Council says “no” to paying for water, sewer hookups

The Abbotsford City Council was approached with a proposal from an Abbotsford property owner at its penultimate meeting of 2022.

The council was joined by Jim Colby who came with a request. Colby asked the council if, when they perform the Linden Street reconstruction project in 2023, the city would be willing to install sewer and water hookups to three parcels of land located off of Linden Street.

According to Colby, the water main is on the other side of the street from his lots and would need to be run underneath the street in order to provide water to the lots. The sewer would need to be stepped out from the middle of the street for his lots.

“Now I don’t care about a book of ordinances with thousands of pages that no one reads, that the city of Abbotsford has accepted as its ordinance law book. I do believe in the council using common sense,” Colby said.

“Now would be the time, while the road will be torn up, to give me water and sewer access. Not after the street is finished.”

The project, which will not include water or sewer main reconstruction, and instead is only scheduled for repavement and curb and gutter work, is set to begin in the summer of next year.

Colby explained that he felt like the council should honor his request because his new properties would provide tax revenue for the city and would effectively pay for the work that is done to give his properties water and sewer access.

He compared his potential project to a recent tax incremental finance district that was created in 2016 and in which the city paid for water and sewer to be installed in the addition. That location is now known as the Schilling addition which houses apartment buildings and a park complex.

“Since the city has recently given land away for a dollar, and has supplied water and sewer for these projects, the city has spent a ton more money than they would on my small request.”

“I feel like since they’ve done it for others, they should be willing to do it for anyone,” Colby said.

Director of public works Craig Stuttgen estimated the cost of the project would be about $4,500. However, the council did not feel the connecting of water to those lots was the city’s responsibility. City Administrator Josh Soyk explained that the city has ordinances that state utility projects are the responsibility of the residents and he said there are also measures in place at the state level that say the project would need to be carried out by the resident.

Soyk supplied a statute set by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission that says, “The utility shall charge a customer for the actual cost of installing a water service lateral from the main through curb stop and box if these costs are not contributed as part of a subdivision development or otherwise recovered under Wis. Stats. Chapter 66.”

“In my opinion, this doesn’t need to go any further,” council president Mason Rachu said.

Alderman Dale Rachu said rules are in place that state the resident should finance projects like the one Colby was proposing.

“The rules are already set,” Rachu said. “I had a property, Jim, where it had its own well and I wanted to hook it up to city water and sewer and I had to pay for this exact expense that you’re asking for.”

“I would say that was probably before the city has been changing its policy supplying water and sewer hookups for Harland Schraufnagel’s apartments up there,” Colby said.

Alderman Jeremiah Zeiset said if the city were to pay for his water and sewer hookup, they would open up the floodgates to pay for everyone’s water and sewer hookups.

“There’s nothing wrong with asking, right?” Alderman Jeremiah Zeiset asked. “You did a good job asking and I don’t know that we’re totally saying no but it sounds like the general consensus is that once we get into that, then we’re really looking to change the ordinance for everybody. I don’t think we’re ready to do that.”

Soyk clarified that nothing can be done by the city in terms of a water hookup because that is regulated at the state level.

Ultimately, Colby thanked the council for hearing him out and no further action will be taken on the matter at this time.

n The council got approval from the Abbotsford School District, Northcentral Technical College, Colby High School and Clark County to use the money raised by TID #5 for the Linden Street project next year. The district’s expenditure period ends in September of 2023 so the city needed to declare a project to use the district’s current and future revenue on. The district’s balance of $173,620 as well as future revenues will be used on the Linden Street project.

n The council approved withholding $7,285 from Melvin Inc. for their work on Butternut Street. Withholding the money gave the city insurance that the company would come back in spring to complete some alley work that was not entirely satisfied.