Highway & Transportation Committee - Regular Meeting

everybody call the roll please good morning joe baratka doug erickson here larry palachuk here jordan spacic jeff ulrich here all are present thank you items for discussion and possible action public comment Let the record reflect. No one is here for public comment. Anybody online? Star six to unmute yourself for public comment. Anything, Nick? Okay, we'll move on to communications. I have nothing. Any of the committee members have anything?

So, Mr. Chairman, yesterday I attended the Webex for the Highway 70 resurfacing project by the DOT. So that's a schedule in 2029, 19.1 miles starting from Fifield, going to the O'Neill County line, two inches of milled, and then they're going to resurface it. There's some bridge work and seven culverts that are going to be replaced. And they're just going to be doing one lane flagging for that. Here's a summary of that particular meeting, if you'd like that.

Did you attend that, Roger?

No, Larry, I was busy. But this is just preliminary information. Uh, plans, they're just, they're just doing a scoping of the project. So, um. Later on, I'll be more involved in. There'll be a Pre meeting prior, even to design even yet. So there's, there's, there's more meetings to come. So.

Okay, thank you. Just a question for that.

Just a quick FYI. I can vouch for Roger. He was doing Coney business. I saw anybody else folks for him.

Yeah, the meeting, there was minimal people in the meeting.

Do you have anything else on that, Jeff?

No, I mean, Rob Sommerfeld's office was on, Senator Jesse James' office was on, Schwamigan School Board or administrator and then a town of Fifield board member was on and the rest were DOT folks.

So again. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. Item number two, minutes from our August 5th meeting. What's your pleasure on that, gentlemen?

I will make a motion to approve those minutes.

Motion by Ulrich. Second. Second by Spacek. Any further discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Item three, five-year capital improvement plan. Roger, your moment in the sun. We have it in our packet. Yeah, we made some adjustments and cleaned it up.

So I guess if anybody has any further comments, questions, or concerns. So, like, all of it is contingent on funding. And sometimes even, like, if there is DOT work closer to the area where it would be better to move a project around. It's just they're there. The needs are there. So...

Anybody have any questions or comments on the five-year capital improvement plan?

Mr. Chair, if I may?

Yes, go ahead.

Funding request $3.1 million. That's been standard for quite a while here. It's not any higher or lower. My point is it's nothing new.

No, it's nothing new. I'm not requesting any above that for inflation. We'll just do what we do with what we got. Very grateful for what we get.

Okay. The equipment side of that plan.

Back on the highway plant, do you think there's going to need to be any rut wedging done on H? I know there's a lot of complaints out there already. At least the first three miles beyond that, it's not as bad. We did that last Monday. Oh, you did?

Good work.

No, but we haven't had a meeting for a while and whatnot.

It looks good for you, Jordan, and it's not even election year. Yeah.

No, I just got to become the board chair and move to the right side of town to get the right road done.

Facilities update.

Just a joke.

Five-year plan. We actually route-watched everything from town all the way outside. We came back on spots.

Oh, good. That'll make that better. Are there any other question on the equipment? Do we, maybe, maybe this is just on there just to be on there. Do we need a patch trailer every year? I guess. Cause there's one in 27, one in 28 and one in 30. And I feel like, didn't we just approve one? Yeah.

So that would be ultimately pulled off, I guess, but we have one other one too that needs to be replaced, but yeah.

It depends on what year we get it.

Well, yeah, I understand that, but I just. Ultimately, most of those items over there don't get financed. Sure. So I don't know if there's a plan.

So this is just the yellow equipment program. Right.

Trucks are separate to this. Trucks are separate. So the plow truck that we know we can afford every year and a pickup.

Other than that, it's kind of... And that's through the equipment fund?

Correct. Yeah, so... So this is additional... This is additional equipment that... Additional revenue outside of equipment fund. Yep, that's needed outside the equipment fund.

And this is the one that's truly dependent on, you know, if the financing is there. So... like Roger was saying, there's an equipment fund that we know we're doing the one truck and hopefully some smaller stuff that equals what 450 to 500 each year. And then we have one truck we usually borrow for. So that's outside of this yellow in a sense. And then now this is the new request is this yellow equipment, which we talked about at executive. We've brought it up at the board where That's where the board has to decide. Are we increasing the debt to start purchasing more equipment? Or at what rate do you do it? Do you do, you know, this is a great plan, but it needs to be extended every other year or something with borrowing?

Yeah, no big items were bought last year. So the year before that was a grader in a bull mower tractor.

Came close to buying a wheel loader. Yeah, close. Any other questions? Any questions on the facilities?

I think we went over this last time, but the bunkers are to be able to store rock and stuff at the shed. Is that something that needs to be We don't need like a roof or anything over anything like that? No. And that'll be out in the middle on the pad?

Yeah, the old sand pad. Okay. Yeah, so no base or no bottom. It's just concrete blocks. It's just the blocking and whatnot? Placing them, yeah.

Are there any further questions?

So it looks like we have multiple sites where we're storing different things. I see 704 North Lake Avenue, old 13. I see, you know, building a bunker here, building a building here for tar storage building. Is there a way of just doing one larger? building for everything versus having like multiple little buildings to maintain?

