Supervisors set telephone issue priorities

The Marathon County Infrastructure Committee on Thursday identified first steps to be taken to try and help county residents unable to dial 911 because of unreliable landline and cellular telephone service. Top priorities, committee members said, were:

_ Working with state and federal legislators to locate possible funding or changes in regulations to improve phone service.

_ Contact Frontier Communications to see how the company’s hire of five new technicians for Marathon County will improve phone service.

Committee members discussed other options. One plan is to have both the county’s Aging, Resources and Disabilities Center and Health Department recommend medically frail people sign up for Frontier’s Medical Condition. People on the list are given first priorities for phone repair after a storm or other incident. Another proposal is to have the county’s Conservation, Planning and Zoning Department create a mapped list of people with bad telephone service. A third plan is to publicize the use of signal boosters to improve private telephone service.

Committee chairman John Robinson, Wausau, said the county is committed to trying to ensure all citizens are able to call for emergency help.

“We are looking do everything we can to make sure telephone service is available,” he said.

In other business:

_ The committee agreed to have the North Central Planning Commission create a long-range county transportation plan through 2050 modelled after a plan created by Washington County.

_ It was reported Marathon County hopes to persuade the Department of Transportation to make repaving STH 153 near Stratford more of a state priority.