Wausau CIP committee forwards 2026 priorities to finance; moves oblique imagery up, recommends borrowing for Memorial Park access road

The Wausau Capital Improvement Program Committee on Monday voted to forward its 2026 project prioritization and funding recommendations to the city finance committee, endorsing a set of swaps and contingencies intended to cover immediate needs within roughly $600,000 of locally available funding.

The committee said it considered about $6.27 million in project requests and roughly $600,000 in locally available levy funding for 2026. To make room for higher-ranked items, members agreed to pull the fleet facility design out of the local levy recommendation and debt-finance that design work instead; to move oblique aerial imagery above the funding line; to defer IT data-tagging and data-loss-prevention projects; and to split the purchase of ballistic shields so half could be purchased in 2026 and half in a subsequent year.

Why it matters: the committee’s list will guide next steps in the city’s 2026 budget process. Several items on the list have outside dependencies — most notably a proposed municipal solar array that the committee left conditional on federal tax credits — and others will require borrowing or grant awards before construction or full procurement can proceed.

Most significant decisions and rationale

- Fleet facility design: Committee members agreed the $2.5 million design work should be treated as a debt-financed capital project rather than paid…