Fred ClarkPublished: April 7, 2025
Summary
In this episode of Pulse of the Bay, host Fred Clark interviews Mark Abeles-Allison, the Bayfield County Administrator, discussing his background, responsibilities, and the unique aspects of Bayfield County. They delve into the county’s budget, the impact of state and federal funding, and the challenges of providing essential services like nursing homes. The conversation also covers the county’s initiatives in addressing climate change, improving telecommunications and broadband access, and tackling affordable housing issues. Mark emphasizes the importance of community engagement and collaboration in addressing these challenges.
Sound Bites
- “Communication is really important.”
- “We have amazing natural resources.”
- “Highways are number one.”
- “We need to protect our water resources.”
- “We’re one of the best-served counties in the state.”
- “We’re hoping to get those last hundred parcels.”
- “We want to bridge the digital divide.”
Resources Cited
Wisconsin Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy
Wisconsin Office of Rural Prosperity
Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey
Chequamegon Bay United Impact Land Trust
Transcript
Fred Clark
Hello and welcome to Pulse of the Bay, the news and public affairs show from 97.7 FM WVCB LP, Ashland, Wisconsin. We are the voice of Chequamegon Bay. WVCB is community radio.
Our programming, music, news, documentary and discussion strengthens our sense of place and the connection among the communities along the south shore of Lake Superior. You can check us out at wvcb.org.
I’m Fred Clark, one of your hosts for Pulse of the Bay. Pulse of the Bay is a program for sharing news, events, and in-depth discussions with interesting people of all kinds throughout the South Shore and Chequamegon Bay. And I’m excited today to be here in Washburn at the Bayfield County Administration Building to talk with Mark Abeles-Allison, our Bayfield County Administrator. Mark, welcome to Pulse of the Bay.
Mark Abeles Allison
Thanks very much. Very excited to have this new media venture in our
Fred
Absolutely, and thanks for making time to sit down and talk with me. We’re here in Mark’s office on the first floor of the County Administration Building. In fact, it’s the first door you’ll walk by when you walk in here. So Mark, you’ve been the County Administrator since 2001? Correct. And before that, you grew up in Michigan. We both learned that we’re fellow Michiganders.
Mark
Exactly, yep. I grew up in East Lansing, Michigan. Went to school in Kalamazoo.
I did some graduate work at Michigan State where I grew up.
Fred
Well, both of us have Michigan State as an alma mater, so MUU, as we used to call it. Green and white. Yeah. And after college, you went and served in the Peace Corps in Mali, West Africa, correct?
Mark
Exactly. Yeah. Wonderful opportunity. I left on my birthday right after graduating from college and actually arrived in country on my birthday. And it was just an amazing experience. We arrived in the capital of in Bamako, which means alligator in the local language, Bambara. And I spent three years overseas in community development and appropriate technology units.
Fred
It had to be a fascinating experience.
So tell us about your career path. What took you from Mali to the seat you’re in today as the Bayfield County Administrator?
Mark
Yeah, great. Great question. Mali helped develop, or my Peace Corps helped develop my interest in food systems, local government. After returning from the Peace Corps, went to graduate school in agricultural economics at Michigan State University. And one of the opportunities that I had was working with Michigan State Extension Project, local government. was a leadership and local government education, a Kellogg funded project in southwest Michigan. And we were looking at collaborative efforts amongst nine counties in southwest Michigan.
And I worked on that as a graduate student helped me get through school and it really, I really enjoyed that opportunity and developed an appreciation for local government and all that it involved. So when I graduated from school I…had an option for a consulting job, kind of a heavy math quantitative consulting job, or I was offered a city administrator, city clerk position in Council Grove, Kansas. And my wife had a position at Kansas State.
We took, I took the job at in Council Grove and had a great time working there for about seven years, just all sorts of projects and great people.
Fred
So you took the public service fork in the road.
Mark
Exactly. I never looked back.
Fred
Right, right. And you’ve been the county administrator now for 24 years. Correct. Well, something must be going right for you in this job. Tell us about the job overall. What’s your, what are your responsibilities?
