Cadott Village Board; Voluntary PFAS testing given the go-ahead

Brian Chapman, Cedar Corp., was on hand during a Cadott Village Board meeting, March 21. Chapman explained how the BIL Funded/STP Local Program Grants for road repairs work, which the board decided to move forward with. Photo by Julia Wolf

By Julia Wolf

The Cadott Village Board decided to move forward with voluntary participation in a water quality sampling program, during a regular meeting March 21.

Matt Gindt, assistant water and wastewater operator, says PFAS testing of the water coming out of the well is not required right now, but probably will be required sometime in the future. However, they don’t know when.

Right now, Gindt says there is funding available to pay for the testing. He says it also sounds like, if PFAS are found, there would be funding to help.

“What do you want us to do?” asked Gindt. Gindt says they are a little worried, if they find it, what they are going to do, especially since the three wells are close to each other.

“We’d like to know if there is any contamination in the well,” said Anson Albarado, board president.

Albarado asked when the testing would take place, but Gindt says the correspondence he received doesn’t say.

Les Liptak, board member, says he thinks they should probably just do it. Board member Terry Licht agreed, since it is related to safety.

“Hopefully, we don’t find nothing,” said Randy Kuehni, board member.

The building plans proposed by Cadott youth sports were also approved during the meeting. The space where the proposed storage building and concession area was marked in the west side of Riverview Park, so the square footage of the project would be easier to envision.

“There’s possibly less trees going to be affected,” said Kuehni. “Possibly three, maybe less.”

The retirement of Cadott Police Chief Louis Eslinger was also accepted.

“He did Cadott well,” said Kuehni. A full-page ad in the tourism guide was also renewed, for a cost of $1,250.

Brian Chapman, Cedar Corp., was on hand to talk about the BIL Funded/STP Local Program Grants for road repairs. Chapman sent the village Requests for Statement of Qualifications, which the village needs to send out to four or five engineering firms, in hopes of at least three responses.

From there, a village committee will score the engineers based on qualifications for the type of project.

“We did supply a scoring sheet that most municipalities have been using,” said Chapman.

Chapman says the timeline for the 80/20 grant is tight and he has a due date of April 6 on the request letters, to get the proposals sent back to the village.

After the committee scores the engineering firms, they will make a recommendation to the full board and a firm is selected. Chapman says negotiations of project scope follow a DOT fillable form, which would help with project cost estimates.

The two projects are 80th Avenue and 250th Street, and Tower Drive, Dina Court and Lavorata Road.

“Why did they split it up?” asked Albarado. Chapman says it is recommended, because of the size of the projects, to make the cost more palatable.

“You may get both,” said Chapman, “but it gives you a better chance of at least getting one of them.”

Chapman also says the village has five years to use the money, so they can spread the projects out if they cannot fund both at the same time.

Board members voted to move forward with the BIL/STP program grants.

In a special board meeting March 14, board members approved applying for a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) project, following a closed session hearing. The project involves Maple Street, Yellow Street, the Yellow Street lift station and a water loop.

Clerk Sandy Buetow reported during the meeting that Theresa Pozarski has asked to hold off on a zone change request from R-1 Single Family to B-1 Business for 123 N. Main Street, for the time being.

Rolly Tichy, director of public works, reported he got word that Chippewa County is planning to redo one mile of County Hwy. X, from State Hwy 27 to 270th Street, in 2024.

“If that’s going to be done, we may have to do a little bit of changing up of our fiveyear road plan that we have,” said Tichy.