VIROQUA, Wis. – The City Viroqua is in the process of planning for, and raising funds to build, a new fire station that will be located on city owned property on Nelson Parkway, just north of the Wild West Days grounds. The Wild West Days (WWD) facility is also located on city owned property that the organization leases from the city. At the regular meeting of the Viroqua City Council on Tuesday, Nov. 14, the city and Wild West Days president Mike Moran came to an agreement on renegotiating that lease to allow the fire department use of some of that WWD property to allow better access to the new fire station.
You can read our previous story and interview with Fire Chief Chad Buros about the details of the new fire station here.
The city signed a lease agreement with Wild West in 2022 and renegotiated that in the beginning of 2023, but that was before the city knew it was moving forward with the new fire station. Unfortunately the lease does not allow the modification of the terms to to accommodate the needs of the fire department the city had to terminate the existing lease and draft a new arrangement the reduced the area the Wild West has under its control and allows some of that area for an access road to the new fire station.
Under the new lease WWD will lease 11.95 acres, compared to 18.8 acres previously. WWD will pay the city $75 an acre or about $896 a year.
Moran said he has been meeting with Chief Buros to discuss the arrangement and said the biggest concern WWD has is parking for two events during the year, the Wild West Days and the Little Britches Rodeo when they will need more parking. Moran said he is confident they will be able to make the arrangement work for both parties.
The council voted to terminate the current lease and negotiate a new agreement that will take affect on January 1 of 2024 and run through 2026.
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