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METRO BRiEFS
Filtration contemplation
City leaders urge city staff, Water Commission to move quickly on temporary solutions to provide safe water
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The result of a nearly one and a half-hour meet-
ing Tuesday evening was pretty clear: The city should move fast and not dally when it comes to finding ways to provide clean water to Wausau’s residents. The city council, meeting as a committee of the whole to discuss solutions to the PFAS crisis, mostly agreed that city staff should bring some solutions to the city’s Water Commission on March 1 that the council can ultimately fund. Those solutions include the possibility of buying home filtration devices (either pitchers or under the sink models) with the proven ability to test for PFAS chemicals, providing bottled water or the possibility of a mobile filtration device that could temporarily attach to the current water plant. The city earlier this month announced that testing in January had discovered polyfluoroalkyl substances (known as PFAS) in the city’s water supply. The levels, between 23-48 parts per trillion, are lower than the current Environmental Protection Agency standard of 70 ppt but below new proposed standards recommended by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Health Services of 20 ppt. The state’s Natural Resources Board took up the new proposal past City Pages’s deadline. PFAS chemicals are found in a number of household products and can have a number of negative health impacts, including causing cancer. City council member Tom Kilian told the committee that he’d identified some filters highlighted in a 2020 study by Duke University as filtering most of the PFAS out of drinking water. That study contradicts DHS broad recommendations about carbon-based filters. City Council President Becky McElhaney told the committee she favors the mobile filtration device used at the water plant, since it would clean the water for all residents, not just those who knew to pick up the filter. But, city council member Lisa Rasmussen said, that could take three months and cost more than $2 million, and in the meantime residents want clean water. City Council Member Lou Larson told the committee he favors looking into and using all three types if possible. The Water Commission will meet on March 1 and city staff should have recommendations for them to consider. The Finance Committee and city council will then meet on March 8 or in a special meeting earlier if necessary. The council will consider those recommendations, but also could act on its own if they feel the commission’s recommendations aren’t sufficient.
City applying for ARPA funds to test PFAS solutions
The city is applying for American Rescue Plan Act dollars to help fund a pilot study looking at the best way to remove polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from the city’s drinking water supply. The application, included in the city’s Finance Committee packet, calls for $240,000 from ARPA funds, listing the urgency as the highest priority, or emergency. Public Works Director Eric Lindman says the pilot study is an evolving process, and that the Public Works Department has been working with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Public Service Commission in developing the pilot study. The study, approved earlier this month by the city’s Water Commission, would test a number of materials to find out which would best filter PFAS from the city’s drinking water. Those filters could also then be used in the city’s new drinking water plant, which is slated to go online as soon as this summer. There is also talk about studying whether PFAS is in the wastewater process, Lindman says. While there are currently no regulations regarding wastewater, it’s something the city could consider testing.
Grand Theater lifts vaccination requirements; not masks
Visitors to the Grand Theater will no longer need to provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to attend shows; but will still be required to wear masks while in the building. The change comes as COVID-19 numbers continue to decline. Numbers of cases in Wisconsin have declined to a tenth of what they were earlier in the year. Marathon County had a peak 7-day average case count of 383 in mid-January; that 7-day average dropped to 28 as of Wednesday and continues to decline. All patrons will still be required to wear masks unless eating or drinking, and all staff will be masked. Some acts might have their own rules and might still require proof of vaccination. Grand Theater staff will post those requirements on the Grand’s website on the ticketing page, and
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will notify patrons of the extra requirements should they occur. “We appreciate the patience and continued support from our patrons and donors throughout this season,” Grand Director Sean Wright said in a press release. “We’re also encouraged to see the COVID-19 numbers improving throughout Wisconsin.”
