Damakant Jayshi
A discussion on whether staff should explore a west-side property for a Department of Public Works and Utilities expansion plan erupted in controversy and finger-pointing this week, prompting several accusations and a demand for an apology.
The continuing debate over 1300 Cleveland Avenue is baffling some alders who see the discussion as a needless defiance of the Wausau City Council’s previous directives. Last year, the Council formally removed the property from a list of sites that are being considered for the expansion project and later approved a feasibility study for eight other properties. Last year’s discussion on the nearly 7-acre parcel, which has a decades-long history of environmental contamination, centered on its zoning status – and its level of cleanup.
Now zoned residential, the property is an open Department of Natural Resources Environmental Repair Program site that will soon be required to undergo remediation. If the property would be selected as the project site, the parcel would need to be rezoned. That would allow for a less rigorous cleanup, which many residents in the neighborhood and the alders representing them have opposed for years.
On Thursday, questions were raised over the scoring for the property, which was completed by consultants Barrientos Design and showed the Cleveland Avenue site one of the most viable options considered. Under the Barrientos score, the project would only have a “neutral impact” on the area from an Environmental Justice standpoint – but federal documents from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency suggest otherwise.
And Dist. 3 Alder Tom Kilian, also a founding member of the grassroots environmental group Citizens for a Clean Wausau, said the Barrientos score of 2 on Environmental Justice does not appear to accurately reflect available information.
Kilian, who represents a portion of the district surrounding the property, pointed to the demographics of the neighborhood in his rationale: 53% of residents in the neighborhood are people of color, “the highest non-white population in the entire city of Wausau,” with 46% of residents classified as low-income. An Environmental Justice score of 2 signifies a “neutral impact” to an underserved community, versus a score of 1 which would be “poor” and “would create disparities and negative impacts to underserved communities.”
The Barrientos report suggests that nature of the fleet facility site lacks significant potential for adverse impact on the environment. But Kilian rejected that notion, noting that a wide variety of chemical and non-chemical stressors are associated with such a site, which could lead to serious consequences. According to DNR records, Wausau’s current DPW site has already been associated with hazardous discharges in the past including petroleum discharges.
“In short, it appears evident to me from available credible data that siting this facility at 1300 Cleveland Avenue would indeed create disparities and negative impacts to underserved communities that surround it,” Kilian wrote, in an email to city staff. “These disparities seem even clearer when compared to the City’s decisions and actions in other parts of town, both historically and currently, which stand in stark contrast to the proposition that this facility be sited at 1300 Cleveland Avenue – a parcel that is currently zoned residential in a densely populated residential area.”
Public Works Director Eric Lindman said the Barreintos zoning score was done before the property was rezoned as residential and said he took offense at the accusation that the information presented was inaccurate. Lindman said no further study was done on Cleveland Avenue after the Council’s decision to remove the property from consideration. That, he said, is proof that he did not defy a council directive.
But when Kilian pressed Lindman on the timing of the addition of the Environmental Justice score, Lindman admitted the EJ column was added after the September decision. Unclear is whether Barrientos did so unilaterally or at Lindman’s direction, as neither answered the question.
Kilian, who is not a member of the Capital Improvements and Street Maintenance Committee but attended the meeting on Thursday, said he was surprised the parcel was being discussed at all, given the prior directive to exclude the property. At least since June this year, the CISM Committee’s focus has been on West Street properties, one of which is currently under the control of the Marathon County Highway Dept. and was scored by Barrientos. The other, the former Wausau Iron Works, is now privately-held. The discussion on the narrowed down list was slated for last month, but some alders wanted to tour this site before making a decision.
Both Kilian and fellow Alder Lou Larson say their constituents are strongly opposed to using the Cleveland Avenue parcel for any industrial development, amid fears of adding to the contamination that already exists in the area and is among the worst in the city. They want the parcel to be remediated to more stringent residential standards, which is required under the current zoning classification.
Last year, Mayor Katie Rosenberg categorically said the DPW site feasibility study would happen without 1300 Cleveland in the mix. City Attorney Anne Jacobson clarified that the council with its amended resolution removing that specific parcel from the language approving the study was binding.
To consider the site even after that, said Kilian, was exceeding one’s authority, an assertion that Lindman rejected. Given the Sept. 14 decision, how or why 1300 Cleveland continued as an option is unclear.
