UNDATED (WSAU) — The Village of Maine and Town of Texas will receive $2.5 million in aid over the next five years to help absorb some of the debt of the Village of Brokaw.
Under their Collective Border Agreement, Brokaw and its assets will eventually be absorbed by Maine and Texas, including the debt caused by the closure of their paper mill in 2012. State Senator Jerry Petrowski (R-Marathon) and Representative John Spiros (R-Marshfield) arranged for the money to be moved in the state budget.
Petrowski says this is not a bailout of Brokaw, just a little help toward what will be a long process.
Sen. Petrowski said, “Here you have three communities that are dealing with a really unfortunate situation. You can go back farther than that, if you want to look at when the mill was there, and when the mill left, the design of the water and sewer system, everything, was based on the mill being there.”
The City of Wausau is still suing Maine for their incorporation process and both Maine and Texas challenging the boundary agreement entirely. Petrowski says this funding isn’t a legal opinion on those cases, but he does hope everyone can see eye-to-eye soon.
“I see, in all of this, opportunity for everybody to pull together. I think the future could be very bright with economic development and everything else, that is possible,” said Petrowski.
Maine and Texas will still be responsible for about $1 million of debt after all of the aid is received. Brokaw will be absorbed and will cease to be a municipality.
