You probably heard...(stuff that's been in the news lately)

...about shelving the Sheriff's proposal to contract services with the County?

This is old news but at the March 9^th Council meeting, the council officially went on record 4-0 to politely decline Sheriff Fitzgerald's proposal for the city to contract police services with the county. If you read the article in last week's Alert, the gist of the council's reasons is the feedback they received from people in their particular wards and the fear that what looks like a deal now a few years hence may not look so good. “If ain't broke, don't fix it” essentially.

At that February 9^th Council meeting when the sheriff made his proposal, the local folks that spoke out were heartily in favor of Chetek P.D. But during the ensuing weeks I also had conversations with different business owners and citizens who encouraged me to not be afraid to listen to what the sheriff had to say. That being said at the present time I'm of the opinion that to contract our police services out would be, for lack of a better phrase, “the nuclear option.” Meaning, we have no other choice but to do so. And once we cross the Rubicon there is no easy way back – certainly no affordable way back: you get rid of your building, your cars, and your equipment. If that's so, then you better be dang sure that there are no other viable options. As far as I'm concerned, we're not at that juncture yet. It seems there's enough public trust in our current police force to maintain the status quo. What the future holds is anybody's guess. Rising health care costs for our city employees was a factor in reducing our police force by one full-time officer at the end of 2016. Hopefully we'll secure better rates when we go through the budget process again at the end of this year. Let's all keep our fingers crossed.

That infamous stretch of road

...about the possibility of changing the speed limit on Highway SS?

Last week, Interim Chief Ron Ambrozaitis and I attended the Traffic Safety Commission meeting at the Justice Center. This quarterly meeting brings together Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald, Barron County Highway Commissioner Mark Servi, representatives from the DOT and the State Patrol, and all the police chiefs (or their designees) from Barron County municipalities to address traffic and safety matters throughout the county. At the February 9^th council meeting, Sheriff Fitzgerald informed me that we had been put on the agenda to discuss the speed limit on Highway SS north out of Chetek. I accompanied Chief Ambrozaitis to appeal to the powers that be about:

1. Increasing the speed limit on Highway SS north of Chetek to 35 mph from the current 25 mph from Heritage Credit Union to Pinewood Avenue (where it becomes 45 mph).
2. Decreasing the speed limit on Highway D west to 25 mph from the current 35 mph from Railroad Avenue out to the city limits.

The conversation that followed was educational, to say the least, and the long and short of it is I have good news and I have bad news. First the good news.

But if we do this it's 35 mph all the way out of town

Increasing the speed on SS north is, surprisingly, a relatively easy fix. However, it comes with a caveat: if we formally ask to go through with the change the speed limit would become 35 mph from Heritage Credit Union all the way out of town. That is, where it becomes 45 mph around Pinewood it would be reduced to 35 mph. Why? It's a DOT ordinance that essentially regulates speed based on 85% of the vehicles traveling on that section of road. So, we either leave as it is now or we increase it to 35 mph but, again, it would be 35 mph all the way to the former Snug Harbor Resort (which are the city limits). Interim Chief Ambrozaitis has already signed off onto it if we were to pursue this.

Highway D driving east into town

And the bad news? There is no easy way to reduce the speed limit on Highway D heading west out of town. What's more, if we were to pay for a DOT speed study in Commissioner Servi's carefully worded phrase, “it's a two-edged sword”: they may determine that the speed limit should be actually increased instead of decreased. His advice to us was, in so many words, maybe it would be better to let sleeping dogs lie.

Why change it at all? Well, here's my concern: after you cross through Railroad Avenue it becomes 35 mph and between Railroad Avenue and the city limits there are numerous households, the entryway to Faith Baptist Church and Parker Drive. What's more, if you're coming east into Chetek on Highway D everybody knows that a lot of vehicles are coming in “hot” as they come down from the overpass over Highway 53. But what if those DOT guys come, do their speed study and determine that, gee whiz, you really should increase the limit to 45 mph? Then we have a bigger problem. When I asked Mr. Servi just how much a speed study costs he matter-of-factly replied, “You probably can get one done for under 10, maybe even for under 5” (yeah, you need to add three zeroes after both those figures.) Given that I have had zero complaints from anybody affected on that stretch of road, I think it's better to leave it alone and hope people practice safe driving habits and watch out for those little kids playing in their front yard.

Highway SS south

And what about the speed limit on SS south heading toward New Auburn? Even Mr. Servi has no clue when that empty stretch between Second Street and the Brass Rail (at which point SS becomes 50 mph) became 25 mph. For what possible reason could it be posted 25 mph when there are no dwellings, no businesses, nothing but scenery in that half mile stretch of county road is anybody's guess. But now the Chetek Food Shelf is moving forward with plans to build a new facility on land that the city donated to them on the north side of SS. When that's completed, there will be steady traffic pulling in and out of the Food Shelf on the days they are open for business. At least we'll have a reason now to drive slower on that end of town.

We are on the agenda for the next Highway Commission meeting that is tentatively set for Thursday, April 6. At that time we will formally appeal for the change on SS heading north. It is not a “done deal” yet, so I would appreciate any thoughts or concerns you may have prior to this meeting.

...of the fiasco with the Central States Pension plan?

If you subscribe to The Chetek Alert, the front page article in this week's edition is all about the difficult place the city shop guys are in. With the exception of Director of Public Works Dan Knapp and City Inspector Joe Atwood, the rest of the crew all belong to the Teamsters Union whose pension plan – Central States – is going broke.

This week's headline news

That was a tragedy...and so will this be if things
go on as they are now

Part of it is beyond their control. According to their own numbers in 1980 there was one retiree for every four active employees; in 2016 there are now five retirees for each active employee. Also, in 1980 there were 12,000 employers compared to 1,500 employers in 2016. The math is enough to sink this boat entire. But add to it other market factors and – who knows? - bad fund management and it's like the Titanic hitting the iceberg: it's just a matter of time.

As the Alert accurately reported, the City is obligated to pay Central States a total of $48,000 year for our guys' retirement fund. Last May we received notification from the federal government that they plan to do nothing - i.e., there will be no bail-out like the government did in 2008 with the auto industry. By their estimate Central States will be out of money by 2026. However, it doesn't take someone with special skills to read the tea leaves: it will be insolvent way before that as older guys retire sooner than later in hopes they can collect some of their promised pension other than none at all. And what about our younger guys who are decades away from retirement? As it stands now they will be out. Squat. Nadda. But in the meantime we must keep sending in our check or pay them about $1.2 million to “get out” of the plan. We crunched some numbers and assuming 3.5% interest, we could secure some kind of loan and then be paying that back for the next 25 years. That's a cold bowl of soup to swallow!

The letter we received last May

So, what's the plan? Well, we're working on it and we have good reasons to do so. First, we want to do what we can for Tim, Mike and Joe who in the not-so-distant future will be turning in their yellow vests. Second, we also want to take care of Rod, "Tank" and Aaron who are going be with us, we presume, for some time. Thirdly, how does Dan adequately recruit qualified people to fill the positions soon to be vacated by Tim, Mike and Joe when he can't promise them that their position will come with retirement benefits? It puts him behind the 8-ball to say the least.

We're grateful for this crew (missing: Tim Berning)

I don't have a lot of answers I can share with you yet. And even our best solution won't be a slam-dunk. At most, it'll be some shots in the paint that may be heavily defended by the union. But we feel we have to try for the sake of the guys we have now and the guys – or gals – we hope to hire in the future. As soon as I can I'll let you know what we come up with.