1 00:00:07,060 --> 00:00:36,380 Welcome to another edition of the Barron County Administrative Report. I'm James Longard. This is race like community media and this is my friend Mr. Jeff French. Hello sir. Good morning. How are you? I'm fantastic on this very wet rainy, frivolary day. It's actually raining hard outside James. Oh, is it? Yes. It was just sprinkling when I came in. It was raining a little bit last night too. It was windy as that last night though. No, it rained hard and barren. It woke me up several times. Oh, did it? 2 00:00:36,380 --> 00:00:42,720 already. Oh and I wish it was snow. That's my point. It's February. I wish it was snow for the 3 00:00:42,720 --> 00:00:49,280 Birkey, for everything else. Snowmobiliers. We actually have had a winter this year though. Yes, 4 00:00:49,540 --> 00:00:55,940 very short, very cold. Yeah. I know you and I have talked about this in the past. Your cross-country 5 00:00:56,540 --> 00:01:01,560 cross-country skier, right? Yes. And so you actually got a chance to go out and do that a couple of 6 00:01:01,560 --> 00:01:08,800 did yeah loved it and we're still going to try and meet up down in barren at the at the track and 7 00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:13,660 do a little thing down there right yes good probably next year because it looks like as I've 8 00:01:13,660 --> 00:01:18,800 looked out I mean it's they're talking 3540 degrees two weeks or no but snow the rest of this week 9 00:01:19,280 --> 00:01:23,640 yeah but it doesn't accumulate much but boy blizzard conditions north of us that's gonna be interesting 10 00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:30,920 I saw so just for the record we're recording this on the 18th of February and today 11 00:01:31,560 --> 00:01:39,200 I saw they just shut down the entire North Shore of Lake Superior Highway 61 all the way from Duluth all the way up to the point 12 00:01:39,200 --> 00:01:46,340 Really mm-hmm all the way to Susanne marine no no on the North Shore point. Yeah up there at Hancock, right 13 00:01:46,340 --> 00:01:53,420 Yeah, not not upper Michigan in Minnesota. Oh Minnesota. Yeah. Oh North Shore Lake Superior. All right. Yep. Got it. Yep 14 00:01:53,420 --> 00:01:54,400 All right 15 00:01:54,400 --> 00:02:00,300 Shall we begin? We should do it. They pay us to do this time. We're we consider dark, but we should probably do our duty 16 00:02:00,300 --> 00:02:00,940 Well, maybe. 17 00:02:01,320 --> 00:02:01,460 Maybe. 18 00:02:01,640 --> 00:02:01,760 Okay. 19 00:02:01,880 --> 00:02:02,560 Let's go with the maybe. 20 00:02:03,700 --> 00:02:08,900 So, county board, February 16th, 90, I'm at the right at the government center. 21 00:02:09,040 --> 00:02:10,980 So, special manners and announcement. 22 00:02:11,260 --> 00:02:15,240 I'm really excited about introducing a couple of new county employees. 23 00:02:15,880 --> 00:02:20,340 Well, one's a new employee, one's been here while, Dalton Bigg, from Prairie Farm, Wisconsin, 24 00:02:20,820 --> 00:02:21,260 IPF. 25 00:02:21,860 --> 00:02:23,000 He's a PF native. 26 00:02:23,540 --> 00:02:23,920 Oh, he is. 27 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:25,160 He played football for PF. 28 00:02:25,340 --> 00:02:26,140 He's a great guy. 29 00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:28,020 I think we talked about him a little bit last year. 30 00:02:28,020 --> 00:02:30,260 Yep, he introduced himself to the county board. 31 00:02:30,320 --> 00:02:32,680 He's our new county forester slash trail coordinator. 32 00:02:33,140 --> 00:02:34,100 He's learning a lot. 33 00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:36,720 He said, told the county board he'd put on 12 miles 34 00:02:36,720 --> 00:02:38,320 on the snow shoes in the last week, 35 00:02:38,540 --> 00:02:39,640 walking around learning stuff. 36 00:02:39,880 --> 00:02:41,540 So, county board welcomed him. 37 00:02:41,860 --> 00:02:44,360 And then Shelley Shaw introduced herself 38 00:02:44,760 --> 00:02:46,600 as our new veteran service officer. 39 00:02:47,060 --> 00:02:48,640 You know, a little birdie told me 40 00:02:48,640 --> 00:02:52,360 that here in the not-too-distant future, 41 00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:55,180 you're going to do a special bearing county administrator 42 00:02:55,180 --> 00:02:57,540 report and you're going to talk to Shelley. 43 00:02:57,540 --> 00:03:26,020 I am. We're going to bring Shelley in. We've got four or five questions. We're going to talk to her because our veterans are important to us and she and Scott have done a great job and we're just going to chat her up a little bit and learn who she is and welcome her and good. All those great things. We appreciate when you do that. Well, I'm glad to do them. So we County Board approved the resolution, allowing the annual salaries for the Baron County Clerk of Court and the sheriff. And I like to always explain how this works because. 44 00:03:26,020 --> 00:03:32,680 For an elected official, what the county board is actually approving is, they're approving 45 00:03:32,680 --> 00:03:35,560 their salary for the term of their office. 46 00:03:36,760 --> 00:03:42,360 The county board is in fact approving the position and the salary. 47 00:03:42,540 --> 00:03:43,360 It's not the person. 48 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:48,460 It's a different from, say, my position or another appointed position by the county board. 