What is ahead for Brillion in 2025

Jan. 6, 2025

By David Nordby

The Brillion News

This story originally appeared in the Jan. 2, 2025, print edition of The Brillion News.

BRILLION – It is not the most glamorous project, but the most necessary for the City of Brillion.

2025 will likely be the year that construction finally begins on the new $21 million wastewater treatment plant, which is already approximately 20 years past its life expectancy.

It was back in 2022 when Mayor Mike Smith and the city received a letter from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) that the project would need to be started by July 2025 or they would face legal consequences.

The explanation of “we can’t afford a new wastewater treatment plant” wasn’t one that the DOJ or Department of Natural Resources (DNR) would accept.

Fortunately for the city, the DNR reviewed and accepted a preliminary plan in 2023 that outlined the city’s plan to construct the new plant. If all goes according to plan, construction would start this year and be completed in 2026.

Roughly $15 million of the plan will go for general conditions, influent pumping and preliminary treatment, expansion in kind, tertiary filtration, and aerobic digestion/reed bed de-watering and storage/landfill disposal. The leftover budget of the $21 million is for engineering and contingency costs.

The project budget is being carefully planned for with city water rate increases, municipal bonds and grants through the USDA Clean Water Fund.

“It looks like everything’s good to go so we should have actual plans and how we’re going to budget, how we’re going to pay for all this, all done … by the end of 2025 so we’re well on the path now with the design and everything being accepted by the state. We’re just waiting for the next phases now – financing and actual picking a contractor,” Smith said. “The state’s been great. McMahon, MCO, they’ve all been phenomenal with helping us with all this stuff, so I think the state’s very happy with our progress is my understanding, so I think we’re in a really good spot.”

Community Involvement

Smith has beaten the drum for community involvement in city issues, and he says that will continue in 2025.

“We’re still needing a ton of citizen input. We’re still needing a lot of people to show up to these meetings and tell us how they feel about certain things, where they want us to invest our money, where they want their tax dollars to go, what programs they want us to be in support of. We need the volunteers on these volunteer boards to continue to fill those positions,” Smith said.

Eye on the Budget

Smith says the feedback will also help the city how to manage its money further.

“The city has figured out what it costs to operate. We have not figured out necessarily how to afford the extras,” Smith said.

The city has discussed virtually every amenity offered, including leaf pickup.

“The City of Brillion’s lost some services the last couple of years but we have great amenities. How do the people want us to invest,” Smith said.

Due to a change in the state tax law on personal property for industry, the city would have had more than $8 million of assessed value added to the city’s tax roll. Without that law change, taxes would have been lowered for residents this year.

“It was basically a 7.7% swing [in the budget] or something along those lines,” Smith said.

Budget talks become more public near budget approval time in the later portion of the year, but the Finance Committee should be in discussions for those things year-round.

“That’s why I wanted the Finance Committee so badly,” Smith said. “I think the Finance Committee is the most important of all of our subcommittees because it’s finance professionals. Whether they’re CPA or whatever, they deal with budgets in their personal life and in their private life and in their careers, and they do it for the city as well. I think it’s an incredible group and they’ve helped us a ton. The problem is I just can’t fill it.”

Joe Behnke is the City Council representative on the Finance Committee.

“The Finance Committee is essentially budget all year long. It keeps the momentum going. We keep on track with where we’re going. We don’t get behind,” Smith said.

Street Projects

The street projects on Washington Street, Valley View Drive and Homewood Drive, which were detailed in last week’s newspaper, will take place in 2025.

“We did well on the 2024 [street projects] as far as budget, so we’ve got good space to do the 2025 and we feel confident in continuing this road project program that we’ve got going right now,” Smith said.

The 2024 projects on Pine, Oak and East Water streets collectively cost $1.1 million. The city will have definitive numbers from McMahon, who they awarded the engineering bid to at the Dec. 23 meeting.

Endries Downtown Plan

Last June, Bob and Pat Endries presented to City Council a plan to revamp downtown, which would be their donation to the community. The plan included, among the highlights, a dog park, an ice skating rink, and space for recreational sports like pickleball and basketball.

Conversations about that project have not taken place publicly since. Bob Endries said in June that one aspect that would change the direction of the project is the potential involvement of the YMCA.

There likely will be new updates on the project in 2025.

Chicken Ordinance

The ongoing chicken ordinance discussion will continue this year. Discussion was tabled until this month by the Committee of the Whole on Dec. 23.