So the bunkers don't have any roofs on them or anything so that's just out on the sand pad but to store the tar is just the building because now, right now it sits outside and when after a period of a winter and some rain and they're wrapped in cardboard and everything just kind of it doesn't weather well outside. And

Correct me if I'm wrong, Roger, but just the way our facilities are set up. So our main shop here on 13 has limited storage, so we have another facility a mile and a half away. Got to have two loaders there if you have a loader out. And so if you need material at both spots, just for efficiency-wise, it makes sense. Just maybe the logistical side of it to kind of wrap your head around why he's looking at it that way. Is that kind of what you're thinking too? Yeah.

Didn't we discuss putting a lean-to off of the – Salt shed at one point.

I believe there was discussion on it, you know, and there again, I mean, that's kind of one of the spots where the loader storage would be. Sure. Would be like either lean to a building or something off. You know, you get into if it's totally enclosed and heated, then you get into all kinds of regulations that you got to do. So this would be more so cold storage type of where we can plug it in.

And I think when that was being discussed, wasn't it, we didn't have the sand shed yet, so the loader was either parked in the salt shed, which is a bad idea to have a loader in a salt shed, where now you have the sand shed that I'm assuming you're able to use for somewhat of a storage.

Yeah, so this summer we ran power out there, so now we can plug in an end loader out by the sand shed. Small improvements at a time. It's going well.

Doug looks in deep thought. Do you have any comments, Doug? Not really.

Just which shop roof are you talking here?

I'd be like, it'd be at our main shop here. So that steel.

The new part or no, the old one?

No, that's a flat roof, isn't it? On the new building?

Yeah, the phase one is, yeah, that. rubber rough with the stone on it. I had Josh, Josh went up there and looked at it and he said, that's, that's fine yet. But like, um, the rock shop and, and going forward that, so like there's, I don't know what the ceiling and the roof is made out of, but that stuff's falling down and the insulation is falling down out of the ceiling. It was built in 1939. Oh,

Some new white tin would probably brighten it up in there a little.

When that was finished, there was a big beer party there and a picnic and a dance. Free beer you missed, Jordan.

Were you alive then, Larry, in the 39? Yeah. No.

Okay. I paid attention listening to old timers. Any other questions on our five-year capital improvement plan? If not, I'll entertain a motion to accept it and pass it on to county board. Or does it have to go to executive first?

It would go to the budget process. Okay. You guys are motioning to say this is what we want to forward to the budget, and then we'll put it as best we can. The executive will look at it, then the board will look at it. I'll make that motion.

Motion by Baratka. I'll second. Seconded by Spacek. Any further discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Rice County Highway Department road construction projects to be finished, financed with short-term debt in 2027. Highway and Transportation and Executive. Nick? You have something? Are you going to take that, Roger?

I guess it's just the same as every year, right, for the past few years.

Yeah. So this is just getting ahead of it so that if this is what's going to go on the budget, we can get those. What we like to do is get these resolutions saying we are going to borrow done sooner than later. So it's not to the budget process. And in November, you're trying to get them done.

This really sets up the budget prior to the budget.

Are you going to borrow the 3.1? Are you going to borrow the same for equipment? Are you going to borrow those things? So it's reviewing that to get that process started so that when we put the budget forward, those numbers are already in it saying you as a board have made that decision. It has to be a three-fourths vote by the full board to borrow money. Okay.

So you're looking for a motion on that term? Yes. I'll make that motion too. I'll second.

Motion by Ulrich, second by Erickson. Any further discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? So carried.

Larry, can I ask you a question quick? So for that, I do have a resolution ready, but I didn't put it on the agenda as a resolution. Do you want that signed today or no?

It's not on the agenda. We can't. Okay.

It's not on the agenda as a resolution. That's fine. It was in our mailbox. Right.

It's just, is this what the amount you want? You want to do the normal amount, the $3.1 million executive will review it. We have a process. Yeah. So you guys are comfortable with the 3.1 based on your the list is really what it comes down to.

So that's just a preliminary proof of the draft of the resolution.

Are you comfortable with that? Obviously we'd like more, but...

That is fine. I mean, we did a phenomenal amount of work this year. It was good and dry? It was good and dry, yeah. But too dusty.

Trust me, I know Little Chicago was really dusty the last three weeks. I don't know how people live on gravel roads.

So for now, we're going to treat that as information item, Meredith?

Correct.

Do we need to meet before the... No? Okay.

I believe it's a resolution for the future, and that's just a number for information and discussion.

I'm guessing the question is, does this committee have to approve the resolution before it gets to executive? My feeling is the answer is no, but I don't know.

No, I'll have to look at history, but it doesn't need multiple committees to approve it. You guys are recommending 3.1. Executives building the budget. They'll bring forward a resolution 3.1. We'll go from there. We have time. We'll map it out and make sure we get everybody, but I think that's where we'll go with it.

Are you finished Nick? OK. Item 5 price County Highway Department 28 through 32 equipment improvement program highway and transportation. What's your pleasure on that gentleman?

I'll make a motion to approve the resolution.

