County Board forms oversight committee for transitional housing project

At its meeting Monday, the Barron County Board of Supervisors got an update on the transitional housing project from a Salvation Army director and formed an oversight committee to oversee the process.

Ken Tregellas of Wauwatosa, a service extension director charged with overseeing Salvation Army projects in rural Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula, told the supervisors, "We're ready to do the project — we feel good about the funding to go forward."

He said the dollars are coming from a combination of Salvation Army funds, grants and Community Development Block Grant donations.

The director said the smaller of the two buildings on the site is near completion and is estimated to be done and sheltering people in a couple months. He said it is completely handicapped accessible and will have Salvation Army staff on site 24 hours a day.

Although designed to shelter families, with three full bedrooms and three separate baths complete with tubs for children, Tregellas told the supervisors that the greater need for now is housing for individuals, and it has the capacity to shelter 12.

"It will change back once the entire scope of the project is done," he said.

As for the former nursing home on the site, he said remediation of the environmental hazards encountered was completed immediately.

"We made the decision not to renovate the building," Tregellas said. "It was not worth the ground it was sitting on with more problems than it was worth. We made the decision to raze it and build something to accomplish our goals."

The Salvation Army director said demolition will take place in the near future with a timeline of December 2025 to complete the project.

He said he is looking forward to having an oversight committee to meet with every couple weeks and drive this project to completion.

Tregellas said despite all the changes since the inception of the project in fall 2021, one thing that hasn't changed is the need for it.

He thanked the county for their continued support, calling those he has worked with "extremely cooperative."

County Chairman Louie Okey replied, "The Salvation Army has been nothing but exemplary. Thank you for what you've done and are going to do."

Tregellas said he is looking forward to serving the needs of Barron County residents on a daily basis.

County Administrator Jeff French said supervisors he has named to an oversight committee are Louie Okey, Craig Turcott, Peter Olson, Patti Anderson and Audrey Kusilek.

"This is an important project which, similar to the highway shop project, has received numerous unexpected delays and setbacks," French noted in a memo to supervisors.

In other business, the County Board:

• Approved a rezoning request, from Ag-2 to Recreational-Residential, by Michael Greenwold and Ellen Mizer in the town of Bear Lake. Presently a residence and resort, the request is to separate the residence on smaller acreage.

• Congratulated Jamie McCready after she was sworn in by County Clerk Jessica Hodek to fill the District 8 vacancy left by the resignation of Charles Bergeson. He won a seat on the board in the April election but resigned after two months due to work and family obligations. The district includes the town of Almena and Ward 1 in the village of Turtle Lake.

• Approved appointments of supervisors to replace District 8 Supervisor Charles Bergeson on the committees he was to serve on, including Turcott to take his place on the Veterans Service Committee and McCready to replace him on the Law Enforcement and LCC/Extension committees and the Turtle Lake Municipal Library Board. The appointment of Deb Neuheisel to the Commission on Aging was also approved.

• Authorized the county treasurer to gain access to real estate property to determine the nature and extent of environmental pollution. Corporation Counsel John Muench said this ordinance would apply to all properties that the county has not taken the deed on nor foreclosed on, but at this time the county needs to enter the Broten property with a special inspection warrant in order to get data for grants. The county will have Cooper Engineering do the actual inspection.