Group to tour new Eau Claire Highway shop
By Kevin O’Brien
A contingent of Marathon County officials plans to tour Eau Claire County’s new Highway Department headquarters later this month to get an idea of what a modern facility looks like as it considers whether to build a replacement of its 100-year-old site.
Highway commissioner Jim Griesbach told members of the Infrastructure Committee last Thursday that he would like to get a decent- sized group of people together for a trip to the Eau Claire facility, which was built from 2022 to 2023 at a cost of $33 million.
Preliminary estimates for a new Marathon County Highway shop have come in at nearly $60 million, and the county is currently negotiating the possible purchase of land at an undisclosed location in the Wausau area.
Griesbach said the land under consideration has been appraised and he’s working with a realtor on a purchase offer, which would ultimately have to be approved by the county board. The county also plans to determine the appraised value of the existing Highway headquarters – both the buildings and the land itself – on West Street in Wausau. The county will also consider the potential taxable value of county-owned land on West Street if it were to be redeveloped into high-density housing, Griesbach said.
Right now, the county’s West Side Master Plan, approved in 2023, calls for keeping that land for an expansion of Marathon Park facilities, including a possible ice arena and relocated pickleball courts. However, county administrator Lance Leonhard said the plan is “not written in stone,” and the board could always change it.
Leonhard noted that the county normally receives between 18 and 20 percent of the property taxes collected on privately owned parcels in Wausau, so residential developments would result in additional revenue for the county. Supervisor Tom Seubert wanted to know how much value will be taken off the tax rolls if the county agrees to purchase the land needed for a new Highway shop. Leonhard said a fair amount of that land is already tax-exempt, but he didn’t want to provide further details outside a closed session discussion.
When it comes to the countyowned land on West Street, Leonhard said the city-county parks commission is currently looking at cost estimates for building a new ice arena there, but there’s also discussions about refurbishing the existing ice arenas at Marathon Park.
Looking ahead, Griesbach said he is working on a set of talking points for why a new shop is needed, including the operational efficiencies that can be gained by moving out of the West Street facility, and the cost of upgrades needed if the department stays where it is.
Another factor that needs to be taken into consideration is the future of the Highway Department’s satellite shop in Mosinee, which is located near the Central Wisconsin Airport and will have to move at some point to comply with FAA restrictions. If the county were to move its headquarters to a better location, Griesbach said it would not have to build a replacement for the Mosinee shop.
However, if the headquarters were to stay where they are, “you’re probably looking at a $5 million investment” to build a replacement for the Mosinee shop, he said.
Other business
■ ■ The committee voted to recommend county endorsements for three internet service providers (ISPs) – Bug Tussel, Bertram Communications and Mosaic Technologies – which are planning to apply for money through the federal Broadband Equity, Access, Deployment (BEAD) program. The endorsements were recommended by the county’s broadband task force, which met with a total of five ISPs interested in doing BEAD projects in the county. If approved by the county board, the county’s endorsement would boost the ISPs’ chances of getting grant money.
■ ■ Deputy commissioner Kevin Lang said the Highway Department will be narrowing the westbound traffic lane and adding some pavement markings at the intersection of CTH O and CTH U in the town of Stettin. Lang said a recent traffic safety study, which involved cameras monitoring the intersection, revealed that not a lot of vehicles were actually running through the stop signs, but the sign facing east is set further off the road than normal.
No crashes have been reported at the intersection during the past 10 years, the report states, but concerns have been raised about drivers failing to stop.
“It was probably more of the local people who were doing rolling stops that were causing the issue,” Lang said.
■ ■ Based on a quarterly report from the Marathon County Traffic Safety Commission, the county had one fatal accident in the past three months, which happened when a car pulled out in front of a semi at the intersection of STH 52 and CTH X. A total of 11 crashes, including two near Athens, were reported between Nov. 6, 2024 and Feb. 5, resulting in 20 injuries.
Jim Griesbach