49 00:03:48,460 --> 00:03:52,380 So we look at what our 50 00:03:52,380 --> 00:03:55,140 comparables are, our continuous 51 00:03:55,140 --> 00:03:57,680 counties, the 14 counties that are similar in size. 52 00:03:57,680 --> 00:04:04,290 We look at counties that have three judges like we do. 53 00:04:04,390 --> 00:04:06,090 Those are all the things that we look at. 54 00:04:06,570 --> 00:04:10,890 So at the end of the day, the county board approves the elected 55 00:04:10,890 --> 00:04:14,550 salaries for five elected officials in the county. 56 00:04:15,370 --> 00:04:18,370 There are two that are going to be approved this year 57 00:04:18,370 --> 00:04:23,310 in 2026. Two years from now they'll approve the 58 00:04:23,310 --> 00:04:26,650 Treasurer, the Register of Deeds and the County Clerk. 59 00:04:27,730 --> 00:04:32,490 This four-year cycle, they approve the Clerk of Court and the Sheriff. 60 00:04:33,090 --> 00:04:39,470 So I want to explain that and explain that the County Board by state statute must approve 61 00:04:39,470 --> 00:04:48,090 the salary of all four years prior to the first day upon which a person may take out 62 00:04:48,090 --> 00:04:52,370 papers and solicit signatures to run for public office. 63 00:04:52,690 --> 00:04:54,070 That's why it has to be done. 64 00:04:54,510 --> 00:04:57,790 Now, essentially, I will tell you, we are a month early, 65 00:04:58,050 --> 00:05:00,950 but a lot of the other counties are going a month early 66 00:05:01,490 --> 00:05:04,030 just because it's better to do it now, 67 00:05:04,110 --> 00:05:06,710 because beginning in April, they can start taking all papers. 68 00:05:07,130 --> 00:05:07,270 Sure. 69 00:05:07,830 --> 00:05:12,590 So let me ask and forgive my confusion on this. 70 00:05:12,830 --> 00:05:13,470 Excuse me, just a minute. 71 00:05:13,470 --> 00:05:22,050 Yep. Sure. The question I have is, so if you're going to run for share, what's it? So, 72 00:05:22,690 --> 00:05:28,450 Jeff is running for share. And you're going, so when you take your papers out, you know 73 00:05:28,450 --> 00:05:33,490 exactly how much you're going to make in 27, 28, 29 and 30. 74 00:05:33,730 --> 00:05:38,290 Right. Okay. That's the thing. No, there's a very interesting, and I talked about this 75 00:05:38,290 --> 00:05:44,190 on the radio show, you cannot, this was tried by a county, you cannot do this, you cannot 76 00:05:44,190 --> 00:05:50,390 say, well we're going to set the salary for James and his salary is going to be X, but 77 00:05:50,390 --> 00:05:56,210 if anybody else runs for Sheriff, there's is going to be less or more. You can't do that. 78 00:05:56,390 --> 00:06:02,690 It's the salary. One size does fit on that case. Exactly. No, it's very important to point 79 00:06:02,690 --> 00:06:16,470 I know when you look at our resolution, we also specify that these people, then, are eligible for health insurance and WRS, because it separates them from, and I got a great question from Supervisor Diane Vaughn. 80 00:06:16,550 --> 00:06:23,310 She had an excellent question. Her concern was, we don't cut out the County Board Supervisors. Well, here's the deal. 81 00:06:23,310 --> 00:06:28,530 they work the requisite number of hours to allow them to get on health insurance 82 00:06:28,530 --> 00:06:34,230 and WRS, where a county board supervisor isn't considered an 83 00:06:34,230 --> 00:06:37,990 hourlier even meet the number of hours to do that. Well, I can't think that 84 00:06:37,990 --> 00:06:42,190 they're considered employees either. No, they're technically not. Right. A 85 00:06:42,190 --> 00:06:46,150 county board supervisor isn't technically not considered an employee. They're 86 00:06:46,150 --> 00:06:50,010 considered a common law employee for Social Security purposes, but they're not 87 00:06:50,010 --> 00:06:56,730 an employee for other purposes. We've got to somehow work some of these things out because 88 00:06:56,730 --> 00:07:01,130 then you go to the clerk of court or the elected officials and they're considered an employee. 89 00:07:02,330 --> 00:07:07,630 Anyway, even though they're elected, yes. Yep, it's, it's an, how does that work? Well, 90 00:07:07,630 --> 00:07:12,650 hours that they have to work, the fact that we're an employer over 250 and they're eligible for 91 00:07:12,650 --> 00:07:17,190 health insurance, there's all these different federal and state laws that they trip into, 92 00:07:17,190 --> 00:07:19,270 to that a county board supervisor would not. 93 00:07:20,130 --> 00:07:22,710 And that's the difference folks between a supervisor 94 00:07:22,710 --> 00:07:23,750 and a commissioner. 95 00:07:24,270 --> 00:07:28,170 See, and that, it doesn't, I don't know, 96 00:07:28,290 --> 00:07:30,590 my P-brain can't wrap around the idea 97 00:07:30,590 --> 00:07:36,770 that an elected official is, well, I guess it does, 98 00:07:37,550 --> 00:07:38,650 is an employee. 99 00:07:39,330 --> 00:07:40,810 Well, I guess that does make sense. 