Oak Grove bids fall short

By Jesse Hirsch Star-Times

The gavel never fell at today's auction of the multimillion dollar Oak Grove development in Necedah. The auction ended after none of the potential bidders made a minimum bid of $600,000.

Sheldon Good and Company attempted to sell three major Oak Grove properties- a golf course, a 43-unit assisted living facility, and 205 golf course homesites.

The Oak Grove project was proposed to the Village of Necedah in 1999 by developer Conrad Seymour and his company, MPC Systems.

The village became heavily involved in the development, creating a TIF district and borrowing $4.9 million to assist with the project. Infrastructure costs for sewer and water hook-ups were to be repaid with special property assessments.

The project has been riddled with problems since its inception. The golf course and homesites have accrued hundreds of thousands in back taxes, few of the homesites were sold, and many of the assisted living units remain empty.

Village Trustee Donald Marsh said many promises were broken by the developers.

"The actual project looks very little like the original proposal," he said. "Planned paths were never made, they ran out of sand...basically they cut a lot of corners."

Seymour, who many view as the primary developer, has faced issues with other projects in LaCrosse and in Iowa.

In LaCrosse, Seymour's MPC Systems spent years in protracted legal battles over the renovation of the Doerflinger, a historic downtown building.

And in McGregor, Iowa, a proposed golf course, resort and casino face a legal challenge from a community group.

Tim Mason, a plaintiff in the McGregor lawsuit, believes Necedah and LaCrosse are part of a larger pattern of deceit and unkept promises.

"Seymour and (investor James) Daughtry are snakes," he said. "We don't want to see another Necedah here in McGregor."

Seymour attended today's auction, held at the Kalahari Resort Hotel in Wisconsin Dells. Golf course owner Bill Ranguette was also in attendance.

Ranguette purchased the course from Seymour several years ago and made many upgrades and improvements.

Ranguette had no comment on why he was looking for a quick sale, but Seymour blamed Necedah.

"Working out problems with the village has been impossible," he said. "We want to get away from (Oak Grove) as soon as possible."

Seymour, who said he is one of many co-owners, feels politics have hindered their progress in both LaCrosse and Necedah,.

"We're not the bad guys here," he said. "These are basically political issues that have been blown out of proportion by the media."

Necedah Village Administrator Roger Herried is not sure why Seymour would feel this way.

He said the village paid the developers incentive money, put in utilities and streets for the project, and allowed $800,000 in infrastructure costs to be paid with special assessments.

"If I was a developer, I'd love a deal like that," he said.

Any buyer of the Oak Grove properties will have to pay the back taxes and special assessments.

Juneau County treasurer Anne Marie Vinopal said $155, 813.40 is owed on the assisted living facility, $711,777.08 is owed on the homesites, and $155,897.24 is owed on the golf course.

Vinopal hopes buyers will be willing to take on these debts and revitalize the project.

"It would be really great for Necedah if someone with money came and bought the properties," she said.

Despite the lack of bids, Douglas Johnson, senior vice president at Sheldon Good, feels hopeful they will find buyers. Some prospective investors stayed after the auction.

"The bottom line is, we've received lots of offers," he said. "Many people just wanted to make an offer outside of the traditional bid structure."

Johnson also said the golf course and assisted living facility will remain in operation until a buyer is found.

Earlier in the day, Sheldon Good's President Alan Kravets suggested to bidders that the assisted living units could be converted into condominiums.

But Penny Oens, associate manager at the senior care facility, said she is not worried.

"I'm sure whoever buys (the facility) will want to keep it up and running," she said. "I'm not too concerned."

Sheldon Good and Company will remain the brokers for Oak Grove until it is sold.

Published - Sunday, April 27, 2003

Legal battles have cost city hundreds of thousands in lawyer bills

By JOAN KENT of the Tribune staff

The cost of fighting La Crosse's legal battles has been a major expense since 2000. But the city's budget for outside counsel is going down as the City Attorney's Office does more work in-house.

Since 2000, La Crosse has spent on outside legal counsel:

·  More than $200,000 in its legal fight with the town of Campbell, and the bill is still climbing;

·  Nearly $49,000 in legal battles with the developer and financier of the Doerflinger building, a downtown landmark; and

DOERFLINGER

The city has gone round and round with MPC Systems Inc., formerly of Palm Desert, Calif., since selling the former department store, at Fourth and Main streets, to the company for $50,000 and a promise to invest $100,000 in an elevator. MPC was to invest about $2 million in the project, but the city contended that improvement to the building did not equal near that much.

The court has ruled the city has the right to take the Doerflinger building back. An attorney for James Daughtry of La Quinta Mortgage of La Quinta, Calif., the financier for the project, has appealed the decision. Confident that La Crosse will regain the building, city officials have put out a request for proposals from new developers.

http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2003/04/27/news/1legal.txt

Plane Headed to Madison Crashes at Dubuque Airport

WMTV-TV

Updated: 10:24 p.m. ET March  09, 2004

Three Madison men walked away from a crash landing with only minor injuries last night.

The plane crashed in a grassy area near the runway at Dubuque Regional Airport.

The single engine plane they were in was headed from Des Moines to Madison when the wings started icing up.

Paul Vanderbloeman of Deforest was the pilot.

Passengers William Ranguette and Paul Gilbertson, both of Waunakee, were taken to a Dubuque hospital where they were treated for their injuries.

NBC15 News