Marshfield Common Council Approves Increasing 2025 Budget for Economic Development Structure Analysis

Friday, March 28th, 2025 -- 10:00 AM

(Hub City Staff, Hub City Times) During its March 25 meeting, the Marshfield Common Council approved a budget resolution increasing the 2025 budget by $7,000 for an economic development organizational structure analysis, according to Hub City staff at the Hub City Times.

“On March 11, the council accepted a proposal from Redevelopment Resources — Kristen Fish had submitted that; we’ve worked with her in the past,” explained Marshfield City Administrator Steve Barg.

"Basically what it means is, how do we do economic development? As I mentioned at the last meeting, we’ve had some turnover, we’ve had some things happen, the economic development board is no longer, changes in the position; and the question has come up, ‘How do we do economic development?"

"Are we doing it the most effectively and efficiently that we can? Is there a better structure to bring about the kind of growth we want to see in our community?’”

The scope of work to be completed by Redevelopment Resources of Madison includes: meeting with city staff, MACCI staff, Main Street Marshfield, Visit Marshfield, Marshfield Utilities, appropriate elected officials, the Community Development Authority and others to gather information regarding economic development services and implementation; researching organizational structure in similar communities to provide options for how Marshfield can structure its staffing and approval organizations, presenting the city with a list of activities appropriate to be conducted as part of an economic development program; and crafting two options of staffing and organizational structure for the city to consider, including a potential budget for staff and optional funding sources for the organization.

The work is anticipated to take approximately 39 hours at $160/hour, requiring an investment of $6,240. The board voted  7-2 to approve the budget resolution, with Rebecca Spiros and Mike O’Reilly voting “no” and Brian Varsho absent.

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