Motion by Spacek. 2nd second by Ulrich. Any further discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Item 6, resolution for facilities improvement program, highway and transportation. What's your pleasure on that? I'll make a motion to approve. Motion by Spacek, second by Baraka. Erickson.

You got to make sure he's here today. Might be awake.

Any further discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Motion carried. Item number seven has been crossed out. Price County Highway Department policy billing for requested assistance. Roger.

So the state of Wisconsin is not taking on any more customers, correct?

So as far as when it comes to... We've been put on the list when they do because they have too many outstanding customers right now. Thank you. When they reopen up, then we'll be contacted to apply. But they do have a trip that we could apply for if we want to.

A trip?

Tax refund interception plan.

We don't charge for that.

They can use any of these.

Sarah likes to remain in the back row silent.

Trying to make Brad remember everything.

Good luck.

So currently, the state doesn't take any more customers because of the fact that they have too many outstanding ones that they're going after. So we've been put on a list. So when they do start taking people back in, they'll contact us and then we can go through that process. Right now they do have a trip one that we could do if we wanted to, which is tax refund inception plan. That one though, Isn't, you know, that's kind of a base by base kind of situation, though, that's not actually an agreement with them long term per se.

I got at this point, we'll just do as we previously will try and build on instances like this, whether or not we can get the landowner to reimburse us through their insurance or whatever happens at this point. This is for assistance on emergencies? Yep. So if we get called out on for whatever it is and that we can try to recoup some of our funds from, I mean, especially like when we have a guy go out twice on a weekend, you know, we're paying overtime. It gets expensive by the time we send equipment and men out.

Okay.

So for now, that's an informational item. Correct. Item nine, highway mechanic recruitment.

Roger. So we have been reaching out to other counties. I believe Sarah has most of that information.

You're going to make me talk on all of this, aren't you?

So I reached out to the surrounding counties around us. Ashland, Iron, Lincoln, Oneida, Rusk, Sawyer, Taylor, and Vilas. So we have Most of them have anywhere between 10 years of service to one year. Vilas has turnover in the last three years. And the wages range anywhere from Like Ashland currently has 27 and 26. Iron is at 31 and a half. Lincoln is, they start at 2566. Oneida does have two positions, which is mechanic and fabricator. And then theirs is, the mechanic makes more than the fabricator does. And then Rusk starts at 24. They actually have open positions in shops and they have been trying to get somebody to fill that for quite some time. Sawyer County is at $28. Taylor County starts at $26. And they go all the way up to $34. And then Vilas County has three different positions. They have an assistant shop supervisor, which is below the shop supervisor, a mechanist, and a mechanic. The mechanist does have a diesel mechanic degree. And they do prefer that a mechanic has at least two years of experience and knowledge and willingness and experience for large trucks. And their mechanic starts at $25 and goes up to $32. And then their mechanic gets $2 extra.

Which county was that?

Vilas County.

What is our current range?

Starting then 20, 24, 35 to 28, 41. Okay. Thanks.

And the counties that we mentioned, like the ones that are a little higher are higher on every job across the board. And the ones that are a little lawyer are right. So we're mechanic pay. Our pay is right in range.

I think what their, their mechanic, they do. Oneida does say that mechanics get $3 more than their, um, operators, um, So they're in the same range as their operators, but they get $3. So they're in the same kind of like ours. They're in the same categories, but they get $3 more. I think that's kind of where we're having that issue, right?

Do the mechanics get the November to April bump?

Yeah.

Which is about a dollar and a half or two.

than anything outside of their 10 hours or shift or whatever it is. Again, I don't think it's wages compared to other counties. No, it's not county to county.

It's the outside world.

Right, but also the outside world doesn't offer... We talked to previous employers of... those type of jobs in the area they don't have 401ks they well they have a 401k usually but not like we do where it's matched wrs they don't have health insurance if it is it's really expensive so it's the benefits offset that two dollars or three dollars that you're seeing at these other outside agencies um a lot of the discussion we've had and looked at is If we were to go to like a tiered system where it's like we have a mechanic tech where it's there's a job description that says these are the basic skill sets you need to have. Cool. Some days you're going to work with on bigger things than what the general job description is. And then you have a mechanics one. that has to have a degree, that has to have a certificate. And with that, you get additional pay. You're expected to work on bigger things. The biggest problem is right now, you know, you send off a job somewhere else, it costs you a little bit more. Are you going to recover that if you have somebody that allegedly could do it, right? Are you going to cover that cost by saying, okay, we're going to keep that fix in-house. You saved a couple bucks there. Our problem historically is even if you said I wanted a diesel mechanic or a specialized thing, is we struggle recruiting in northern Wisconsin and we end up going, cool, you're really eager to learn and you're good at fixing the tractor or you owned a semi truck or whatever it might be. And we say, come work for us. And they do a great job. But then you're not following what you put in place to try to recruit those people hire, you know, those specific things. So say we did a tiered system here, it'd be dangerous to say, okay, well, you've been here five years, you get that, but that's not actually what we're recruiting or trying to entice to come here. So you still have the open position at the tech version. I do think it's a branding thing too. We're recruiting for mechanics, so only mechanics are seeing that, saying, well, I can go work X, Y, or Z and get five bucks more an hour. Are we actually looking for a mechanic with a certification? Are we looking to make sure we have somebody that can get the little stuff done, keep the trucks moving until we can get them to the get the motor rebuilt somewhere else. So again, we're working towards a solution. I don't want to jump into a solution that's just going to snowball us somewhere else.

