 Welcome to Sheboygan County government, working for you. Can you believe this is our 200th program today? 200th program, prepare yourself for the balloon drop. 200th program, we've been doing this since the year 2000. County Board Chairman Dan Lemme, you and yours truly started the program back then. And since then, every consecutive chairperson has decided to continue the program as Chairman Wagner does now. And every month we strive to bring a different guest, generally a different department head here to talk about roles and responsibilities and good things happening in county government. And there are many good things happening at our transportation department. Greg Schnell is here. He's been our transportation director since 2006. Welcome, Greg. Thank you, thanks for having me. This man is busy. His entire department is busy. And one of the reasons is we're putting up a new transportation complex. Exciting times for county government and your department in particular. Let's roll it back just a little bit. Please set the stage. Tell us a little bit about yourself, Greg, and a little bit about your department and what your department's responsible for. A little bit about me. I came from Anatoa County. I think Anatoa says it's 2006, so it's been awhile. But we got a lot of stuff accomplished in the seven years that I've been here. We are presently, we have 90 employees. We're responsible for 450 miles of road, 158 bridges. So yeah, there's a lot of stuff happening. The complex has taken a considerable toll on all those guys right now, but we're getting ahead of the curve. And this complex is the meat of what we want to start talking about here. I'm a lot of people in the community asking me about it. A lot of interest in it. A lot of impressed people, I think, by how this site has developed. So please share with our viewers what's happening if they're not aware that the county is building a new transportation complex consolidating three facilities into one. Sure. I kind of started back in 2008. We had an operational review done on our department. Back then, we had seven outlying sheds along with our facility on 23rd Street in Sheboygan. Shortly after that study, we closed the ADEL facility in 2011. Gain some efficiencies and that was a small shed. It was built many years ago. Didn't even fit the trucks that we had on the road to date. So we sold that one off and we split and diversified the people that were there and split them up between our cascade and our south side shed. From that point on, the county had always talked about locating to the center part of the county with a bigger facility to do some more consolidating. When we started to talk about cost at that point, it was a little more expensive than what the county board was comfortable at that point. It was a down turn in the economy spending on the facility. So we kind of left it go. During our budget process in 2013, 14, we were looking at our facilities and what the needs are for those facilities and we started to come up with a rather lengthy list of cost that we're gonna be faced with in the future and that's what kind of started our conversation of consolidating. And at the first onset, we weren't really looking to bring out the administration in a shop part and that just kind of developed into this to bring it all into one complex and move the shop and administration, Elkhart Lake and Plymouth altogether. So main headquarters in Sheboygan, the Plymouth Shed, the Elkhart Lake Shed, three facilities into one. I set the stage for us. How big is this complex? How much is it gonna cost? And how is it being financed? Okay, the main building itself at the new complex is about 123,000 square feet. And if you look at what the sheds and the unheated facility is gonna be, it's about 163,000 square feet. So approximately a little bit better in two football fields is what we're gonna consume for space. Where we're at today are with the bonding and such is about $17 million that's gonna be bonded for. $2 million in potential sales from the facilities we're going to sell and the remainder is gonna come from fund balance which is about five and a half million dollars. So about a $25 million facility, $17 million bonded, use of some fund balance, use of some sale proceeds from the three facilities that'll be consolidated. And then of course you have equipment from time to time that you have to purchase whether it's a new snow plow, what have you. How is that purchased and funded? It's gonna be funded through the sales tax. Years ago we were lumped in with the rest of the departments and we competed for those dollars that were available. It was typically about a million dollars spread throughout the county. Now the sales tax proceeds are available for us to use for our highway operations or our overlays, construction and equipment. We will be funding that equipment through those proceeds. And that was just a quick point of clarification that I wanted to make sure that our viewers are aware of that no sales tax revenue is being used to build this new facility. That's correct. It's being bonded or borrowed for as well as positive fund balance as well as sale proceeds. All of the new sales tax revenue is being used for transportation related work, overlay, purchasing equipment, making