Fire Station ground breaking ceremony

The Town of Grand Chute is inviting all residents and businesses to the groundbreaking ceremony for it's new Administrative Fire Station on Tuesday, October 2, at 5pm. The groundbreaking ceremony will be held at the site of the new fire station, at the northeast corner of Grand Chute Boulevard and White Hawk Drive.

Fox Valley Gallery of Homes

Entries have been a little sparse lately. I'm on deadline and have been working till 2 am this past week. This is a segway into a shameless self promotion plug, I admit. This weekend and next week is the 2nd Annual Fox Valley Gallery of Homes. My company, Dream Builders and Developers, LLC, has an entry in the Gallery. (And it is located in Grand Chute!) My wife is the other half of Dream Builders and Developers. I build the homes, she picks out what goes inside. Our 1904 sq. ft. house has all the ammenities of homes three times it's size...Granite, Corian Tigerwood Hardwood floor, a walk-in shower with dual shower heads and a 50" plasma TV with theater sound system. This is the first time we've built this floor plan, it was designed specifically around the wooded lot with stream, and it turned out very nice.

This showcase is a little different than the Parade of Homes. Attendees get to vote for their favorites in multiple categories, and have a chance at winning a $500 gift certificate if they visit all the homes.



Hours for the Gallery of Homes are:

September 29th - 30th
Saturday & Sunday

October 5th - 7th
Friday, Saturday & Sunday

Saturday & Sunday: 11am - 5pm
Friday: 4 - 7pm

Tickets $5.00 at the Door and can be purchased at any of the gallery homes. Stop by our home and say you saw it on the blog. A portion of the ticket goes to Habitat for Humanity.

Camp Sandy Wheels

The Grand Chute Kiwanis recently visited Camp Sandy Wheels in Mt. Morris, Wis. Residential Camp Sandy Wheels was started in 1979 to provide outdoor recreational activities for individuals with cerebral palsy, physical disabilities, and developmental delays. The Kiwanis Group brought brought along their bikes equipted for persons with disabilities. For some campers, this was the first time they were able to ride a bicycle, and they loved it! In fact, Ron Toshner, president of the Grand Chute Kiwanis, said it was hard getting some campers off the bikes. The group is thinking of purchasing another bicycle, so next year, all campers will have an opportunity to ride.


The Grand Chute Kiwanis meets every Tuesday at noon, at the Golden Corral on Westhill Blvd.

September 4th meeting minutes

Minutes from the September 4th Town Board meeting are available for download.

Impact fee approved

The Town Board approved a fire station impact fee at the last meeting. The impact fee affects future homeowners who will pull permits to build in Grand Chute. Money from the impact fee will help fund the new $4.5 million fire station that will be built in front of the town hall off Grand Chute Blvd. and Lynndale Ave.

The fee is as follows: $246.60 per single-family home, $189 per multi-family living unit, and $1.21 per $1,000 of valuation of nonresidential development. The fee will be reviewed annually.

I have been meeting with the Valley Home Builder's Association the past month. There has been much discussion regarding the affect this impact fee will have on new development in Grand Chute, specifically, regarding affordable housing. An ammendment was made by Sup. Nooyan to exempt single family residences under 1500 sq. ft. from paying this fee.

Being a home builder, I am a member of the VHBA. I also build homes in Grand Chute, including one right now, and have just purchased a lot in the new Starview Heights addition. This impact fee is one that affects myself and many builders I know directly. So, why would I be in favor of voting for this impact fee? The answers are as follows:

• Grand Chute's building permits are still less expensive overall than other communities in the area. Building permits currently cost $1470 compared to over $3200 total permit fees in the town of Harrison, and $3900 in the town of Greenville, two of the fastest growing communities in the Fox Cities. In fact, permits for the home I am currently building in Slinger were $5800. Grand Chute is a very affordable town to start construction in.



• As a builder, when I choose a community to build spec homes in, I have to weigh where I think the home will sell quickly. 80 percent of new development in Grand Chute is north of Northland Avenue. This is the area that will directly benefit from the new fire station location. I now have a selling point to tell buyers interested in purchasing my home. It's a hard sell if people ask about emergency services and you have to tell them if their house starts on fire, it will probably burn down. The reality is, the response time from the current fire station location is not adequate enough to save homes in this area.



• Grand Chute also has the lowest taxes in the Fox Cities. Taxes are a determining factor in what community homebuyers settle. If you're building a $200,000 home in Grand Chute, you're going to pay more than $1,000 less per year in taxes than if you built it in Appleton. Paying a onetime fee of $246.60 is still a good value and helps keep overall taxes low.



• Finally, the new fire station location will benefit new development homeowners by the strong likelyhood of lower insurance premiums due to faster response time.

September 18 agenda

Residents are encouraged to attend the September 18th town board meeting at 7pm, town hall. The agenda can be downloaded for your review.

Call for bids

I've mentioned in previous posts that the Grand Chute Fire Station project is open to all companies for bidding. The town is now taking bids for the excavation portion of construction. Bids are to be submitted to the town hall no later than September 18th. If you know someone in the excavating business, have them call the town hall for a bidding package.

I have personally been calling excavating companies to inform them the bidding process is open. The perception I've encountered is that Boldt is the General Contractor for this project and selects subcontractors from their pool. This is not true. The town is the General Contractor, Boldt is the Construction Manager, making sure construction is done in a timely and quality manner. The town has the responsibility for awarding contracts to subcontractors. Many companies have been pleasantly surprised when I inform them of this, and have been eager to place bids. With the slowdown in building, these companies are going to bid at their most competitive rate. I'm working hard to ensure this happens. Later this week, I will be meeting with Christine Schwanke, executive vice president of Valley Home Builders Association. One of the topics I will be discussing is if VHBA can help get the word out to it's members that we are accepting bids for this project. In the meantime, I will continuing making phone calls.

My goal is to have the project come in as much as we can under the $4.496 million dollar cap. Just because the money is allocated, doesn't mean we have to spend it.