To me, a mechanic should cover everything from replacing a light bulb to being able to overhaul an engine or a transmission. And I would hope we could find somebody like that And if we go to a tiered system... Or a technician, is he going to say, well, that's not my job. I'm not going to change a truck tire. I'm not going to change out a truck spring.

That's a management issue. If someone came to Roger, or not Roger, but if Roger went to Vance right now and said, you're changing that tire, Vance should be out there helping change that. I mean, that's just other duties as assigned. So if you get somebody with that attitude, that's not who you want working for you. So that's a different issue.

So just a thought here, and maybe it's way off the mark, but a lot of what I'm hearing is the new employees coming in don't want, they don't look at the benefits, they look at the dollar, the wage they're getting. Is it too much of an issue to have you come in at this wage that's on our scale, you get the benefits that we have, which are all laid out, or you come in and you get this hourly wage. These are your benefits you get, but your perks, your, um, uh, boot allowance, whatever it might be that's an extra perk that they're not looking at is actually incorporated into their hourly wage for the year. So that's the wage that they get, but they don't get all the stuff on the side. Give the employee coming in, or even the employees that are here, the option, I want the hourly wage and no perks. Now, I know that's...

I know where you're going with this, but just hear me out a second.

I understand it's not going to be easy. Can it be done?

I'm just throwing something out there to think about. With WRS, we can legally not do that. Say, hey, you work for us and not get it. After 1,200 hours, you're automatically qualified for now.

There's a different way to look at it. WRS has nothing to do with the perks benefit.

But that's a huge benefit. But then everybody would say, I don't want to turn in my receipts. It's a pain in the butt for an employee to return and just give me the $1,000. Yeah.

Or $500. So it's on their wage, and we get the wage up.

Right, but the reason we did a program like that is it's a reminder that you got something every quarter rather than, oh, my wage went up $0.08. What I think we could look at, and this is, again, just because we're spitballing in the middle of a meeting, which is always dangerous, but instead of employees, do we look at contractors? Yes. you come in, you have to have all your own tools. We'll pay you 35 bucks an hour, but you're a contractor. You got to pay your own insurances. You got to pay all your own stuff. You come in, we give you the facility, sit down and be a, you know, you're a contractor. I know there's a lot of businesses that look at, you know, what are your W-9 or employee instead of a W-2. It may be an option. Um,

Are those people out there? Is that anybody?

And again, somebody who's done this in the past, I got a message. It's like, maybe it's $40, maybe it's $50 an hour that says, but then we don't have that 45, 50%. We don't have all the costs on it. But then I would guess two months into it when that person goes, I'm paying 15% of my... self-employment tax i have to do both sides of the social security i have to do all my own expenses i don't have health insurance they'll see real quick but somebody might want that there may be a contractor out there that wants to be just give me a spot and i'll fix all your stuff yeah and i'm not saying go to that i'm just throwing ideas out there because it sounds like we're stuck

We're stuck between what Roger would like to see and we're stuck between what admin's looking for. And we're trying to digest how do we move forward here to get something accomplished. So I'm, like I said, I am not, so for HR out there, I'm not saying, I'm just saying that let's look at every possible option we can, which is what we talked about last meeting. And what have we looked at from last meeting? What did we look at differently than what we've been working on? Yeah.

I don't think we're stuck. I think we're just being cautious because if you do this, there's a domino effect, right? Because then all of a sudden the social workers go, well, we haven't had a social worker for years and we need this. It's the domino effect that really, the wages aren't wrong. I mean, you listed off all the regional wages. It's a people problem. Now, do we create a schooling program? Come work for us as a tech and we'll school you and we'll get you the certifications and you stick with...

I mean, we basically do that for the sheriff's department and the... Social workers.

Well, CDLs, but we've also been burned on that also.

Yeah. Getting burned in the past doesn't mean we don't continue to do something in the future because, you know, one person is one person when it comes to that. Yeah.

Nick, are wages still figured as... 50% of your hourly rate?

Benefits, yeah. So it's always tough. We use about a 40%, but like I think you said, your rate's a little higher. Our rate right now is 68%. Yes, 68%. So you figure you have somebody making $50,000. A health insurance plan is $34,000 for family. So then you had to add 6% on top for WRS. You got to... You know, your FICA, Social Security, that's where it all of a sudden it accelerates real quick on the total percent.

Even that $2 an hour really multiplies quickly.

Yep.

Absolutely.

So I think we need to keep working. I think maybe it is a schooling thing. Maybe it is a expectations thing. I just... I get nervous with just adding steps because then we just go, oh, you've been here the longest, move up.

And the number of people in the shop aren't that many. So if you start tiering them pretty quickly, everybody's going to know who everybody is from a tier perspective as well. Yeah.

Yeah.