100 00:07:41,550 --> 00:07:44,690 An elected official who's considered to be required 101 00:07:44,690 --> 00:07:46,630 to work full time in their job, 102 00:07:46,630 --> 00:07:52,390 IE 40 hours a week is considered an employee and that's a standard number of 103 00:07:52,390 --> 00:08:01,210 2080, 2018. And a county board supervisor is paid a per diem. Their paid to attend 104 00:08:01,210 --> 00:08:05,710 the county board meeting same way as an assembly person or sender and then 105 00:08:05,710 --> 00:08:10,770 they're paid to attend a committee meeting. Got it. That's the difference. A county 106 00:08:10,770 --> 00:08:14,910 board supervisor is not paid a salary, they're paid a per diem. Got it. A county 107 00:08:14,910 --> 00:08:21,070 Many commissioners say in Minnesota is paid a salary and they get health insurance and 108 00:08:21,070 --> 00:08:23,770 they get retirement and they get a lot more things than we get. 109 00:08:24,110 --> 00:08:30,630 Wouldn't it be lovely if everybody can all states did it uniformly? 110 00:08:30,910 --> 00:08:31,810 It's very different. 111 00:08:32,030 --> 00:08:36,690 You talk to my compatriots out west, say Oregon, which I've had a few interactions with people 112 00:08:36,690 --> 00:08:38,430 in Oregon, some in Montana. 113 00:08:39,010 --> 00:08:43,050 For example in Montana, there's five county board supervisors. 114 00:08:43,050 --> 00:08:49,450 It's essentially a salary position with health insurance, retirement, and they have their 115 00:08:49,450 --> 00:08:50,050 own offices. 116 00:08:50,270 --> 00:08:51,290 They can get their own staff. 117 00:08:51,470 --> 00:08:53,570 In Oregon, I know for a fact, they can get their own offices. 118 00:08:53,730 --> 00:08:54,670 They get their own staff. 119 00:08:55,610 --> 00:08:58,930 They're considered like a mini legislature of that county. 120 00:08:59,670 --> 00:09:07,350 What about, you mentioned that you set the salary for the share of, again, one size kind 121 00:09:07,350 --> 00:09:07,890 of fits all. 122 00:09:07,890 --> 00:09:15,110 Well, why is it that they do that, is it planning purposes, is it some of the reason 123 00:09:15,110 --> 00:09:20,910 why they set the salary for the entire tea of the term that they're going to be in 124 00:09:20,910 --> 00:09:21,110 office? 125 00:09:21,290 --> 00:09:21,550 Okay. 126 00:09:22,250 --> 00:09:23,190 There's a history. 127 00:09:23,530 --> 00:09:23,670 Okay. 128 00:09:24,070 --> 00:09:25,690 County boards used to play games. 129 00:09:26,350 --> 00:09:31,530 And my understanding from the history, so my understanding, and if I'm wrong, I apologize. 130 00:09:31,790 --> 00:09:34,890 My understanding is it goes back to the founding of the state. 131 00:09:34,890 --> 00:09:42,090 And afterwards, the legislature stepped in and said, no, no, there's no games here. 132 00:09:42,830 --> 00:09:44,530 You have to set that salary. 133 00:09:44,710 --> 00:09:50,370 So the electorate knows if we elect James, he's getting the same amount that if we elect 134 00:09:50,370 --> 00:09:56,750 Jeff, or if we elect Linda, that's what I, that's what the, there's a history here, yeah. 135 00:09:56,950 --> 00:10:03,470 Because I think if we go back to what you were saying before, if I got elected, I'd get 136 00:10:04,350 --> 00:10:11,390 $10,000. If you got elected, you'd get $15,000. And if Linda got elected, she could get 137 00:10:11,390 --> 00:10:16,370 $38,000 or $30,000 or whatever. Right. Well, there's also some case law here. It used 138 00:10:16,370 --> 00:10:21,470 to be, and there was a back in the 1930s, and it's in our county, uh, preceding book, I've 139 00:10:21,470 --> 00:10:27,030 read it. There was actually a blow up in the state stepped in and said, no, no, no, no. 140 00:10:27,030 --> 00:10:33,870 County Sheriff, County Clerk, you don't get your salary plus the fees you collect. 141 00:10:34,550 --> 00:10:39,230 You have to turn the fees you collect into the Board of Supervisors. 142 00:10:39,430 --> 00:10:41,470 That's revenue for the county. 143 00:10:42,110 --> 00:10:43,710 Your revenue is your salary. 144 00:10:44,770 --> 00:10:45,670 So they were double dipping. 145 00:10:47,150 --> 00:10:47,510 Aha. 146 00:10:48,560 --> 00:10:53,650 Back in the 1930s, the state of Wisconsin, the county auditor had actually addressed the county 147 00:10:53,650 --> 00:11:00,070 board and told the county board not your county elected officials shall put 148 00:11:00,070 --> 00:11:04,630 together a budget shall turn in all of the revenue they collect there's that 149 00:11:04,630 --> 00:11:10,510 some of the history why this happened and I suspect that that's part of the 150 00:11:10,510 --> 00:11:19,150 just the stacking of how how counties relate to the state as as basically a 151 00:11:19,150 --> 00:11:20,430 the sub-district of the state. 152 00:11:20,670 --> 00:11:21,170 Right, okay. 153 00:11:21,290 --> 00:11:22,990 And it's also the fact where the, 154 00:11:23,210 --> 00:11:25,410 by the way I've said this a lot of times in this program, 155 00:11:26,410 --> 00:11:29,230 Wisconsin has some of the highest white laws, 156 00:11:29,230 --> 00:11:31,630 which means transparency in election, 157 00:11:31,890 --> 00:11:34,370 transparency in government of any of the states. 158 00:11:34,590 --> 00:11:35,570 I mean, we do. 159 00:11:35,810 --> 00:11:36,970 We just simply, we do. 160 00:11:37,170 --> 00:11:40,130 We have the, some of the highest standards 161 00:11:40,130 --> 00:11:41,790 of any state in the union. 162 00:11:43,910 --> 00:11:45,950 Which some might argue is a good thing. 163 00:11:46,350 --> 00:11:47,970 Well, look what's going on in North Carolina. 164 00:11:47,970 --> 00:11:54,890 I know you've got a town manager down in North Carolina, $150,000 spent on a book that the 165 00:11:54,890 --> 00:12:00,130 township paid for come to find out his wife was on the make with the economic development 166 00:12:00,130 --> 00:12:01,370 director ship. 167 00:12:01,750 --> 00:12:03,370 I can go on and on and on. 168 00:12:03,970 --> 00:12:10,210 Things like that don't happen in Wisconsin because we have laws that can't do that. 169 00:12:10,210 --> 00:12:10,530 Sure. 170 00:12:11,010 --> 00:12:11,570 All right. 