These AI photos show a glimpse of what Dennis and Anne Lancaster would like the Spring Brook Creamery buildings would look like when they are up and running.
By Kayla Barnes
At the Argyle Village Board meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 2, the board heard about the future plans Dennis and Anne Lancaster have for the Spring Brook Creamery on River Street and discussed moving forward with a full electric rate case, being processed with the help of Ehlers, a public finance advisor.
Dennis Lancaster asked for the village’s support for his Spring Brook 2028 Project. This project will be done under the Argyle Mill Reserve LLC, which is owned by the Lancasters. They are looking at investing $500,000 into preservation and modernization of the 1890 Spring Brook Creamery, the 1927 Red Front Lumber building, and the 3200 sq. ft. subterranean cave, attached to the Spring Brook Creamery. There would be an additional $175,000 for operating. Those areas will be transformed into a restaurant/bar and retail area. Lancaster feels they can establish an agri-tourism destination and highlight Argyle’s dairy history. They hope to bring in around 20,000- 25,000 people not from the area. Cheese tourism is a bid deal in Wisconsin. The restaurant/bar will be in the original butter room. It will be a no fry restaurant, using local foods, selling local cheese items, and relaunching Louie’s puddings and all the products.
The Red Front Lumber building will be created into an event center to support the restaurant/bar. This will mostly be a summer venue where bus tours can drop off people to congregate before going into the restaurant/bar. The original idea was for glamping but portions of the building are within the floodplain. Along the building, they plan on painting a unique mural paying homage to the rich local dairy farming history. This mural has been discussed with UW-Platteville and they plan on helping create it. They have plans to start engineering it in January next year.
The start date of everything is planned for April 2028 and Lancaster hopes that by starting now the better it will be.
“This was mom and dad’s factory. We want to do it right. We want to do some really nice things here,” Dennis Lancaster stated speaking about Louis and Carol.
The ask from the village was to sponsor the project as a public project. This would allow Lancaster to apply for grants that he wouldn’t be able to if the project was private. There is also funding that could be used through the TID. That money could be used to update the road. Lancaster also talked with the group from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation that is working on the STH 78 project in Argyle to see if they would be willing to donate 300 tons of crushed blacktop millings for the driveway in the property.
While the plans for the Spring Brook Creamery project are underway, the cave will continue to be used by Driftless Tannery. They have been leasing that portion of the property since 2020 and their lease ends March 2028. They are looking for another place to go within the village. Lancaster complimented them on how hard of workers they are.
Village President Joe Schutte stated that he would work with Lancaster on drafting a letter of support and at the next meeting the board could approve Schutte to sign it.
Electric rate case
Last year the electric department didn’t make enough money to cover its expenses. The village is running the electric department on a $60,000
loss. The auditors recommended the village do a full rate case. The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC) is in charge of giving municipalities permission to change their customer rates. The PSC analyzes the information and proposals, requests comments and holds hearings to gather additional information. They review all the information and determine if a rate increase is appropriate and how much.
To help with creating the proposal and filing the village received two quotes, from Johnson Block for $18,000 and Ehlers for $18,500.
In order for the village to keep the utility profitable and cover its expenses, they would need to do the rate case. They asked if they would be able to do a simplified rate case but they have to do a full rate case. The electric department had enough money in its accounts that it didn’t have to borrow until last year. They haven’t done a rate in a few years and they haven’t done one to keep up with inflation.
Schutte stated that there were some struggles when Johnson Block did the village’s most recent full water rate case. When asking for requests for proposals, Johnson Block sent the village an email proposal while Ehlers sent an entire outline of what they would do with the project and more. The village currently doesn’t have a capital improvement plan for the future. That is something Ehlers can do for the village. A capital improvement plan can help the village structure their borrowing and have a gradual spending plan for future projects, like the upcoming road project or even looking into additional residential housing projects.
The board approved the contract with Ehlers.
Update on library
The Argyle Public Library will be closed starting September 14 until the Soft Grand Opening on October 3 during Argyle’s Homecoming. The library will be starting to move over to the new building on September 21.
Interim Argyle Library Director Jen Detra had the Historic Argyle group ask about storing items in the basement in the new Community Center building and what liability would be placed on the village. The group is looking to store items that are not on display. Previous building tenant, First National Bank and Trust, stated that water did get into the basement due to landscaping sloping toward the building. There has been some work done to prevent the water, like the installation of a second sump pump but additional landscaping will need to be done in the spring to flow water away from the building.
Not only is the water a possible issue but the space is open to anybody so people could go down there and cause damage. There is an inner room in the basement that could be locked away from the public. The rest of the basement is open. It is unsure how it could be divided if additional organizations want to rent space for storage.
Schutte felt the board should table the discussion until a later date but wasn’t completely opposed to the idea. He would like the library to consider the idea of renting out some of the space to get some additional monies.
“The library is going to need additional revenue to carry that building. If the library could grant some storage space to community organizations, I’m not opposed, if we could make sure that we as a liability are covered,” Schutte stated.
The board asked what were going to be the operating hours of the community center/library. Detra stated they are on the fence as to if they will be hiring additional staff and are not set on hours. Blanchardville opens at 10 a.m. but Detra stated in Shullsburg (who also opens at 10 a.m.) they have people waiting at the door to open. For the first couple of months they may try to test out the hours to see what works best to get a final open hours set.
Other business
At next month’s meeting, the board will be discussing and taking possible action to stop taking septic holding and portable toilet waste from haulers. There are a few items that the village is waiting on before they can take action. One being if any haulers applied for a permit by September 1. If they did apply for a permit, the village has to accept any permit with the state during the winter months. The only reasons they wouldn’t be able to accept is if it would overload the village system, what they have could kill the plant in the system, they don’t have a permit or they have failed to comply with septic disposal rules in the past.
There have other changes that the state has made including PFAS requirements and phosphorus. PFAS are a large group of synthetic “forever chemicals” that do not break down easily. The board has talked about possibly looking at doing a feasibility study and have an engineering firm see what they need to improve the plant in the future.
This discussion will take place at next month’s meeting.
The board approved having the park grass seeded with $600 coming from Community Development and $1,500 from Park and Recreation, for a total of $2,100. Additional wood chips are possibly going to be purchased soon.
The village purchased a dump truck from Wisconsin Surplus for $31,144.30 after a special board meeting they approved spending up to $40,000.
The board approved updates to the recycling ordinance due to the DNR revising administrative codes.
The next community development event will be the Chili Cook-Off on Saturday, October 24.
