WAUPACA COUNTY TRAFFIC SAFETY COMMISSION

July 18, 2013

The meeting was called to order at 12:05 p.m. by Patrol Sgt. Gene Goode.  The meeting location was Hotel Fremont, Fremont, Wisconsin.

Members Present:  Patrol Sgt. Gene Goode, Sheriff Brad Hardel, Highway Commissioner Dean Steingraber, State DOT Representative Tony Kemnitz, Medical Representative Dr. Jerry Salan, Coroner Barry Tomaras, District Attorney John Snider,  Mukwa Town Supervisor Lee Shaw and Population Representative Bob Flease.

Patrol Sgt. Goode read the open meeting statement.

Motion by Dean Steingraber, seconded by John Snider to approve the minutes of the previous meeting.  Motion carried without a negative vote.

Motion by Sheriff Hardel, seconded by John Snider to approve the agenda. Motion carried without a negative vote.

Public Input - None

Patrol Sgt. Goode - See attached Traffic Report. There were three fatalities during the second quarter of 2013.       

Dean Steingraber – Highway Department recently completed a strategic plan.  One point involved recruiting and retaining good quality staff.  They will be going to county high schools and guidance counselors and see how they can make contact with students and advise the schools of what kind of training is required.  They hope to also talk with the guidance counselors about road safety for new drivers and see if there are opportunities to go into the high schools and speak with the kids.  Tony said no texting and driving should be included in a presentation.  Sheriff Hardel said officers have been in Waupaca and Iola-Scandinavia High Schools and that all county high schools have been offered the opportunity.  Two other schools will be hosting this during the next school year.  Dean mentioned the possibility for county employees to be involved in parades with some kind of message.  This would get employees active in the communities.  Thought possibly the Highway Department, Sheriff’s Office and DOT could team up with something.  There was recently a Highway Conference in Wisconsin Dells.   The Federal Highway Commission attended and presented on the application of low cost highway improvements to enhance highway safety. Dean indicated he is working with the DOT provided crash data for the County to develop a countywide safety assessment of high crash locations.  Identified highways could then become candidates to receive Federal highway safety funds to provide better signage, striping, center rumble strips, and/or guard rail via the high risk rural roads program (HRRRP).  Dean indicated the County is doing this safety study internally to save money. 

There is a lot of construction in the county right now.  County T in Town of Lebanon is being worked on.  State Street in Waupaca is about finished.  Working on Union Street in Manawa.  CTY C and CTY G in the northern part of the county is finished.  This was a major accomplishment for the county to take it all the way across the county. 

Sheriff Hardel reminded Dean that highway workers can call the Sheriff’s Office if they have issues in construction zones, etc. 

Dr. Salan – Nothing

Barry Tomaras – Talked about the double fatality the day before the meeting.  He had received an e-mail with a concern about the Sheriff’s Office posting the press release on Facebook.  The press release had over 50 comments.  The first name of one of the deceased was in one of the comments, most likely before the family had been notified.  His concern is this information is appearing on Facebook before notification to the family.  Sheriff Hardel mentioned that social media has become so popular and unfortunately, we can’t control people’s comments.  Waupaca County is one of the last counties to have a Facebook account.  Sheriff’s sale, road closures, etc are posted on the account.  Staff did attend Law Enforcement Training on establishing a Facebook account and that is the criterion that is followed.  The comments reflect the Sheriff’s Office, even though they don’t put the comments on there.  Dean said the Highway Department is looking into establishing a Facebook account.  Barry’s main concern is for the family of victims.   Sheriff Hardel said our policy would be looked at regarding the issuance of press releases. 

John Snider – Talked about the Supreme Court’s decision that requires search warrants after the refusals in drunk driving cases.  He said Captain Rasmussen met with a couple judges and John and put together a template for officer’s to use to make it easy and fast to apply for a search warrant.  He thanked the Sheriff’s Office for help with the form.  This form was e-mailed to all law enforcement agencies and municipal vendors within the county and seems to be working okay.  The State Patrol has been pressed into doing background checks, so that is why they are unable to attend today’s meeting.  Trooper Linjer asked John to bring up the intersection of Hwy 45/Kanaman Road and her feeling is there are too many crashes at that intersection.  She asked if the possibility of turn lanes could be looked at on both sides of Hwy 45.  Dean said he has requested a right turn lane at that intersection for years, on the southbound direction, mainly for busses.  Tony will look at the intersection.  John indicated that last fatal had a citation issued for OWI.  The blood came back with no enthanol and awaiting the results of a drug screen, which can take up to a year.  This ticket was dismissed without prejudice rather than having to keep track of it.  The DA’s  Office may adopt a protocol for dismissing these citations without prejudice until those tickets can be issued.  Barry asked if there is a possibility of going to a private lab for testing.  He said the Coroner’s Office has done this because he can get results in 5-6 weeks from a private lab.  Dean said with CDL random drug and alcohol testing, this would be beneficial.  John said the problem is always money.  He feels drug screen will be more common, so something needs to be done. 

Tony Kemnitz – He has been driving around the county looking at several issues from past meetings.  Tony and Dean met and there is a new sub-set of safety funding that is received through federal funding (HSIP – High Risk Rural Roads Program), which would fit well with Dean’s strategic plan at the Highway Department.  This looks at low cost safety improvements on minor and major collector roads (county and town roads).  There is a set-aside of 2.5 million and Waupaca County was targeted to receive money from a project on CTY C/110, west out of Clintonville.   An example would be a beam guard installation. This would be considered a low cost improvement and as such is an eligible type project to receive HRRRP funding.   Dean had told Tony the county was looking at moving forward with the CTY C submittal for funding.  The DOT is hiring a consultant to do a study, so this time here is no cost to the County to do the safety study.  Information from the safety study will be passed onto the Highway Department to make application for the funds this fall. 

