 Division and the airport division of which transportation director Greg Chanel oversees so Greg Please start by giving a high-end snapshot of the the transportation department. Well, thanks Adam It's nice to come and speak to the summer stuff once in a while We we always worry about winter and that's always the focus and that's what they think we do but in our in our department We're we're involved in that construction the paving and that type of thing. So our department to highway division Has 86 people that are involved including myself and our airport division has three full-time and one part-time staff They take care of the the grounds out at the airport. My guys take care of the patching the potholes They go back to the following part of it. So we got a lot of stuff happening all one time And when did you get an airplane assigned to you to bring to work now? We just signed the purchase order for that the other day, so it should be coming So your your commute's gone from what 25 minutes to two. That's correct. That's nice Greg's really picked up a lot of additional responsibility And this has really been a theme of county government as Roger knows and certainly our county board and department heads know over the years we've done a lot of streamlining a fair amount of consolidating and Actually, there's been a half dozen or more departments that have consolidated and the most recent or at least one of the Most recent was the airport and the highway department to the transportation department and Greg's done a great job overseeing that and obviously learning more about our airport operations But we've we've got a pretty experienced person who filled the shoes of Chuck mayor Yes, Tom Boyer is our airport superintendent. He's been a pilot for I would say 20 some years already He knows a lot about the the regulations end of the airport operation So he keeps us in compliance that way and also has some aviation background and Which gives him a great amount of experience to bring to the table and how long now? Have you been with Shaboy and Connie? I've been here. I'll be go seven years of doctor. I'll be here It's been a Interesting ride. I enjoy it every day As part of my responsibilities my responsibility and role is to provide great and and reliable and safe Transportation for today and then for the future and I guess you can put that in the airport as well I mean they have a transportation infrastructure out there that we have to keep up with as well So consolidating both that made made a great amount of sense and you know, we're governed by one committee So I think that's a great opportunity for us to use both resources and just just how many roads of County highways and Interstate and town roads are you and your staff helping maintain we have 450 miles of county trunk highway We also Maintain 170 miles of state highway as well as 465 miles of township road So it's it equates to centerline miles of over well over 2200 mile or lane miles 2200 miles that we have to do that with with We have 70 73 people in the field that are taking care of the plowing So there's a tremendous amount of responsibility to try to get around and and make sure everybody can get to work To school into little Johnny's basketball game So say those numbers again 450 miles of county trunk highways. That's correct 70 mile 170 miles of state road and 465 miles of township road. I wish more people knew this because when that snowstorm hits I always find it rather remarkable how impatient some people can be about well I'm not plowed out yet When you've got 86 staff maybe half of which that are actually in the in the snow plows and out there trying to remove this That snow I think it's amazing that it gets done in a day or two yet We have people who will call within a couple of hours and say where are you it was interesting after we received the 17 inches of Snow this in the late winter snowfall by 8 30 that morning. We were getting calls Why can't I get out of my subdivision when we had we had some of our own trucks stuck in the middle of roads and Interstate was blocked in certain places. So yeah, the impatience part is it's getting to be more and more of a challenge Yeah, and of course as government continues to streamline as we see less resources for government operations Whether it's at the the state level or the federal or the local level or the town level Obviously, we've been reducing our staff not increasing them. So people need to be even more patient The highway department now division has seen some changes over the years during your tenure Why don't you touch on some of that the the original table organization when I started at the highway department was 125 staff When I started there was 117 Employees that were budgeted for to be involved in the highway operations as it stands today as I mentioned earlier. We're at 86 so We've reduced quite a few of the staff members, but we're still maintaining the same Same construction style maintenance style that we had in the past We may have changed some of our patterns as far as grass cutting that type of things cut back and those maintenance Things but we are trying to provide more paving that type of construction work. We've also introduced GPS to our equipment So that we know where our vehicles are our snowplow trucks more so than anything else that When there is an emergency, we know where those people are we can pick that up off of our phones or our computers We've consolidated a shed we've closed the Adele shed in the