A proposed Special Service Area for downtown Monmouth won’t move forward this year, but the city council on Monday voted to contribute funding to maintain the recently completed streetscape beautification project for years to come.
Chris Gavin of the Maple City Area Partnership said the plan for an SSA was taken off the table due to time constraints.
“There just wasn't enough time to get it done. Also, there was some additional pushback from different business owners, or building owners, I should say, that would have been affected by the Special Service Area,” Gavin said.
The SSA would have levied a special tax on property owners around the public square to fund landscaping, snow removal, and maintenance of new concrete. SSAs are fundraising tools to finance improvements within a certain jurisdiction, like the Galesburg Downtown Council.
In Monmouth, the concern is taking care of millions of dollars of improvements to the public square. The SSA was originally proposed as a partnership with some funds coming from the special tax, some from the city, and some from the county.
In lieu of an SSA, Gavin said MCAP and the Make It Monmouth committee raised $60,000 to go towards a contract with McVey Landscaping and Lawncare. He asked the city to contribute the same amount it would have under an SSA.
The city council agreed to contribute $15,000 annually for four years, though Brad Bone and John VanVleet voted against it. City administrator Lew Steinbrecher said it would cost much more than that for the city to handle the maintenance, and the contractor has already warned the city that salt could damage the work.
“So based on our evaluation, we think that this is a good investment for the city,” Steinbrecher said.
Warren County is also committing $15,000 a year for maintenance of the public square.
Gavin said taking care of the improvements is about maintaining momentum.
“It's hard enough for small businesses to operate in Monmouth, Illinois, today, but we're trying to turn that around and create some positive momentum,” Gavin said. “That's really what this is about, to take the momentum that we have from this project and keep pushing it forward.”
In other business, the council unanimously approved two Tax Increment Financing redevelopment agreements.
The city will reimburse EKS Futures LLC up to $358,500 for purchase and renovation costs of the former public safety building at 600 S. Main St.
The other agreement is with R.P. Lumber, which has purchased the former Kunes auto dealership at 1121 N. Sixth Street. The developer can be reimbursed up to $1.94 million for that project.
Steinbrecher said both agreements are performance-based, using future property tax revenues generated by redevelopment to reimburse the developers.
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