GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – What is being viewed as a do-or-die vote will take place this evening to move the coal piles out of downtown Green Bay.
Brown County’s board of supervisors will take the vote.
On Tuesday, Green Bay’s city council showed its symbolic support for the plan by unanimously passing a resolution.
For 124 years, the western edge of the Fox River in downtown Green Bay has been home to C. Reiss’s large coal piles.
Wednesday’s vote will be taken to either move the coal piles two miles north to the former Pulliam Plant site or likely keep them in place for the foreseeable future.
“This is an opportunity that we’re not going to see again for a very, very long time,” said Green Bay City Council Vice President Bill Galvin. “For as long as I’ll live I bet.”
There appears to be at least two reasons why the coal piles vote is now or never. First, a majority of $31 million in grant funding that has been secured for a broader port expansion at the Pulliam site is at risk of being lost. Second, C. Reiss has had enough negotiating with Brown County, according to CEO Keith Haselhoff.
“We’re kind of at the point now where we’re asking ourselves like this is really kind of the bottom line for us, right?” Haselhoff told Green Bay’s city council. “We’ve compromised a lot over the last year.”
A lease agreement of up to 75 years calls for C. Reiss to pay the county $110,000 in the first year for about a third of the Pulliam site. Payments would escalate 2.5% a year for the first 25 years. C. Reiss would pay Brown County the “going market lease rate for port property” at the time of two options to extend the lease, with yearly escalators during each term.
“If the lease terms that we negotiated are not approved, C. Reiss will continue to profitably operate from its Mason Street location,” said Haselhoff. “To the extent that there are last minute changes to terms of the deal before the board’s vote tomorrow, we would consider that a rejection of the agreement we have negotiated in good faith with the county administration over the past year.”
Multiple county board members have expressed concerns. Some have said this would be moving an eyesore and health hazard from one to neighborhood to another. Others have also said they feel the county could get a better offer for the site from another company.
The vote will require two thirds support, or 18 of the 26 county board members.
“I think this is a real opportunity for them to be known for something that they did do that will be remembered for decades,” said Green Bay City Council President Brian Johnson.
If the coal piles do move, C. Reiss says it won’t sell the property. It would look to redevelop at least 10 acres closest to the Mason Street Bridge for mixed use. The remaining 25 acres would be for port activity or light industrial use, but would not include bulk commodity storage like the coal piles.
Wednesday’s county board meeting is at 6 p.m.
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