County departments moving to Lake View Drive in Wausau

Multiple Marathon County departments will be moving to a single campus on Lake View Drive in Wausau after the board of supervisors earlier in May approved a proposal to consolidate facilities.

Social Services has already moved from its previous location on Thomas Street into the building at 1000 Lake View Drive, home of the Health Department and Facilities and Capital Management. After a remodeling project is completed at an adjacent building, four other county departments will also be relocating to the same campus.

The Aging & Disability Resource Center (ARDC) will be vacating a rented space at 2600 Stewart Avenue, while Veterans Services, UW-Extension and Conservation, Planning and Zoning (CPZ) will all be leaving county-owned buildings on River Drive in Wausau.

Supervisor John Robinson said the estimated cost of renovating the Lake View Drive campus is about $4 million, but the appraised value of the Thomas Street property alone is over $3 million. Once the county fully vacates all of its properties on River Drive, he said it will take in even more revenue after they are sold off.

“Clearly, I think the value of those facilities is much greater than the cost to renovate,” he said.

Robinson said the county will also likely save thousands of dollars per year in utility and upkeep costs by having all of the departments in one location. Moving several departments into a single space will also “increase operational efficiencies” and provide the public with a one-stop spot for accessing multiple services, he noted.

Parks, Recreation and Forestry still has its administrative office on River Drive, but the county plans to move it elsewhere at some point, leaving that entire area open for redevelopment. The Marathon County Employees Credit Union also leases an office at the Thomas Street building, but it too is slated for relocation.

“If we can vacate those properties and ultimately dispose of them, we’ll have a higher return than if we continue to occupy them,” Robinson said. “And, we’ll receive some operational savings.”

At an April 12 committee meeting, county administrator Lance Leonhard said the long-term objective is to have two main locations for county departments – the courthouse and Lake View Drive – with just a few remaining facilities located elsewhere. Leonhard said the vision for the Lake View Drive campus was originally laid out in 2018, when the county started looking at utilizing space being vacated by North Central Health Care.

“It really is a substantial step forward in terms of campus consolidation,” he said.

Leonard noted that the campus has an area that was originally used as a daycare, and representatives of the YMCA have walked through the area and said it could be used again for that purpose. County officials have recently talked about offering daycare services to county employees, and the space could possibly be leased to an outside provider, he said.

“We don’t have an agreement yet to do that,” Leonhard said. “I would certainly bring that back to the board.”

Staff from the county’s Human Resources, Finance and Administration departments are also slated to move into the Lake View campus, expanding their presence beyond the courthouse.

When asked about parking space at the campus, deputy administrator Chris Holman said one of the buildings is slated for demolition, which will free up an additional 140 spaces, for a total of nearly 1,000.

Leonhard said the county is looking at doing “minimal renovations” at the Lake View site before the departments move in. Holman noted that a roof replacement and HVAC renovations are already being done this year in preparation for the move. The number of public entrances will also be minimized and signage will be added to guide members of the public to the right offices.

Robinson said the consolidated campus will keep people from having to drive around Wausau looking for the right department.

“People aren’t always sure which programs will benefit them, and I think there will be some significant improvements in customer service and our ability to deal with their needs,” he said.

At the board’s April 20 educational meeting, several supervisors questioned what the cost of the renovations would be, but Holman said the county first needs to flesh out its schematic design before a project cost can be brought to the board for approval. Venture Architects and Miron Construction have been hired by the county and are working with the various departments to determine their space needs before a project is bid out.

“None of this renovation is going to happen…without this board allocating money,” Leonhard assured supervisors.

n The board approved a new ordinance authorizing the county to use an “in rem” foreclosure process for tax liens, which will allow the seizure of multiple taxdelinquent properties in a single court case.

n The board amended the 2023 capital improvement budget, allowing $64,205 to be spent on Phase 1 of a kitchen remodeling project at the Marathon County Jail. The remodeling is needed after the county cut ties with its previous food vendor due to high costs.

n The board amended the 2023 capital improvement budget, authorizing $179,300 to be spent on the replacement of a boiler at Marathon County’s East Gate Hall.

n The board appointed Ben Peterson as the county’s weed commissioner, an unpaid position tasked with investigating the presence of noxious weeds within the county. The commissioner is authorized by state statute to order the destruction of any noxious weeds on private land and to have them destroyed “in the most economical manner.”