171 00:12:12,530 --> 00:12:20,010 County Board approved an expenditure of $23,753.96 for the Wisconsin Department of Military 172 00:12:20,010 --> 00:12:20,550 Affairs. 173 00:12:20,550 --> 00:12:22,430 It's called the PSAP answering grant. 174 00:12:22,810 --> 00:12:29,370 This is an important grant that Chairman Ockie was involved in, the emergency management 175 00:12:29,370 --> 00:12:30,610 director, Mike Judy. 176 00:12:31,450 --> 00:12:39,070 This is a grant, 90% of it paid by the state of Wisconsin, 10% from local funds that allows 177 00:12:39,070 --> 00:12:44,470 the Sheriff's Department to set up a completely functional yet remote 9-1-1 178 00:12:44,470 --> 00:12:48,690 Center. So let's say the Justice Center was to get wiped out with a tornado or 179 00:12:48,690 --> 00:12:54,190 a flood or power went off for days. This grant allows the county to go out and 180 00:12:54,190 --> 00:12:59,190 purchase the equipment necessary to have a remote location, take our dispatch 181 00:12:59,190 --> 00:13:03,710 there, take whatever you need there and bang, we're up and running. This was 182 00:13:03,710 --> 00:13:07,990 something that was worked on and the Sheriff's Department and talking to 183 00:13:07,990 --> 00:13:12,550 several people out there and Chairman Oki, this was something that felt was a necessity 184 00:13:12,550 --> 00:13:16,790 because it could help support all of the police departments or fire departments if something 185 00:13:16,790 --> 00:13:17,690 bad were to happen. 186 00:13:18,010 --> 00:13:23,290 Is that through, you mentioned the Department of Military Affairs, of course they're headquartered 187 00:13:23,290 --> 00:13:23,690 in Madison. 188 00:13:24,290 --> 00:13:26,330 I'm very familiar with that building as a matter of fact. 189 00:13:26,850 --> 00:13:30,850 It was that through the emergency operations group. 190 00:13:30,970 --> 00:13:31,690 I believe it was. 191 00:13:31,690 --> 00:13:37,830 Yeah, County Board approved 14,850 for digital imaging conversion. 192 00:13:37,970 --> 00:13:39,610 Now this is at the County Clerk's office. 193 00:13:39,830 --> 00:13:42,870 So the clerk ends up with a lot of historical documents. 194 00:13:43,050 --> 00:13:46,690 And they're in a vault that is secure, but it's not waterproof. 195 00:13:47,230 --> 00:13:50,070 And there's some old documents there that really, honestly, 196 00:13:50,170 --> 00:13:54,430 I do believe the clerk was right in asking for this money to digitize this stuff. 197 00:13:54,910 --> 00:13:59,030 And it was a very, this is a very nominal fee to pay for this, 198 00:13:59,030 --> 00:14:04,830 to have this also in a vault and then digitized and keep some of these old records. 199 00:14:05,030 --> 00:14:08,730 I mean, there's records for dams, there's records for old buildings, there's records 200 00:14:08,730 --> 00:14:15,370 on the campus, there's records on records, there's records of things from opening the 201 00:14:15,370 --> 00:14:17,390 Highway 53 from Cameron North. 202 00:14:17,510 --> 00:14:19,910 These are all records that end up with the clerk. 203 00:14:20,150 --> 00:14:23,350 No, I do think it's important to talk about this. 204 00:14:23,910 --> 00:14:28,930 Very few people realize the county clerk cannot just arbitrarily get rid of historical 205 00:14:28,930 --> 00:14:37,590 documents. They are required to ask university Wisconsin at stout. It's stout. Yes, sir. They are 206 00:14:37,590 --> 00:14:43,810 required to ask the historical people at stout. If stout wants them, we give them physically to 207 00:14:43,810 --> 00:14:49,830 them. What they don't want we keep. That's the purpose of this is to digitize this stuff. So we have 208 00:14:49,830 --> 00:14:58,470 a digital record. Do you think once the new building, the welcome center essentially at 209 00:14:59,050 --> 00:14:59,730 Pioneer Village? 210 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:28,700 Those in, some of those old documents could go there. Yes. And in fact, it's interesting you bring it up. We had a person just gave us a stack of historical agricultural documents going back into the thirties. And so we're going to not keep those. We're going to turn them over to the historical society. Because remember, once the clerk keeps them and she doesn't want to keep them, but once the clerk keeps them, then they become a record of the county. And we don't really want that. We want the historical society to be the record. 211 00:15:28,700 --> 00:15:35,000 And now we should also clarify by law you have to keep stuff for seven years. 212 00:15:35,180 --> 00:15:38,300 Yes, or 10 or for 50. 213 00:15:38,860 --> 00:15:44,120 Oh, yeah, there's some stuff at the clerks like there's schematics of dams and buildings 214 00:15:44,120 --> 00:15:49,340 you have to keep those either 50 or 70 or until the building is gone. 215 00:15:49,600 --> 00:15:56,260 Yeah, so it's there's a different like for example a voucher we pay a bill that voucher 216 00:15:56,260 --> 00:15:58,580 I think it's seven years and receipts are seven years. 217 00:15:58,860 --> 00:16:00,900 We typically keep them 10 just in case. 218 00:16:01,320 --> 00:16:04,180 But there's other things like minutes, they're indefinite. 