The City of Two Rivers will continue water main replacement next year.
The city council approved about $1.4 million in water system revenue bonds for replacements on the city’s east side, similar to this year’s project.
City Manager Kyle Kordell tells Seehafernews.com that the money comes from the Wisconsin Safe Drinking Water Loan program.
The program provides funding to cities for water system projects that are supposed to reduce or eliminate any detectable levels of any PFAS contaminant compound included in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s enforceable PFAS levels in the water system, and/or reduce or eliminate manganese when it exceeds or is anticipated to exceed ‘do not drink’ levels in the water system.
The funding for the loan comes from water utility funding.
“Neither of these will touch or depend on general obligation taxing authority,” he explained. “That means neither of these borrowings will show up on your property tax bill.”
Kordell calls the program a good way to fund very expensive multimillion-dollar projects at the lowest interest rate that can be found on the market.
“It’s a very smart, sustainable way to fund infrastructure,” the newly appointed City Manager noted. “And Two Rivers has tapped this low interest loan program through the state every single year from 2017 through 2025, with an exception of a COVID year and there we did not in 2020.”
This year’s water and lead service lateral replacement happened on Harbor, 16th, and Emmet Streets.
The water loan program comes through the Wisconsin DNR, which gets funding through the Wisconsin Department of Administration’s Environmental Improvement Fund.
