Council approves drawing down millions in La Crosse’s reserves despite warnings

There will be more money for La Crosse’s city hall to use on things like roads and parks.

Thursday night, the city council approved drawing down millions of dollars in city reserves despite warnings from the city’s current longest-tenured council member, Andrea Richmond.

“There’s always something that’s going to happen,” Richmond said at the meeting. “I just don’t feel comfortable taking that chunk of change out of the reserve fund.

“What happens when we have another heavy-duty storm. Bliss Rd. could fall apart. We would need some money, some fund money out of the reserves.”

The change means the city council could immediately spend an estimated $4-6 million on infrastructure projects.

“I know we have things that we do need – a fire station, possibly, a swimming pool, possibly,” Richmond said. “But, I just think we should use caution here.”

Some have proposed using the cash reserves to fund road repairs, a new fire station or a replacement for the old Memorial Pool.