southern southern part of Sheboygan County and Combined that with our cell side shed as well as the cells Cascade shed so it's we've been doing a lot of changes internally The reason we could get to the numbers we are is that we are consolidating just as we are departments were consolidating internally as well And adding more responsibilities to other employees. So it's been a it's been a rocky road with a good one I think it's it's proved it's That we can get it done we can still get the work done and as long as we don't go much lower We'll be in good shape. Yeah. Yeah changes Just inevitable right now at all levels of government with the fiscal pressures that are there and in the economy It's nice to see the economy starting to come back a little bit But all levels of government are struggling with fiscal challenges And I think you've been leading by example with your leadership and the excellent work at the highway department It's a real credit to your to your staff, you know to go from 117 to 86 and five or six years Yet still maintain The level of service that you are and and be a full service operation is really impressive So it's it's a real credit to your team. They're a good group of guys the the county as you all know But some people may not recognize provides maintenance responsibilities For the state we take care of the state interstate as you touched on earlier Please start with touching on what's the difference between a federal or state highway a county trunk Highway in a town road and then also come back and touch on well, what is it that we do for the state? Okay, the Simple answer to the question is is anything that's numbered is a state highway anything that's lettered as a county highway Anything that's named is a township road The different levels of responsibility are driven by the average daily traffic Obviously, we all know our state roads take more traffic than our county roads And they know the county roads take more traffic in the town roads So that's how they're they're divided up and that's why they have there's different criterias as far as what type of Cross-section or building they should be how wide the pavement is how wide the shoulder is so that's how that's That's how to do you do you define between the three entities As far as the maintenance that we provide for the state of Wisconsin It's it's all their snow removal anything that pertains to the highway as far as patching Shoulder work litter pickup Signage guardrail you name it anything that has to happen on that highway and we're taking care of it whether it's ditching or Replacing culvert pipes. That's those aren't even our responsibilities annually We sign a routine maintenance agreement with the Department of Transportation and that equates to about two million dollars of our budget every year That When we do that we're applying 12 employees with the equipment the county owns the equipment and we charge the Rent of our equipment to the state and that's how we get reimbursed for our time and equipment So when they request a special project whether it's paving and shouldering we're there to do that Other than that it's strictly the maintenance of their highways and a final question before I turn it over to Roger As I'm sure some of our viewers may be wondering this and we certainly get the question from time to time Well, why is the county providing this service? I mean Why doesn't the private sector provide more of these maintenance? Responsibilities to the state or could they do it more cost effectively or could they do it more cost effectively for the towns and the Other units of government you work with how do you respond to that question? I believe that To back up the state of Wisconsin is the only state in the United States that Uses county forces in order to do their maintenance work. So we were kind of unique in itself The state has provided many many studies to see if if we are in fact the more economical way of doing business And they have come back as a positive For for us to do that In most cases, I believe that the reliance of snow removal and gearing up for snow removal is one of the biggest Hinging points for providing that service buying salt as a large A purchaser using the state of Wisconsin to do that, you know That gives us better opportunities to to buy and bulk not having duplication of equipment and and Being able to have that agreement the state has felt there's a lot of value to that Just as same as the towns So I hope I'm answering your question and obviously we're not in the business to make a profit We're in the business to cover our costs and provide safe reliable transportation But the other example you've given me in the past is we have our own Gravel pit and we obviously produce our own asphalt And if I recall correctly you've shared in the past that if you look at what it takes us to produce that product and And improve the you know overlay or build a new road we can do so Often more often than not at a more cost-effective price Correct the the advances that we've made in our asphalt plan some of the improvements that we've made over the years have Have made us to be more cost-effective As a result of that we can give that to the taxpayers as well in our county when we produce And and pay for our townships whether it's the state or the city or a township The idea of owning your own asphalt Operations means you have the resources that you don't have to purchase that and So we crush our own material. We we run it through our asphalt