The WCHA-LDG Conference Coordinating Committee/Brown County will be hosting the 2020 Annual Road School in Green Bay, at the Radisson Hotel & Conference Center, 2040 Airport Drive, Green Bay, WI 54313.

We do have room blocks available at the Radisson 920-494-7300. The room block is listed under WCHA- LDG (Wisconsin County Highway Association-Leadership Group).

Learn more and register for the 2020 WCHA-LDG Annual Road School here.

Every member, spouse/guest, or corporate representative attending the conference must complete the attached Registration form. Sharing of name badges is not permitted. Registration forms must be returned with payment by August 14, 2020. Cancellation and 100% refunds (by written request) will be received until August 14, 2020. After this date, cancellations will not be refunded.

All attendees and spouse/guests will be required to be registered to participate in any function of the conference. Name badges will be issued and must be worn to attend all functions, including conference and social areas and events. Individuals not registered for the conference will not be admitted and/or asked to leave any event area. If you are not wearing your name badge, it will be assumed that you have not registered for the conference.

Registration
Non-Pre-registration/on-site registration will be $270.00 for county members & associate members, $370.00 for non-members, and $195.00 for spouse/guest. On-site registration requires the payment by credit card, check and/or cash.

Those who have pre-registered may pick up their registration packets at the registration area, Tuesday, September 15, from 8:00 am – 5:00 pm, Wednesday, September 16, from 7:00 am. – 12:00 pm.

Please indicate (in the sponsorship form) if your company is interested in a 10-minute presentation on your company on Wednesday, September 16 from 12:30 – 2:30 pm.

Questions
Gary L. Kennedy
WCHA Professional Development Director 1355 North 16th Street
Manitowoc, WI 54220
Cell Phone (920) 323-6500
E-mail: hwygaryk@gmail.com

The WCHA Conference Coordinating Committee will be hosting the 2020 State Summer Highway Conference (Road School) in Wisconsin Dells at the Chula Vista Resort August 10-12, 2020.

The Summer Road School is anticipated to have over 500 in attendance, which will be comprised of Highway Commissioners, Highway Committee Officials, Engineers, Associate Members, WisDOT Officials and spouses/guests representing all areas of the state.

Stay tuned to this website and your inbox for registration information for the 2020 Summer Road School and agenda.

Corporate Partners
To help make the 2020 WCHA Road School a success; we welcome your corporate participation. The Association is offering multiple areas for your participation in various conference activities. There are a number of options including indoor/outdoor exhibit areas/booths, hospitality rooms, sponsorship of coffee/soda breaks, meal programs, etc.

You may review the participation choices for vendor booth & sponsorship for Summer Highway Conference 2020 here.

This is an excellent opportunity to promote any current or new products, equipment and services offered by your organization. Your sponsorship(s) will be acknowledged by custom signage displayed at your events.

If you would like to participate, please complete the attached form and mail it with your payment as soon as possible to:

Gary L. Kennedy
WCHA Professional Development Director
1355 North 16th Street
Manitowoc, Wisconsin 54220

Conference pre-registration participation deadline is July 12, 2020. Exhibit areas, meals, breaks, hospitality rooms will be on a first-come basis. We will assign final indoor exhibit areas, break sponsorships, hospitality rooms, etc. approximately 2-3 weeks prior to the conference.

Please feel free to contact Gary Kennedy at that time for your location if you need to know prior to the conference. In addition to the completion of the Corporate Sponsor Registration Form, we require Attendee Registration Forms be completed for everyone.

We do have room blocks available at the host hotel. Please contact the reservation department at 855-830-4730 and the booking ID # is H27942. The room block is listed under WCHA (Wisconsin County Highway Association). The room rates for the conference are $169.00 for a sleeping room or $259.00 for a 2-bedroom condo per night (all hospitality rooms must be designated condos). Tax-exempt status verification must be arranged in advance by mailing or faxing a copy of your tax-exempt certificate to (Fax #608-253-5430); otherwise, you will be charged room tax.