A move to designate John Marshall Elementary a historic landmark is on hold to give the city more time to work with the school district. The city’s Plan Commission last week voted to pause for six month’s a decision on whether or not to designate John Marshall, a school built in 1920, a historic landmark. The city’s Historic Preservation Commission voted earlier to designate the school a historic landmark, but the Plan Commission after receiving a letter from the school district decided to table the idea for six months so the city could work collaboratively with the district. The district is studying its current building footprint. Districts the size of Wausau’s of around 6,000 to 8,000 students generally have five to six elementary schools, school board member Jon Creisher says. Wausau has 13. With enrollments declining in most school districts across the state and in the state as a whole — the student count dropped by nearly 4,000 students and about 25,000 the year before that — the district will need to think about potential reductions in the number of buildings it maintains, Creisher told the Plan Commission. The school district sent a letter to the city following the Historic Preservation Commission’s decision saying it wanted the city to hold off on the designation until it can get parent input on its elementary school footprint and complete its community-wide study of its 13 elementary schools. Historian Gary Gisselman told the plan commission that the school served as the community center of the Southeast Side neighborhood when it was built in 1920, and that the building could still be renovated in order for it to continue being used. He pointed to the Longfellow administration building, which was built in 1894 as a school and is still in use today. The city designated Grant Elementary School a historic landmark after the school district announced plans that would have demolished the historic school. The referendum that would have provided funding for that failed at the ballots anyway.
Mall site has interested developer, engineer says
A party is interested in Lot No. 4 of the former Wausau Center mall site, an engineer working on the project says. REI engineer Tom Radenz told the city’s Plan Commission there is some urgency to start restoring the street grid around the mall site because a developer is interested in Lot No. 4 in the Wausau Opportunity Zone’s plans for redeveloping the mall site. That plot is where the east side of the mall stood, south of Washington Street and east of Third Street. That same developer, who Radenz didn’t name, is also interested in Lot No. 5, which is mostly where the old Sears building stood. Radenz says the new developer would like to start breaking ground by October this year on the project, which Radenz did not detail. City Planner Brad Lenz noted that the street plan that REI laid out does not include continuing Fourth Street through from Washington to Forest, something previous designs had included. Contaminated soil will need to be removed from the site, and REI is working with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources on “getting closure” for that site, Radenz says. “It’s moving faster than we collectively anticipated but that’s a great thing for us,” Radenz says. Initial plans from WOZ showed those two lots as being mixed-use residential units. Both lots together make up nearly three acres of property.
Police respond to 174 crashes Friday
Officers from multiple departments and emergency services responded to 174 crashes during Friday’s snowstorm, including major pileups on Hwy. 51. Heavy snowstorms starting in the afternoon created hazardous conditions, leading to gates being put up on some onramps to Hwy. 51 as officers worked to remove cars from the pileups with the assistance of several tow truck companies. According to the Marathon County Sheriff’s Office, 144 of the 174 crashes only involved property damage and 30 involved injuries.
Some people had to be extricated from their vehicles and a bus was brought in to transport some people from the scene.
Emergency workers responded to 174 crashes over the course of Friday’s snowstorm, including multi-vehicle pileups on Hwy. 51.
Plover Starbucks looking to unionize
Workers at the Starbucks in Plover are demanding to be recognized as a union, according to a copy of the letter sent to Starbucks’ CEO. The letter, posted by the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, calls on Starbucks CEO and President Kevin Johnson to recognize their union, called the CMRJB Workers United, “as the sole and exclusive collective bargaining agent for all permanent full-time and part-time employees, including barista and shift supervisors.” The demand excludes store managers and assistant store managers, as well as other higher-level supervisors. “We are overworked, overwhelmed, underpaid, and are left feeling undervalued,” the workers wrote. “Simultaneously, corporate is seeing record profits, as well as wasting millions on despicable union-busting campaigns across the nation.” The Starbucks, located in the Crossroads Commons area in Plover on the border of Stevens Point, is the second to demand union recognition. A store on Howell Avenue in Oak Creek was the first to do so, holding a rally last weekend.
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