WEXFORD COUNTY — Cadillac and the surrounding area expected to get a piece the newly passed budget, to help with critical infrastructure upgrades.
Not all of the requests were approved.
Cadillac city manager Marcus Peccia said it’s good news they are getting close to $2 million of their nearly $15 million request to help the failing culvert off of Mitchell Street by Wexford Jewelers.
“Even with what we were conveying as an urgent situation, and you could tangibly and clearly see the damage that had happened to the infrastructure, it still took time,” said Peccia.
He said it’s critical to get funding to repair the culvert before it fails, causing potential flooding. The city stepped in to work with the state to find that funding over the past few years. Funding the repair was made more complicated when it was discovered no one owned the culvert.
“We’re all hands-on deck, wanting to make sure we can get stabilized before it can cause a real crisis,” said Peccia.
Wexford Jewelers administrator Keith Terwilliger said they are thrilled about the news.
“All the help that we’ve had from Senator Michelle Hoitenga, Representatives Joseph Fox and John Roth. We couldn’t be thankful enough. The city of Cadillac has been a great neighbor in helping us make this happen. Our previous president, Chamber of Commerce Caitlin Stark, was fantastic at advocating to get this finished and get this work done,” said Terwilliger.
He said it has been a roller coaster ride-trying to get funded.
“We had to really go to fight for it when it runs right next to your building, even if it’s yours or not, you got to do something about it and bring awareness and get something done,” said Terwilliger.
We reached out to Senator Michele Hoitenga. “With this significant hurdle cleared, I’m hopeful that the city can now move forward with the repairs to the culvert and the parking lots benefitting both local businesses and the community as a whole,” said Hoitenga.
Lawmakers also approved half of the $5 million ask to help the Lake Mitchell Sewer Authority, to upgrade 139 aging grinder pump stations for homeowners.
The Lake Mitchell Sewer Authority getting $2.4 million. Board chair Dave Kuyers said it’s a good start.
“It helps move things forward a little bit, but in no way, we’ll take care of all what’s needed. The unfortunate thing is that the system just was never maintained the way it should have been,” said Kuyers.
Kuyers said they need approximately $15 million to upgrade them all. H said they will be looking for additional funding at the federal level as well.
“We have 139 grinder pump stations yet to upgrade. On the last ones we did, it was more than $90,000 per station, that needs to be upgraded. So, with that, you know, we’ll upgrade as many as we can and try and pick out the worst ones so that the ones that are the closest to failure are going to be the ones that really concentrate,” said Kuyers.
Cadillac’s request for $8 million to help people that are on private wells to connect to city water after several private wells in the area tested for the presence of pfas at unsafe levels was not included.
“The information that we’ve received, it’s just all been verbal, but it’s been, hey, you know, keep asking us. It just might take, you know, a little bit of time,” said Peccia.
Peccia said they are looking at seeking federal dollars and there might be the ability to get more funding at the federal level or through another state agency like EGLE.
“Right now, the federal government is closed. Don’t really know, what the status of that request is. But we’re hopeful that that maybe that will essentially bear some fruit. It’s not as if the door was closed permanently. Very similar to the culvert situation. It just might take a couple of years or so before funding can get appropriated,” said Peccia.