Rhinelander city council approves lease agreement for county fair

The Rhinelander city common council agreed on Tuesday, May 27, to approve the annual lease agreement it has with the Oneida County Fair to use Pioneer Park this year.

City administrator Patrick Reagan explained to the council the updated agreement waived fees “as was done the past two years.”

He said there were no substantial changes to the contract. 

Mayor Kris Hanus pointed out the amount of money being waived by the city would be $4,315. 

Alderperson Steven Jopek mentioned the contract coming back every year and the council agreeing to waive the fees even though the city’s budget becomes “tighter and tighter.”

“This one we treat different than all other events in the city based on it’s a different monster from the point of view of a one day event such as the car show … because it’s taking up a city park, it’s taking up a lot of resources by multiple departments,” Hanus said. “Also, the fair is fluid based on they’re using a private parking spot which was an old hospital which might change and just as they change with time, their needs change. So we kind of opted to come back every year so that it keeps (the agreement) correct for them, it keeps it knowledgeable for you guys.”

Reagan indicated if it was what the council wanted, a long-term lease agreement could be explored with fair leadership. 

Alderperson Gerald Anderson indicated he had similar feelings as Jopek. 

He made a motion to approve the lease agreement without waiving any fees, though it died for a lack of a second. 

Alderperson Thomas Barnett said he didn’t think the council could simply choose the fair to be the first event the city decides not to waive fees for. 

He said there needs to be more discussion about fees, in general, in the future. 

The only annual lease agreement the city waives fees for is music in the park events, Hanus said, because its a private entity that organizes it, though 50 percent of the fees are waived still.

Alderperson David Holt said he agreed with Barnett. 

“If you’re going to have a conversation about the broader philosophy about fee waivers, you can’t pin it on a single event when they come up for approval,” he said. “Also, with regard to the lease, the idea of a longer term thing, if memory serves, we’ve had a number of years now where we’re not sure if Pioneer Park is going to be a long-term possibility for keeping the fair there. It might need to move to a different location — Hodag Park, maybe somewhere else. So I think that would be a completely separate discussion as well.”

He made a motion to approve the lease agreement as is and council president Carrie Mikalauski seconded the motion. 

Anderson agreed the issue of waiving fees needed to be discussed further. He indicated it bothered him, as well, the fair’s request bothered him because it didn’t request the fees to waive, but rather, expected the fees to be waived. 

“I guess where I’m struggling is … the request for the waiver is not in there, the resolution is here by itself and maybe I’m reading it entirely wrong, and I don’t mean to cast any aspersion towards them, I’m sure they are great, but there is no request here besides just approving it,” Jopek said. “And that gives me an understanding that we’re just going to do it without conversation, when in the past I know, that as I’ve been here, we have had this conversation that ‘Do we split this cost? Do we find some way to mitigate some of the financial losses that the city has?’ I am fully in support of a fair, but I do feel that the fair … is a different monster. This is not a one-off situation and this is … probably the most expensive of all our waivers.”

Jopek said he didn’t think agreeing to a lease agreement with the fair and waiving fees without any further consideration is a good idea, but added he thinks not waiving the fee at this point would be a bad idea. 

“As this resolution sits, I am for it, but I would really, really like an actual conversation about how we’re going to go about this fair business each and every year,” Jopek said. “Just because we do this every year and it is an expense.”

Hanus asked Reagan if he received any fee waiver request. Reagan said he didn’t think so, but couldn’t say for sure. 

Reagan and city clerk Austyn Zarda mentioned a precedent of sorts being set where if lease agreements haven’t been changed too drastically, fee waivers that have typically been granted were granted. 

Barnett said he hasn’t spoken with any of the fair’s leadership, but assumed that was probably their thought process. However, he said waiving fees moving forward needs to be a general discussion the council needs to have, “especially in our current financial situation.”

While there was additional discussion with regard to different aspects of the fair, the council approved the lease agreement presented for the fair to use Pioneer Park from July 31-Aug. 3, with Anderson dissenting. 

“The only other statement I would make is I don’t know of a time when the fair actually paid these fees from when it was a county entity or a city entity or a private entity,” Hanus said. “So yes it’s lost revenue by you (the council) waiving a fee, but it’s not lost budgeted revenue because it’s always been waived and I would say that burden has kind of been cooked into the books for the last 12 years since the fair’s been there.”

Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].