If we are unable to match your specific needs, we will call you to see if other options are favorable. No refunds will be made after July 12, 2020.

Questions
If you have any questions, please contact:
Gary L. Kennedy
WCHA Professional Development Director
1355 North 16th Street
Manitowoc, WI 54220
920-323-6500

In light of the COVID-19 health emergency in our state, we have made the decision to cancel the WCHA Spring Commissioner Training scheduled for March 17-18, 2020 at the Lismore Hotel in Eau Claire.

Please don’t forget to cancel you room reservations and stay tuned to this website as well as social media (Twitter: @WiscoHwy) for updates.

“On behalf of the Wisconsin County Highway Association (WCHA), we commend the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) and those local officials involved in the selection of projects for their work on the Multimodal Supplement Grant Program awards that have been announced.  Because of their efforts, greatly needed funding for 34 important county transportation and infrastructure projects will move forward.

Those involved in this process, led by WisDOT Secretary Craig Thompson, should be recognized for a job well done.  The Department created clear parameters and criteria, brought in those local officials who are on the front lines of service delivery to review and select projects, and promptly distributed $75 million in funding for a total of 152 county, city, town, village and tribal projects. These are projects that will impact our state, our communities and our future success.

While $75 million was distributed, it should be noted that $1.4 billion in funding requests came in for the MLS Grant Program for roads, bridges and other infrastructure needs across our state.  This difference paints an incredibly clear picture of what happens when we do not invest in transportation in our state, a practice just now beginning to turn around in the last state budget.

This one-time MLS Grant funding is not a long-term solution, although the conversation should be had to explore expanding the funding for this program.  On a higher level, we look forward to continuing our work with WisDOT to find long-term AND sustainable funding solutions for Wisconsin’s entire transportation network.”

For additional comments, please contact WCHA Executive Director Daniel Fedderly, PE, PLS at 715-505-9242.

The story featured the decline of Wisconsin’s system and highlights Trempealeau County, with comments from WCHA Executive Director Dan Fedderly and Trempealeau County Highway Commissioner Al Rinka.

On Tuesday, February 18, 2020, the New York Times published an in-depth article, “The Struggle to Mend America’s Rural Roads.”

The article states, “Although just 19 percent of the country’s population lives in rural areas, those regions have 68 percent of the total lane and road miles, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The state’s gas tax, which is dedicated to transportation needs, has been unchanged since 2006. A proposal last year from Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, for an 8-cent increase was voted down by the Republican-led Legislature, which instead raised vehicle title and registration fees.

“In the last budget, the Legislature and governor did come up with some additional funding,” said Daniel J. Fedderly, executive director of the Wisconsin County Highway Association. “But the problem is it’s one-time funding and it’s not ongoing and it’s not sustainable.”

In Trempealeau, decades of underfunding have left the county of 29,000 people with roughly $60 million to $80 million worth of road repairs. Generally, there is no state or federal assistance to help cover the costs.

“The last time we received money to help with road projects was 2008,” said Al Rinka, commissioner of the county’s Highway Department.

The normal life span of an asphalt road is 30 years. The county’s 292 miles of roads are now averaging 74 years.

Read the full New York Times article, “The Struggle to Mend America’s Rural Roads, here.

You can also view a supporting story, “Wisconsin Rural Roads Receive National Attention, Deteriorating Condition Blamed on Lack of Funding,” on Channel3000.com here.

The Wisconsin County Highway Association’s (WCHA) held their 2020 Winter Road School at Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin Dells January 13-15, 2020.

See photos from the WCHA 2020 Winter Road School here.

For presentations and Power Points, please login to the Member Section of this site and go to “WCHA Documents and Resources>2020 Winter Road School.”Note: If you are having issues logging in, please contact Michelle Gormican Thompson via email.

For additional questions please contact:

Gary L. Kennedy, WCHA Professional Development Director
1355 N. 16th Street
Manitowoc, WI 54220
Telephone Number (920) 323-6500
E-Mail

The U.S. Department of Transportation recently published a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) to build the capacity of state, local, and tribal governments to use innovative data tools and information to improve roadway safety.

