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Water agreement called a `win-win'
By Abe Winter
RACINE - More residents of Mount Pleasant will soon have the option of hooking up to the city of Racine's Water and Waste Water Utility. And the village can hardly wait for what it hopes will be rapid economic development.
Village Administrator Kevin O'Donnell said the agreement will be signed today between Racine and the Village of Mount Pleasant and will allow more than 600 customers who already have a water main in the streets in front of their homes to sign on for no charge. Those building new homes would pay the village a fee of $2,913.
"Those who have a water main available immediately to their property that have not hooked up to it will be given this one-year grace period," said Tom Bunker, general manager of the Racine Water and Waste Water Utility. "It's their option. This agreement gives them the option of signing up within one year to avoid paying the fee. If they don't, they'd be allowed to hook up in the future but they'd have to pay the charge that's in effect at the time. There's a lot of options for people."
O'Donnell said the estimated cost of building the water line and booster stations to I-94 along Highway 20 to be about $4 million. That, he said, will allow that area to rapidly develop 23 acres going south of Durand and to the north of 20.
Racine and Mount Pleasant have had a retail water agreement for a long time, Bunker said.
"But it's been on a year-to-year basis," he said. "We serve most of the existing areas right now, but the problem was how to pay for all of the area in the village's land use plan. So we've been working on it for a year."
"This is the first we've gotten done and we'll be talking to some of the other municipalities," said Bunker, who listed Sturtevant, Caledonia, Yorkville and Raymond as possibilities. "At this time we're just following the areas that are in the sewer agreement."
That would be the plan to get a sewage system all the way to I-94.
"The basis for that is that Mount Pleasant, Caledonia and Sturtevant have signed the sewer
agreement," Bunker said. "So that area, for the next number of years, is going to be served by the wastewater plant. That area is defined pretty well.
"This water contract aids in that process. In other words, we're all in the same boat together. This system sets up Mount Pleasant to satisfy those requirements of having both drinking water and fire protection."
The new homeowners in Mount Pleasant would help defray expenses of the water agreement by paying the hookup fee.
"We call it a residential equivalent charge," Bunker said. "That's when you get your building permit for a new house in Mount Pleasant, you'll pay the village $2,913 and this will help fund the construction of all the water main projects.
"Growth pays for growth, so all of the existing users are held harmless for it. But it also helps the water utility build a grid system for fire protection, so those new homeowners are getting the benefits of an engineered water system that will protect them from fires besides giving them drinking water from Lake
Michigan."
The sale of water from Lake Michigan isn't new to the cities that border the huge lake. An agreement recently was reached in which Green Bay would sell water to Ashwaubenon for $1.65 per 1,000 gallons. That agreement begins in 2006.
Other suburbs of Green Bay that along with Ashwaubenon were members of the Central Brown County Water Authority reportedly are opting to purchase water from Manitowoc at 81 cents per 1,000 gallons. That price doesn't include a projected $118 million to build a 30-mile pipeline to
Manitowoc.
Meanwhile, Milwaukee may soon be negotiating with Waukesha regarding a water contract.
Bunker, who said the agreement is a plus for both the city and village, lauded both Racine Mayor Gary Becker and Mount Pleasant Village President Jim Turek.
"They have worked hard on this," Bunker said. "It shows that communities can work together on important issues. It's a pretty neat agreement. It's win-win for the water utility and the Village of Mount Pleasant."
O'Donnell concurred, especially when considering the economic potential.
"I think it's going to allow us to continue with our plans for economic development," he said. "It's probably the last linchpin we need to move ahead.
"The sanitary sewer agreement, we have incorporation and now we've got the water contract. Those are the three keys we
needed."
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