Hwy 22/54, between Hwy 10 interchange and the roundabout on Royalton Street, was brought to his attention by the State’s signing and marking people.  The City of Waupaca has had issues with the speed zones at this location.  Tony cannot find a speed declaration on file, except for one before Hwy 10 was built.  Three speed checks will be done, one on the bridge, one in the middle section and one by the roundabout, where the road is divided.  With the speed readings, decisions can be made on resetting the speed limits and a declaration will be written.  Law enforcement agencies will be notified when this has been done. 

Update on status of median crossover on Hwy 10/Erickson Road/Hwy 22 north.   DOT is completing a crash plot to determine the locations where the possible cable barrier may go.  Tony has been looking at the DOT policy for this.  There is a hot spot list of cross median crashes developed yearly by the UW TOPS lab for DOT, but the Hwy 10 corridor through Waupaca does not show up as a candidate location to receive cable barrier median on this hotspot list.  There just haven’t been enough cross median crashes to meet the criteria.  Tony is pursuing submitting the Counties request as a standalone HSIP safety application. 

Hwy 54/QQ intersection.   90% plans are done.  The signal design is finalized.  The project is on target for a November 1^st PSE submittal and a bid letting in the Spring of 2014.  Goal is to get the built asap so that it’s open in August of 2014.    

Hwy 10/freeway conversion study – public and local officials meeting to unveil where interchanges will be in step one; this has been backed off until 09/13. 

Hwy 10/Vaughan Road – DOT is looking at a possible safety project due to fog related crashes.  Tony has to complete a cost benefit analysis when applying for safety money.  This may require restricting left turns out of Vaughn Road to obtain a great enough crash reduction to justify safety funding.  Under this scenario a turnaround would be provided (at Harrington Road) to allow traffic from Vaughn Road to turnaround and head westbound on Hwy 10.  The businesses may not like this, but safety is the concern.  Restricted movements and j-turns are being built to prevent crashes at similar locations around the State and have been used successfully in several other States. 

Hwy 110 in Weyauwega – temporary parking in front of the church.  Operating adequately.   

Hwy 15/45 – working with the DOT Northeast region to look at stop light improvements.  There has been a crash trend for southbound left turns on US 45 heading towards the Fox Cities, on Hwy 15.

 Bear Creek corners –  ongoing crash issue. Town Chairman of Bear Creek had contacted DOT with concerns last summer.   This location is on DOT “watch list”.  Looked at adjusting speed zone start and end points and moving flashing yellow warning beacons further from the intersection.    

Hwy 156 – had received an e-mail from Chief Lorge.   Clintonville PD has completed a speed enforcement campaign to alert motorists to the new 40 mph speed limit on STH 156 between STH 22 and Enterprise Street.  This portion of STH 156 has been on the docket for Waupaca County Safety Committee and the City of Clintonville for several years. They have requested a lower speed limit on STH 156. DOT recently studied and recently approved a 40 mph speed limit.  As part of this approval a two-week program of issuing warnings to motorists caught speeding was implemented.  Dean thanked Tony for this and said there may be another one coming the way of DOT at CTY D/54/Shawano Street which may needs to be looked at. 

Bob Flease – Governor has added money to budget for 40-50 new state troopers.  Sheriff Hardel said Waupaca County is slated to get two more troopers.  That would give us four.

Lee Shaw - nothing

Area DOT Program Manager – Per Tony, Tom Knoop is no longer with the department.  Tony said our new representative is Matthew Asselen.

Brad Hardel – Comments on recent fatalities.  Re: the pedestrian fatal on CTY QQ.  Barry asked about speed – definitely a factor.  The black box was downloaded; however, the vehicle did not have an altering motion detection that made the black box kick in.  There needs to be a rapid acceleration for this to kick in and there wasn’t enough of an impact for this to happen.  The initial results from skid marks indicate a 60+ mph speed.  The accident occurred in a 35 mph speed zone.

Double fatality on 07/17/13.  No brakes used.    

Other Business – Tony said DOT is looking at signal design for Hwy 96/45.  They are looking at removing the 45 mph speed zone on Hwy 45.  There will be a speed check done to justify this change. 

Dean has asked Emergency Government to schedule a table-top exercise for when there are accidents, so his staff knows where the detours will be, depending on location of accident.  Tony said DOT should be involved as they need to be involved in road closures.  Sheriff Hardel said this would be an excellent idea so that pre-planned location can be in effect and be consistent.  Tony said if traffic is being detoured more than two hours, DOT needs to be involved.  Sheriff Hardel said it was very helpful that the Highway Department has a trailer ready with all the supplies needed for detours.  Tony said DOT responder’s are available to assist law enforcement and they have the authority to close road/ bridges as a result of traffic incidents. This, information needs to be provided to the Statewide Traffic Operations Center and then be put out to the public via the DOT “511” travel information system.  Tony said dispatch centers need to be in-the-loop on these procedures to ensure road closures and detours are properly implemented and public notifications are made.

Sgt. Goode mentioned that the Governor’s Traffic Safety Conference is being held in Stevens Point in August.  He said it’s a good conference.  Sheriff Hardel felt it would be beneficial for someone from Dean’s department to attend.

Motion by Dean Steingraber to adjourn, seconded by Sheriff Hardel. Motion carried.  

Vickie Thoe, Secretary