Marathon County presents $4.5M priority capital list after audit leaves $0 CIP rollover; officials flag highway projects and cybersecurity needs

Marathon County staff told the County Board on Aug. 21 that county audit results left a $0 CIP rollover for 2026, forcing officials to prioritize projects and present funding options ahead of the November budget adoption.

Chris Holman, deputy administrator and facilities manager, said departments submitted capital requests and staff filtered those requests to a priority list. Holman said the county’s CIP rollover—which often supplies a material portion of capital funding after the audit—was $0 this year because board-authorized financial decisions earlier in the year reduced unassigned reserves.

Holman described a priority project list totaling roughly $4.5 million, noting that numbers remain subject to change and no funding is final until the 2026 budget is adopted. He said the highway request for one bridge replacement lists $506,000 of county CIP request against a total estimated project cost of $2.5 million and that investing in highway projects matters to the state General Transportation Aids (GTA) formula: “If you were to not fund highway projects at a similar level, then that 1 year will impact the next 6 years of the state's formula,” Holman said.

Holman highlighted other priority needs: CCITC (county IT/cybersecurity) recurring and end-of-life projects (data backups, VPNs, WPA3 wireless upgrades), rolling stock and specialized highway equipment. He flagged a Caterpillar asphalt paver replacement ($643,000) as mission-critical for highway operations and explained some equipment has long lead times requiring earlier ordering.

Holman also reviewed a jail intercom/door-control/software project that received partial funding in 2025 but needs additional software and integration work; he said the project could take more than a year and staff will return with final cost gaps.

Administrator Leonard provided context for the $0 rollover. He said the board previously decided against joining a conduit bond issuance for broadband and instead approved an $8 million loan from county reserves to the broadband project (referred to in board materials as the Bug Tussle/BugTussle loan). Leonard said roughly $4 million of that loan has been drawn and that the loan repayment schedule begins in 2027 under the loan documents. Because the loan reduces the amount counted as available for the CIP rollover, the annual CIP rollover calculation produced $0 for 2026.

Staff identified potential funding options for the board’s consideration: levy funding, bonding, reallocated audit/CIP closeout funds, reassigning previously encumbered ARPA funds consistent with U.S. Treasury guidance, sales tax or interest income shifts, and using department reserves (for example highway reserves) where appropriate. Holman and Leonard emphasized the need to prioritize cybersecurity and highway projects due to operational and long-term fiscal implications.

Board members asked questions about the size and structure of reserves, the Bug Tussle loan repayments, enterprise-funded projects (solid waste water treatment), fleet strategies with enterprise leasing and constraints on available foster placements as a policy driver for Family Keys (discussion overlapped with the Social Services presentation). Sam (finance director) and Holman indicated staff will prepare a funding plan and bring options to HR Finance & Property and Infrastructure committees for review ahead of October–November budget meetings.

No formal votes were taken on CIP funding at the Aug. 21 meeting. Holman said deferred projects will require reassessment in the five-year plan and that the county will work with departments to reprioritize projects as part of the upcoming budget process.

Chris Holman, deputy administrator/facilities manager, delivered the presentation. Administrator Leonard, Finance Director Sam and multiple supervisors participated in the Q&A.