Griffin City Administrator Adam Sontag is joining us today.
Hello.
Good morning.
How about them brewers?
Hey, got it done.
It's a
great day in the state of Wisconsin.
So your big decision is whether or not to go to the celebratory parade.
Yeah, I texted my brother, said, are you going?
Yeah, we'll see.
A lot of people, I kind of want to take at least one of my daughters, because it's possibly once in a long time or a lifetime.
Amazing season for them.
Well, I grew up a Tigers fan to try Tigers fan because I grew up in Michigan
But
you know their last World Series win was in 84.
Yeah,
so they've been waiting a long time, too So I know what the brewery now they're waiting longer.
Yeah.
Yeah
on the back of the line And
because I've lived in Wisconsin so long I've become a brewery's fan.
So yeah, this is great to see it was awesome
Alright, talking a little bit about the city of Ripon stuff.
There was a presentation about a financial plan during the council's recent meeting and it kind of looked at some of the long-term projects, five-year capital improvement plan.
I didn't realize there was the wastewater treatment facility was on there.
Yeah, so a few years back, ahead of doing some of the larger projects that we've done, we did the DPW garage.
We've been doing a road reconstruct every year.
We wanted to sit back and kind of take a longer view of it all related to financing, how we get this investment done.
In addition to that, we've done other planning.
So one of the things we're completing now is the wastewater treatment plant.
master plan.
There's some work that needs to be done there.
The facility is aging and the dollar amount in the timeline, we did put an amount in the financial management plan.
as well as a lot of other projects.
So, you know, we have the state highway project coming up in 2030.
Next year we'll be continuing on with the well project.
So we have a couple pretty large projects that are already in the mix.
The capital improvement plan with the inclusion of a wastewater treatment plant is pretty hefty.
I mean, it's like $60 million of investment.
I don't think we'll necessarily get to that point, but we wanted to, in the financial management plan, kind of show that these are the things that are out there, whether it's five years, 10 years, right?
These projects will need to be reviewed.
and we'll need to prioritize them, and here's a mechanism to fund them so we don't get into a situation where we're not investing in infrastructure, we're not investing in certain things that are critical to the operation of the city and provide the core services that we provide.
Overall, we went through that.
We really tried to eliminate projects that may not be as necessary, and we got it to a point where we're using only up to 49% of our debt capacity, which is...
perfectly acceptable from a standard right in terms of municipal practice but certainly understand that there's a lot of investment needing included at the wastewater treatment plant and in a couple months there'll be a presentation to the council related to just kind of what the issues there you know down at the treatment plant are so we'll continue to plug away at that.
The CIP is something that you do though
Every year with the budget.
Yes,
so the capital improvement plan.
Yes, CIP
It's
a living kind of document We've we've updated it every year You know so next year for example Griswold Street is the targeted road project
We have a loader and a lawn mower that need to be replaced.
We have a well project.
We have to do the following year.
East Water Street, which we have funding for, will be done as well as, you know, we have identified, you know, wheel tax and TIF eligible road projects.
So next year we want to do a buyer.
and Stanton in North Industrial Park redo those roads and then a couple other smaller road projects with with wheel tax dollars.
So we have all that information out there.
It's changed here and there particularly because like from a road perspective we got funding for Howard Street and Liberty Street.
So we kind of have to like those were in the mix.
And all of a sudden they have to be in the plan if we want to accept the grant.
We also have Pacific Street Bridge, another bridge project as well on East Jackson that we have in the project.
So every year we evaluate it based on funding and based on availability of just time and planning for the projects because it's certainly
generally more of an aggressive level of investment and I'll just note that you know even without doing projects for many many years the city was at about 40% of our debt capacity now we're actually doing project to be at about you know to be at our plan saying at 50% you know we're doing this in a way that
Invest in the community invest in the things that are declining And you know the financial management plan the capital plan are all meant to not get too far ahead, right?
So The summary budget is being published.
Yes
of what record low tax rate
Yeah, so with the reassessment of everything, which we were out of compliance with the state and they were getting to a point where we were going to be mandated to do a reassessment, so we went through that process.
Border review was done.
There were two challenges at border review.
There were 241 individuals that contacted the assessor out of over 2,700 valued properties in the city.
Overall, that process is done and the city has prepared its budget.
We have our mill rate.
We have also begun collecting tax levy information from other taxing jurisdictions.
We project our mill rate to be at about $6.14.
That is down from $9.70.