I like the education piece of it. Cause again, you know, trying to encourage folks in EMS, I know apprentice animals will pay for insurance or pay for the tuition. If you go on to be an EMT, as long as you stay there for X number, you know, growing them from the inside and getting them rotated up, you can, You can train people to be a mechanic, but you can't train somebody to have the right attitude to come to work. So if you find the right person, you can train them to do just about anything, you know.

And it would be interesting to look at, like, so if you found an individual who's interested in getting their, we would call a certificate, right? We'll assist you with getting your certificate. You'll get paid while you're, you know, if you have a couple classes, whatever. Social workers, it's always at night and weekends. But they get test days. They have to go take a test. But say you look at a certificate program. maybe it takes them a year or two to get through that while they're working here. Well, if we can get somebody that year two to four, a lot of times they stick around cause then they start to see the WRS. They start to see the health insurance. They start like, you got to get them in the loop. So it may be a, and that's an easy fix, right? We go to the admin, you add it to the handbook and you, um, work through that program. And then you advertise saying, look, we're looking for eager individuals who have the ability to fix things and we'll help you with your certificate.

The thing is with an outside contractor, you know, you aren't going to find anybody to come and work for you for 50 or $60 an hour. It's going to be a minimum of a hundred up to 150 or more.

I know when we call Fabic to come and work on something, it's usually $1,000 just to drive to us and back. And that's not even the hourly wage what the mechanic's getting paid.

And that's a business. I think that's $215.

And there's probably not enough work for that individual 40 hours or even 30 hours a week.

One of the problems up here is there's just not enough people go by the front door. You know, it's...

It seems like Price County is more of either you're here retired or it's a seasonal home.

Yeah, well, in the census, the last two census have been going down and we're beginning to be a retirement county up here.

Would there is another unique way to look at it? Is there a county that we could combine with that to have a certified person that bounces back and forth? You know, would it be easier to recruit somebody to, you know, for the bigger stuff that works multiple locations? I know everybody needs mechanics, so that's a hard one.

Yeah, I think it would be pretty hard to pull a mechanic out of somebody's shop because as soon as that guy comes up here or here or wherever, they're going to be calling us like, this broke down. We need them back.

And you split it two days a week at each one, so he gets a half a project done each week. And that's –

And again, throwing everything out there, but I do like the education peach. If that's, you know, there may be, and we don't want to do age, but an individual that's out there that's, you know, I really want to do this and it's expensive to get those kinds of certificates.

But what certificates do you list that help increase your rate? That's the hard part.

I mean, what do we need to have them working on our stuff? What is the expectation?

I guess I'm assuming, is it Rhinelander or Wausau, the technical colleges that would be offering these types of certifications, or do we have that in Phillips here? No.

I don't think Wausau or Rhinelander. Yeah, I was going to say Wausau.

So, ultimately, you'd want a person that's, you know, very good in diesel mechanics. The ability to, you know, everything now is you hook up a computer and be able to read. Tom does a very good job at that. But, you know, Tom is really the only... guy that's, that's decent on a computer. I mean, there's periodically once in a while, we'll have a guy come and assess Tom and help him find things, which he's also learning at the same time.

So from let's, let's, let's just unpack that for a second. So you're saying that there's staff members currently that are not tech savvy and

Well, you know, as new trucks come, there's new parts and components to these trucks. It changes every year. As the next tier comes of the diesel, things are changed with it. And they're also on our end. Me and Mike have talked, you know, maybe at some point here, too, we're going to have to look at updating our computer and our programming that what we can communicate with the trucks with. Because right now we have... We have issues with the Kenworths communicating with the Kenworths and getting the information from our laptop to the Kenworth to actually diagnose some of these issues. So, I mean, when it comes down to, I mean, the ideal candidate would be, he would be very good at that part and he would be good at just the components of the new tier system on the diesel and diagnosing those issues. Transmissions are another one of our issues, you know, because this deaf stuff kind of does kill us a bit. You know, it's hard on the trucks. With our plow trucks, the rate of speed that they're going, you know, they're going 25, 30 miles an hour. They seem like they want to regenerate a lot, and we're having issues with the, I don't know, I botch it, but like the dowsing rods or something, or dowsies for the, The DEF system. So, yeah, then they'll go in the limp mode. Now you've got a truck stuck. At the time, it's always the farthest point of the county away, it seems like. And then you've got to try and get this truck back to the shop. They can drive five miles an hour. But at a certain point, the truck just says enough is enough, and then it quits.

You know, the crux of this situation here is we have equipment that's pre-DEF, pre-emission to work on, and we have... Some that's the latest, greatest, out of the box.

I guess where I was going with your comment about having one or two people that have that expertise to do that, is there a way that we can... Expand that and have a bigger depth and breadth of individuals that can do that. And what does it take to do that? Is that internal in-services? Is that internal competencies? What does it take to become proficient at reading diagnostic equipment? Is that from the vendor that we get the equipment from training more staff on how to use it?

I guess, Jeff, I've never really researched it. I'm sure that there's... you know, classes at NTC that would help assist somebody with that. How long the class takes, I don't know. I mean, is it six months? Right, yeah.

Is it a two-day, eight-hour class? Is it a, like you say, is it a six-month thing? I don't know, but again... just having that additional knowledge within the folks that we currently have, and then that to build on with who we have to get to the other pieces of this puzzle. Again, just like Nick said, talking out loud in the middle of a meeting and brainstorming can be dangerous, but just trying to think of it outside of the box type of deal.

