Barron (WQOW) - What to do with more than $300,000 of taxpayer money? That's a big question in Barron right now.
Late last month, the Obama Administration said any money left over from old earmarks needs to be spent by December.
Across the country, there's about $473 million in unspent highway earmarks. The money was approved between the years 2003-2006 and includes $2 million in unused funding for Highway 53 in Chetek, $935,000 for road work in St. Croix Falls and hundreds of thousands of dollars for water main, sewer and street improvements in Barron.
The White House says the funding should be used for projects that are ready to go, so construction workers can be put to work. Barron is one city caught in the middle.
The mayor of Barron, David Vruwink, says, "They gave it to us, they said 'OK, you can use it.' And now... they're drawing it away from us."
The City of Barron learned the Obama Administration is looking to reclaim unused earmarks. The grant was awarded back in 2005, so road improvements could be made to the city's industrial park. It was worth more than $2 million.
Vruwink says, "The grant gave us the opportunity to develop north of that and put a street all the way around, through the industrial park, all the utilities to each one of the lots, and lighting and so on."
Work on the north end was finished two years ago, but so far no one has moved in.
"Hopefully, we are going to have some businesses who are interested. We do have the railroad coming through town again. That's all being updated right now because of the frac sand company west of Barron," says Vruwink.
The city has $340,000 left from the industrial park grant. It wanted to use the money to make improvements to S. 3rd St.
The project was approved, but residents were not happy because sidewalks were required. They didn't want trees to be torn down or their yards made smaller, so the city looked for another street.
"We weren't just looking at streets that needed new blacktop or curb and gutter, we were looking at streets that needed other utilities, water and electric." explains Vruwink.
So the city chose W. LaSalle Ave., but now that project is up in the air because the White House wants the money back.
Vruwink says, "It's just very frustrating dealing with government grants because they have so many strings attached and it takes so much time to move. Where, if you'd have borrowed the money, you would have had it done years ago."
The mayor admits, there's also a big downside to borrowing. He says, "If we had to go out and borrow it... you know, it raises taxes and everything else."
The city is now reaching out to Senator Kohl and Congressman Duffy.
"We just this last week turned in letters of request and emails to both offices and we're waiting to hear back to see if they can help save our money. So hopefully our legislators are going to put enough pressure on to help us keep that money," says Vruwink.
Barron hopes to hear back from lawmakers next week. Since it takes time to plan road projects, the one in Barron may not begin until 2014. Because of that, the city could very well lose the rest of the grant.