Mark
Well, city and county management is really focused on day-to-day operations. A strong liaison with elected officials, really looking towards elected officials as kind of a guide. They’re setting policy, they’re setting direction. And then our job as administrators and staff is to carry out those directives in a cost-effective and appropriate way.
And that’s what I really enjoy. I like getting the directives and then figuring out the best way in a particular community to do that. And you always have to look at what’s cost effective. You have to look at your resources. And you have to really look at what the community needs. But it’s that initial direction from our elected officials, whether it’s city council or the county board of supervisors who provide that direction to you for where they want the community to go.
Fred
And with that, you’re overseeing all of the various county departments, highway, health, and human services, personnel responsibilities.
Mark
County, county government’s really unique. Bayfield County and I would assume most other counties, we’ve got about 25 different departments. Each department has a professional leader, department head. In county government, it’s a little bit different than cities because we have six elected officials who report to the public, but also have reporting requirements to the county.
And so working with those officials is very exciting and it’s a little bit different than working with an appointed official.
Fred
So the county sheriff, the county clerk, the county treasurer, all elected positions, correct?
Mark
Exactly. Yeah. So lots of coordination, lots of relationship building to make things work. That’s an excellent example is it’s really about listening and understanding and good communication and yes.
Fred
So in your work and I know you’re active with the Wisconsin Counties Association and you see the work of other counties throughout the state and beyond, no doubt. What makes Bayfield County unique? When you talk to your colleagues, what stands out for us in Wisconsin here at the northern tip of the state?
Mark
Right, yeah. You know, I think for my job, for the job of a county administrator getting clear direction. And I really put that back on our elected officials is our elected officials provide clear direction.
It’s not something that we can always attain right away, but it’s a process and collaboratively we’ve worked together really well. And I think that may be one thing that’s unique. We’ve got good communication. When somebody’s not happy, they let us know. When there’s a concern, we discuss it. I think that communication is really, really important. But some other really unique things about Bayfield County, in addition to being the northernmost county in the state, we have amazing natural resources.
The term woods and water is used probably too much, but it describes our area and what people value. We have a really wonderful mix of local and if you call them transplant people who have come to go to school here or have lived here for a little while and then they’ve said hey this is a great place to live. High quality of life.
Fred
A High quality of life. Not a big manufacturing base in Bayfield County relatively.
Mark
No, we don’t. But that manufacturing base is those permanent year-round jobs are really important. And the county has been working to supplement, you know, our two main industries are probably our forestry industry and our tourism industry. Yeah. But we want to make sure that we have a diverse, you know, having that diverse base is really important.
So if there’s an uptick over here or a downturn over here that we’re not hit tremendously hard. And right now, there are a lot of, you know, the closure of Northland College with the jobs there is of concern and all these students that have traditionally been brought in. And so we’re really brainstorming right now on how to make sure to position ourselves both from an economic basis but also from a demographic basis.
We’re one of the oldest counties in the state of Wisconsin. The state of Wisconsin is aging as is the entire nation. And so we wanna make sure that we have the workforce in the years ahead to provide for the community. Sure.
Fred And of course, as you could say better than anybody, most counties are not silos or islands. We operate like a region, right?
Mark
Right, exactly.
Fred And just recently was it last month that you were down in Madison at the Capitol with your colleagues from Douglas County and Ashland County for Superior Days. Tell folks a little bit about that tradition.
Mark
Superior Days, if you haven’t participated in the past, it’s something really to look at. It’s a unique opportunity, really I use the term grassroots, but it’s based on what issues are important locally. We start meeting in September, October, November and develop issues and talk about them amongst local officials, residents, business owners, and we try to get a list of topics. They all come together in early January and then in February the whole contingent goes down to Madison and we meet with our elected officials we meet with our state legislators and we meet with agency directors and we share those issues so it’s a great opportunity to both network as well as to convey the importance of issues somewhat unique to our region unique to Douglas County, Bayfield County, Ashland County, Iron County.