sure the work gets done. So I just wanna make sure every now and then Tom and I get that question. So back to the site itself, why was this particular site so attractive? Well, to back up a little bit, we looked at back in 2008, when we were looking at this, we looked at a facility or a piece of land on at the intersection of 27 and, or 28 and 57 south of Plymouth. Plymouth is kind of the center part of our county. So we'd have been a few miles off of the center part by looking at that location. And again, you know, the conversations about building a new facility kind of went south a little bit and we stopped looking at that. But as this came forward, we had looked at buying the additional property next to our Plymouth facility the way it is today. It was a little bit more expensive and it didn't provide us the space that we were looking for. Plus we'll be losing our access to 23 at some time in the future. So we felt it would be better off or a better opportunity either to move north or south. I looked at a couple of different pieces of property in the same area of where we're building at the intersection of J and 67. This is the individual that we came to terms with. And what it does, it moves us three miles south of El Carleic where we have a facility now and it moves us three miles north of Plymouth. So it'd be brought those two together. We can still provide the services to the area that we have, which we have contracts with 11 out of the 15 townships throughout the county. So we're servicing a lot of different people from that facility. It was a site that didn't, I guess, wasn't classified as prime egg land. So at least we weren't taking out the best of the best land. We did have to do a lot of filling in order to raise the site to get it the way it is today. And we're looking at building this for the future. This is an 80 plus year building. So we wanted to raise it up. We didn't want to be blamed for something and building in a hole and that type of thing. And we want to make it aesthetic and pleasing to the area that's there. And when you talk about a facility of this size, as you said, about the size of two football fields which is tough to wrap your head around. That's gonna be a big complex, the cost associated with it. I know that the three of us, and I think the County Board as a whole is real pleased that we've been successful in doing some things ourselves to keep the costs down. What is it that we're doing? As I mentioned, we were in charge of leveling the site, if you will. We were fortunate that the County Board had the foresight to purchase some gravel pits many years ago. We're using those resources to raise the site. So my staff went in with the equipment that we have afforded to us by the County Board and the taxpayers to strip the site and raise it and build it into the condition it is today to have a buildable facility on top of it. So we are extremely fortunate that we have the property, the people, and the equipment in order to take care of this stuff in-house with my staff. And in addition to using our own gravel and workforce to prepare the site, you also were able to gain some efficiencies working with the Rocky Knoll Healthcare Center. What are we doing there? That's correct. It was a great win for us. We're gonna be utilizing the Rocky Knoll Water Tower, which is about 200,000 gallons of capacity, which is bigger than the Village of Wallows, which I might add. Our take a day for gallons of water depending upon the seasons, about 750 gallons. So we're not a big user. Well, we need all the water for us, fire suppression and event. We have an emergency like that. But with us using the Water Tower versus putting in high capacity wells, there was a fair amount of savings. And when I say a fair amount, between three to $500,000 that we saved by going this route and running our own piping in and utilizing the water that's already available. Plus this will also help with the quality of water at Rocky Knoll. It increases the usage a little bit and sometimes it's better to utilize that water at a higher rate so that you have the best quality of water always being brought in. Along with that, we're also tying into the sanitary sewer that feeds little old Cart Lake sewage district as well as Rocky Knoll. And then it is forced down to the city of Plymouth treatment plant. So we will be entering at the intersection of Jay with the sewage and that'll be forced down to Plymouth. So we won't be having to have either pumping or a seepage bed for that type of sewage. So when you combine the three different areas there, you're looking at well over a million dollars in savings. And perhaps twice that when you look into the workforce, the hours that went into this. Absolutely. Nice work, nice work. Last question before I turn it over to Tom. Key milestones, what are some of the key milestones of progress that people can expect to see as they drive by this site and see it developed? As we are about 95, 98% complete from my staff's point. We are putting in our secondary driveway. We're having a driveway out to State Highway 67. We're working on it as we speak today. But again, that's only secondary. Our main entrance will be off of Conny Trong Jay. 95% complete with the site design work. With the earthwork, yes. And