PRESCOTT - At the Nov. 25 Prescott City Council meeting, City Administrator Matt Wolf said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has mandated all communities across the United States to conduct a full verification, or inventory, of their water service lines. This requirement was set by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in 2022.

“We finished this inventory and basically we came up with the information that we have,” Wolf stated.

Due to the age of parts of the community, the city does not have complete records for the streets and water lines.

“We haven’t verified all these that they are not lead but basically what we’ve done is the 216 laterals that we could not verify through any sort of plans, hydrants, anything like that, street reconstructions,” Wolf said.

Wolf provided a quote from Total Excavating for $156,600 to proceed with the next step, which involves verifying whether the laterals contain lead.

“These laterals aren’t fully lead,” said Wolf. “It’s basically where the connection from the main is to the lateral if they have a lead goose neck or not.”

Wolf stated that the Health and Safety Committee recommended proceeding with all 216 laterals, while the Parks and Public Works Committee suggested tackling the project in phases. The first phase would focus on 45 laterals located on Mississippi Street, Lawrence Street, Warren Street, and Cedar Lane south of US Highway 35, along with eight unverified homes on Linden Street. The estimated cost for this first phase from Total Excavating is $32,625.

Alderperson John Peterson inquired whether the city was still seeking additional contractors for other quotes, to which Wolf confirmed that City Planner Carter Hayes is actively gathering additional quotes for the project.

Alderperson Maureen Otwell asked for the rationale of the Parks and Public Works Committee on choosing to only go with 45 laterals, noting that lead is a severe contaminant that must be removed.

“It threatens the health of especially children and their developing brains are affected by it. I think we’ve had enough lead absorption from my generation growing up in the 50s that I would like to not see more damage done to future generations and I think we should do the whole thing,” she remarked.

Peterson said a number of factors led to that recommendation, noting some of the streets with the unknown laterals are scheduled for reconstruction and those laterals would most likely not be replaced until the reconstruction happens.

Wolf said the only requirement the city has to show every year is that the city is making progress on what it is doing with the laterals that are marked either assumed lead or unknown.

Otwell said, “Well I guess I can understand the phasing in if we’re not going to be replacing things fairly soon.”

Alderperson Mike Gerke suggested that by proceeding with the initial 45 laterals, the city may be able to find a more reasonably priced contractor for the remaining laterals. Following this discussion, the council approved moving forward with the verification of the 45 laterals in 2025 to determine if any contain lead service lines.

 “Again, this is just a motion to direct staff to start this project,” Alderperson Dar Hintz stated.

The council also approved the installation of the lighting at Dakota and Cherry Street parking lots. The proposal includes the installation of six downward facing fiberglass parking lot lights in the Cherry Street parking lot and three to the Dakota Street parking lot, to be provided by Xcel Energy, at a total cost of $32,529.07 for both lights and installation. Alderperson Adam Granquist expressed his support for the project citing past reports of break-ins in the area.

Upcoming meetings

A Council workshop will be held at 5 p.m. Monday, Dec. 16 to discuss Phase 2 of the Riverfront Project. The council voted to cancel the Dec. 23 regular council meeting.

Spring Elections

For the April 2025 election, the positions for Ward 1 and Ward 2 in Prescott will be up for election to a three-year term. Circulating nomination papers can begin on Dec. 1.

“You do have to live within the ward if you want to run,” Wolf commented.

Hintz added that detailed information regarding the city elections is on the City of Prescott website.