City will set aside money for Coulee Playland improvements

Electric City will set aside some of the money collected from tourists to make improvements to Coulee Playland, which sits on city-managed land.

The city learned last month that it would need to invest in the campground to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act with an estimated $1 million in upgrades over coming years.

City Clerk/Treasurer Peggy Nevsimal told the city council at their Nov. 22 meeting that the city usually budgets to spend money, itself, from its hotel/motel tax fund, but rarely if ever actually uses that budget line item during the year. She suggested during a budget work session shifting $15,000 to the Coulee Playland fund this year.

The council voiced no objection. Hotel/motel tax funds can be used on tourism facilities under state law, so the city-owned area used for camping, fishing and boating fits.

Nevsimal budgeted some $95,000 in hotel/motel revenue this year, which comes from people paying an extra tax on motel rooms and campgrounds. That fund she projects will start the new year with $477,446.

The city’s Coulee Playland Park Capital Facility Fund has nearly $37,000 in it, with an expected $12,150 in lease payments and interest coming in during 2023, and $45,000 in capital improvements planned.

The city and current of future owners of the business have been meeting on a plan to make the improvements over the next 10 years, which the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has pointed out as necessary.

The USBR will match city dollars toward those repairs, over a 10-year period. In theory, if the city puts $50,000 a year toward repairs for 10 years, the bureau would match that, equaling $1 million after 10 years.

Mayor Diane Kohout has previously told The Star that money to pay for the upgrades could come from the city’s general fund, but also from ADA-related and other grants.

The upgrades to be done include bringing ADA standards to campsites, picnic tables, the laundry room, bathrooms, fish cleaning station, parking spaces, and more to make the campground usable for people in wheelchairs and other conditions.

Projects already accomplished in prior years include accessible docks.