WHAT WILL IT COST YOU?

Total cost of a new highway facility - including design, land acquisition and construction - is $7.92 million. And what will that cost you? Eighteen cents per $1,000 of assessed value annually, or $18 per year on $100,000, which amounts to $360 over the course of the 20-year bonding period.

In 1936 the Calumet County Highway Dept. had a brand new building on agricultural land in south Chilton. It fit the bill for the county's needs in 1936, but only 12 years later the first of several additions was made to accommodate the growing department.

A decade into the 21st century and it's obvious to just about everyone the building has outlived its function. It may still look fine from the outside, but inside is another matter.

The building was created 54 years before the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, so it meets none of the requirements of an ADA-compliant public building. It has an ancient ventilation system. It's poorly insulated. Equipment has gotten much larger since the 1930s. Mechanics work just feet away from the corner welding shop. Office space is cramped and dingy. In short, the building is a dinosaur.

While most see the need for a new Highway Dept. building, many balk at the proposal to build a nearly $8 million facility on agricultural land in the Town of Chilton.

On July 20 the Calumet County Board voted 12-6 to spend up to $350,000 on an architectural design for a new highway building. With that vote, the design phase is now on a fast track. Proposals are due from design firms on Aug. 24, interviews will be held on Sept. 2, the contract will be awarded Sept. 7, and the finished design is expected on Dec. 7.

A proposal to build on the present site was voted down at the July 20 meeting. Several supervisors are promoting the idea of building a new office and maintenance building at the current location,and they have wondered why that was not included as an option.

"It was considered," said Calumet County Administrator Jay Shambeau. "It was part of the scope of the SEH folks that created this study in December of 2009 and they, quite frankly, said 'Don't do it. You have a tired 1936 building. It's served it's useful life. Move on.'"

"They springboarded off of a previous study that suggested the same thing," said Calumet County Highway Commissioner Mike Ottery. "With the configuration of the building, it's difficult."

Some have also suggested that a new multi-million dollar highway facility is really just a monument — a personal Taj Mahal — to Shambeau and Ottery.

"I know some supervisors have tried to personalize the Mike and Jay thing. That's just not a fact," Shambeau said. "I've told people all along, the1998 study when this started was way before my tenure here," Shambeau said.

Some have objected to moving the department from Chilton to the Town of Chilton. Shambeau said if there were 20 acres to build on in Chilton, the question wouldn't even come up "and we'd make the snowplow routing work, just as we have all these years. There's just no physical room on this property. There's no magic behind that location, other than it works well for snowplowing the entire county. It could be in the near-Hilbert area, it could be Woodville or just a mile or two outside of Chilton.Those types of decisions have to be made."

Estimated savings with a new energy efficient, centrally located shop amount to $116,000 saved annually in travel time between the Chilton headquarters and the satellite shop in Sherwood, $26,800 annually in energy costs (or $1.3 million over 50 years), as well as inestimable savings in operational efficiencies and employee morale.

A copy of the pre-architectural study and related documents can be found at the Calumet County website,co.calumet.wi.us.

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