219 00:16:04,300 --> 00:16:04,980 Oh, okay. 220 00:16:05,680 --> 00:16:09,620 County Board authorized us to participate 221 00:16:09,620 --> 00:16:11,500 in the municipal dam grant. 222 00:16:12,060 --> 00:16:14,920 Now this is important because the county does have dams 223 00:16:14,920 --> 00:16:18,300 and this is a 50, 50 or 25% match. 224 00:16:18,440 --> 00:16:21,020 So if we get a million dollar grant from the state, 225 00:16:21,160 --> 00:16:22,780 we have to put in 500,000. 226 00:16:22,900 --> 00:16:24,640 If we get a two million dollar grant, 227 00:16:24,640 --> 00:16:26,960 we have to put in 500,000, which is 25%. 228 00:16:27,620 --> 00:16:32,900 The purpose of the resolution is not that we have a project ready to go, it's to apply 229 00:16:32,900 --> 00:16:37,460 for this grant, which is a competitive grant, which other municipalities are going to 230 00:16:37,460 --> 00:16:38,020 apply for. 231 00:16:38,240 --> 00:16:43,320 And if we get this grant awarded, it'll probably be used at the Shatech Dam, which is very 232 00:16:43,320 --> 00:16:43,900 large dam. 233 00:16:44,560 --> 00:16:48,140 County Board approved the Sustainable Transportation Funding Grant. 234 00:16:48,720 --> 00:16:52,640 This is also, there's a lot of things here that are critical to Wisconsin. 235 00:16:52,640 --> 00:16:58,520 Johnson, this is being put forward by the Wisconsin County's Association to have our 236 00:16:58,520 --> 00:17:06,340 legislatures, legislatures on record saying, hey, we need to stay on top of our transportation 237 00:17:06,340 --> 00:17:11,120 funding. In the last two-year budget cycle of the state, there was 500 million transferred 238 00:17:11,120 --> 00:17:16,980 from the General Fund to the Transportation Fund. 30 years ago, the Transportation Fund 239 00:17:16,980 --> 00:17:22,720 with supporting the general fund. In 2006, this state got away with gas tax indexing. 240 00:17:23,180 --> 00:17:30,860 It's about $1.6 billion in the last 18 years has not been deposited into the transportation 241 00:17:30,860 --> 00:17:36,700 fund. If the gas tax had been indexed, there would be another $1.6 billion to work on our 242 00:17:36,700 --> 00:17:42,740 roads. The purpose of this is to get all the groups, the towns, the league, the county, 243 00:17:42,740 --> 00:17:48,460 the road builders everybody and say okay we all got to agree state we got to do a 244 00:17:48,460 --> 00:17:53,040 better job at maintaining our roads and we do it and it's pot hole season right 245 00:17:53,040 --> 00:17:58,560 plus there's bridges plus there's culverts but it's not just roads it's bridges 246 00:17:58,560 --> 00:18:02,640 it's culverts it's all those things that need to be maintained because we 247 00:18:02,640 --> 00:18:07,100 travel and when summertime hits we really travel we sure do all right so then the 248 00:18:07,100 --> 00:18:12,200 zoning in the tone of Cumberland by Scott Mary Belfie was approved zoning 249 00:18:12,200 --> 00:18:16,280 zoning and a ton of rice like for Dennis Ganya was approved. We approved two 250 00:18:16,280 --> 00:18:19,920 fire wardens for the county. It used to be we had a lot of fire wardens because 251 00:18:19,920 --> 00:18:24,240 they were kind of the first defense if there was a fire. But now with GPS and 252 00:18:24,240 --> 00:18:28,280 other things it's it's kind of being whittled down. Is that sorry to interrupt? 253 00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:33,800 Is that related to like forest? Greenlands? Yeah yeah yeah. I mean it used to be 254 00:18:33,800 --> 00:18:38,100 that the burning permits and stuff were issued by the fire wardens. Now it's 255 00:18:38,100 --> 00:18:40,980 getting to be where the town clerk will do it or somebody else will do it. 256 00:18:40,980 --> 00:18:44,320 Used to be the list was huge, but they also used okay 257 00:18:44,320 --> 00:18:48,520 I'm old enough to tell you I can remember when the when the when the fire 258 00:18:49,100 --> 00:18:54,380 Towers were maned sure like when I was a kid state like when I was a teenager 259 00:18:54,380 --> 00:18:59,080 They paid eight bucks an hour to sit up there and that was that's a lot of money 260 00:18:59,080 --> 00:19:04,040 Yeah, even the latter. Yeah. No, I don't know. I wouldn't climb that high 261 00:19:04,040 --> 00:19:09,840 But people did and it was quite an interesting boring. You just sit there and watch, but yeah 262 00:19:10,800 --> 00:19:13,420 How else are you going to make $8 an hour in those days? 263 00:19:14,700 --> 00:19:15,240 You didn't. 264 00:19:15,520 --> 00:19:15,740 Exactly. 265 00:19:16,140 --> 00:19:16,220 Yeah. 266 00:19:17,040 --> 00:19:18,480 So there was one appointment. 267 00:19:18,680 --> 00:19:21,500 The appointment of Shelley Shaw as our veteran service officer. 268 00:19:21,880 --> 00:19:23,840 There were no claims petitioner or correspondence. 269 00:19:24,680 --> 00:19:29,340 Oh, I just want to go back and say the only report from me was we had the 2025 270 00:19:30,200 --> 00:19:34,420 per diem report, which lists all of our who's paid and what committees paid. 271 00:19:34,800 --> 00:19:39,240 So the next county board meeting will be Monday, March 16th, 272 00:19:39,240 --> 00:19:45,880 9 a.m. at the government center, and that's the last scheduled county board meeting for this board of supervisors. 273 00:19:45,880 --> 00:19:49,000 We'll have a election in April and we'll have a new county board. 