State and local leaders are looking for ways to fund repairs to the Cadillac sewer line – 9&10 News

Local and state leaders came out Friday to look at the damaged sidewalk near Wexford Jewelers in Cadillac and continue their talks on how to find money for costly repairs.

The aqueduct had been deteriorating for years, but it continued to get worse, prompting the city to put up a fence in April 2023 but since then, no repairs have been made.

The trail is located in the Wexford Jewelers parking lot.

The jeweler has been working to fix it but when he told the truth that no one owns the culvert, you are creating a big problem, when it comes to paying for it to be fixed.

Keith Terwilliger of Wexford Jeweler has had a front row seat to the sinking culvert. Since it’s near a retailer, he’s been sounding the alarm since the fence went up with concerns about potential flooding.

“It is worse than it was a month ago. I mean, it just gets worse. The worst thing is that the water holes are sinking. And as strange as it sounds, the area around the sinkhole is going down a lot,†said Terwilliger.

The city’s construction engineer Connie Houk-Boice said in the last inspection, parts of the culvert are completely missing, she said the city has a plan in case it fails completely.

“If that happens, they will come in here with pump trucks and pass them to push them so that there is no flooding that occurs in any of the nearby neighborhoods. We hope that we can get funding before that happens so we can get out here and get this right,†said Houk-Boice.

Houk-Boice said they have two renovation plans in place and the renovations should only take months to do, they just need the money to do the work.

He said the city is trying to take steps to get funding by taking temporary ownership of the culvert.

“The city is trying to come forward and help in that and be the recipient of those funds so that they can be distributed correctly. And you know, the contracts can be done, and the contractor can go out and do the work and take care of the funding correctly,†said Houk-Boice.

Meanwhile, local leaders are also looking to help.

State Sen. Michele Hoitenga said she is trying to get part of the estimated $7 million price tag to fix the culverts on both sides of Mitchell Street.

“Fixing it now will cost a lot less because we can fix the culvert, fix the parking lot. But if we wait until the disaster happens, it will be four times the level that is now to fix it,” said Hoitenga.

Terwilliger said it was encouraging that so many people came out Friday to inspect the waterway.

“It’s important to get that funding right away because according to the fire chief, the city manager and even Randy (who) works for the county emergency manager, they call it a “ticking time bomb,” Terwilliger said.