Mt. Pleasant Residents Say Financial Burden is Unfair

About 60 Mt. Pleasant residents Monday night gathered before the Mt. Pleasant Village Board to voice their strident opposition to a proposed water and sewer project being built along a particular stretch of Highway V.

Residents who live on the section of Highway V north of Highway 20 would face assessments in the tens of thousands of dollars, and further connection fees if residents decide to hook up to the sewer or water pipe. Nearly all the residents being assessed and billed say they are being forced to bear an unfair financial burden for a project they did not even ask for.

The project has its origins in a 2004 water service agreement between the City of Racine and the Village of Mt. Pleasant. The agreement says that neighboring village of Caledonia can request to bring sewer and water along a county road without Mt. Pleasant’s approval, and Mt. Pleasant must help pay its proper of the project. The Village of Mt. Pleasant says that it is  legally bound to honor this agreement, and the sewer is going in whether Highway V residents like it or not.

Heather Cramer and her husband Matt Cramer wore neon green “Residents of Highway V” shirts to the meeting. Heather said she can’t believe the village board has taken so long to listen to residents’ claims.

“It’s a little disheartening to me,” she said. “Because the benefit is for the whole community, then the whole community should help pay for it.”

Mt. Pleasant resident Julie Hansen attended the meeting as well, but she does not live on Highway V. She spoke as a concerned party before the board. “There are good people here just trying to scrape by,” she said. “This is not about what the lawyers say you can do, it’s about what you should do.”

Hansen voiced the sentiment that the whole village should help pay for the project, instead of just the residents along Highway V. “As a resident of Mt. Pleasant and a taxpayer, I have no problem paying for this,” Hansen said.

Some on the Village Board  say that residents stand to gain in the long run from the project due to increased property rates. Residents have also been given a 20-year deferment to start paying their bills. The village is also making those payments interest free.

Village Board member Rick McClusky was disappointed in the way the village confronted this project.

“We’ve had our hands tied with these contracts for some years now,” he said. “I think we were lax in canvassing the citizens of Highway V.”

McClusky, in his final statement, expressed remorse for the village board’s tactics. “This is the first time, in fact, that a board member has gotten to have a discussion with a property owner from Highway V,” he said.

Fellow board member Anna Marie Clausen preached patience to the board and the crowd. She said the board is new to water and sewer deals like this. “We’ve never done this before. We’re new to this too,” she said.

The board will meet on Wednesday, March 23, to vote on moving forward with property assessments. A final vote on the project is expected to be in late April.