once we give up or leave the site, there's gonna be a tremendous amount of utility work that's gonna be happening as well as the building. The next milestone for us is, as of today, as we speak today, the crane's being dropped off to set the panel. They are gonna start Tuesday after Memorial Day and the panels are start going up. They haven't bought a month and the building will be erected. And so it's gonna go relatively fast. As I mentioned, we're using precast panels so that it's eight to 10 feet at a time and that panel is 35 feet tall. So it's gonna be a big structure coming up in a short amount of time. Very good. Thank you, Greg. Tom. Thank you, Adam. Obviously, this will leave the, as we talked about the county with three vacant buildings, one in Elkhart Lake, one in Plymouth, which you've talked about a little bit, and the one in the city of Sheboygan. What are the plans for those three facilities? Two out of the three are for sale yet. We do have a suspected offer on the Elkhart Lake facility. So as it stands today, that one is no longer on the drawing board. We'll be moving out of that and vacating that at the end of probably December, or hopefully earlier, if we can get out earlier. We're working with an individual that is offered to buy Plymouth as well as the Sheboygan facility. So there's a lot of activity centered around having buyers for those parcels. So it'll be nice to get those back on the tax roll. Absolutely. From a tax basis, what would that mean to the county and you think getting all three of those back on it? Depending upon the amount of investment that the buyer makes in them, if there's some improvements that are gonna go along, and one of the individuals that we are working with in Plymouth is gonna make some improvements. So that will obviously raise the value of that. It could be anywhere between three to $500,000 back onto the tax roll. And I know, when do you anticipate your staff and equipment moving out to the new facility? The Elkhart Lake and Plymouth guys that respond to those facilities for the winter months or even during our summer construction, they will be moving out there sometime in November-ish, depending upon progress of the building. I would say sometime in July of 2018 or mid-summer of 2018, the shop where I am in our administration building in Sheboygan, we will be moving out at that point. So a little over a year from now you're planning on the whole thing being completed. That's correct. Okay. Snow and roof equipment has certainly changed over the years both in cost and size. You wanna talk about that a little bit? Sure, years ago we had little one-axle, single-axle trucks with just a plow in the front. No wing, no nothing. We've expanded from that 20-foot truck to almost 50 feet now. All of our trucks are equipped with wings. Some of them have double wings, depending upon the highway that they're maintaining. So when you go from 20 feet to 50 feet and your facilities are structured around that 20-foot truck, we were running out of space and that has a lot to do with what we're doing today and expanding our space. And you talked a little bit about how long you think this facility would last, but obviously we're looking at a long-term facility here, the estimate of the lifespan of this new facility. What I've been told is 75 to 100 years. So I don't think I'll see the end result of what that is, but my guess is that we're gonna put up a nice facility that our next generations and generations beyond will be able to enjoy. One other thing I just wanted to touch on a bit because I know you're building two areas for salt to be, and one is for the county and one is for the state. That's correct. I think there's a lot of people out there who don't always realize how much work you do for the state of Wisconsin. You mind talking about that later? Sure, not at all. We are the maintaining authority for 170 miles of state highway. That's interstates and anything else. So anything that's numbered is a state highway. We have the story-mover responsibility to grass cutting, litter pickup. You name it, we take care of it other than the bigger improvement projects, but we also do some paving for them and pipe replacement, that type of stuff. So as you mentioned, the salt sheds, we did make a little bit of a change there. We combined the two salt sheds, but there's gonna be one wall down the middle and one will be owned by the state, which they pay for, and then one will be owned by the county as well. Thanks, Greg. And on that line, Tom, thank you. When we talk about the work for the state, unless you've got your head in the sand, I think people are well aware that the state has issues with our transportation system and how we're gonna pay for maintaining it. And Highway 23 is getting a lot of attention. And of course, again, as I think our viewers are well aware, that work should have been done years ago. It still hasn't been done. It's a dangerous road. And what it boils down to is we continue to have problems at the state level with funding these transportation projects. Set the stage for our viewers a little bit. The state, obviously, is very, very important, the state's transportation system, but we also have a county transportation system. And then our local municipalities have town roads, village roads. How many county roads and bridges are Sheboygan County responsible for? We have 450 miles of our own county road system. And then we also maintain, like I mentioned, the state highways at 170 and then we have 465 miles of town road that we're responsible for. The bridges, there's 153. 