Buildings and grounds supports grant funding for light pole work

When a request to use power line impact funds to replace a pair of 50-year-old wooden light poles at the fairgrounds grandstand goes to county board later this month, it will do so with the support of the county’s buildings and grounds committee to pay the full cost.

At the March 21 finance and personnel committee, committee members reviewed a power line grant funding request for the pole replacement project and voted to recommend giving $20,000 from the power line grant funds. Replacement of the poles is estimated at about $75,000.

As part of that recommendation, it was referred to the buildings and grounds committee to look at it further and see if there were any other sources of money for the work. At the March 28 buildings and grounds committee meeting, members heard from fair board vice president Tim Hobl about the need.

The current poles were in place when the grandstand was built in 1978. Hobl said that volunteers with the fair board were doing maintenance work with a lift truck to replace some burned out lights and discovered the cross bars appeared to be “rickety and shaky.” In addition, the insulation on the wiring is wearing thin and there are issues with the circuit box on the bottom of the pole filling with water when there are storms.

Given concerns about the poles, the fair did the legwork to investigate would it would take to replace them. The light poles, like all the other buildings and improvements on the fairgrounds are owned by Taylor County with the county ultimately responsible for maintaining them.

Buildings and grounds director Joe Svejda said he spoke to the city and got the contact information from the firm that does pole inspections for them. He said before the county invested in new poles they would want to make sure the existing ones actually needed to be replaced or if it was just issues with the cross bar at the top of the poles.

Hobl noted the fair has put between $5,000 and $6,000 worth of maintenance into the lights in the past five years and recommended that if the county replaces the lights they make the investment in switching to LED, noting it will save about 90% in energy usage.

The major annual use of the lights is for grandstand shows during the fair. While there are other events which have been held in the grandstand area, only consistent use in recent years has been with the fair.

Hobl said volunteers with the fair would be willing to help with equipment and labor to install the new poles including a licensed electrician willing to come and do the wiring for it.

Questions were raised if they had looked at wooden poles instead of metal. Metal poles require an eight foot deep concrete base, while wooden poles are driven into the ground to a certain depth depending on their size.

Committee member Lori Floyd said she was more concerned with the condition of the power boxes on the ground where people may be able to access them and get injured. Floyd also questioned the county’s liability of being made aware of the issues with the lights and not doing anything to address them.

Svejda said that if there was money in his budget it would be easy to move forward with replacing the lights. He noted that the reality of the county budget is that the portion of his department’s budget to go toward the fairground is only $1,000 each year.

“$1,000 doesn’t go very far,” Svejda said. While the fairgrounds brings in revenue from rentals, and last year brought in $17,572 in camper and boat winter storage fees, that money is transferred, like other county revenues to the general fund and is used to reduce the county levy rather than being kept in the buildings and grounds, explained finance director Larry Brandl.

Committee member Jim Gebauer said he would support giving the full $75,000 to replace the poles and lights. Committee members reached a consensus that at the April 16 county board session, when the power line request agenda item comes up, an amendment will be made on the floor to increase the amount from what the finance and personnel committee had recommended.

In other business, committee members:

 Approved beginning the process to replace Jodi Jochimsen, the county lead maintenance technician who announced plans to retire on September 10 after 34 years with the county. Svejda asked for a month overlap between the new hire and when Jochmisen retires in order to get knowledge passed on and noted he had money in his budget to cover the additional labor costs.

 Discussed the potential of off-season use of the winter sports area and chalet. The Chequamegon Bird Club had requested using the facility for its annual Migratory Bird Day event. There was no objection to using it for that event, but Svejda said he would like something spelled out if the facility should be rented out in the future. One of the concerns was with the distance from where the crews are based in Medford to Perkinstown and the cost of having staff members do spot checks there. There was also concern about the equipment stored and the chalet and if there would be risk with it being damaged.

 Affirmed Svejda’s authority to be the one to decide on space allocation in county buildings. Svejda raised a concern about discussion involving the ADRC of the Northwoods being dissolved and the positions being absorbed into the Commission on Aging office and how there might be a need for additional office space for the commission on aging as a result. It was noted that the ADRC discussion is in its preliminary stages and that Svejda would be asked before any space was occupied.