WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — Wausau’s Finance Committee held a 35-minute discussion on what to do with the roughly $15 million in ARPA funding that the city has received from last spring’s stimulus bill.
Only a small amount of that money has been earmarked so far, and many in the city have big dreams for the remainder of it. Alder Deb Ryan says the city should focus on replacing lead water lines leading into some 9,200 properties city-wide. She said while the city has been making an effort to replace around 100 of those each year as it replaces other infrastructure, that pace isn’t enough to make a dent in the issue in the near term.
“We are talking 92 years,” said Ryan. She added that the city of Green Bay recently completed its goal of removing all lead service lines.
Ryan added that could involve setting aside money to survey all properties in the community to get an idea of how widespread the problem is. She also said the city would need to work with those who own rental properties because replacing all of their service lines could get expensive.
Alder Dawn Herbst, who serves on the Water Works Commission, said that remains a good goal but the city has found it difficult to find enough plumbers that are willing or have the capacity to do the work.
Both Mayor Katie Rosenberg and the committee agreed that they would like to hear more input from the community. Leaders are planning to issue a survey that residents can take both online and on paper to gauge community interest, while possibly holding another input session.
Committee Chair Lisa Rasmussen also noted that the city is being purposefully careful in deciding what to spend the money on because there could be ways to overlap the funding with other programs to give taxpayers more value for their money. That could include money from the proposed infrastructure bill in Washington or other sources. “There may be some overlap, so we have been waiting. We’ve also engaged the city’s financial planner to assist us with that since they are working with a number of municipalities. That helps us glean some ideas from our peers.”
Thursday’s session was very sparsely attended. Community activist Chris Norfleet provided some input from the audience, calling for some money to be set aside for projects such as affordable housing. Others who attended via WebEx including Alder Pat Peckham said their interest was in hearing how the money could be spent.
Ryan also said she would like to see some of the money reserved for affordable housing, such as finding a way to take over the dorm housing near the intersection of S 7th Avenue and Garfield. She said that property could become much-needed affordable units that could be attractive to young professionals.
Earlier this fall the city council did approve spending about $350,000 from the fund on renovations to Landmark Apartments downtown. The rest of the dollars remain unspoken for.