plant We do pay royalties some places where we where we have our asphalt plant But in the long run we roll all of our costs in there on average We're anywhere between five and eight dollars a ton cheaper coming off of the belt and some of our job projects are for an overlay average We're using 1500 to 2000 tons and so it starts to add up when you're trying to get 20 miles of paving done in a year So that cost or that savings is then put on to the taxpayers of Michigan County That's not something they'd have to invest in otherwise very good And that's something Chairman Distruty knows all too well as our County Board chairman and it as well as working for the town of Holland And and their infrastructure, so I'll turn it over to you, Roger. Thank you, Adam as Adam mentioned that they're having served on the County Board for a number of years and Before that on the town board and association I got up a unique perspective of I can appreciate all that the County Highway Department does and Sure can appreciate it, but why don't you explain some of the benefits that the county provides services to the state town and village I know you touched on it somewhat before but That for instance we not only the city's towns and villages, but also school systems if they need black topping done on their parking lot another Taxing unit you can do services for to correct as long as it's in the public school system We were able to perform services for them as well some of the Going back to providing the benefit and providing the service has to do with as I mentioned earlier Duplication of services when you look at Sheboygan County and the makeup that we have currently We're I think we have 15 townships. We're responsible for 11 of those townships as far as their maintenance services go they have Limited funds to work with For their transportation when they get transportation aids they get a certain amount of money on average They get maybe hundred hundred some thousand dollars a year based on their lane miles if you took an ad Added a staff member or more equipment and they'd had to have buildings Their transportation aids wouldn't go nearly as far as just paying for somebody by the hour When you need it and then they're gone you don't have to worry about providing that benefit Maintaining those buildings having your own cell shed Trying to have all those extra things that go along with it You guys are the townships rely on us to have that stuff when needed and that's the service that we provide and I Believe in just in the last few months. I've been working with contracts with the townships that we are taking care of And we're looking at having a three-year contract So far the feedback I've been getting is that they have they feel there's a great value in what we're doing And they don't want to go down the path of having their own equipment and sheds and and the like of that And part of that efficiency is that same truck that plows the snow in the winter is used for hauling the black top and Gravel material around and other construction activities. So it's it's used year-round. So that's I'm sure one of the benefits That's true puts a little pressure on us at the end of the year when there's When you're when you're transforming from the summer ops to the winter ops. There is only two seasons in highway work and You mentioned about the the asphalt that's a big cost and the material is the The black top and the oil used for it is a is push the cost But I know there's several things that you've done in the last few years to Keep that cost down as much as possible. Would you explain to the viewers what the couple of those are love to? Back in 2008 we had added a it's kind of a strange term, but it's called the bag house and the bag houses it takes the The small P 200 it's a it's a dust like and it brings it out of the material I don't want to get too technical, but it does help us become more environmentally safe We have certain regulations that we have to live up to with the DNR standards. So that helped us that was a big plus for us after that we went and added a Wrap system. It's the recycled asphalt program or anything that we take off the road and asphalt We'll bring it back to the plant and we'll run it back through the crusher and run it back through the Asphalt operation which then we're reusing the oil that's in there as well as the aggregate So we don't have to introduce as much virgin oil Which we believe we saved probably anywhere between two to four and a half dollars a ton so far I just done the asphalt alone as we speak today We are introducing LP or the liquid propane and we're putting the tanks in Versus burning diesel fuel and that should save us. I think the difference is about three bucks a gallon Diesel versus versus using the LP so that again will be savings that'll be added on to us as taxpayers in the future making those small improvements will will go a long ways in Protecting the 450 miles of county trunk and the 465 miles of town road Besides using the the tax levy for funding the operations and the maintenance of the roads What are some of your other sources what helps pay for some of these roads? There's a program that's called a local road improvement program That's provided by the Department of Transportation and that's an every every other year cycle So we can apply for those funds There's there's so many dollars allotted for our region which includes the Lakeshore counties That's one level. There's like the CMAC is a federal. That's a