Accusations fly, prompting apology demand
For Thursday’s CISM Committee meeting, Lindman’s report on the fleet maintenance facility has a piece of information that reads: “Cleveland Ave. site was removed from the list attached as requested by the Committee Chairperson.” That prompted Alder Lisa Rasmussen to accuse Larson, the chair, of intentionally withholding information from the committee.
But Larson, of Dist. 10, vehemently rejected that accusation both during the meeting and in subsequent email to Rasmussen in which he demanded an apology. Rasmussen, who represents Dist. 7, shared the email exchange with Wausau Pilot & Review. Lindman has not responded to questions about how the parcel appeared in the packet at all, among others posed to him this week by Wausau Pilot & Review.
Larson told Wausau Pilot & Review the site was removed from the list at his request two months ago based on the City Council directive and he was surprised to see it noted in such a way. Larson added he also did so based on the current residential status of the site. Cleveland Avenue has not appeared in committee agendas for July or for August and none of the previous four meeting reports from the director refer to the property. Instead, the reports have repeatedly shared information on properties at Westwood Drive, West Street and Myron Street, which houses the existing facility.
When asked if she still characterized the situation as the chair withholding information in light of the City Council’s decision, Rasmussen replied, “Yes, because the removed data was gathered prior to that action and lends context to the other data in the spreadsheet.” The Dist. 7 alder added that people need to know what the costs of taking the Cleveland Avenue site out of play would ultimately cost them. “The difference is millions.” She added that “we will also need to own that fact whether people are upset about it or accepting of it.”
Rasmussen, in an email to Wausau Pilot & Review, also said the committee and the public are entitled to full and accurate information “and elected officials should not attempt to tailor what information the staff is allowed to offer. In this case, the meeting packets that were published for last night did not include relevant info that could provide context to the other cost estimates,” she said. However, CISM chair Larson and Alder Kilian said they can not understand why Rasmussen “keeps bringing Cleveland up” even after the council’s decision.
Rasmussen also said if any new information becomes available after the cleanup of the site, then the council might want to reconsider its decision. She emphasized the cleanup should be done as per the highest available standards.
In June, the CISM Committee directed the staff to focus on the West Street property and consider splitting its administrative office and fleet engineering workshop blocs. This was done after a presentation by Barrientos Design, which had narrowed the options to three, including West Street, the existing DPW site and Westwood Drive as the most viable.
In that meeting, Rasmussen raised concern about the burgeoning cost of constructing a facility at a single site and suggested that Cleveland could have housed part of the DPW operation to potentially reduce costs, despite the Council’s prior decision. She suggested a combination of West Street for the fleet maintenance facility, with other administrative aspects remaining at the Myron Street site. Rasmussen also went along with the rest of the CISM Committee members who decided to explore the former Wausau Iron Works property. It has been a priority ever since.
At the committee meeting on Thursday, Rasmussen distributed a document on cost comparison of sites. That scoring sheet shows Cleveland to be incurring the lowest cost among the sites that were initially being considered.
However, the City Council’s decisions on the parcel and feasibility study for other sites, until reversed, still stand. It was not immediately clear why the discussion on Cleveland took place on Thursday and why the DPW inserted a sentence in the packet that seemed to trigger the entire discussion on a property no longer under consideration.
At the meeting, Lindman explained that a review of the sites began in 2018 and Cleveland was part of the original study, for which Barrientos was paid.
“If the council doesn’t want to look at it anymore, that’s fine, but from engineering standpoint, it’s a viable site,” the public works director said. He did not explain why the matter was mentioned in the packet after a gap of so many months and what, if any, new information justified its inclusion. He repeated Alder Rasmussen’s point that since public money was used to pay for the study, it should be available to the committee and if not, then reasons for not doing so should be provided.
But that study, according to Lindman’s own remarks on Thursday, is an old one. The committee’s discussion has only left a host of unanswered questions.
Ultimately, the CISM Committee on Thursday directed the utility to work with a consulting firm to explore the West Street property as a potential site for the new fleet maintenance facility. The DPW will work with Barrientos Design on the project proposal moving forward.
Damakant Jayshi can be reached at [email protected]. Contact Wausau Pilot & Review’s editor and publisher, Shereen Siewert, at [email protected]. Follow Wausau Pilot on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/wausaupilot.
