacant land value before development is used as the basis for determining the amount of revenue all the other taxing entities (in this case the North Crawford School District, Crawford County and the Southwest Technical School District) will receive. However, those who are paying taxes in TID are paying at the value of the developed property. The difference between the amount of tax revenue generated by the developed land over the undeveloped land is retained by the creator of the TID (in this case the Village of Gays Mills.) When the TID expires the increased revenue from the developed property is shared by all the taxing units.
Kurt Muchow, a consultant from Vierbicher and Associates, was present for the meeting. Muchow is leading the creation of the TID #2 and #3. He has also urged the village to try and extend TID #1 by three years as allowed by law.
The three-year extension of TID #1 required approval by the Joint Review Board, which is made up of a representative of the village, a representative of the school district, a representative of the county, a representative of the tech school district and an at-large member from the public. The Joint Review Committee met recently and approved the three-year extension of the TID #1. This will allow the village to have an estimated $535,448 in surplus revenue.
At a previous meeting, the board approved a prioritized list of projects to be let out for bid. It is envisioned that all of the projects on the list might be feasible with the added revenue from the TID #1’s three-year extension. The actual projects possible will also depend on the bids, according to Muchow.
That prioritized list of projects includes:
.
1) Charge TID four percent interest on the Gays Mills General Fund’s advancements
2) Extend 3-Phase Electric to Business Park
3) Create a Bicycle/Pedestrian Trail from Business Park to Community Commerce Center
4) Build a sidewalk from Highway 131 to the Marketplace
5) Build a sidewalk from Highway 131 to the BAPI parking lot
6) Create a trail from Business Park toward old Railroad Grade (high ground only)
7) Pay for Administration and Promotion $5,000 per year
The board also considered two requests from Muchow for zoning changes in the newly created TIDs. One zoning request starting the process in TID #2 to rezone land from agricultural to one- and two-family housing was approved. However, a request to start the process in TID #3 changing zoning from multi-family housing to one- and two-family housing was not approved.
Gays Mills Village Board President Harry Heisz asked if the rezoning from multifamily to one- and two-family housing could be done in the future, if it became necessary and Muchow replied that it could.
Heisz said there are no plans for development of the land at the moment, it might as well stay zoned multi-family. The board seemed to agree and no motion to start a rezoning process in TID #3 was made.
Later in the meeting, the board discussed the possibilities for mosquito fogging. Village trustee Aaron Fortney, whose property on Highway 131 also adjoins the cutoff slough, was the first to address the issue.
Fortney said a product known as Anvil might be worth checking out. He noted the product meets every EPA standard.
Soldiers Grove uses Anvil 2+2 and fogs every other week. Viroqua uses a product called BioMist.
A company is testing a new product called Eradicator, which is made in Mississippi, in Blue River, according to village trustee Kim Pettit.
Fortney went to his vehicle in the parking lot and returned with a cylinder of Eradicator that cost $20 and is said to treat an acre.
There was a brief discussion of how the product was used. It involves hanging a receptacle of the active ingredient and keeping those receptacles filled to a certain level with water.
The board seemed interested in gathering more information about controlling mosquitoes. They will also look into some mosquito abatement services being offered by the county.
In other business, the Gays Mills Village Board:
• learned the status of the trail connection cleanup involved the removal of utility poles from the area that is owned by the village adjacent to the county highway department property
• received a swimming pool update from pool manager Lysianne Peacock
• passed a resolution authorizing the sale of real estate owned by the village to village residents Kevin and Risha Murray
• considered and then tabled a land lease request from village resident Carmen Stankovich for adjoining property owned by the village, while the permission from FEMA is obtained and the status of the safety of dying trees on the property is assessed
• noted and briefly discussed another complaint about numerous unlicensed vehicles on properties within the village limits and concluded that the board must thoroughly read the ordinance before further discussion occurs
• learned that the county was approaching the state with a request to lower the speed limit from 45 to 35 mph on Highway 131 from near the Royal Bank to just past the Marketplace
• discussed compliance of residents with length of lawn, grasses and weeds in the village and village’s mowing of right-of-way in the area of cemetery that should be mowed by the landowner in the opinion of village trustee Aaron Fortney
• discussed improvements for the sidewalk and several doors at the 212 Main Street property owned by the village
The next meeting of the Gays Mills Village Board was scheduled Monday, August 13.
