Public works committee considers highway department upgrades

The Oneida County public works and solid waste committee met on Dec. 19 and reviewed next steps for potential renovations for the county’s highway department in Rhinelander.

Highway commissioner Alex Hegeman told The Lakeland Times there are a number of upgrades the department’s facilities need. The building, he mentioned, was built in the mid-1950s.

Some of those upgrades Hegeman noted include drains being replaced in the shop, distribution and panels being replaced for the electrical system and “some other miscellaneous things.”

“But unfortunately some of these items are pretty big ticket items,” he said. “Just the cost of what they’re going to be is … we don’t have an exact cost right now, but we know they’re going to be in the multiple hundreds of thousands. So just trying to figure out what the next steps are in order to prepare for them.”

The electrical work, Hegeman said, is “probably our priority.”

Besides the drainage and electrical upgrades, he said a remodel of where the mechanics work is needed by adding doors, windows, a fire suppression system and “potentially” adding cold storage. 

“Basically (these upgrades) came up over the last several months,” Hegeman said. “It’s been in discussion with the (public works and solid waste) committee and a little bit with the executive committee. And just trying to figure out one; how do we fund these upgrades, these repairs, whether it’s through department funds, whether it’s through general funds. Do we try and package them together and do multiple at once and try to knock a bunch of these upgrades out at once or do we try to spread them out over a couple years?”

Specifically, at the Dec. 19 meeting, he said, the committee tried to determine a timeline for the projects. 

Hegeman said there hasn’t been action by the public works and solid waste committee yet, but there could be at an upcoming meeting with regard to hiring a consultant to help create a plan. 

Kraus-Anderson, he said, would offer a facilities assessment and address priorities, cost estimates and scheduling of work to be done.

“Just making sure we’re doing things in the right order so we’re not re-doing things,” Hegeman said. “So they offer a service where they’ll come in basically help put that assessment together, analyze all the different things that need to be upgraded and just help us put this whole assessment into one document that helps kind of present all the different things — the cost, the priorities and things like that.”

Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].