The Village of North Bay is a picture-perfect enclave of homes, manicured yards, and tree-lined streets tucked into the north side of Racine, Wis., overlooking Lake Michigan.But beneath the peaceful surface lurked an 85-year-old sewer system with concrete pipe and “break-in” laterals badly deteriorating under the relentless attack of hydrogen sulfide. And not only that, the sewer mains ran beneath the backyard property lines of each homeowner, not under the street.“There was no way we could excavate to repair the lines,” explains Rick Cermak, village trustee in charge of water and sewer. “Digging up everybody’s yard would have been impossible.”
