GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – It appears Brown County would like to keep the possibility open of relocating the downtown Green Bay coal piles to a new port site at the mouth of the Fox River, while also seeing if other companies would be willing to pay to use the same property.
Those possibilities appear to hinge on whether the state will allow Brown County to keep a $15 million grant that was awarded as part of the effort to develop the new port for the purpose of relocating the coal piles.
The decades-long effort to relocate the coal piles from the prime riverfront property they’ve been at for 124 years took a major hit earlier this month when county supervisors approved lease terms for the new port site that went against the desired terms of C. Reiss Company, the owner of the coal piles.
The county argues in a four-page resolution it became difficult to negotiate with C. Reiss after the company learned the $15 million grant could be reallocated to a different project if a deal wasn’t reached to move the coal piles.
The resolution claims, “allowing the County to retain its grant funds to develop its port (including a location for the coal piles) would force C. Reiss to either take a more reasonable approach when negotiating a lease, or to lose out on the opportunity, as opposed to tying the County’s hands by forcing the County to either accept the unreasonable demands of C. Reiss or risk the loss of Grant funding.”
The county admits the State Department of Administration informed it the $15 million grant was at risk of being reallocated to another project if a deal wasn’t reached with C. Reiss to relocate the coal piles.
“C. Reiss seemed to then consider the $15M in Grant funds theirs; which led to continued demands from C. Reiss to be granted a 100-year lease (the longest current Brown County Port lease is 25 years), demands which C. Reiss finally lowered slightly to 75-years shortly before the issue went to the Brown County Board of Supervisors for consideration, which was significantly longer than the 40-year term the County Board was ultimately willing to approve,” reads the resolution.
The $15 million grant is not the only grant at risk of being lost due to an inability to get a deal done to relocate the coal piles. The status of a $10 million federal grant is also uncertain.
$31 million in grants have been awarded to the effort to develop a new port at the former Pulliam Power Plant site.
The resolution states “it is not in the public interest for the County to provide indirect corporate welfare to benefit a private entity subject to whatever terms and conditions a private entity chooses to impose.”
The county claims C. Reiss made other demands during lease negotiations, including a “no competition monopoly on the Port property.”
If the resolution is approved, the county’s port director would issue a Request for Information to see if what other potential port operators would be willing to pay to develop the new port site.
In the lease terms approved by the county board, Brown County asked for C. Reiss to pay $110,000 per year to use about a third of the new port site. The payments would go up each year by either 2.5% or the Consumer Price Index, whichever is greater.
In its resolution, the county also points out its belief C. Reiss could have been sending new coal shipments for years to its Fox River Terminals, which is north of I-43 and closer to the new proposed location for the coal piles.
The county suggests the City of Green Bay could use eminent domain to “ensure its waterfront is developed to its highest and best public use.” Eminent domain allows a government entity to take private property.
The county board’s administration committee is scheduled to vote on the resolution on Thursday. The full county board would vote on it on January 15.
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