Does the manufacturers offer classes like a new truck?

Not that I've seen, no. You know, they, you know, so usually like if you buy a, you know, a truck with a, whatever, a Detroit and the transmission, I think you can go to the dealer and get all the information to put on your laptop. So that way you can talk to that truck.

Scan the QR code.

Yeah. You know, and, but as far as classings for diagnostic, that I don't know. I never really researched that.

And I don't know what, the technical colleges in the area offer, whether it's Chippewa Valley or Wausau, Rhineland or Marshfield. Again, I'm kind of on that loop, unfortunately. Sure.

I guess, I don't know, is this committee good with the department sending people off for things like these if this is in the future, if this is what we need, even not just looking for an individual, but just our current staff to try and keep them

Some of the problems that happen with this equipment, the dealerships are throwing their hands up. We don't know what to do with it. We can't fix it.

The other part of the training part is, and it's always a struggle for training for everybody and staff, is the time. You've got a limited amount of staff basically to do the work you've got to do. Where do you find the time to train them? And I know you struggle with that just on your required trainings. Now we throw in some other stuff that is another complication. So like I said, it's not a simple issue.

The hard part is without training, you fall farther and farther behind. Exactly. You're going to have to grow people, but that's the only way to succeed. And it's going to save you money to send somebody for two days to go learn something. Or like I said, if we can hire a eager individual and train them up and get them for the next 20 years, you're, you're way ahead.

And do they have a train to trainer model? where you get your super users here that are training your other staff at whatever staff meetings, whatever you have that way.

And historically we've had some really good mechanics that they're lone wolves, right? They want to just let me be good at what I'm good at. And I don't want to train and that's hard to go ahead. I don't want to lose you because I'm going to force you to train somebody, but also we need your help to make sure we're better here. And there's, yeah. We can look at through admin to start paying for certificates in that area. It's a good first start. Again, based on Sarah's research, we're not in a unique situation. This is across the state, mechanics, highway in general, jobs in general for a lot of our positions. We'll keep working at it.

Okay, I guess that's the best we can do on that for

For today, we still haven't had any applicants come in the last month and a half. Whatever.

OK, well, it's an information item will keep working on it. Number 10 Whistler report.

Yeah, so you got a shared the wish letter report. I believe, I don't know, Meredith, if you can pull up the Whistler report from last year or not. I tried. Nick sent an email right before.

I was leaving the office and I was like, oh. And sorry, I was the one that sent it late last night because I thought about it. And in reference to the email for everybody else's, I think on the last page there shows kind of the conditions of ranges from 1 to 10. The question that I asked Nick that he referred to Roger is can we look at that graph but take and have five years' worth of data to see is our Whistler report trending better or worse, based off the monies that we've been investing in?

I'll tell you right now, it's trending better. Exactly. This number speaks volumes. This number right here?

The 18-point?

Yeah, up in the 50s.

Right. It's just a nice visual to show.

And I don't know in Whistler if I could get a five-year graph like this or not. I'll do some digging, but at first glance in Whistler, I couldn't find it.

I think I'm a pack rat, and I bet you I could find the one I presented when we first started the funding thing. Oh, I think I've got one in my drawer here.

You might. Take a lot of digging.

So I spoke with Jules, and she'll send it to the highway department at the end of the day. I do have it in my files if you want me to share.

Okay, I didn't know if somebody could print it off and share.

Yeah, I could share it on the screen if you'd like.

Okay, that would be good. Last year's? Yeah, so this would be just from... So we would see the difference from what we did last year compared to... If you look at what we did this year, so which we did, County Highway D and H with D, that portion of D was in a three to four, and a portion of H was in a one, a one to two. And then also, which is over on the far side, YY, so we assisted Lincoln County, with seven miles. So you can see that's in a three to four. So that'll be dropping off as well. So that'll be going into a 10. So we are growing. And if you look everywhere, it's green. That's what we've done in the last five years, which I'll tell you right now is huge compared to most adjacent counties as far as mileage in a year. But as you can see, there is a lot of red left on this map that we haven't touched yet.

And the lion's share of that is because we've been borrowing money to fix the roads. And that's about the only way it's going to get done anymore.

So you can see where your investment is going.

Mm-hmm.

Also, that number's going to change because D and H aren't on this. Correct. So you're going to take 17 miles out of the 1 to 4 range and put it in the 9 to 10 range.

So 16 miles of D and H and then 3 1⁄2 of YY is ours.

Yeah. So 20 miles basically is coming off of the 1 to 4 and going to the 10.

It should be a 10. So, yeah, I mean, we did 20 miles of new asphalt this year. Yeah.

Yeah, kudos to our guys for having D&H shouldered. I drove by YY on Monday, and it's still not done. I feel like that was done getting paved a while ago already.

So Jason Lemmers in Lincoln County is in charge of the shouldering aspect. They're having issues with the DNR, getting permitted on a pit that they were in previously, so... And then now getting his contractor in to do the crushing. So, yeah. All complaints, I've been pushing it over to Jason.

