Marathon sewer plant bid is approved

Rates will jump 70 percent

The Marathon City Utility Commission last week Wednesday voted to award bids to build an $8.66 million Aeromodbrand wastewater treatment plant to Market & Johnson, an Eau Claire contracting firm.

The commission action commits the village to increasing local sewer bills by 70 percent in 19 and 20 percent annual increments through 2024.

All done, village administrator Andy Kurtz told commission members, village sewer rates will double from 2019, when the village started planning for a new, replacement sewage treatment plant.

Kurtz said an average residential home in Marathon City uses 9,200 gallons of water a quarter. This home, which now pays a $136.91 sewer bill, will see that bill increase to $232.95 by 2024. Marathon City has 680 utility customers, including several large industrial and commercial water users. To date, the village commission has raised sewer rates 14.5 percent in both 2020 and 2021 in anticipation of building the new sewage treat- ment plant.

Kurtz said the village will finance the new plant with a 20-year Clean Water Fund loan through the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The loan rate has been pegged at 1.485 percent. This is before last week’s decision by the U.S. Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.

Kurtz said he scheduled a special meeting of the commission to approve bids in order to lock in prices for the project. Bid quotes were good for 30 days, he said, and that deadline was fast approaching.

The bids opened last month were considerably higher than the $7.8 million estimate of engineering firm Strand Associates, Madison.

Kurtz said part of the reason for the sewer rate increase was that the village’s median household income was too high and that the village could not qualify for better terms under a 40-year USDA Rural Development loan.

The administrator presented the commission with a graph showing that Marathon City’s sewer rates would generally be higher than other central Wisconsin communities, including Rib Mountain and Wausau. He said, however, that other communities will wind up paying higher rates as they update their wastewater facilities.

Kurtz said the village is fortunate to have “high economic markers” but unfortunate in not being able to qualify for the same assistance other communities get.

“It stinks, but that’s where we are,” he said.

The administrator told commission members he and Strand Associates were doing what they could to economize the plant project. One idea, he said, is to use stainless pipes under ground instead of more expensive ductile iron.

Kurtz told commission chairman Andy Berens that money from already approved rate increases has been banked in a DNR mandated plant repair fund. The administrator said he has asked the DNR to give the village more time to build that fund to its required level under the theory that the new plant will not need much maintenance in its first several years.