$6.14 is a low for is from the data that I have right
back
in like the 90s, even the city's mill rate was
nine ten dollars The lowest it's been is around seven seven twenty five about a decade and a half ago And overall we believe that outside of other like tax credits and lottery credits The mill rate will be about sixteen dollars and forty cents.
That's an estimate
So, you know, you could see an all-time low mill rate in the city of Ripon as well from all taxing jurisdictions.
So obviously that doesn't necessarily with the revaluation mean everybody's paying lower taxes, but if you divide your value by a thousand and times it by around $16, $1640, you'll have an estimate of what your tax bill will be.
Okay, so the public hearing on the budget is November 10th.
I'm assuming that's a Tuesday.
It'd be a week from this coming Tuesday.
Yep.
So we have a regular Common Council meeting at 7.
The beginning of that Common Council meeting is the public hearing for the budget.
We do it every year.
The budget can change up until that point.
The tax levy, the tax mill rate.
could change so everything's preliminary up until that night.
There can be changes made.
Certainly public comment is, you know, provided to make any other like kind of last minute changes.
Certainly if the public has any comments related to the budget that they don't, they want ahead of time brought forward, they can reach out to their council member.
They can reach out to the city.
We have a forum online for, you know, budget comments.
And that's kind of the last piece of the budget hearing, public hearing, and then the council, you know, generally adopts the budget on November 10th.
Okay.
The Houston Strait Project, that was the big project this year.
How is that progressing?
We're getting there.
I saw movement this morning.
So flat work will hopefully be done by early next week and then pavement.
Starting next week.
We just I believe this morning will be starting Aspen Street, which will be kind of redone as well down by the DPW garage We're finishing up Tabard Street.
I think today or tomorrow and then hall is pretty much done So our road projects are kind of wrapping up here.
There's been some delays and and so we're really pushing the contractors to keep Keep moving
Okay
Adam, thank you very much for joining us this morning.
I'm assuming you had a late night like most Brewer's fans.
Yes,
stayed up, but hey.
You know, it's just
rolling
into the next.
It's been a long week.
Adam
Packers
tonight.
Yeah, Packers tonight, great.
Yep.
And it's Adam Sontag, who is the Ripon City administrator.
Laura Nikolsky is joining us as she is with SSM Health and is the community health manager for their hospitals in Rippon-Wabhan and Fond du Lac.
Laura, thank you for joining us.
Thank you for having me.
Now I understand that SSM Health Rippon Community Hospital recently awarded a community health gift to the Green Lake County Health Department.
A $10,000 donation.
Maybe you can fill us in on the details and what that's going to be used for, if you would, Laura.
Yeah, I'd be happy to.
I really value the partnership that we have with Green Lake County Health Department.
Rachel and Lauren, they do wonderful work over there with that team.
This gift is geared towards their already existing mental health and substance use prevention and going into the local schools and talking about that.
I was recently able to participate in one of their coalition meetings, United for Prevention.
And that truly is my favorite work.
That's kind of how I got into the job that I have now.
And what I like is, is when it's rural, when you have a rural community and it's just, you know, you got the school resource officers there, you've got school leaders there, it's so beautiful, the ideas that they come forward with.
And I was really excited to give this award to GreenLake because they do such grassroot work of really meeting with students and doing the education.
In prevention, we always are told that you have to tell someone seven times the adverse risks that substance use has.
So that's a lot of time.
I don't know if you know this or not, Bob, but talking about something seven times with youth is pretty painful sometimes.
And Lauren does such a wonderful job.
And I, um, that's truly what I actually, that was my passion way back in my earlier in my career.
That's what I've done.
And it's so invaluable because when we look and see the trend data of our youth, our youth risk behavior and how they, they know that tobacco is bad for them.
You know why?
Because of this work.
So it's so important and I truly value it and at so many times our little itty bitty rural schools are often overlooked.
So that's why for me I put such a great value on this because it's so, so important.
Well, maybe you can tell us a little bit about what students you're talking about them working with.
Are you talking about K through 12?
Are you talking about second grade or?
Well, you know, what's the spectrum there?
Yeah, so I believe specifically, and this is where, you know, don't fast find me because I think it's more geared towards middle school and high school.
We don't want to, there's a fine line in, you know, like when I've gone to conferences and education from the state and DHS, you don't want to start too young, but you want to be before the age of onset.
And the age of onset can be different in different communities.
So that's where you look at your data.
And your data will show you, because every student in the public school district has to do the youth risk behavior survey.
