JANESVILLE — A Rock County Board committee has pulled funding for the planned Woodman’s Sports and Convention Center in Janesville out of the county’s proposed 2024 budget.
If the budget is approved next week as it stood Monday night, $500,000 will be budgeted to pay down debt instead of helping to fund the ice arena and convention center on the site of a shuttered Sears department store at Uptown Mall in Janesville.
The proposed 20,000 square-foot Woodman’s Center is expected to cost about $50 million. It would house a two-sheet ice arena, a convention center and athletic complex for basketball, volleyball and pickleball. It would serve as the home of the Janesville Jets junior hockey team, as well as host local sporting events. Organizers hope to attract regional sports tournaments and conventions to the facility.
The Rock County board is expected to adopt its 2024 county budget next Tuesday, Nov. 14, at 6 p.m. at the Rock County Courthouse.
The $500,000 for the Woodman’s Center that had been penciled in by Rock County Administrator Josh Smith was removed by a 4-1 voted of the county board’s Finance Committee on Friday in the final step before the budget goes to the county board for final adoption. Smith proposed the funding as a part of the “county well-being section†of his budget presentation to the county board in October.
The county board can still amend the budget, which leaves the possibility the $500,000 — or another amount — could be put into the budget, up to $1.5 million that had been requested by Janesville City Manager Kevin Lahner.
That $1.5 million figure mirrors what Lahner had asked Smith to increase his proposal to. Lahner formally sought that amount in a letter to Smith on Oct. 24, obtained by The 69ÂÜÀò.
Lahner said he does not expect any renegotiations with the Janesville Jets for additional funding. He said he is hopeful for another budget amendment that will put the funds back in.
“We may have to consider additional city funds, but that will be contingent on the final bids,†Lahner wrote in an email to The 69ÂÜÀò on Monday.
Gov. Tony Evers announced last week that $15 million in COVID-era American Rescue Plan Act funds will be allocated to the project. Lahner told The 69ÂÜÀò last Thursday, a day before the county Finance Committee vote, that the ARPA funds brought the project to within $1.5 million of construction costs being fully covered, depending on bids.
There has been debate over whether the county should help fund the Woodman’s Center, going back to when then-Janesville City Manager Mark Freitag first lobbied the county board for $2.5 million in September 2022.
The county board discussed allocating $2 million in excess sales tax revenue during the 2023 budget discussion, per a proposal from then-county board member Jim Farrell. The $2 million proposal had come after Janesville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau Executive Director Christine Rebout publicly lobbied for the funds before the county board.
“We need to have amenities to attract people and keep them here,†Farrell said, later adding that “if you want the reputation of being a cheap city or cheap county, then go ahead and deny it.â€
In February, a failed resolution before the county board’s Planning and Development Committee would have called for a county-wide advisory referendum on the Woodman’s Center, if approved.
The resolution would have also instructed County Administrator Josh Smith to direct Economic Development Manager James Otterstein and Health Director Katrina Harwood to send a letter to the Wisconsin Building Commission clarifying statements they’d made endorsing the center, stating that they were personal opinions.
The resolution would have also directed Smith to “inform†county managers and directors to not issue any statement supporting the facility that “contrasts with the views of the Rock County Board unless those statements are made in only their personal and not official capacities.â€
Evers’ announcement last week came after the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee this summer cut $15 million from the state biennial budget that had been earmarked for the Woodman’s Center.
