La Crosse Common Council approves ARPA funding for child care, rent for Rivercrest mobile home park

Jul. 15—The La Crosse Common Council approved a number of items at its meeting Thursday night, including its next spending federal COVID relief dollars.

The city approved spending $350,000 of its nearly $22 million from the American Rescue Plan Act to bolster child care with the Parenting Place.

The grant will specifically help child care providers to increase wages, as well as assist with start-up costs for new facilities or expansion for existingbusinesses.It will also pay for a new coordinator at the Parenting Place to help facilitate the funds and the program.

The Parenting Place will oversee the process of now using the funds, though the city will remained involved.

Additionally, the city approved an additional one-year lease for property located in the mobile home park, Rivercrest Village.

The lease was seen as a compromise after the city first proposed nearly tripling the rent for the property, something Rivercrest said they wouldn't agree to.

The city owns a small section of the mobile home park and has been leasing it to Rivercrest for 25 years. That lease has expired, but officials wanted an additional year to explore the possibility of selling the property.

The original rent rate that was proposed of $9,600 was due to a revaluation of the property, city officials said. But last week, a lower rate of an annual $5,000 was proposed and agreed upon.

That lease will expire next summer, when it's expected to be known whether it's possible to sell the property or not.

Here are other need-to-know actions taken by the city council on Thursday:

* Rezoning was approved to turn a retail unit into a two-bedroom apartment at 1033 Caledonia St.

* The Copper Rocks redevelopment of the former Kmart site continues to move along, after additional rezoning was approved. The new zoning will allow for flexibility while designing the multi-purpose space.

* The city will officially advocate for updated state energy efficiency regulations under a new resolution that was approved, specifically calling for energy conversation to play a bigger role in buildings and development.

* Another major development in the city is making progress. A contract and preliminary plat was approved for River Point District were both approved, which will allow for the city to begin its next phase of installing utilities and other infrastructure within the development.

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