VILLAGE OF MAINE, WI (WSAU) — Residents in Brokaw are preparing to get their water from the Village of Maine, according to a report in the Wausau Daily Herald. Documents for the changeover have been filed with the state Public Service Commission. The newspaper reports all 70 water customers have agreed to the change.
Maine is hoping the PSC will approve the change by October 1.
Also on October 1 the Village of Maine hopes to attach Brokaw to its municipal boundaries. Maine would get state and federal assistance to absorb some, but not all, of Brokaw’s debt.
The Village of Brokaw was no longer viable after the Wausau Paper Mill shut down in 2012. It’s water infrastructure was designed primarily to serve the mill, and the costs would have been prohibitive for the small number of homes within the village limits. Representatives from Maine, Texas, and Brokaw have been overseeing Brokaw’s finances in the interim.
The report from USA TODAY-Wisconsin says the Brokaw residents would continue to get water from the Wausau Water Works, and would continue to abide by an agreement not to sell the water outside the Brokaw service area. But Maine’s long-term plan is to create its own water utility and to develop its own water source. They’ve already done some test drilling for new wells.
