The Rhinelander Fire Department on Frederick Street has a slew of issues.
As WXPR reported in October 2022, Fire Chief Brian Tonnancour calls the building a ‘Frankenstein’.
There are six different HVAC systems that make it hard to have good temperature control.
The engine bays can’t actually hold all the fire trucks because the floor is caving.
Because of all these issues and others, the City of Rhinelander is looking into building a new municipality building that could potentially house fire, EMS, police, and City Hall.
“When staff had spoken about this, we had talked about this might be an opportunity to look into having a new municipal complex. [The current city hall] building is great. It’s historic. It is kind of old. It’s kind of not meeting our needs anymore,” said City Administrator Patrick Reagan during Monday’s Common Council meeting.
Brian Knutson with DesignTech has already been working on the project on the planning aspect and identifying needs.
Monday night, the City Council approved paying the company $1,500 to continue the work.
That money is coming from the city’s American Rescue Plan Act funds.
The other part of this project is how to pay for a new municipal building. Reagan says, typically, cities will go apply for a Community Development Block Grant through USDA Rural Development.
“These are high end grants that take a lot of work. I’ve written one in my life. It was for a lot less than this will probably be. It was a full-time job for about three months,” he told the council. “Having Vierbicher on, somebody that knows the process, people that can work through the process and help us achieve our goals, that’s going to be terribly important.”
The Council unanimously approved the proposal from Vierbicher for Public Funding Investigation and Recommendation for a proposed municipal complex.
The initial fee for that work will be $3,000 also paid from the City’s ARPA fund.
Vierbicher has been hired by the City of Rhinelander for past projects including many related to the Downtown Streetscape project.
