#image_title
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%.
Politics
‘I nearly died’: These women brought a grim warning to Wisconsin about abortion care restrictions
Traveling the country, they tell the real life-or-death situations that they faced because of extreme bans after the repeal of Roe v. Wade. For...
Opinion: It’s time for Congress to fight for small businesses instead of big corporations
May is National Small Business Month. Our elected leaders need to show leadership all year long. For the past 27 years I’ve been fortunate to pursue...
Local News
4 of the most iconic foods invented in Wisconsin
What is Wisconsin’s most iconic food? That’s a question we could spend all day debating, and for good reason: Badgerland is a food lovers’...
Four places it’s 100% okay to tip $0 in Wisconsin
Most people plan to tip at the usual suspects – restaurants, salons, ride-shares – but nowadays, it feels like customers are being prompted to tip...