79 of them are owned by the municipalities, but we are the maintenance authority for those as well. So we help those townships with funding, that type of stuff as far as guiding the applications and then also doing the maintenance work. The state bridges, that's all left up to the state as far as we do the maintenance on them, but they will tell us what that maintenance is all going to exist of. This year, we're looking at paving 30 miles of County Truck Highway. It's all overlays, pretty much overlays. There's a little bit of milling and pulverizing in there, but it's just over 30 miles. And that was our promise with the half-send sales tax proceeds. It's gonna be a tremendous benefit. Maybe we won't see that the first year, but as time progresses, it's really gonna improve the quality and how we get around and infrastructure for businesses, you name it. There's a lot of positives to that. And down the road, we'll be having to bond for less and spend less. I think the state now, if I have the numbers right, is around about 22, 23% of their bonding. And as soon as that means 77 cents on the dollars actually going to construction and 22, 23 cents is going to pay off the interest. And if that continues to grow, that gets you behind the eight ball and that's something we believe we will not be in the situation to do that. That's right. Yeah, I'm glad you set the stage with the number of roads and bridges. I mean, some of these bridges are upwards of 100 years old. And of course, they have to be maintained. Our transportation system is vital for economic development. And I wanna take a moment just to thank Chairman Tom Wagner and the County Board. The leadership that the Board showed in implementing the half-person sales tax. I mean, we certainly weren't the first to do it being the 63rd County of 72 to implement it. But it took some strong leadership to step up and problem solve and implement the sales tax. And that half-person sales tax now we anticipate is gonna generate around nine to 10 million a year. All of it under the direction of Chairman Tom Wagner and the County Board, all of it is going for transportation. And that's now allowing us to do 30 miles of overlay a year. Whereas previously we were doing maybe 12 or 15 miles, depending on the year and the dollars available. So we now can be fiscally responsible and maintain our system and do it appropriately rather than kick the can and those costs down the road. And we've shared this in the past, but I'm gonna share it again. One mile of overlay is what, about 150,000. 120, 150. If you have to pave and pulverize that same one mile because you've let it go, you haven't kept up with it, it's 250,000. And if you have to completely reconstruct that same one mile, you're talking 1.2 million. So 120,000 versus 250,000 versus 1.2 million. We all know what the answer is from a standpoint of being fiscally responsible. If we maintain our roads, it's the right thing to do. And unfortunately, we're struggling with this at the state level. And in my opinion, and I know in Chairman Wagner's opinion, it shouldn't be that difficult to fix this problem because if we aren't taking care of our roads and infrastructure, we are simply passing more dangerous roads to the future and more cost to the future. And that's just not the right thing to do. So I compliment Chairman Wagner and the County Board and our prior County Board Chairman, Roger Distruity. It was really the two chairs that helped lead the charge to get this done. And Greg, you mentioned you started in 2006 and we've had some challenges with the economy, what have you. And now in 2017, we have the resources we need to maintain our local roads and we have a new transportation complex being built that's gonna help with our transportation system for the next 100 years. And then the final thing that the County Board did, which is the first county in the state to do it is they're sharing some of the 1.5% sales tax with our local municipalities. And how does that help them, Greg? They have to make that investment into a road improvement. They can't just roll it into what they have or cut back on their levees. So the County Board has put some, I guess some, what I'll call minor strings attached to the money that they make that investment back in their road, which is a great thing. The feedback that I've been getting from those townships is phenomenal. If they get 20,000 or 6,000, that's money they didn't have before. And some of them are getting upwards of 100,000 plus. So will that money be shared and go a long ways in the future? Absolutely. And as the nine or $10 million grows in the future, so will those funds as well. And I believe that it's just gonna make us a better, well-rounded county from a standpoint of our transportation and being more inviting, either whether it's to residential areas or commercial areas, I think it'll be a great success for all of us. And Greg, as you know, Tom chairs the Heads of Local Government