274 00:19:49,160 --> 00:19:51,920 I think we're about eight or nine, possibly eight or nine new board members, 275 00:19:52,120 --> 00:19:55,200 so essentially a third of the board can be a new board. 276 00:19:56,460 --> 00:20:01,020 So some upcoming things we're looking at expanding the ATV route in the Chateque area. 277 00:20:01,660 --> 00:20:09,160 We're going to look, update our recycling ordinance to keep in accordance with the DNR. 278 00:20:09,160 --> 00:20:18,640 And that's where we were at. So with that we were done by about 935 was rather short meaning a lot of important stuff but nothing controversial. 279 00:20:19,500 --> 00:20:33,620 So here we go. I was asked to do somebody brought up about the gray lakes. And I thought you know what? I did this on the radio show. I thought we just chitchat about the gray lakes because there's five of them. 280 00:20:34,960 --> 00:20:56,040 And I ran across a system profile and I've lived here all my life, and I'll tell you this is I didn't know. Maybe you did. I did not know this. So the first thing that astounded me is it's 2,212 miles from the western terminus of Lake Superior to the Atlantic Ocean. 281 00:20:56,040 --> 00:21:05,720 2,212 miles okay yeah it makes sense yep Lake Superior is 601.1 feet above sea 282 00:21:05,720 --> 00:21:13,400 level according to this St. Ray's River is at 577.5 feet which is why you know 283 00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:17,200 what we've got to draw down about 24 25 feet which is why we have the 284 00:21:17,200 --> 00:21:24,900 sulax then the St. Claire River is two tenths of a foot lower than the St. Mary's 285 00:21:24,900 --> 00:21:31,040 river, the Detroit River then is down at 569.2 feet, which is the same depth as the Lake 286 00:21:31,040 --> 00:21:38,240 area. So we've went from superior at 601 to Lake Michigan at 575 to Lake St. Clair 287 00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:49,120 at 575, yep, 575.3, then we're down to the Detroit River at 589.2. But then we really 288 00:21:49,120 --> 00:21:57,340 drop off. Oh yeah. Because then we get to Lake Huron at I believe it's 243.3 feet. 289 00:21:57,920 --> 00:22:02,900 It's a healthy downhill slide once you get past Detroit and then you go up 290 00:22:02,900 --> 00:22:08,100 up the river on your way to the ocean. Yes. So then you get to Lake St. 291 00:22:10,060 --> 00:22:15,000 Lawrence, Lake St. Francis, Lake St. Louis, then you find to get to the Montreal 292 00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:21,480 harbor and then it's really downhill you know it's it's 850 miles from the 293 00:22:21,480 --> 00:22:26,840 terminus according to this of the Montreal Harbor to the Atlantic Ocean which 294 00:22:26,840 --> 00:22:30,940 doesn't seem possible because from Montreal to the ocean isn't all that very 295 00:22:30,940 --> 00:22:36,380 far but it the meanders and loops and yeah I'm sure this is probably not a 296 00:22:36,380 --> 00:22:41,800 cold miles and this is from the US current Army Corps of Engineers so now we all 297 00:22:41,800 --> 00:22:52,400 know the deepest lake is the is Lake Superior. Yep, 1,330 feet. Now, I got this from the Army Corps of Engineers. I also got 298 00:22:52,400 --> 00:23:00,160 another one that says, no, no, no, it's 1,332 feet. We'll get you that we'll give you the two feet followed by Lake 299 00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:10,320 Michigan 923 feet deep lake here on 750 feet deep but lake eerie is only like 210 feet deep 300 00:23:11,330 --> 00:23:17,820 like Ontario according to this is 802 feet deep and i think because of the 301 00:23:18,410 --> 00:23:24,240 relatively shallow depth of lake eerie that's why they get so many of those great big huge snowstorms 302 00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:29,080 blowing into Cleveland and on the Buffalo and up up that way. 303 00:23:29,460 --> 00:23:29,900 Watertown. 304 00:23:30,360 --> 00:23:30,540 Yeah. 305 00:23:30,740 --> 00:23:34,840 I've also been told that because Lake Erie is so shallow, 306 00:23:35,140 --> 00:23:38,160 that is why if they get a hard wind one way or the other, 307 00:23:38,260 --> 00:23:40,220 they can actually measure that the depth of the lake 308 00:23:40,220 --> 00:23:43,200 will be eight inches deeper on one end of the lake 309 00:23:43,200 --> 00:23:43,720 than the others. 310 00:23:43,900 --> 00:23:44,780 You've heard that too. 311 00:23:45,140 --> 00:23:49,720 Yeah, I've seen following National Weather Services, I do. 312 00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:55,620 they have on the because a lot of times the wind will blow really hard from west 313 00:23:55,620 --> 00:24:00,980 to east okay so they'll have what they'll issue what they call low water 314 00:24:00,980 --> 00:24:06,620 warnings on the on the western end of that lake because it's all pushed up to 315 00:24:06,620 --> 00:24:11,920 the other other side okay I know I had some friends acquaintances that that 316 00:24:11,920 --> 00:24:15,640 traversed from Lake Superior all over the Atlantic Ocean and they got on one of 317 00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:20,900 those and they had a sailboat and I mean they were like going like 30 miles an hour or something. 