federal funds That's for Lakeshore areas for congestion mitigation So we can eliminate some of that congestion and help that out and when for our federal highways Which a lot of the townships rule it don't fall under that we can go with the STP program Which is a surface transportation program and that also is a four to six year Program where we can apply for federal funds in order to get some of our higher volume County trunks built to the standards that they'd like to see and that'd be the the major collectors the ones that are receiving any more than 1200 cars a day And I know there've been in the last two years. There's been some state law changes that affect the county operations and how the Different municipalities your customers can bid some of those. Would you explain some of that to the viewers? Sure Highway departments across the state have are eliminated from performing improvement type projects for cities with a population of greater than 5000 An improvement is based if we couldn't come in and do a block of reconstruction of ripping out the concrete Regrating and putting in new asphalt The maintenance types such as crack filling center lining those types of operations. We can still do those. There's also a stipulation with with the Prevailing wage that the if the project is over a certain threshold if it's over $100,000 and we'd have to apply for prevailing wage If it's going to go to a contractor then the threshold changes to 234 thousand So there's there is some of those laws that that we have to be mindful of or working on projects like that What are the different procedures you use to develop a construction project or maintenance like the seal coating or crack filling for instance? When we repay the road With an old with a basically an overlay. We're looking at a 10-year Surface that we feel that we're going to get out of there with some minor crack filling in order to protect that and let Not let the water allow into in between the two layers After that 10-year surface we'll start looking at and we may then apply a seal coat where we can get Another five to seven years out of it In order to protect it before we have to do anything more major than that A lot of times what drives that is the uh, what the traffic is if there's a large dairy Large construction going on that can play some different havoc with our roads That's for the overlays We'll look back at our at our paiser system It's a system that the dot has supplied us with that we can rate our roads And we'll base some of those decisions on what the rating is when the last time it was has received a surface On it and then we'll build from there if there's excessive cracking We may know we have base issues and drainage issues that leads us down a different path before we start putting the asphalt down We're going to want to get that stuff cleaned up In order to protect the surfaces in the future water is our worst enemy. So we want to keep that flowing And what are some of the primary road projects that are happening on the county roads and Maybe even touch on Some of the state roads that affect some of the people driving through our county There's lots of activity happening in this county this year state highway 57 from one end of the county to the other is going to get resurfaced So it'd be out there doing milling and then repaving it's going to be all done underneath traffic But it's going to be you got to expect some delays because they're going to be using flag people state highway 32 From falls to hours grove is going to be milled and overlaid as well There's also the non-motorized projects that are happening in falls and I believe in plymouth this year that are Are going to be happening within the next month county trunk. Okay From camalot to weedon creek road or county trunk ee is going to be rebuilt which is starting on monday Isner avenue is happening by the city We're building county trunk jade a two mile stretch from Highland road to county trunk m We're in the middle of a betterman project on county trunk u from 57 to 28 So there's lots and lots of activity happening a lot of orange trucks a lot of barrels and a lot of asphalt happening throughout the county And thank you greg for all that you and your crew do for keeping our roads safe for our public thank you last year roger and I got a couple of calls from some residents in the random lake area in particular with the 57 work being done and I think you got dozens of calls and Unfortunately You know residents here they don't know if the highway department's doing the work or the public works department or the private sector is and with highway 57 That work's being done by a private sector. That's contractor contractor, right? And so in those situations if you know, they don't feel they were notified or there's barricades up or whatever it may be What's the best way for people to share their concerns or or get their Concerns addressed if it's not the county doing the work They can always call us and we will we will steer them in the right direction to get the whole other contractor That's is responsible typically on those state jobs There is a project engineer who fields all those calls and addresses those concerns Whether it's you can't get to your mailbox or you have other issues going on They will address those for you. Okay, and is there a regular county highway department phone number that You readily give out or they can go to the website. Both. What do you prefer? It's they're it's both they can they can shoot