Can you go down to the percentage? Oh, got to rotate that one too. Yeah. Yeah.

So what you're saying, Roger, then on this particular graph, the section one and twos and threes and fours have not been taken out of the stuff that you've done this year. Correct.

Yeah. So as we update Whistler now after the projects are done, so we'll see that change after the roadway is complete.

I'm going to share a quick too. So yesterday or Monday, it's called the Green Book by Ford Analytics came out. So when we discuss spending, so you can pick demographics, economic development, financing, so total spending. But if you go to highway spending, it goes by county. So anything in the light blue is up to $114 per person. $114 to $161 is the medium blue. If you go to green, it's $161 to $215, and then more than $215 per person that you spend on your highways. So if you hover over Our region, it tells you how much. So Price County does spend a lot per person. So we spend $477 per person on our highway system each year. Sawyer County is also in that dark color. They spend $218. So we double most counties when it comes to the high. Rusk is at $376. They're unique. If you follow Rusk County, they did like a $10 million bond like four years ago and spent it all the first year. And then now they're just paying for it. So they're not doing... multiple projects every year where we're in and out in and out and so we're in a sense a different way ahead because they tried to do something but then they just were like one big kick at it and then it was like but now what um uh taylor county is 199 irons 229 ashland's 162 again we hear about ashland and they don't do a lot of projects um

Does that include state work? Do you know?

I believe this is what you put on your levy for county spending. So again, we're, I think we're the highest in this. Oh, 415 here. So Adams, we're still higher, but Adams County, Marquette's 351, Green Lake's 269. The hardest, Iowa County, $747 per person. Yeah. Right. Yeah. the hardest part is like if you actually look at like a brown county it says 90 per person but they're spending a hundred times what we spend on road work and they have per capita and they have less roads right so that's the problem is per miles is really what you should yeah how many miles of county road are there in brown county i couldn't i mean there is a i can look it up yeah Are we able to share this link? Yeah, it's a forward analytics thing. It went out with WCA last on Monday, but it does, you know, spending per person, total spending, you know, we are not the highest in our region, even though everybody says we have high taxes. We're at $1,887 per person, where Iron County's at $3,730 per person. Ashland's at $1,000. 1,900. Bayfield, 2,400. Sawyer, 1,900. Russ, 2,300. So it feels like we spend a lot, but regionally, we're not as... 117 miles of county trunk road.

In Price County? In Brown County.

Oh, in Brown. And we're 451 lane miles, so what's that, two... Yeah.

We don't get to count our summer residents at all?

No.

So anyways, it's an interesting way to look at it. And I get it. It's tough. We have high numbers.

Nick, do you know, Doug had a good point there. Is that per capita of residents in the county or taxpayers period in the county?

Residents. That's my understanding.

50% of our tax base.

14,000 people.

Door County is huge. Vacation stuff. Yeah.

So, I mean, it's an interesting cause like county property tax rate. So a percentage, I mean, across the state, there's a lot of dark colors and there's a lot of light colors, but again, it comes down to value of property and, and all those things. And it changes real quick if you have a good equalized value year, but just something to play with in the future. It's your green book information, but we do spend on highways.

Well, at least it's moving in the right direction. Yeah. Slowly but surely show it slowly but surely going on the tracks right there. So any other questions on the Whistler report?

Any comments? Information item construction report for County highways D&H.

Yeah, so County Highway D and H, the shouldering is done. So basically what we have left after today, they're going to a little bit of shouldering left today. They're going to be doing driveways and then the line painting is going to be coming potentially in the next two weeks. So those projects will be finished up. All the guardrails been done on the two bridges on County Highway D. And the additional signs were added. That was a part of the HISA project. And then after this, it's just going to be maintenance items for the rest of the season, transition in the winter.

Can I ask you, on line painting County A from North A, is that happening this year or not?

I guess I'd have to talk to Vance if that's on the list for updating center line.

Just the white lines, there is none.

They're faded bad. Yeah, we've done, we did D, or not D, B north, or B, B south, B, parts of E, through Logerville, F. I mean, line painting is expensive. is that something that you have rotation we do each year yeah we try to do um 20 to 30 miles of line painting a year but um and ultimately you don't want to paint what you're going to do coming up shortly for new asphalt but yeah that piece of a isn't really on the radar yet but

Any other questions on D&H? Comments? Turned out well.

The ride, I think, could have been a little bit better, but.

Yeah, you gotta get a newer vehicle.

Take your pickup, not a triaxial. OK. I'll accept the report on D&H. Department reports.

roger um i don't have a lot i didn't besides that my day-to-day stuff um they did transition a little bit out of so um wcha did merge some committees together so now it is i gotta look here and see utility um and TAC and ACME all can merge. So now it's Tech Advisory and Engineering Standards Committee. So, which basically they're just kind of putting more people in one committee and then just smaller subcommittees off of that now. So there's still Tech Advisory Subcommittee and a Utility Subcommittee. That's the only thing really new at WCHA. Other than that, I mean, I'll be October. I'll be a couple of conferences, a bridge preservation conference and airport and tribal meeting in October. So road tour will have to be somewhere between the first week of October or the third week of October, Larry, just so you know.

