At the Prescott City Council meeting on June 10, City Administrator Matt Wolf described the past repairs for Cherry and Kinnickinnic streets. In March 2024 the council approved the mill and overlay of those streets, which included the Public Works Department doing spot curb and gutter replacement, sidewalk widening and replacement, and storm sewer repairs.

Wolf said the Public Works Department can spot repair curb and gutter sections but “to protect the street and curb integrity with the new asphalt they would like to hire a contractor to replace 672 feet of curb on Cherry Street and Kinnickinnic Street” as it needs to be replaced.

The Prescott City Council approved an agreement with Harmon Concrete and Construction, Inc. for the replacement of curb and gutter on Cherry and Kinnickinnic streets for $16,176 to be paid out of the Tax Increment District #4.

“It looks terrific. It’s wider and it’s smooth,” remarked Alderperson Maureen Otwell about the repaired sidewalk on Kinnickinnic Street.

The council also approved a new Wastewater Plant Operator Certification Incentive Program to encourage other employees to become certified.

“Currently we have one certified operator in charge for our wastewater treatment plant,” began Wolf.

The city cannot only operate with one operator in charge, Wolf said; it would be a good idea to have more individuals trained and able to step in in case of an emergency, retirement or other life-altering events. Wolf said that many communities offer incentive programs to pay for individuals to test, receive, and maintain their subclass certifications.

“I kind of think it would be good to at least get somebody that’s interested ‘cause it’s going to take time to do it,” said Alderperson Mike Gerke.

Otwell asked if the city would pay for the training classes as well. Wolf said individuals use study guides to prepare for the exams.

“What about this 18 hours of continuing ed? Is the city paying for that?” asked Alderperson John Peterson.

Wolf confirmed that the city does pay for people to attend the conferences; every three years 18 hours of continuing education need to be completed.

The council moved on to Resolution 28-24 to inform the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources on the Prescott Wastewater Treatment Plant. Every year the Wisconsin DNR requires the City of Prescott to submit a resolution for the compliance maintenance annual report (CMAR)

“This is basically our way of saying that we’ve put together an overall review of our wastewater treatment plant and that you’ve had a chance to review it and that you’re certifying that you have reviewed it.” Wolf added that once it is approved then it is submitted to the Wisconsin DNR.

“We are currently graded out as an ‘A’, so I just wanted to give a big thank you and support for our current Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator Matt Olmen who does a good job of keeping things up and running and maintained down there.”

“He does such an excellent job,” agreed Otwell.

“Just an overall good job by our public works department,” Wolf said.

The council authorized the city to enter into an agreement with Cedar Corporation to update and complete a Wastewater Treatment Plant Facility Plan for $40,000. Greg Adams, Cedar Corporations engineer, gave an overview.

“It’s kind of a timely milestone here to kind of reevaluate this,” Adams began. “The proposal before you is a pretty in depth look at going through the entire process of what it would take to do both a facility plan amendment and then apply for funding through the DNR.”

The city’s current facilities plan is from 2010.

“A lot has changed probably in 15 years as the group will find,” said Adams. “What is the city’s view of growth and desire for how potentially large this plant could be?”

Adams mentioned that it is getting near the end of the bipartisan infrastructure funding.

“There’s about twice of the funding that it has had in the past because of the influx of some of that infrastructure money,” stated Adams, adding that in his opinion, it is a good time to start this process.

According to Adams, the schedule moving forward would include completing the Facilities Plan and submitting it to the WDNR in September or October 2024. It would then move to submitting the intent to apply for the CWF program in October 2024 where WDNR Facility Plan Approval would hopefully happen in December 2024.

“At a 20-year design life though, this plant has to at least have the capacity to treat what the city’s growth will be for 20 years and the DNR will be evaluating that too.” He added that a lot of the previous scenarios would be looked at with new data.

“It would be a pretty much a fresh look at this quite a bit,” said Adams.

This plan would look at the goals of the community in terms of what its growth would be and the plant that could accommodate that.

“This will just give us a good starting point and an idea of generally what we need to do with everything based on the last plan and what growth needs to be, what the requirements for that will be and aging and everything,” said Alderperson Adam Granquist.

Wolf began the discussion on authorizing the city to enter into an agreement with CBS Squared to complete a water engineering study not to exceed $18,638. On April 10, the EPA released new standards on PFAS within drinking water. According to the DNR, the new drinking standards will take up to three years to implement and it is estimated that by 2029 the city will need to be in compliance. Wolf added that through the testing that has been recently done,  city wells #2 and #4 would not meet the standards of those tests.

CBS Squared put together a proposal to complete an engineering report that would give the city three options. The study would give a breakdown of cost and logistics. Option 1 includes treatment at both Well #4 and Well #2 and includes increasing the capacity of Well #2 from 500 gpm to 1,000 gpm.  Option 2 would see Well #4 treated, Well #2 abandoned, and construction of Well #5 near Well #4 for treatment at Well #4 water treatment plant. Option 3 includes treatment at existing Well #4, abandonment of existing Well #2, and construction of Well #5 in the Great Rivers subdivision, in the southeast portion of the city. The water quality at future Well #5 will need to be analyzed and if needed, a water treatment plant will be constructed at Well #5.

Gerke asked how long the study is expected to take.

“About 90 days,” answered Wolf.

The payment for this study will come from the city’s water utility fund.

In other business, Wolf said the Department of Transportation planning grant through the Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) was approved for up to $194,000. This planning study will look at finding a safe pedestrian crossing over Highway 10. Wolf expressed his thanks to Adams and the Cedar Corp team for their work in applying for the grant.

Upcoming meetings

The Plan Commission will meet at 6 p.m. Monday, July 1 while the Health and Safety Committee meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. July 8.