“This is part of the Department’s ongoing effort to utilize predictive data analytics to identify and address systemic factors contributing to crashes and improve roadway safety in communities across America,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao.

The NOFO is an important step in the Department’s Safety Data Initiative, which helps communities devise policies to reduce roadway fatalities. This funding opportunity makes available up to $3 million to develop, refine, and deploy safety tools that address specific roadway safety problems. The Department anticipates making awards of $250,000 to $500,000 to each successful applicant.

Eligible applicants are state or local governments, metropolitan planning organizations and regional governments, other political subdivisions of a state or local government, and tribal governments. The funding complements existing safety data improvement programs at the Federal Highway Administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration by focusing on improving data tools practitioners use to inform their policy and decision-making.

The NOFO is available on grants.gov at: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=322472

On December 3, 2019 at 2:30 PM ET, the Department will hold a webinar to provide an overview of this funding opportunity. Information about registering for the webinar is available on the Department’s Safety Data Initiative webpages.

Applications are due by January 17, 2019 at 3:00 PM ET.

The 2019 Wisconsin Counties Association’s Annual Conference video premiered Monday, September 23 in Sauk County.

The video, “A Day in the Life of Counties,” features what a typical day is like for counties, from delivery of human services to the work of county highway departments.

The video features interviews with Eau Claire County Highway Commissioner Jon Johnson, with footage of his department in action chip sealing. Portage County Highway Commissioner Nathan Check is also interviewed, including his department doing debris clean up after a large storm.

Watch the 2019 WCA Annual Conference video, “A Day in the Life of Counties,” here.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) has new requirements and registration for the required flagging training starting in 2020.

There will be five training sessions to choose from and WisDOT is limiting the attendance of two representatives for each county.  If a session doesn’t fill up, WCHA will allow counties to send more than two people.

See the WisDOT flyer on the flagging training here.

Registration is $95 per person, with a maximum of two representatives per county. Lunch will be provided.

This is an Instructor Training Course, intended for a representative from a county to learn and prepare themselves to train and certify other county personnel according to the Wisconsin Flaggers Handbook.

Note that Iowa County Highway Commissioner Craig Hardy will have more information regarding Work Zone Flagging Certification at his presentation at the WCHA-LDG Road School on September 17.

There are five sessions available, with each session running from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

October 10, 2019
Iowa County Health and Human Services Building
303 West Chapel Street, Dodgeville, WI

October 16, 2019
Polk County Highway Department
900 Pheasant Lane
PO Box 248
Balsam Lake, WI

October 17, 2019
Marathon County
1200 Lakeview Drive, Suite 100
Wausau, WI

October 23, 2019
Waukesha County Public Works Department
1641 Woodburn Road
Waukesha, WI

October 24, 2019
Sheboygan County Highway Department
W5741 CTH J
Plymouth, WI

Please send registration by September 27 to:
Gary Kennedy, WCHA Professional Development
1355 N. 16th Street
Manitowoc, WI. 54220
Via email

As summer wraps up and fall is just around the corner, be sure to register for the 2019 WCHA Fall Commissioner Training, will be held October 7-8 in Minocqua.

The event will be held at:

Best Western Plus Concord Inn
320 Front Street
Minocqua, WI 54548
715-356-1800

Please make your own room reservation by referencing the Wisconsin County Highway Association (the block code is “WCHA”). The block will be reserved until September 6. Single room rates are $82 and will be the responsibility of each county. The number for reservations is 715-356-1800.

Commissioners who are not able to attend are encouraged to send a
representative. There is a fee of $95 for each attendee and must accompany your registration.

To register for the WCHA 2019 Fall Commissioner Training, click here.

To see the tentative agenda for the WCHA 2019 Fall Commissioner Training, click here.

For questions, contact Gary Kennedy via email or at 920-323-6500