Sheboygan’s Nearly Century-Old Sewer to Get Big Overhaul With American Rescue Plan Funds

#image_title

By Pat Kreitlow

November 3, 2021

Cities across Wisconsin using pandemic relief in many ways. This one will prevent a big sewer bill hike and reduce the need to raise water bills.

Sheboygan taxpayers are about to see significant savings—rather than a big tax hike—even as a nearly century-old portion of city infrastructure is replaced before it could possibly cause an environmental headache. It’s only the latest example of how the pandemic relief package known as the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) is helping local governments, small businesses, and households to recover from the recession that laid waste to the economy in the early months of the coronavirus outbreak.

While other communities have used ARPA funds for uses ranging from lead abatement to improved broadband speeds to affordable housing, Sheboygan is allocating most of its $22 million share to overhaul a sewer system weakened by age and exacerbated by a changing climate that has nearly put a major line underwater due to the rising level of Lake Michigan, according to a report in the Sheboygan Press last month.

RELATED: Against It Before They Were for It—Some Wisconsin Politicians Are Busy Promoting American Rescue Plan Funds

The American Rescue Plan, proposed by President Joe Biden during his first days in office earlier this year, passed Congress in March with no Republican votes. Around 2.7 million Wisconsinites received direct stimulus checks and about 1.1 million children in the state were impacted by an improved child tax credit for families. Nearly $4 billion in relief went to small businesses in the state through the Paycheck Protection Program.

About 50% of the sewage heading toward the treatment plant in Sheboygan is carried by a line built in the 1930s when lake levels were lower, the Press reported on Monday. The project would normally have been done with borrowed money, requiring a $67.50 annual increase in sewer bills for 20 years, according to city Public Works Director David Beibel. Sewer bills will instead stay flat, the report said, and future water bill rate hikes will be reduced by 5%.

Author

Pat Kreitlow

The Founding Editor of UpNorthNews, Pat was a familiar presence on radio and TV stations in western Wisconsin before serving in the state Legislature. After a brief stint living in the Caribbean, Pat and wife returned to Chippewa Falls to be closer to their growing group of grandchildren. He now serves as UNN's chief political correspondent and host of UpNorthNews Radio, airing weekday mornings 6 a.m.-8 a.m on the Civic Media radio network and the UpNorthNews Facebook page.

View all posts

CATEGORIES: INFRASTRUCTURE

Support Our Cause

Thank you for taking the time to read our work. Before you go, we hope you'll consider supporting our values-driven journalism, which has always strived to make clear what's really at stake for Wisconsinites and our future.

Since day one, our goal here at UpNorthNews has always been to empower people across the state with fact-based news and information. We believe that when people are armed with knowledge about what's happening in their local, state, and federal governments—including who is working on their behalf and who is actively trying to block efforts aimed at improving the daily lives of Wisconsin families—they will be inspired to become civically engaged.