MONROE — In some respects, the Green County Highway Department is on the cutting edge of road maintenance, leading the region in using free, effective, and abundant salt brine from the cheesemaking industry to treat the county’s slippery roads.

But to do that, it needs bigger trucks to haul the brine; and not only are they costly, but they cannot fit inside the county’s aging highway department campus. Thus, using the salt brine instead of rock salt is better for the environment and more cost effective but a huge challenge due to the facilities in which crews must operate. 

County Highway Commissioner Chris Narveson said Green County is the second lowest user of rock salt in the entire southwest Wisconsin region, a model other counties are trying to copy. But it is a struggle to expand the program due to equipment and space limitations.

“We need a plan for the long term,” Narveson said. “This is something I’m very passionate about.”

With the recent creation of an ad-hoc committee to study the facility issues, the county is moving closer to major renovation or likely replacement of its aging sheriff’s department/jail and county highway department buildings. 

Many are aware of the sheriff’s department and jail facility woes, but it is easy for the highway department’s needs to fly under the public radar, officials say.

“These are things that we’ve needed to do for a long time,” said County Board Chairman Jerry Guth, after creation of the facilities committee was announced by the county board.

One of the issues for the highway department is that its building is hard on current staff. The grease shop and other buildings are poorly insulated — if at all — and too small in which to perform some routine tasks. Since there is not a full-sized lift, for example, maintenance staff are spending a lot of time working on their knees on hard concrete, which has resulted in health issues. They are issued padded mats to cope but they only help so much, he said.

“It’s very hard on the guys,” said Narveson, adding that some have had to have knee replacement surgery due in part to their working conditions in the garage. “We are really sacrificing our people’s health.”

Ultimately, Narveson said, the new highway department campus could cost in the $30 million range to build. It is not a small number, he concedes, at a time when the public is being asked to fund other needed buildings, including a high school and the sheriff’s department/jail. However, he said it could be done in a phased approach to lessen the pain. 

Another way he is eying to solve the problem is the idea of a joint highway/street department garage or campus with the city. If that happened, it would be the first such joint facility in the state.

Currently, he said, the county coordinates with townships to help them with their maintenance needs so it would not be too much of a stretch for a city/county partnership.

When it comes to highway safety, almost everyone wants clear roads quickly after storms but few consider the equipment, staff and maintenance that go into it, according to Guth and Narveson. Eventually, using cheaper salt brine and better equipment, the improvements could start to pay bigger dividends for decades to come.

“Times have changed and we have to change with it,” Narveson said.