Third week sounds better. Think of October. The 7th won't work?

No, I'll be out. I'll be... Bridge Preservation, I believe, is in Chicago. Oh, 7th, I would be okay there.

I'll be gone.

She has to tell me.

She almost has to tell me daily what's going on.

That's awesome.

Anything else for the commissioner report? Airports.

Mike's been cutting grass. The assistant is out on medical leave right now, so it's just Mike by himself, but he's just mowing and taking care of planes as they come in and out. Not much been going on there. There's a potential, depends on whether or not the BOA gets their the funding in place, whether or not they might break ground on the T-hangers yet this fall. But Carl was unsure yet on whether or not the BOA funding will come in on time. No maintenance items this year will be done. No crack filling next year, I guess, Brian, is what I was then told by the BOA. Great. dams dams we need rain um so everything is everything's low right now so the way things are we don't even have to put out psa for a drawdown because everything's low have you is it below our drawdown rate already yeah yeah how's the complaints been um okay i guess and i uh Dave said there was a request coming in as far as wanting what the DNR is requiring for flows because the DNR requires an amount of flow coming out of Solberg and along and on all these dams. And so I just told Dave to reach out to Ryan Jarvis and And let them know that, you know, the request has come in for, you know, somebody wants this information. So Ryan may be changing up some things a little bit now. But we'll see. It's like he wants to redact some of the previous things that he had put out there. But we'll see.

Well, it's something we have to live with. Nothing we can do about it.

No, I mean, beside everybody running their garden holes in Solberg, that's the only way you're going to bring the water up.

Yeah, but they're all running the garden holes out of the Solberg to water the garden.

It's low everywhere.

Yeah, you look at creeks and rivers, there isn't really nothing flowing anywhere.

We're down 14 or 15 inches even.

Okay. Highway crew.

The crack-filled bridge approaches on state and county boom mode. D north of Brantwood. Patch state and county highways. Ruck paved for 49,000 feet of County Highway H. Did a 3,000 feet of patch paving. So we worked with American Asphalt. We had their paver, three of their operators. It was our tack truck, our rollers, our trucks. So we did. That was yesterday. Turned out all right. I mean, for what the road was, it's better. Shoulder. Where was that at?

That was on?

8S. S, okay. Yeah, we did three spots in total. The one spot was closer down towards, I don't know what that road is, by Franz. Oh, sure. Yeah. It dropped off really bad. Most of the time in the spring, that whole intersection was almost water, so we kind of, we brought, put some recycling there, raised it up, so. we're going to do some ditching out there. So hopefully that isn't underwater come springtime again, but, um, and when we shouldered H and D, so that was pretty much last.

Any questions for Roger on that fleet and facilities?

Um, not too much going on in, in the shop, neither. Um, just doing routine maintenance and repairs on, on the trucks and all the equipment. Um, When they get some time for that, they go on the V boxes and just making sure they're ready to go for this winter, going through some of the plow equipment. That's about it.

Okay, are there any questions or comments for Roger on any of the items? If not, we'll move on to vouchers. What's your pleasure on the vouchers?

I'll make a motion to approve the vouchers as presented.

Motion by Spacek.

I'll second that.

Second by Baratka to approve as presented. Any further discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Road tour in October. 7 a.m.?

I cannot do the first week. I can't either on the first week. The third week I could, but not the first week.

Do it after the board meeting so you can't ask for more additional funding for the roads?

Well, we don't want to do it in November.

November ain't going to work for me. Oh, okay.

Well, what dates would work for you, Roger? After the 13th, you said?

October, the week of the 19th to the 23rd.

The week of the 19th would work or would not work?

Would work. If the first week doesn't work for everybody else, the third week is on the 19th through the 23rd.

Would the 22nd work?

Yeah. Land meeting. On the 22nd?

Yeah.

On the 21st? No.

What day of the week is that? It's a Wednesday.

It's a Wednesday, the 21st. And just for some reference, what type frame are we looking at?

Well, you're going to have the best ride of your life, and it starts at 7 a.m., and it goes to about 3, and Larry buys lunch. It's up for lunch.

Yeah. And sometimes we cut it out early. It depends on how everybody's feeling. I'm just wanting to block my other work.

You're going to want to block your day for this.

I'm going to, yep. It's awesome.

It would be well worth the price of that midget. It's awesome. Oh, I'm sure. Cheap at twice the price. Got it. Okay. Even for a newcomer.

Yep. Sometimes we get orange juice and apple juice. It's like a little kid on a bus again. Perfect. Awesome.

Yeah, we invite the whole County Board to anticipate to participate. Some come by choice, some come reluctantly.

We've never had to use handcuffs to get anybody there though.

No and we meet here.

I wish I would have a highway shop. We start there with a tour.

Perfect. 21st works then Joe. 21st will work for me.

Doug? Maybe. If we can get drivers. Make sure I can get a school bus driver. Let the kids drive themselves that day.

So you could attend if you can find a spare, huh?

Yeah. No, that works as good as any day.

Okay. Well, I guess it's as good as any other day. Are you going to come, Brian? OK. Well, we have the date set then for our our road tour. And we've exhausted our agenda, so I'll adjourn the meeting.