PHOTO: Courtesy of WLUK
(WTAQ-WLUK) — A Northeast Wisconsin lawmaker is asking the state for an extension as a deadline for a grant that could help move coal piles out of downtown Green Bay looms.
Officials from Brown County, Green Bay and the piles’ owner, C. Reiss, have until next Friday to reach an agreement to move the coal, or the state says it will rescind a $15 million grant it awarded three years ago.
State Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto, sent a letter to Wisconsin Department of Administration Secretary-designee Kathy Blumenfeld asking for an extension.
In his letter, Wimberger wrote:
Pulling grant funding will be detrimental to an environmental remediation and major quality of life improvements for residents of Green Bay and the greater Brown County area. Moving the coal piles from their current location in downtown Green Bay to the redesigned Pulliam site will also open one of the city’s most impoverished areas to economic revitalization, including new mixed-used developments, housing projects, and further employment opportunities. Relocating the coal from its current location will support environmental efforts by shifting a hazard away from an area populated with nearly 1,700 residents to an area of the city zoned strictly for commercial activity, thereby reducing the threat of harmful contaminants making contact with nearby citizens. Port development will also remediate contamination from PCBs and fly ash around the port site.
On Thursday, Brown County Board Chair Pat Buckley said he remained hopeful the parties would meet the deadline.
While he declined to provide details of the proposals to move the coal, Buckley said one is to lease land at the county-owned former Pulliam Power Plant site and the other is to lease about 13 acres of county-owned land next to the Fox River Terminals, which is owned by C. Reiss’ parent company.
The $15 million state grant is almost half the $33 million the county has secured to expand the port to the Pulliam site.
Studies have shown the current land the coal piles sit on could garner about $150 million in new development.
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