Deputy: Uniform addressing a ‘success’ for rural areas

Since Marathon County implemented its uniform addressing system in 2019, there have been no instances of emergency responders going to the wrong address in the towns and villages that participated in the overhaul, according to chief sheriff’s deputy Bill Millhausen.

Millhausen, who also serves as captain of the communications division for the Marathon County Sheriff’s Department, spoke to the Public Safety Committee last week Wednesday as part of an update on the uniform addressing effort.

Before uniform addressing was implemented, he said the county was littered with duplicate or similar road names and identical addresses for more than one property. This resulted in multiple instances of emergency responders being dispatched to the wrong location because the caller was unaware of what township they were in or didn’t know the name of nearby cross streets, he said.

“I’m proud to say we have not had a wrong dispatch – or a misdiagnosis of an address, if you will – since that time, in those municipalities,” he said.

The municipalities he’s referring to are the county’s 40 townships, which were mandated to to participate in uniform addressing, and the villages of Stratford and Elderon, which chose to participate. All other cities and villages opted out.

Millhausen said there are still issues in the city of Wausau, but the county’s dispatchers generally do a good job of figuring out where a call is coming from.

“The project, by and large, for the rural part of the county that did participate, it’s been a success,” he said. “It’s also been a success for our deputies and our emergency responders.”

With the county providing dispatch services to 80 different entities, Millhausen said the consistency of having the new blue address signs on residential and commercial properties has made responding to calls much easier.

Preston Vande Voort, GIS coordinator for Conservation, Planning and Zoning (CPZ), said the project involved renaming over 650 streets (to eliminate duplicates and create consistency), and providing new addresses to approximately 25,000 county residents. Multiple teams were created to tackle different aspects of the overhaul, from communications and information technology to legal and financial matters.

Vande Voort said county staff spent about two years explaining to local townships and other municipalities what uniform addressing is and why it was needed. At least seven county departments were involved in the project, he noted.

“With 25,000 addresses, it took two years to start in the east and work our way to the west to get this project done,” he said.

To prevent future duplications, the CPZ now has the authority to review and approve any new street names, and if an existing road is extended, it maintains the same name for consistency. Policies are also in place for new addresses, which are determined based on how the property’s driveway intersects with the public road, he said.

“We don’t want to go back to where we came from, I can tell you that,” Vande Voort said.

Committee chairman Matt Bootz complimented Vande Voort and Millhausen on the work they did to complete the project, despite some initial opposition from local governments.

“Anytime you change things, you’re going to have some pushback,” he said. “That’s just how it is.”

Vice-chairman Jean Maszk asked if the new addressing system has improved services from companies like UPS and FedEx, which have had difficulty locating county addresses due to incorrect GPS data.

Millhausen said the county has no control over when entities like Google Maps update their addressing information, but he hasn’t heard of any problems in a couple years now.

“They’re extracting that information a lot faster now,” he said.

The CPZ itself also maintains an address search tool on its homepage so people can look up individual address changes within the county.

“That’s a tool that’s been hit thousands of times,” Vande Voort said. “Everybody uses it.”

County administrator Lance Leonhard called the project “a very intense process of engaging communities,” with the added challenge of a court case started by the town of Rib Mountain, which was ultimately decided in the county’s favor by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. He said county officials learned a lot of lessons in how to properly handle a sensitive project requiring a lot of coordination.

“This was a large project that went exceedingly well,” he said. “It was very difficult.”

Millhausen praised county leaders for staying the course during a sometimes rough process.

“I know there were a lot of phone calls late at night to county board members,” he said. “I know I got cornered a lot.”

n The committee adopted a resolution written by the Justice Coalition, which includes a list of proposals for the state’s 2023-2025 budget, such as raises for public defenders and prosecutors, additional support staff for court positions, and higher pay for private attorneys defending low-income defendants.

n Sheriff Chad Billeb said the county is currently contracting with North Central Health Care to provide meals to county jail inmates. He said there have been some “growing pains” for NCHC’s kitchen staff to prepare and deliver an additional 600 meals per day, doubling the number of meals they make for NCHC patients. The switch to NCHC, which saved $50,000, came after the previous food vendor raised its prices by 25 percent, which would have added $167,000 to the tax levy.

Leonhard said the current arrangement is a “short-term fix,” with NCHC lacking the cooler and freezer space to supply the meals on a long-term basis. An estimated $400,000 in renovations are needed to make it cost-effective for NCHC to provide the jail with meals on a permanent basis, he said, so the county may add the work to its 2023 capital improvements plan.

n Sheriff Billeb updated committee members on staff changes within the department, including the promotion of Millhausen to chief deputy, Billeb’s former position. He was also named undersheriff, serving as the department head in Billeb’s absence. Billeb said both he and Millhausen are “pulling double duty” temporarily “until we get through this awkward transition period.” The sheriff also announced the promotion of deputy Sam Wellhoefer to first lieutenant.

The department is currently considering applicants among its lieutenants to replace Millhausen as captain of the communications division. Two new deputies were also recently hired, leaving just one more vacancy in the patrol division, he said. Four correctional officers are also joining the jail staff, and there are just a few vacancies left in the communications division.

“I’m feeling better now than I have in quite awhile, and I know we’re working on getting those vacancies filled,” he said.

n Leonhard said the local public defender’s office has started assigning someone to show up in circuit court two days a week, in order to provide defendants with an immediate opportunity to apply for legal representation. Typically, it’s up to defendants to visit the public defender’s office and apply for legal counsel, but that doesn’t always happen in a timely manner, Leonhard said.

“Our hope is to get people assigned lawyers more promptly or find out if they don’t qualify,” he said.