Fred
Well, I think many regions of the state try to do something similar, but I don’t think any region does it as well as Superior Days.
Mark
One of the really unique things that I think is the most, one of the most important is that we bring our youth. Yeah. And we get our youth involved and interested. In this last term, I think we had six area youth, our Highway Commissioner, Jake Benson, Ian Meeker, our 4-H youth educator. We’re just instrumental in involving the kids in these programs and these sessions.
And it’s a once in a lifetime experience that you’ll never forget. Just walking around and touring the Capitol alone is a memorable experience.
Fred
Really good to hear. So we’re going to talk more about some of the many different issues you’re facing, but let’s start with some numbers. So the Bayfield County budget -I was taking a look at that last night for 2025 and obviously a big part of your discussions in Madison last month. Can you give us an overview of the budget and what’s really important for citizens to know this year?
Mark
Yeah, the county budget is made up of 15 different departments. Our main fund is our general fund, and that’s about half of our budget. We’ve got about a $22 million general fund. And the general fund is supported with tax dollars. It’s a $22 million budget and approximately $7 million of that. about one-third of the general fund budget is tax dollars.
And so what does that mean? means that all the rest is leveraged. It comes from other sources. It comes from fees. And that’s similar with other departments. The highway department is similar. So we have three main funds. There’s general fund, highway fund, and human services. the highway fund is a $10 million budget. And about 50 % of that today comes from levy.
The county board has consistently said that highways are number one. Our infrastructure, anywhere you go, anything you do, you’re traveling on county highways. And so there’s been a real focus to make sure that we’ve got good highways and specifically we have a 20-year plan. So our goal is to reconstruct, is to renovate every highway every 20 years.
Fred
Yeah. So and when you say tax dollars, we’re talking about property tax. We’re talking about property tax and sales tax or solely property?
Mark
Just property tax. When we talk about that. So our overall budget as approved was about $48 million in 2025 and 14 of that was levy, was a property tax. it. And the balance of it is state and federal revenue sharing and other various programs that… Correct. Plus one very important one for us that’s somewhat unique to northern Wisconsin and that is our forest.
There are, I should remember, I just about, I think it’s 22 counties that have county forests. And those serve as natural resource basis for the counties, but they are also a source of income. Counties actively manage timber sales. The Bayfield County Forestry Department under the leadership of Jason Bodine has been, you know, very well run, very well managed, both from a natural resource, animal habitat, species, variety, as well as timber sales.
A huge resource here in the county. One very unique thing that you’ve probably heard about is the department’s work on carbon sequestration. Yes. And it’s a complicated process, but the short, if I understand correctly, and I probably don’t have the best of understanding, needs our explanation, but our forests assist in removing carbon. And there’s a value for that. So every ton of carbon, there’s a price tag on that. And it might go from, I don’t know, $750 to $25 a ton based on market conditions and type of carbon credit. And so we’re kind of working through a process to sell those carbon credits to interested firms as a way of one, reducing our levy and also further investing in our natural resources, whether it’s trails or forest lands.
Fred
Right, and funding conservation work, habitat improvement, and so a new revenue stream and I, I’m not mistaken, Bayfield County was one of the first counties to actually develop a carbon credit sale project.
Mark
I think that that is correct. Yeah, very innovative, but and to do that you have had to be positioned. You had to have your certifications. You had to have strong inventory. And that’s something that Bayfield County, the forestry department has really positioned it itself to do. To be able to model the growth and the carbon that would be stored in those forests takes a lot of investment.
Fred
So thanks for that overview on the budget. And one important issue that affects, think, every municipality is levy limits. Can you talk about how that works for Bayfield County and the challenges that it presents?
Mark
Yep. So the state of Wisconsin has had, I don’t know, 20 years we’ve had a levy limit. And it basically says that you can’t levy any more than what you levy last year, with the exception of net new construction. Then that new construction for Bayfield County is usually less than 1%. And it might mean an extra 50 to $80,000 a year in additional levy, which on a $10 million levy, $80,000 isn’t a lot. We know that health insurance alone or or wage increases eat that up several times over. Now, that’s the core levy.
