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Wausau finance committee shifts flower-basket and RiverLife pier costs to room tax to keep pools open
Summary
The finance committee approved an amendment to shift downtown flower-basket maintenance and RiverLife pier installation costs to discretionary room-tax funds and keep three seasonal pools open as staffed in 2025; committee members said the move should cover an estimated $30,000 needed to avoid additional weekday closures.
The Common Council Finance Committee in Wausau on Oct. 27 approved an amendment moving discretionary costs for downtown flower baskets and RiverLife pier work from the parks operating budget to the city’s portion of room-tax funds, and directed those savings to keep all three municipal pools open on their 2025 seasonal schedule.
Committee members said the pair of moves — estimated at roughly $16,000 for flower baskets and about $6,900 for the RiverLife pier work — would nearly cover the roughly $30,000 the city staff estimated is needed to avoid additional rotating weekday pool closures proposed in the draft budget.
Finance staff and parks personnel told the committee the city has rotated weekday pool closures since 2020 to preserve capacity for swim lessons: Memorial, Schulenburg and Kaiser pools currently rotate Monday–Wednesday closures so lessons can be held at the open pools. The amendment would prevent an additional rotation that staff had proposed for Thursday–Sunday closures that would have closed one pool per day to save approximately $30,000 under ideal weather and staffing conditions.
Mary Anne (finance staff) explained that recent changes in state law allow room-tax revenues to fund tourism-related assets and development, and several inland Wisconsin municipalities use room-tax dollars for parks, trails and convention-center operations. Committee members agreed that downtown beautification and the River Edge Trail improvements qualify as tourism drivers and therefore can be requested from the room-tax commission as discretionary uses.
Committee member Henke moved the amendment to transfer the flower-basket and pier line items to room-tax discretionary funding; Alder Watson seconded. The committee approved the amendment by voice vote.
Members also discussed how the RiverLife pier work could be re-scoped after a summer incident: staff said the parks committee may consider replacing a proposed dock with a scenic railing and use small-project funds instead of installing the pilings, and that any unused room-tax allocation would return to the fund.
The committee made no further changes to the parks general budget; staff said they will continue to monitor pool staffing, weather-related closures and expenditures during the season and adjust if necessary.