It's done every other year from the Department of Public Instruction.
So it'll tell you in your school district, in your area, the age of onset.
Because the question will be at what age did you start
drinking alcohol.
At what age did you start?
Well, I would say smoking cigarettes, but it's using a vape now.
That's where then your target is, because then you find out it's really like it's 13-year-olds.
So then you really want to do work with 12-year-olds, right?
You want to be ahead of that.
So in I believe in Green Lake County their focus is more middle school and that's standard pretty much across the board in other communities I know like in some places They might be older it might trend a little bit younger You don't want to start with second graders on that stuff just because that's not like where they're thinking right right That's just not that's not where not we're a little eight-year-old that yet
Um, and really that conversation of like, what are better ways to, um, you know, really the coping skills of life.
Anxiety happens.
How can you help yourself get through that?
You know, we've done such a good job of physical activity and moving our bodies, right?
Now we're at this phase of life of mental health awareness.
So you're
feeling anxious, you're feeling maybe lonely or sad.
What should you do instead of reaching for a substance?
And also, the biggest barrier and or success for youth are families, are their parents, are the environment that they're in, that they have, unfortunately, no control over.
So really, you've got to also, you want that child to be an advocate for themselves and their environment that may not be the successful environment that we would want for them.
Does United for Prevention also work with the parents then?
I think that that's a goal for them.
They did a really good, safe, I'm going to forget the branding of it.
It's about conversations.
It's small talks, small talk conversations.
The idea is, and that's from the state, that's a state initiative.
and it's having small little talks with your kids.
It's not about doing a whole PowerPoint presentation.
It's about when you're driving your kid to a baseball practice, or you just finished up dinner and you're putting away the dishes, and that you have that conversation of, hey,
Are your friends drinking and having parties like that?
Or you talk about maybe what you experienced or how you felt.
I remember when I was a kid and somebody brought a cigarette out for the first time and I was like, whoa, I wasn't ready for that.
It's those small talk, little conversations.
And that's what the United for Prevention has been working on and it's so important that they do this.
I only attended one meeting and I was blown away with how they've been working so hard at it and clearly have really good buy-in.
So it's not about doing huge events.
It's about little small conversations.
Okay.
Tell us if you would where the community health gift it comes into play when it comes to the Greenlight County Healthy Living Guide, if you would.
Yeah, so it's the printing and distribution.
You make a wonderful guide and then you got to distribute it.
You want it to get it to the people, right?
And when you're in a rural place, the resources are limited.
In my opinion, I've always said this, rural people are resourceful people, okay?
We're going to wear many hats and we're going to do it.
We're a jack of all trade master and none, right?
We can do it all.
We do a little bit of this so that's what this living guide does is it is it helps?
Distribute that information out in the community So we're not focused on who does what but instead of how can I get in touch with them?
Who this is who it is and working with them and getting the resources that people need
Okay
So how does SSM Health Ripping Community Hospital go about choosing making gifts like this available to the community?
Because obviously you're looking for a good program to back, right?
Absolutely.
So that's me.
They are always welcome to reach out to me.
And then at the beginning of the year, our bucket of funds regenerates at the beginning of the year.
And the community health,
My department, our needs are aligned with our most recent needs assessment.
So that means that every three years, we are tasked with going out in the community and asking, what are our biggest needs?
In 2024, we completed our needs assessment.
We're a little bit of a different timeline with the Green Lake County.
Health departments are only required to do it every five years.
But we still work in tandem together, and that's why it's so important to have that relationship.
Every year, we ask out in the community and say, hey, at the hospital, we can care and do great work for individual people, but if our community isn't doing well, well, then we can only do so much, right?
We're just putting band-aids on a solution.
So that's why I really ask and encourage many people in ripping and the non-profits in that area to reach out and say, hey, let's connect.
And I was really pleased with Green Lake County Health Department.
They're asked this year.
I'm always pleased with their work.
They do wonderful, wonderful, really boots on the ground.
Well, Laura, how do people connect with you then?
You can call my office, 926-5511, as well as my email.
And then you can always reach out to the hospital too.
The switchboards are good.
I get in hold of me too.
OK, so you're talking the St.
Agnes Hospital.
Rippin' too.
Rippin'
as well.
I go
to Rippin' often.
Okay.
Very good.
Well, Laura, thank you very much for joining us this morning.
Appreciate your time.
My pleasure.
Thank you so much.
You have a great day.
We've been talking with Laura Nikelski, who is the Community Health Manager for SSM Health.