There also are exemptions to the levy limit and bonding is one of those and one of the key focus areas for Bayfield County and something that we’ve bonded for this is over and above the limit have been two areas one of them is Highway projects which I just mentioned is a major priority of the county and then the second one more recently has been a nursing home northern lights health services Bayfield County has an interest it’s kind of a bit of a public private partnership and that the county owns the facility and then a nonprofit runs and manages the facility. It’s the only assisted living and skilled nursing facility in well I should say it’s the only skilled nursing facility in Bayfield County and there’s also an assisted living unit attached to it and then in the front of it there’s a third party that has Birchhaven which is also an assisted living unit. But it’s just it’s important.
I think I mentioned earlier on, or I may have, that we have an older population. We have one of the soon to be one of the oldest populations in the state of Wisconsin. And that means that our need for nursing home services will definitely be present and it’ll probably increase in the years ahead. And that’s been one of the policy focuses of the county board to say, we need to make sure that we have a viable nursing home and assisted living facility in the county for local residents in the future.
Fred
You’re thinking the demand for that need will continue to grow as more and more people retire here?
Mark
The age of the county and state is increasing dramatically the county’s association said that in the years between 2020 and 2040, the number of 75 year olds is going to increase 40%. Then I think between 2030 and 2040, they said another 20%. So our population is aging out. We’re much healthier today than we were 50 years ago at 70. But there’s still going to be and there still will be a need for additional nursing home assistance.
Fred
Sounds really important. And so with the budget overall, I was talking with Representative Angela Stroud last week about the state budget. And she relayed that approximately 28% of the state budget is federal funding. So as we see the changes in Washington being rolled out with cessation of programs or elimination of funding for many different federal programs, are you seeing direct impacts or are you concerned about direct impacts here in the county?
Mark
The county is an agent of the state in many departments. We receive funds directly from the state. Some of those are passed through dollars. So if there’s less federal dollars, there’ll probably be less passed through dollars to the counties. Yeah. So far, we’ve seen some changes, not a whole lot, but just over the past couple of weeks, we heard about funding freezes and or funding suspensions or ending of funding.
It’s been smaller grant amounts, hasn’t been ongoing programming. It’s my understanding that the budget that was just recently adopted at the federal level was not too much different than what was originally planned. So I think we’re proceeding with the idea that most of our programs, and I’m talking about human services, are going to continue. And public health are going to hopefully continue. There might be some adjustments here and there, but we’re hoping that we’ll be able to continue to operate maybe with some new initiatives and some new directions.
Fred
So if there were a significant cut in Medicaid funding, as many people have been concerned about, how would the county experience that? What would be that?
Mark
Medicaid and BadgerCare are the same. So it would be a significant impact. We have a lot of residents who rely on those services.
Fred
And would the work at Northern Lights be affected by a reduction in Medicaid funding?
Mark
Many of the, I would say the majority of the residents are Medicaid based. So it would, a reduction would have a significant, any change in funding. Over the past several years, there’s been an increase in Medicaid funding because in the past we would actually operate at a loss. Yeah. And for several years, there was concern about the long-term viability of Northern Lights.
More recently, the county and Northern Lights have really partnered and helped really establish a strong financial base. And we’re going to do whatever we can to ensure that the facility is viable and longstanding and a vibrant source of assistance in the community.
Fred
It sounds like a critical issue, especially in this county with these demographics.
Mark
It is. Yeah. Thank you.
Fred
To shift gears a bit, Bayfield County has really been seen as a leader in a number of areas. And one of them is addressing the impacts of climate change. And of course, the region’s been hit by natural disasters and flood events that have really brought the reality of climate change home here in the Midwest.
There’s no exception for any county, but Bayfield’s been out front, I think, preparing for that and developing climate resiliency plans. Do you see any of that changing or sort of how can the county address climate change going forward, especially in light of a federal administration now that doesn’t even want to use the word climate change?
