Jim Sensenbrenner

Could Wauwatosa Dip Into Federal Water Project Funding Stream?

September 21, 2011 by The Political E...

The City of Wauwatosa is facing up to $84 million in sewer infrastructure work, and a lot of it means installing expensive new pipes:

For $34 million to $39 million, the city could install bigger pipes and a storage tank...

That's a big chuck of change, but the good news is that the city's Congressman, Fifth District Republican Jim Sensenbrenner, is already helping to prepare a federal grant plan to provide southeastern Wisconsin municipalities up to $100 million for water projects that include new pipes.

Note that the City of Waukesha, which hopes to get a big piece - - perhaps $50 million - - of the money to defray some of its possible Lake Michigan diversion expense, has said that other communities are eligible, too.

Said Daniel Duchniak, Waukesha's water utility general manager:

Waukesha, Chutzpah Country

September 6, 2011 by The Political E...

You have to hand it to Waukesha: It spent years fighting federal clean drinking water standards and dunned its water utility ratepayers big-dollar legal fees as inflation and the passage of time kept the meter running and added to the cost of the inevitable, eventual and predictable order-to-fix.

And new consultant and legal fees have been spent to create the inevitable and eventual and fix - - a controversial application to divert Lake Michigan water into Waukesha - -  and even though Waukesha is in the heart of one of the reddest, anti-big-government counties and area codes in America, it wants $75 million in federal grant subsidy to help defray some of its inevitable, eventual costs - - and its rabidly anti-spending, anti-earmark Republican Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner is already working on it.