Posted December 27, 2025
New Richmond, Wis. – The New Richmond City Council unanimously approved the upcoming budgets in their latest monthly meeting on Monday Nov. 10. The council voted yes on accepting the 2026 operating budget and the capital improvement budget for 2026 through 2030.
Assistant City Administrator and Finance Director, Rae Ann Ailts said that the 2026 budget would see city property tax bills rise to a city mill rate of $5.10 per $1,000 of assessed value, an increase of $0.05 per $1,000 from 2024.
Ailts also looked at next year’s Capital Improvement Plan which looked at the descriptions and financial analysis of identified city capital projects for 2026. According to the council agenda document, those projects include the construction of a new water tower, the replacement of a 2006 rescue fire truck and refinancing the interim 2025 State Trust Fund Loan for the new library.
Ailts said that the budget process for the next year came with an effort “to provide residents with reliable, efficient, and cost-effective public services,” according to a council meeting minutes document. City Council Alderman Mike Montello made the motion to adopt the 2026 budget and capital plan with it being passed unanimously.
New Business looked at the building authorization of the town’s third water tower, a new ordinance on urban forestry, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the library roles and responsibilities and a discussion on the artisan industry and small-scale manufacturing in the town.
For the water tower, City Administrator and Utility Manager Noah Wiedenfeld mentioned the need to start soliciting competitive bids soon for the tower’s construction before contractor schedules are filled and capacity becoming limited. “We would just be looking for authorization for soliciting the bids and the proposals,” he said.
The urban forestry ordinance, Ordinance 632, looked at updating the city code to establish an Urban Forestry Fee to “provide resources necessary to maintain a healthy, vibrant and sustainable urban forest within the City,” according to the meeting minutes document. Ailts said the purpose of the fee would be to fund the removal and replacement of unhealthy trees and shrubs on city-owned property and within its right-of-way.
Wiedenfeld went over the draft overview of the library MOU and noted that a written one can help provide greater clarity between the library board, city staff and city council. Finally, he ended by looking to support staff to draft ordinance revisions to allow greater flexibility for smaller-scale and artisan industries to locate and do business without running into zoning issues.
All motions in the New Business passed with Montello motioning to direct staff to revisit the small-scale, artisan issue later with a draft ordinance prepared for review.
The article may be found online at https://uwrfjournalism.org/2025/12/new-richmond-city-council-approves-budgets-in-latest-meeting/.