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Council approves MOU with Marathon County to pursue HUD lead-hazard grant
Summary
The council approved a memorandum of understanding with Marathon County to pursue a HUD Lead Hazard Reduction Capacity Building grant; the first two years focus on capacity building, and remediation funds are slated for later in the grant timeline.
The Wausau Common Council on April 29 approved a memorandum of understanding with Marathon County Health Department to implement a Lead Hazard Reduction Capacity Building grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The resolution, item 25-0424, passed 8-2 after members pulled the item from the consent agenda for questions about funding and administration.
Alder Tierney and others asked how the grant would treat administrative versus project-delivery costs; Tammy, representing the health department team working on the grant, explained that project-delivery time spent getting contractors trained, conducting risk assessments and community outreach would be direct program costs rather than administrative costs. She said the MOU structure permits those direct costs to be charged to the grant while the two-year initial period focuses on capacity building.
Tammy said about $500,000 of the grant is earmarked for direct remediation projects but that spending for remediation would not begin until year three; the first two years concentrate on contractor recruitment, training and public education. She said Marathon County must provide a 25% match on remediation funds and expects to meet or exceed that match with in-kind staff time and other resources; the city’s staff will not be responsible for that county match.
Alder Killian asked whether the resolution should explicitly state which county staff or positions would be billed to the grant; Tammy responded that the program manager would be charged to the grant at 75% of her time and department staff will track time used as match. She said the grant reporting will track time and that many staff duties counted as match are part of regular departmental responsibilities.
Councilors debated whether the MOU left the city exposed to unanticipated billing for multiple county staff. Tammy and staff said they expect the county match to be satisfied primarily through tracked staff time rather than additional monthly charges to the city. After discussion, the council approved the MOU 8-2; Alders Gisselman and McElhaney recorded the no votes on the consent-motion vote earlier in the meeting.
Speakers who addressed the item directly included Alders Tierney, Killian, Watson and McElhaney and Tammy of the health department.