Group and probably the number one thing we heard consistently from all of our chief elected officials in this community is that roads and the lack of revenue and maintaining their roads was the number one problem. And again, this is a step in the right direction. Greg, you and I also attended a meeting last week about safety enhancements and back to 23 for a moment. Not only is there a great deal of concern about the lack of progress on 23 going from a two-lane to a four-lane and the cost associated with these delays that have now gone into the decades, but we were meeting with a couple of very affluent businesses, very successful companies that were concerned about the intersection of TT in 23 and semis coming into play. How does one get engaged, you know, share with our local legislators or how do we make safety improvements when clearly improvements need to be made? The difficult part to making safety improvements and it happens in every level when in order to get any type of feet or legs underneath those types of improvements, unfortunately it comes with history and that would be the history of accidents and fatalities. And it's not like nobody wants to generate that type of activity, but that's what we'll push to make those safety improvements. So from a standpoint of a taxpayer, calling your local legislators and calling Madison and getting in their ear and saying, we have a real issue here or calling the region office in Green Bay or calling my office and I can share those concerns. We can share those with the DOT and that will start to generate some of that activity. The DOT has an opportunity for safety improvement funds through the federal government and a lot of times those funds aren't actively pursued. So sometimes there's a pretty good chance of getting those funds. A lot of times they're gauged on the amount of accidents that have happened, the severity of those accidents, whether their lives were lost or if it's disability accidents or disabling accidents. So there's a formula, if you will, put on that to see how much of the dollars and funding they can get back. We've utilized those to build some of their own devotions in Sheboygan County to make the intersections much more safer. So the ability is there, but in order to get the legs, as you mentioned, underneath these projects, you need to talk to your local officials and put some pressure on it. Particularly on the state highways, the federal highways, because of course at the county level, you can come to the county transportation director, the transportation committee, and speed limits can be reduced, stop signs can be put up, rumble strips can be put in play, and I've seen that over the years, but if it's making a substantial change to an interstate, it can be frustrating for people because clearly they see the safety issue, yet you have to gather all that data and have that track record before the time and money is put into making that improvement. Correct, it's a difficult answer to provide people because we aren't here to create history, we're here to prevent it. Well, I'm gonna close on 23 because I know this is an issue that is near and dear to Tom Wagner's heart and our board and our entire community. We've been in discussions with Sargento and Master Gallery and Beamus and Rockline and Kohler, and the list goes on and on of these very successful companies in our community that have a lot going on with their manufacturing process, trucks coming and going, and everyone is saying the same thing. And we're hearing wrapped up frustration, frankly, that what's taken so long to get 23 improved? Most people are well aware that there's a lawsuit in play that has held things up, but regardless of what comes out of that lawsuit, the money needs to be there to make the improvements and right now it's not. So if you care about the safety of Highway 23, don't hesitate as Greg said, put in a call to one of our area legislators and I know they care about it. I know they support the enhancements, but they'd certainly appreciate your support as well. Anytime you have to go to the Assembly or Senate and ask for resources or engage the governor to support resources, it's nice to know you have your community behind you. So don't hesitate to weigh in. Greg, I wanna thank you and your team for the great leadership that you're providing and all the good things that you're helping make happen in Sheboygan County. My compliments to you. Well, thank you for giving us that, the resources in order to do it. We got a good team here. You do. Thanks for joining us today and thank you for joining us today. If you have any more questions about our transportation system, questions about something that Greg touched on, don't hesitate to reach out to him. A lot going on, but always open to input and suggestions for improvement. So we appreciate you joining us. Next month, we're gonna have a new face across from Tom and I. It's going to be our new district attorney. He was just elected and took office what January 1st, right? Joel Armanski. I wanted to make sure I got that right. Joel Armanski, our new district attorney is gonna be here next month to talk about the roles and responsibilities of the DA's office. We look forward to him being here and again, we thank you for joining us.