us an email if that's easier for them if they're passing through they can call our Our regular office numbers if it's after hours you can call the sheriff's department They have all the general contact numbers for the Contractors or they will call one of our people that are on call 24 hours very good And kind of going back to the beginning where we started here. You're talking about two divisions now a highway division and airport Obviously, you're helping oversee both those areas A lot of money's Going into these two particular areas and I didn't ask you that question early on just what is the budget for the highway operations and what's the budget for the airport operations Our tax levy budget for the for the highway out division is about 4.3 million dollars And it's 18 million dollars total like the revenues and expenditures the Airport 4.3 million of property tax levy correct, but a total of 18 million so it gets back to rogers point earlier There's a lot of state and federal funds flowing in and out as well Correct and the airport relies on just shy of 200 000 dollars in in levy and it's a 400 000 dollar budget So their revenues are gained by a few flowage and and the rent that we receive for the properties out there And turning to the airport a little bit. We just have a few minutes remaining We predominantly focused on the the highway department operations or the work being done out in the field But tell us a little bit about the airport Just how large is this is this airport what happens out there because if you haven't been to the shabuagan county memorial airport You ought to go out there and take a look this airport is one of the nicest in the state And there's a lot of activity out there that I think some people in this community just don't recognize It's kind of a jewel back there. It is. It's a it's a nice piece of property. It's just over a thousand acres 200 of which we rent out to for egg usage But it's it's maintained by three full time guys that cut the grass make sure the fence is operating properly It's one that's I think it's the seventh out of 14 Busiest general aviation airports in the state So there's lots of activity. I think it's 60 000 operations annually Which equates to a lot of stuff Our responsibility out there is just to make sure that the snow is removed the grounds are taken care of the fences Are properly working and to communicate with the tenants that are on the grounds and apply all those Landing areas to make sure people can come and go 60 65 000 flight operations annually supporting the Kohler company and many other Incredibly important Businesses that help drive our our area and employ people again very very important work. Yes, it is. It's I think that's one of the the biggest Things that the airport presents to this community is the economic value of of of what goes in and out of there on an annual basis I think the number was like 27 million dollars in in in state and local taxes that come back to to help Keep that facility up and running and and it's not directly related to the to the budget up But it's it's helps the full economy. I believe that's our economy Absolutely, and you talked about a number of highway Projects that are coming up and play. What about at the airport? I know that we've had some extensions of the runways anything on the near horizon As we speak we're preparing the bid package for The apron area in front of the aviation heritage center It's an old. I think it's a 30 plus year old piece of pavement that's cracking up and Some of the seal court that was was applied is starting to pop off. So that will be constructed This year if the governor signs off on the funding, which it sounds like he's going to And then from there we're going to start looking stepping back and looking at some of those pavements that are 20 to 30 Plus years old over by all the hangars that are starting to fail that need to get done. So we're putting together a petition package for the for the state the BOA so that we can Continue to maintain our jewel and the general number is that three eight two two or three eight two five three eight two two Three eight two two Well, I hope you got a appreciation and just a little snapshot of the broad roles and responsibilities of the transportation department But if you want to learn more or you have suggestions for improvement We certainly want to hear them or hear from you and don't hesitate to contact greg or his staff He has some excellent support staff that answer the phones and certainly will get questions to him if they can't answer them themselves four five nine three eight two two that's correct four five nine three eight two two is the number to call Otherwise, we have a county website email all sorts opportunities to get information to us again Offer suggestions raise questions Greg thanks for joining us today. Good information. Thank you. I appreciate it And thank you for joining us today next month We're going to have a new one of our newest department heads join us. John doleson. He's the newly elected county clerk took Julie glancy's position and had some tremendous shoes to fill there But I think john's been doing a good job And he's going to talk a little bit about the important roles and responsibilities of the county clerk's office Which really acts as the key factorial Support area for roger and the full county board as well as handles our elections You can get your passport a lot of important responsibilities. So until next month Thanks for joining us