Mark
Yeah. You know, I think our involvement in renewable energies, in alternate energies has been
based on several factors. One of them is a little bit of diversification, is having alternate resources. Another one has been financial benefits, is if we can invest in a technology that’s going to pay off, and a lot of these technologies, they have eight to 10-year payoffs, and if you can make it through that, then you’re saving taxpayer dollars, which is a goal of ours. Another concept is resiliency. You know, if the power is out, and you know, if you go back for the past 10 years and you see the number of communities, whether it’s in Texas or California, or even here with the flooding that we had in 2016 and 2018, where there have been intermittent power outages, local government and especially county government, we provide essential services. And so our goal has been how do we continue those essential services? And having some backup energy sources has been very important. The county still has a small fleet, for about 15 years we’ve had a small fleet of compressed natural gas vehicles. That’s a fossil fuel, but it’s also a much lower emission and it’s much less expensive than gas or diesel.
And it’s something that we’re still operating. We’re hoping that maybe that market will come back. There used to be some retail vehicles available. And now it’s all custom made. We still have a fleet of about seven or eight vehicles. And they serve a function. know, when you can pay 25 cents a gallon for compressed natural gas, it makes a ton of sense. There is infrastructure, however, and specialized knowledge in operating the vehicles. But you also mentioned, you know, some of our renewables the county has invested in solar energy and we have solar on most of our buildings that may account for 15 to 20 percent of our overall usage. with some of our newer systems, traditionally when you have solar and the power’s out, the solar doesn’t work. Now with our newer systems, the concept is that when the power’s out and the sun’s out, that solar is going to be utilized as part of your energy mix.
Fred
So this is what you call a microgrid, right?
Mark
Correct.
Fred
I think you all hit a home run last year in submitting a proposal to Department of Energy for a major project that you’ve called the Rural and Remote Energy Grant. Correct. And do you want to talk more about that?
Mark
Yeah, it’s a really unique project, a partnership. Chequamegon Bay Renewables under the leadership of Bill Bailey. We’re also working with the group MuGrid, kind of an analytic engineering firm.
Red Cliff, towns, and the county all came together and said hey together with them, sorry, together with 10 other towns, local governments, and said, hey, we’re interested in this. Cheq Bay Renewables did a tremendous amount of footwork in sharing the concept and working to develop interest. And so now we have 25 microgrids throughout the county that are under the development. We’re in phase one of the project right now doing basic engineering and cost estimating.
It’s a unique partnership between the tribe and the county and the communities. They really call it a demonstration project to say, know, how do we not just roll out one project, but is there a way that we can effectively roll out 25 projects? So that’s part of the Department of Energy’s, that was part of their original interest in the project.
Fred
Yeah, that’s really great to hear. And if I understand it right, this project was Wisconsin’s sort of biggest and best approach to that particular funding source.
Mark
Yes. I forgot, I left out one key component. Yeah. And that is that this is a state of Wisconsin project. The state of Wisconsin said, hey we really want to apply for this. We want one of these projects in the state and we partnered with Maria Redmond and with the Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy, as well as Beth Haskovich with the Office of Rural Prosperity to make this happen. And so they’ve been, the grant is actually through the state and then the state and the tribe, or the county and the tribe are partnering with the state.
Fred
And with real leadership from, as you said, folks like Bill Bailey and yourself and the tribes that really collaborate on the vision. Yeah, exciting. We will look forward to following that. Right.
A couple of other issues that have been in front of the county. One was there was a moratorium placed on large scale farms in the county. Can you talk more about what the status of that is now? Yeah, I think it was actually a number of years ago.
Mark
We had a large CFO that I want to say it was seven six seven years ago I have to look okay about a large there was a large farm and and the the the county’s hands are a little bit tied because a lot of this is controlled by the state of Wisconsin and state law however, we did pass What’s called is an operations ordinance and that operations ordinance?
Kind of gave the county some additional controls and it’s something that other towns and other counties across the state are looking at. And one of the major issues that came up in those discussion, which has always been a top priority of everyone, has been water quality. And so interestingly enough is over the past since that happened, the county board has said, hey, we want to make sure that we understand our natural resources and specifically our water resources, whether it’s above ground or other ground.
