A Green Bay alderman has a solution for our aging lead pipe problem. He would like to use Brown counties Lambeau Field tax revenue for the funding of some of the pipe replacements that need to be done.
Just last month more than 17-hundred Green Bay homeowners were informed by the city they could have unsafe levels of lead in their water. The solution is to replace the pipes, which can cost thousands of dollars per homeowner. But if a Green Bay alderman is successful, Brown County might front the money.
Of the over 17-hundred homeowners with lead pipe service lines in the ground in Green Bay less than 20 are believed to be on private property. Those are the folks that would need pay out of pocket to replace the pipes.
"We do assessments on street repairs, we do assessments on sidewalk replacements, there's enough assessments out there," says Alderman Joe Moore of Green Bay’s 6th District.
Alderman Moore says on average the cost of replacing the pipes can range anywhere from two to three thousand dollars. He would like to take care of that burden for the city and homeowners, by using the stadium district's excess tax revenue dollars.
"We dump a ton of money into our parks, we spend a lot of money on our streets and when you can start marketing your city as being lead pipe free, I think that's a really major step that we can make," adds Alderman Moore.
And while this is merely a proposal at this point, for those who need to replace lead laced pipes it might be a solution that city leaders can deal with.
Alderman Moore says he is in the early stages of proposing his idea's to committees. Within the next couple of weeks though he anticipates the matter being put on the council's agenda for discussion.
