Habitat to break ground in Port for 13th home

PORT WASHINGTON - Habitat for Humanity Ozaukee will break ground for its 13th home in Ozaukee County at 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 17.

The ceremony will be held at the site on Portview Drive west of Spring Street in Port Washington.

The ceremony will feature a brief program with recognition of major donors, including Port Washington State Bank and St. Paul Lutheran Church. Light refreshments will be served.

Since June, the site has been buzzing with activity as the underbrush was cleared to make room for the Lutheran Early Response Team, which removed 41 trees on June 29 in preparation for the groundbreaking and foundation work.

“This project represents the collective effort and dedication of our community to provide safe and affordable housing to families in need,” Diana Eggold, executive director of Habitat for Humanity Ozaukee, said.

Habitat dedicated its 12th home in Grafton in 2022 — the third and final condominium constructed on a site donated to the organization in 2004.

They are the only Habitat houses to be built in Ozaukee County outside of Port Washington.

The organization has land to build three houses in Port Washington, including the current one.

Habitat builds modest homes for families who pay a no-interest mortgage and provide so-called sweat equity during construction.

The monthly mortgage payments then go to support other Habitat projects.

Its first house in the county was on North Park Street in Port Washington and was completed in 2003. The organization built eight more houses in Port before breaking ground for its first Grafton house, returned to Port for its 10th house and then built its last home in Grafton.

Habitat is able to build houses at a low cost because of donations of money, materials and in some cases land, as well as volunteer labor.

The July 17 groundbreaking ceremony will mark the start of Habitat’s raffle for a Milwaukee Tool M18 fuel trimmer/blower combo kit donated by Paul Drew, owner of Drew’s True Value in Port Washington.

Raffle tickets are $10 each or $20 for three and may be purchased at the groundbreaking, the Habitat office from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays and at the Summer Sounds concert in Cedarburg on Friday, July 26, where the drawing will take place at 9 p.m.

Tickets will also be available for a raffle of a Weber grill donated by Andrew Biebel owner of True Value Hardware in Cedarburg. The drawing will be held Wednesday, July 31, at Wayne’s Drive-In during the Dine to Donate evening.

Proceeds from the raffles will go toward the Portview Drive home.

For more information, call (262) 284-6880, email info@ozhh.org or visit ozhh.org.