So we worked with Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey Survey developed hydro Atlas maps which really look at both groundwater and surface water and then most recently just last year we worked with them on a second project really looking at our artesian wells and we realized that as a unique feature for our region and looking at how do we protect these many people rely on their T’s and wells for for their potable water sure that those are there in the future. So that was kind of our initial foray into, our continuing foray into protecting water resources. And I think that’s again one of the major concerns that comes up when you get any type of industrial operation with effluent.
Fred
And there was a proposal a year or two ago for a large-scale water withdrawal for a bottling water bottling operation correct what’s the status of that now?
Mark
It’s my understanding that it’s it’s uh… not happening as a precedent they’ve pursued legal processes and i think that the current decisions of uh… board of adjustment is final.
Fred
Well, there’s no list of hot button issues across your desk. That’s for sure. There was also a lot of concern raised about a new telecom tower that would have potentially gone up in the area that would have been visible from the Apostle Islands. And I know that, tell us the status about that project now and maybe what, new strategies might the county need to consider for that type of development in future?
Mark
Sure. The whole telecom topic is is kind of complex, but the county’s position historically is that boy, communications are really important. cellular communications are really important. People rely on those. And we have a very large area that has a lot of uninhabited space, huge blocks of county forest. And so that means that we’ve got a lot of areas with no service. So in general, the state of Wisconsin
And the county has been supportive of tower cellular communications. But we realize that it needs to be done in a methodical way. Current state statute really doesn’t give the county a ton of discretion. But we’re trying to see what we can do to help foster cooperation and collaboration, how we can place multiple antenna on a single tower. know if we have a tower and it’s gone through the permitting process, let’s use that tower to the max.
The county has multiple towers and some of our goals have been to not exceed that 199 foot level at 200 feet. You have to put lighting on the tower. So if we can avoid lighting, that helps stem some of the concerns. But connecting communities is important. From a county perspective, from a finance perspective also is, and from a public policy perspective, having towers on public property makes sense. It’s good for the local government because you’re offsetting taxes and it’s It’s kind of a public, a little bit of a public good then.
Fred
Sure. And obviously, a county where visibility is important and whether resources important as a possible islands and concerns about both the view shed and and the light emanating from towers there, are there thoughts about the ways the county could get ahead of future development with with an ordinance or with with guidance it would be more proactive?
Mark
i think there is discussion, and just last year the county formed a broadband and telecommunications committee. And that committee has been active in coming up with a whole variety of ideas. Co-location is one of them. And really finding optimal sites. If we have a site that is much higher than others, maybe you don’t need as high of a tower. So it’s a little bit difficult based on the terrain. If you have lots of real hilly area, it’s difficult.
And the county does have some of those. telecommunications or cellular communications are important for the public, but they’re also important for our public safety folks, our fire and EMS to have connectivity when they’re in the field.
Fred
Conectivity is important for the growing number of people who are working from home and just need the ability to even to hold a job to have connectivity?
Mark
But we also, you know, we realize we want to be respective of residents. Yeah. And they live in their homes, in their surroundings. It’s big picture. But we’re having good discussions at our committee. And I think everybody is optimistic on where we’re headed in the future.
It does beg a second topic, very similar to or related to telecommunications. And this same committee has two titles, Broadbands and Communications. And broadband has been a huge priority of the county for the past 15 years.
Starting with the first Public Service Commission initiatives the county has applied for it’s really partnered with groups like Bayfield Wireless and or Vado on Ensuring that we have a broadband at fiber or fixed wireless Providing service throughout our community and we’ve seen both fixed wireless as well as fiber installations We are now one of the best-served counties in the state of Wisconsin with fewer than a hundred parcels. We’re kind of… fewer than a hundred parcels that don’t have broadband access. and we’re working on the final phase of that with the upcoming federal and state initiative called BEDE. We’re hoping to get those last hundred parcels so that, you know, the goal is no property left unserved.
