The Village of Oakfield, like many other small communities, has struggled with ways to finance street and utility projects. As municipal revenues stay level or increase slightly each year, the cost of making crucial street and infrastructure improvements continues to rise and out-pace those revenues.

The most critical street and utility needs in the Village of Oakfield pertained to a section of N. Main Street (County Trunk Highway Y) from Church Street to the northern limits of the Village. Fond du Lac County had scheduled to improve CTH Y in 2019, but first, the Village needed to replace underlying utilities before construction could commence.

In 2018, the Village of Oakfield turned to MSA for assistance. It was decided to conduct an income survey of the households along N. Main Street to determine eligibility for the Community Development Block Grant for Public Facilities (CDBG-PF) Program. The results of the survey indicated that the Village did indeed qualify, and with MSA’s assistance, the municipality submitted a grant application which was awarded that summer. The Village received $500,000 in CDBG-PF funds for the $1.8 million project, leaving them with a $1.3 million balance.

In the fall of 2018, the Department of Administration rolled out the CDBG-CLOSE program. This program was developed to utilize existing Economic Development Revolving Loan Fund balances to fund projects. It was determined that approximately $120 million in cash balances and accounts receivables was sitting unused in various municipal and county accounts. To utilize the funds, the majority of them needed to be applied to projects that were CDBG eligible. As it turned out, Fond du Lac County had approximately $2.1 million available for projects. And, since the project along CTH Y (N. Main Street) in the Village of Oakfield qualified for CDBG-PF funding, that meant it also qualified for the CDBG-CLOSE funds. In April of 2019, Fond du Lac County approved allocating $1 million of their CDBG-CLOSE funds to the Village of Oakfield’s N. Main Street and utility project. The project was successfully completed in the fall of 2019 at a cost to the Village of only $300,000.