Chilly reception for homeless shelter plan

County board rejects Medford downtown building, looks for options

A plan to purchase and convert a Medford Main Street building into a homeless shelter met stiff opposition at both the city and county levels this week.

Taylor County Supportive Housing (TCSH) has grant funds available to purchase a building to open a homeless shelter in the county. According to Jessica Mudgett of TCSH, the plan is for an eight-bed facility to accommodate individuals and families. Because the grant was secured through the county, the county board has say over how the money is spent and must take action to authorize purchases. The group had sought to purchase the Feet-N-Motion building at 215 S. Main Street in Medford. The building is located on the northwest corner of Main and Division Streets.

While emphasizing their support for a homeless shelter to be opened in the community, board members soundly rejected putting it on Main Street in Medford. Board member Dan Makovsky was the only vote in favor of purchasing the building.

“I am in complete support I just think this is a bad spot for it,” said board member Chuck Zenner of the Main St. location, noting that he would not support putting it on Main Street in Gilman or Rib Lake either.

Zenner’s comments came after board member Tim Hansen, who also serves on city planning commission, gave an overview of the commission meeting from Monday night where the proposed shelter location was discussed. Hansen noted the city is in the beginning stages of starting a downtown restoration plan and that there had been input from business owners and downtown property owners as well as Mayor Mike Wellner that this type of building did not fit into the longterm plans of the downtown.

“While everyone expressed support, they don’t feel it belongs in the downtown area,” he said. Such a reception would make it challenging to get the required conditional use permit needed to make the project happen.

“There is never going to be an ideal place for it. I am for it, but not where it is at,” Zenner said.

Board member Mike Bub described the county as being on a treadmill as sites get picked and people oppose it. He suggested the county, city and members of TCSH work together in an ad hoc committee to find an acceptable location. He said it will need to be in or near the city in order for the people in the shelter to have access to jobs and to get to stores. He said the county may need to be willing to spend some additional money from its own budget to help locate a suitable spot for the shelter. Zenner also spoke in support of this plan suggesting the county could assist with transportation for those in the shelter if it was located on the edge of the city.

Board member Rollie Thums said he felt it would be wrong for the county to try and tell the city what they should do with Main Street. He said the city should have a say in this.

Wellner agreed and noted the improving relationship between the city and county and how they could both work together for this project. He said it would cause a lot of hard feelings if the county approved it while the city opposed it.

Board member Lester Lewis said that while he supported the idea, he noted that TCSH is its own group and that it would be inappropriate to form a committee without them inviting the county and city to do so. Regardless he said it could not be done at Tuesday’s meeting because it wasn’t on the agenda.

Bub noted that any committee would have to meet quickly in order to find a site and get the ball rolling since the grant funds have to be spent by the end of 2021.

Staffing changes

The forestry department will need to ask the zoning department for help with administrative support as the result of a change in employee allocations.

In the past, the two departments, which share office space at the courthouse, also shared an administrative support staff member with each department paying for half of the cost of the position.

Last fall, the employee who had served in that position transferred to fill a position in the sheriff’s department. At the time, Lewis, who chairs the zoning committee suggested rather than replacing a shared position that it be combined and solely under the authority of the zoning administrator. He had cited concerns over recruitment and retention with people having to answer to two separate bosses when planning vacation or time off.

Lewis also said it will help with longterm succession planning in the zoning office to have someone there fulltime to train with the existing staff.

Bub opposed the change, both at a special joint committee meeting Tuesday morning and later the same day at the county board meeting. He noted that with three people having filled that position in the past 30 years, retention was not a significant problem.

One of the issues is with the actual amount of support time the department needs. The forest administrator Jake Walcisak had estimated only about 25% of the staff person’s time was being used by his department. Bub said he was concerned with that dedicated time going away and forestry being left with no administrative support at all.

“I think this is a slippery slope and zoning will use it all the time,” Bub said.

He favored including language to clarify that the person would report to the zoning administrator but also have 25% of their time available for the forestry department. He also questioned including a six-month review.

Lewis responded that he did not think a scheduled review was necessary because the county can review any position at any time. He also emphasized the need to have one person in charge of the position as an aid for recruitment.

Bub attempted to amend the motion making the change to include the 25% time commitment language, this failed on a vote of 13 no, four yes. Voting on the original motion, Bub was the only no vote.

In other business, board members:

_ Approved a resolution calling for the state to increase the amount spent on child support enforcement in the state budget by $4 million per year, which with federal matching dollars would generate about $7.7 million in additional federal funding each year.

_ Approved a resolution calling for increased state budgeted funding for Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRC) in the state as well as addressing inequities in how funds are allocated around the state. The resolution calls for the state to increase ADRC funding by $27.4 million per year.

_ Approved the Taylor County Forest Comprehensive Land Use Plan for 2021 to 2035. The plan is required for county forests under state law and lays out forest management for the next 15 years.

_ Approved an ordinance change to clean up language in the county code and name the register of deeds, as the county abstractor, as the head of the county’s abstract department.

_ Approved a resolution recognizing Sara Nuernberger for 38 years of service to Taylor County. Nuernberger began working in the county’s register of deeds office in 1983 and was elected register of deeds in 2013. She retired at the end of 2020.

_ Received an update on the Taylor County broadband project. The county is finalizing a contract with a firm to lay about 75 miles of 432-strand fiber optic cable in the county with the construction of a middle mile network which will allow providers to connect from this backbone to homes and businesses. After paying off the money used to construct the lines (projected to take eight to nine years), the lines will continue to generate revenue for the county through the lease of fiber space. Under the plan, the system will be in place by the end of 2021.

County board chairman Jim Metz (right) presented a resolution honoring the memory of former county board member Gerald Schneider to Jacky Peterson who accepted it on behalf of Schneider’s family. Schneider served on the county board from 1996 to 2000.BRIAN WILSON/THE STAR NEWS