But the next phase of that is to say, just because I’ve got fiber running past my house or fixed wireless in range, am I using it? And so we’ve taken this next step and worked again with the Public Service Commission and worked very closely with Mary Kay Nabusny with Northwest Wisconsin Workforce Investment Board on a digital navigator program that kind of has two, two, two tasks. One of them is to provide devices for lending at county libraries.
So each one of our county libraries, all six libraries have 40 different devices, laptops and iPads available for lending. And we have a tech assistant, a tech navigator, Eric Faber, is going to be working with us all of 2025 and most of 2026. He’s at every library at least twice a month. He’s available via phone, via Zoom, via Teams with your tech questions.
to help people, you know.
What’s the term? Bridge the digital divide. Because it’s an access to so many services. We want to make sure that our residents are connected so they can fully benefit. Yeah, and trying to reach everybody.
Fred
So encouraging. So you mentioned housing and obviously a huge issue is access to affordable housing in the county. Can you talk about some of the initiatives there?
Mark
Yeah, yeah. We’ve talked about the natural resources that the county has because partially because of the natural resources it’s a wonderful place to live it’s a wonderful place to retire but it’s also a wonderful place to visit and so we’ve seen there’s there’s, we have, I want to say, Kelly Westland, our housing educator, would know for sure. I want to say 50 % of the houses that we have in our county are either second homes or rental homes. And that has increased over the years.
And it’s created say difficulty, it’s really increased the price of housing. So many of our residents, many of our workers are unable to afford housing here and that creates the shortage of labor. So we’re really working on workforce housing, affordable housing and looking a variety of ways to do that. For our law enforcement and for our teachers and for our the people who working in public service we want to make sure that we have enough housing so that we can staff these essential local government services.
Over the past five years the county has taken multiple efforts. Kelly Peterson, the Bayfield County Community Development Educator initiated the studies and working very closely with WEDA. We were one of three communities selected, to really kind of focus on what our needs are. And since then, maybe two major initiatives, the CheqBuilt, which is a housing land trust, has formed. Just hired their first director just end of last year, 2024. And then just last week, our Aurora Housing Development here in Washburn broke ground. They’re scheduled to have 40 units available by of hopefully mid 2026. So as you drive by on Highway 13, just north of Washburn, you can take a peek on the western side of the road and you can see the development and progress.
Fred
Well, that’s great to hear. I mean, Bayfield County is not unique, communities around the country that are sort of resort focus areas where the property values go up and up and up and the availability of affordable housing for people that are trying to serve those communities is just harder and harder.
Any other important issues you want to touch on before we wrap up?
We talked about Northern Lights. We talked about broadband. We talked about housing. Those are some of the key topics that I think I really wanted to touch on.
So, yeah, I really appreciate the opportunity to share and look forward to talking to you again in the future.
Fred
Well, we hope to because if I understand right, you have a new assistant, a new deputy who will be coming on board soon to help you. Exactly. Mid-April, we’re going to be sharing the wealth. We’ve got a lot of different projects and initiatives.
And Kelly Westland, former or current Bayfoot County UW Madison Housing Educator is going to join us as Deputy Administrator and really kind of help Fill out our management team and yeah.
Fred
Yeah wonderful Well, I look forward to coming back and perhaps talking to you both sometime in the near future. Perfect. Thanks. Yeah Mark. Thanks for sharing your insights and all of your experience and your your passion and commitment to this county shows so we look forward to continuing conversation.
So I’m Fred Clark and for our listeners, on behalf of everyone at WVCB, thank you for being with us on Pulse of the Bay.
A special thanks to our producer, Corey Scribner, and the many other volunteers working hard to establish this small but mighty community resource. You can check out our programming and our events page at wvcb.org. And if you find this programming valuable, we encourage you to make a donation and support the station as well.
So until next time, let’s all remember to do our part to help our communities thrive, protect and conserve our lands and waters, and be kind and caring to the people around us. Signing off from the Bayfield County Administration Building in Washburn, Wisconsin.
Corey James Scribner
