Written by Dave Mack
The Marathon County Conservation, Planning, and Zoning Department (CPZ) will pause its Uniform Addressing project beginning in November, when snow and frozen ground will prohibit the installation of any more street and address signposts. Workers will resume installing signs in spring 2019.
2018/2019 Schedule
The 8 municipalities of Berlin, Bern, Halsey, Hamburg, Johnson, Rib Falls, Rietbrock, and Stettin will receive new Uniform Addresses beginning in May 2019, when the countywide re-addressing project is scheduled to resume. Residents, business owners, and landowners in those municipalities should continue to use their current address for voting and all other activities (driver license renewals, check re-ordering, etc.) until they receive an Official Notice of address change from the County next year.
When the project resumes in 2019, property owners in those municipalities will receive an Official Notice from the County informing them of what their new Uniform Address will be. For public safety reasons, new addresses cannot be released before then.
It is not yet known if the towns of Brighton, Holton, Hull, and Spencer can be completed before the project is suspended due to weather. County staff will make further announcements when they can determine the best and safest place to suspend the project for the winter.
Voter Identification
The Uniform Addressing project should not cause voter identification issues during the midterm elections on November 6. Marathon County staff have been working with the Wisconsin Election Board in Madison to supply poll workers with cross-reference tables of former and new (uniform) addresses that were assigned in Marathon County in 2018. This cross-check will verify any voters who may still have a form of voter ID that lists an old address. According to Marathon County Clerk Nan Kottke:
“The municipal clerks and poll workers were well prepared for the August primary, and everything went smoothly.”
Residents who have not yet had their address changed should continue to use their current address.
Completed Municipalities
A prolonged winter and record snowfall in April caused Uniform Address sign installation to start nearly a month behind schedule. Despite the delayed start, workers from Lange Enterprises (the County’s contractor) will likely be able to install or deliver more than 15,000 new address signs in 29 municipalities by November of this year — eliminating duplicate addresses, roads with the same or similar names, numbering that is not sequential, and odd and even numbers on the same side of the road.
Children’s “My Address” Worksheet
Parents and teachers are invited to use the kid-friendly “My Address” worksheet to help children learn and practice their address — important information to know in an emergency. (This is true whether a child’s address has changed due to this Uniform Addressing project or not.)
The two-sided activity sheet has children practice writing their home address on an envelope and reminds children that every address is unique and is how family, friends, firefighters, mail carriers, and others know where they live. The worksheet can be downloaded at www.MyMarathonCountyAddress.org and will soon be available at area Marathon County Public Library locations, along with the other helpful printed Uniform Addressing resources there.
Project Updates
The public can continue to view updates on the project at the County’s dedicated Uniform Addressing website: www.MyMarathonCountyAddress.org. (If needed, information on the website can be easily translated into Hmong or Spanish via a button at the top of the homepage, shown below.)
Individuals with questions can call the Marathon County Public Library (MCPL)–Wausau Headquarters Reference Desk at 715-261-7230, use the Live Chat feature on the MyMarathonCountyAddress.org website during the library’s hours of operation, or visit any of the 9 MCPL locations for one-to-one assistance or a FREE paper copy of the Quick Reference Guides (full of helpful FAQs, an Address-Change Checklist, and more).
Marathon County staff will be sure to provide updates as to when the Uniform Addressing project will begin again in 2019.
Stay tuned for further details as they become available . . .
Dave Mack
Program Manager | Marathon County Conservation, Planning, & Zoning Department
Dave Mack oversees the administration of the County Uniform Addressing System and manages the Planning, Surveying and Geographical Information System (GIS) divisions for the County. As the County Transportation Planner, Dave is also the Director of the Wausau Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), a federally designated organization that does the transportation planning for all the communities in the Wausau Metro area. Dave has been in planning for 25 years, the first 6 years with the North Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission in Wausau, and the last 20+ years with Marathon County. Dave has a degree in Geography and Cartography from UW-Stevens Point and was born and raised in Wausau. Email Dave Mack.
Image credit:
Pause button image by geralt via Pixabay.
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