By: Brion Nash
The Jefferson county board met in downtown Jefferson on the breezy fall night of Oct. 22. The meeting was important because it had several topics that will be on the minds of many locals in 2020.
The most important announcement of the night came when the County Board Chairperson, Jim Schroeder announced that he wouldn’t be running for re-election in the upcoming elections in April 2020. Schroeder has been the head of the county board since 2014.
Schroeder is passing on big projects for the county in the next two upcoming years. Next year the county is starting the Badger State Solar project. This project is a solar farm that will cover only 1,200 acres of land which allocates for only .5 percent of the land in Jefferson county.
The big project is looking to bring in more than $300,000 annually. That’s compared to the $18,000 that the county makes from the property taxes of those farmers. The project is one of two sola projects in Jefferson county. The project introduced in this meeting will sit a mile west of the city of Jefferson, where highway 18 meets county road G.
This project is looking to generate around 149 megawatts of energy. That number will make the site big enough to gain attention from the Public Service Commission, which must approve any site that generates more than 100 megawatts of energy. Schroeder mentioned numerous times throughout the meeting how a contract or deal between the commission and county board should be done over the day-to- day functions and the income generated from the project.
The introduction of the 2020 county budget was introduced in the night’s meeting. A big state of emphasis in the budget was the need to renovate and upgrade the facilities of the county.
The projects aren’t looking to start until late 2020, early 2021. The first in this two-step project will be to update all of the infrastructure e the county uses to a broadband network. This upgrade in equipment from analog to a digital spectrum will allow the force to respond quicker and work more efficiently.
Step two calls for a complete renovation of the city hall in Jefferson and other county facilities. The vintage buildings are large, bulky and are not equipped with up to date standards of an enjoyable workplace. They need air conditioning, new ceilings, paint jobs, and other projects done around the over half -decade-old building. “The outside is good, we’re looking to change the inside,” said Schroeder.
The county head finance manager, Ben Weheimr, also agreed that in the long run, to renovate is easier than to build a new county courthouse from the ground up. “First we have to get someone to come look at our facilities and get an estimate for home much we will be looking at in costs, then we will be ready to go around 2021,” Weheimr said. All of this of course still has to be approved when the budget is voted on in next month’s meetings.
Before the public session of the meeting was over Chairman Schroeder emphasized again that the badger State Solar project will last between 25-30 years and will generate over $500,000 in utility shared revenue for next year.
In other parts of county news the parks department present their annual report. In the past year Jefferson County parks department has both the tapt and stewardship grants. Both of these grants are helping complete the inner urban trail and bridge that will be installed this upcoming spring. The department also wanted to acknowledge the generosity it feels from the donations and support from sponsors and the community.