318 00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:26,580 It was just they were just oh they do cruises now all the way up through the rivers and 319 00:24:26,580 --> 00:24:32,160 they tell you yeah and I was I was remarked on the radio show with Amber Gansky that I can 320 00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:40,780 remember being a young child and the last in the early late 60s early 70s the last cruise closed 321 00:24:40,780 --> 00:24:45,240 now and they couldn't keep it open. I remember my dad writing a letter my because my dad wanted 322 00:24:45,240 --> 00:24:52,080 wanted to do that. My mom, my mother, my parents were in love with the Great Lakes. We vacationed 323 00:24:52,840 --> 00:24:57,660 consistently at Susane Marie. We just loved it. My parents loved it. They'd go there. It 324 00:24:57,660 --> 00:25:03,000 was a huge relaxing time. And my dad wanted to tour and they said, well, we're down to our 325 00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:06,700 last couple years and the boats not in real good shape. We really don't want to take on 326 00:25:06,700 --> 00:25:13,400 any more passengers. And you know, the Edmund Fitzgerald used to be the pride of the lake. 327 00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:16,640 It used to host parties on the Ed and Fitzgerald. 328 00:25:16,820 --> 00:25:16,940 Sure. 329 00:25:17,500 --> 00:25:18,380 Before it went down. 330 00:25:18,580 --> 00:25:18,760 Yeah. 331 00:25:18,940 --> 00:25:22,460 And that was just 50 years in November. 332 00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:22,840 Yeah. 333 00:25:23,580 --> 00:25:25,040 So I don't know when we're out of time. 334 00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:25,860 We've got a couple minutes. 335 00:25:25,900 --> 00:25:26,100 Okay. 336 00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:28,480 So just go real briefly. 337 00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:29,840 Some facts we've talked about. 338 00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:31,520 Lake Superior being the deepest lake. 339 00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:36,880 But you do realize that you could take all of the other four lakes, put them in Lake Superior 340 00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:38,700 and still have plenty of room. 341 00:25:38,880 --> 00:25:39,380 The building of room. 342 00:25:39,700 --> 00:25:40,220 That's all big. 343 00:25:40,600 --> 00:25:41,260 And that amazing. 344 00:25:41,260 --> 00:25:43,320 Well, it's just 60-70 miles from us. 345 00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:43,520 Right. 346 00:25:43,840 --> 00:25:49,280 And I've heard several times Lake Superior referred to as an inland sea. 347 00:25:49,540 --> 00:25:49,700 Yes. 348 00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:50,340 Yeah. 349 00:25:50,700 --> 00:25:55,500 I was just at a meeting with Wisconsin's Colonies Association, and that there was a professor 350 00:25:55,500 --> 00:25:58,460 from UW-B Mass and he said, it is not a lake. 351 00:25:58,860 --> 00:25:59,080 No. 352 00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:00,200 It is an inland sea. 353 00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:00,580 Right. 354 00:26:00,860 --> 00:26:07,080 And he also pointed out that when they get gales, it's not like on the Atlantic Ocean because 355 00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:10,840 is the Atlantic Ocean has a shorter wave distance, 356 00:26:11,540 --> 00:26:16,000 but the salt has to get colder. 357 00:26:16,640 --> 00:26:18,660 Where in like superior, it can be warmer 358 00:26:19,090 --> 00:26:21,740 and still freeze on the ships, because it's no salt. 359 00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:24,380 Okay, there's only one great lake, 360 00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:26,840 completely in the United States. 361 00:26:28,180 --> 00:26:29,060 Great salt lake. 362 00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:30,060 No, Michigan. 363 00:26:31,300 --> 00:26:32,820 The great, the Great Lake, yep. 364 00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:34,700 Only Michigan, yep. 365 00:26:34,700 --> 00:26:39,960 Yeah, Michigan, yep, and you know, people want a tour, all five lakes. 366 00:26:42,140 --> 00:26:46,160 That's going to, how many miles you want to drive around all five great lakes? 367 00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:47,660 How many miles are you going to find your car? 368 00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:59,020 So if you, you said it was 2,212, 2,212 from the western end of Lake Superior to the ocean, 369 00:26:59,640 --> 00:27:04,560 but if you want to go all the way, make the, I think there's a great circle, yeah, there 370 00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:14,760 is yeah yeah I'm gonna say 4,500 6,500 I was gonna say 55 I should have stuck with 371 00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:18,600 my first yep and as far as environmental protection of the Great Lake that 372 00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:24,760 is the result of the Ohio Ohio's Kaohoga River fire in June of 69 it put in 373 00:27:24,760 --> 00:27:29,920 the Federal Pollution Control Act put in the EPA and I believe it also helped to 374 00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:33,400 create the Great Lakes Commission you know all of these things and I believe 375 00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:37,700 I believe that was the start of the fact that you cannot pump water out of any of these 376 00:27:37,700 --> 00:27:39,080 lakes to go anywhere. 