By Shelby Stewart
Staff Writer
Ortonville- A proposed downtown septic system project may begin this fall.
Long time area business owners, Jason and Jeremy Kratt are working to sustain their buildings, and others, in downtown area of the village.
“Right now we’re working with an engineer to put in a huge septic system,” said Jason. “Possibly the Pub all the way down to the feed store.”
The two are looking to upgrade the current septic system on the buildings they own on Mill Street. This year the systems have been overwhelmed and they’ve had to have them pumped multiple times a month, if not multiple times a week to keep business up and going. They say this is mostly due to the saturation behind the buildings.

Upgrading the system would cost around $200,000-$250,000, but it would allow the growth of their tenants, such as It’s the Little Things, Impact North, Hill Building, and Waggin’ Tails.
“This is going to be cleaner,” said Jason. “The way normal systems work, you get dirty water coming out to the drainage field. This water comes out so clean and that’s why this lasts longer.”
The new system would allow any of the tenants to add a coffee shop or restaurant of any kind, which is something the old system was not equipped to handle.
“This is something that might happen in six months, this might happen in a year, this might happen in two years,” said Jason. “It’s definitely happening.”
The Kratt brothers have been working to keep their tenants happy and in-business, especially during the Coronavirus Pandemic when a lot of small businesses have been struggling. In the past they have refaced and redone fronts of the buildings, redid the inside of some of the buildings, put new roofs on three of the buildings, put awnings on all of the buildings and helped to bring the mural on the side of Hill Building to life. Some of these projects were done with the help of the tenants as well.
“We’re going to bat right now for our tenants, we like our tenants,” said Jeremy. “Every one of them is great, every single one of them.”