Council approves HUD lead reduction capacity-building MOU with Marathon County

The Common Council approved a memorandum of understanding between the City of Wausau and the Marathon County Health Department to implement a lead service reduction capacity-building grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes.

Councilors asked staff how grant dollars will be used, who will provide required matching funds and when direct remediation work can begin. Tammy (Marathon County/Public Health staff) explained the grant’s first two years are devoted to capacity building — outreach, contractor training, risk assessment and community education — and the remediation portion (approximately $500,000) is not available until roughly year three.

On administrative costs, Tammy said the grant permits only a limited percentage for administration (the MOU references a 20% cap). She clarified that staff time spent on program delivery — for example, a county program manager or staff performing risk assessments and clearances — is treated as program delivery rather than administrative overhead and can be charged to the grant or used as match. Tammy said the county will provide its required 25% match and that the city is not responsible for the county’s match.

She also told alderpersons the program manager at the health department is expected to allocate about 75% of her time to the grant and that the county will track staff time used as match. The memorandum calls for monthly billing for reimbursable expenses; some alderpersons asked whether the MOU should specify which positions will be billed. Tammy said the program manager would be the primary billed position and that routine departmental time spent on the program will be treated as match rather than billed as direct grant costs.

Alder Tierney and Alder Killian asked how and when remediation funds become available and whether the city would be billed for work by multiple county staff. Tammy reiterated the initial focus is capacity building and that direct remediation would begin after the first two years. The council approved the resolution to authorize the MOU; councilors asked staff to monitor billings and reporting closely as the program moves forward.

What this does: The MOU creates a local partnership to carry out HUD-funded capacity-building activities related to identifying lead hazards, expanding contractor and risk-assessor capacity, and preparing to carry out remediation work when that grant phase becomes available.