377 00:27:39,700 --> 00:27:44,680 You know, as you know, it was brought up in 2025 that some of the southern parts states 378 00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:45,960 want a pipeline. 379 00:27:46,320 --> 00:27:47,300 They want our water. 380 00:27:48,180 --> 00:27:49,100 They can't have it. 381 00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:49,900 They can't have it. 382 00:27:50,460 --> 00:27:52,020 You know, we can buy it one can at a time. 383 00:27:53,080 --> 00:27:56,840 One thing I've always found interesting because I used to live over there. 384 00:27:57,440 --> 00:28:01,860 The Fox River that runs from Oshkosh to Green Bay. 385 00:28:01,860 --> 00:28:09,320 actually flows from the southern end to the north. Yeah, it's amazing, River, isn't it? No, 386 00:28:09,580 --> 00:28:15,540 I also want to talk about the fact that all of the lakes are either derived from an indigenous 387 00:28:15,540 --> 00:28:24,820 language or French. So eerie is shortened of the Iroquoisian word, Elyri Honeg, meaning long tailed, 388 00:28:24,820 --> 00:28:30,920 Say it again, eerie lohanan, meaning long tailed or raccoon nation. 389 00:28:31,760 --> 00:28:37,360 Lake Michigan is from the French spelling of the Ojibbe word Mishikami, big lake. 390 00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:40,040 Lake Superior is Gichigumi. 391 00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:45,360 Here on is an obsolete French adjective, meaning bristled hair. 392 00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:49,440 Negolich, neither of us have to worry about it. 393 00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:56,720 Okay? Shipping is still the dominant thing on the lakes or carriers, so it's iron ore, 394 00:28:57,100 --> 00:29:03,520 coil, coal, limestone, and then agriculture. Wheat, corn, sorghum, soybeans. Some of 395 00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:09,140 those things are steel, scrap metal, iron products, fuel, and chemicals. And finally, 396 00:29:09,460 --> 00:29:13,820 the largest fish in the lake would be lake sturgeon and it can weigh 200 pounds. 397 00:29:14,460 --> 00:29:19,980 you don't want to get slapped by one of them. I know I was just in the largest 398 00:29:19,980 --> 00:29:24,840 and there's lots and lots and lots of wrecks in there. Right. I was just 399 00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:32,100 watching about the the gar down in the Everglades how big they get. Now I 400 00:29:32,100 --> 00:29:37,080 believe a sturgeon has a sucker mullthrate and that's on the bottom. I don't know. 401 00:29:37,280 --> 00:29:41,940 I don't know. But 200 pound fish and you know they're considered like a dinosaur 402 00:29:41,940 --> 00:29:48,440 Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So it's interesting. I mean, it's just fascinating the types 403 00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:53,620 of things that are literally within our drive from where we are. Yeah. And I 404 00:29:53,620 --> 00:29:57,440 also mentioned I believe isn't the Mackinac Straits at the some of the like 405 00:29:57,440 --> 00:29:59,780 the foggiest parts of the U.S. 406 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:31,040 It's funny to say that because we were just talking, I was just talking with my part-time, where's the other day about the bridge. And I am not, I height some fine with bridges, not so much. Somebody sent to me, I think it's maybe a result of this show as we talk about things. A picture from 1958 for the bridge was built in there, the parking lot. Two, I believe it was two, two ferries. 407 00:30:31,040 --> 00:30:34,820 going, and it was like a two and a half or three and a half or a weight was the caption 408 00:30:34,820 --> 00:30:38,320 at the bottom. That was in 58, which is why the bridge was built. 409 00:30:38,660 --> 00:30:48,340 Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I think that one, the Machinov bridge on one lane is concrete, and then 410 00:30:48,340 --> 00:30:52,960 the other lane is great, so you can see all the way down to the water. 411 00:30:53,760 --> 00:30:59,160 Having rode motorcycle, I never rode across the bridge because I was coached. If you're 412 00:30:59,160 --> 00:31:03,640 going to ride across that bridge on a motorcycle, you do it on a calm day and you do not ride on the 413 00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:10,760 great. Right. Yep. Yep. Under any circumstances, you do not ride on the great. I will not ride across that 414 00:31:10,760 --> 00:31:17,840 bridge any day. I don't care if it's calm, windy or otherwise. All right. Thanks, chef. Appreciate it. 415 00:31:18,260 --> 00:31:23,600 And we'll look forward to your show with with Shelley. We're going to do it. The veteran service 416 00:31:23,600 --> 00:31:28,600 New Veteran Service Office of Barron County, so keep an eye out for that, and we will see 417 00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:29,020 you next month. 418 00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:29,260 Yes. 419 00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:29,940 Very good. 420 00:31:30,300 --> 00:31:32,920 With Jeff Frinch, the Barron County Administrator, I'm James Lungard. 421 00:31:33,060 --> 00:31:36,840 This is the Barron County Administrator Report on Rice Lake Community Media.