This morning our guest is a Ryan Walshmit who is the Fond du Lac County Sheriff.
Good morning.
Good morning Bob.
So how did things go for the Sheriff's Department at the County Fair this past
week?
Oh it went pretty well.
You know the week started early on with a lot of heat, a lot of smoke unfortunately, but then we ended up having a really nice weekend for the big headliners and Friday night and Saturday night we had
great crowds, a lot better weather, it cooled off a little bit, the smoke cleared out a bit, and I don't know, you could probably hear it in my voice.
I still have a raspy voice from Talking Loud all night Saturday.
I was out there a couple times this week, but I was out there all day or all afternoon and evening Saturday until, well, until about 12.30 Sunday morning is when I left with the rest of the deputies that worked Saturday night for the big headliner, Trace Atkins.
Yeah, it was a great night, great fair, no significant major events, and we actually, aside from the smoke and the heat, we didn't have any big thunderstorms.
Usually we're due for one or two rounds of severe storms, which we never like to see, especially when there's large gatherings at the fair, but we didn't have that this year, so that was a good thing too.
But held off, there's possibility of that today, right?
There is, yeah, keep your eyes and ears open for weather reports today.
My phone already has, again, been giving me the alerts.
We're in an enhanced risk area, so we'll see what this afternoon or this evening brings, but stay tuned to the radio and keep your eyes and ears peeled for what may come later this afternoon.
All
right, one of the big topics continues to be the jail and a possible new justice center.
I believe the
County Board is going to get an update on what is it schematic designs tomorrow night?
Correct on their agenda tomorrow is the update from Venture Architects the architectural firm that they selected to do drawings and last month they heard from Tom Weber who was the independent consultant that they hired to do an analysis of the justice system in Fond du Lac County as well as
A independent bed count study for the size of the jail that you know and his expertise believes Should be built and or that should be considered by the county board So they received that comprehensive report last month.
That was well over an hour of his report and presentation and question and answers and You know, they asked a lot of great questions got a lot of information there got a I believe it's a 60 some page report.
I didn't
count them all but I read it all and so they got a very comprehensive analysis from him and this month it's just an update on the status of the drawings which is the phase that the county is in now and then after some drawings for both a downtown option across the street from the existing jail is one option being considered and then out on Scott Road by the highway department near 151 in Hickory
Interchange there is the other option or the other sites that is being proposed or being considered and so Cost estimates will be put together once those designs are done Operational costs meaning the staffing it will take to staff the two different designs.
They'll be very different designs Because across the street we're kind of limited with
the space we have to fit it within a city block.
So that'll be more of a vertical structure, multi-story structure, whereas out on Scott Road, it would be more of a horizontal structure, a pod style construction similar to the Green Lake County Jail and how that's laid out.
So we'll get those cost estimates from the consultants and then the County Board will move into the phase of
Discussing and deliberating that and then those community listening sessions.
I want to be sure to add that in there to that community listening sessions are very much in the plans and no decisions will be made until there are those listening sessions held all around the county and I'm confident that one of the areas that it will be held is likely the city of Ripon.
I know the county board wants to spread them across the county and hold multiple sessions so that people can easily access and don't have to travel long distances to get to those if they so choose and then also a informational website when the information is complete and available um you know numbers are put together there will be an informational website that'll be published as well that anybody can go to at any time to read up on the topic so
A lot more to come on that.
No decisions have been made and there will be big decisions moving forward to see how the County Board ultimately wants to proceed on that.
Another topic that I guess could affect the Sheriff's Office is the possible closing of the acute unit.
The County Board will consider that tomorrow evening and I guess a closing would be at the start of 2027.
How would that impact the Sheriff's Office?
Well, it impacts really every law enforcement agency in the county including the sheriff's office So all of us there's a process or procedure called an emergency detention when we encounter somebody who's in crisis that's typically it's suicidal and We we work with the acute unit staff to place them on an emergency detention if the acute unit
determines that that's the best placement for that person to keep them safe.
And so traditionally, we would take that patient, get them medically cleared at a hospital and then transfer them or transport them to the acute unit.
And again, every law enforcement agency does that.
But if it was a situation in the city of Rippon, for example, the Rippon Police Department would transport to the hospital and then ultimately to the acute unit.
And then on the sheriff's office end of things, obviously, if we take a call in the county where we have primary jurisdiction, we would do the same.
But then on the back end of those processes, those patients have the right to be heard in court and due process.
And so all of the court transports, regardless of where they were initially placed on that emergency detention, fall on the sheriff's office statutorily.
So even if it was a ripping
uh incident and rippin police department place them in the acute unit the sheriff's office is responsible for all of the court movement or transport after that and so uh and obviously too when rippin when those officers are tied up and they have to travel to the city of fondle act um to uh get somebody to the acute unit on their transport if another significant event happens in rippin and they need backup our sheriff's deputies are their primary
line a backup that would respond into the city to assist there too.
So law enforcement has a significant role in this, but the director of human services is who brought forward this proposal to close the acute unit.
I gotta make sure everybody's aware too that there is a behavioral health inpatient unit at St.
Agnes Hospital at SSM, just adjacent to the acute unit, literally across the parking lot.
And so there is still going to be a local unit that emergency detention patients are placed on or can be placed on.
And that's just that St.
Ignace Hospital instead of at the acute unit.
But the director of human services, as I said, was proposing this for a variety of reasons.
And she wants to kind of retool or remodel the behavioral health and the mental health help that she oversees as part of DHS in the county.
And she wants to kind of front load more resources toward getting people in crisis connected with resources sooner and try to catch them before they regress to the point of needing an emergency detention.
There's a lot of factors that go into it.
I've also heard, I'll just say this, it has nothing to do with the jail.
I've heard the rumors are out there and you see some of the comments online that they're closing the acute unit to save money to build a bigger jail and put those mental health patients in jail and incarcerate them instead of getting the mental health help.
That's completely false.
The two topics are completely unrelated in terms of
how this came forward, who moved it forward and proposed this, and it's the director herself that is proposing this.
So I know there will be a lot of discussion and deliberation among the board tomorrow night.
On this topic, I've had probably more conversations with county board supervisors reaching out to ask the same questions you did.
How does this affect law enforcement and our sheriff's office?
And I know they're weighing the options and
really digging into it to learn the facts and before so that they can make an informed decision Potentially tomorrow night.
It's on the agenda There is a resolution to close the unit which then as part of budget planning Which is upon us now as well the county has begun their budget planning process for the 2027 budget if the closure were to occur then the budget planning for
DHS looks differently because the funding that goes to the acute unit now would be repurposed to those other crisis resources to enhance those front-end crisis workers and So they're hoping to have an answer tomorrow, but I don't know what's what's going to happen It's in the hands of the county board and we'll see tomorrow night.
I'm sure like I said, there will be a lot of lively discussion and Questions and answers so
Well, we're out of time.
We always run out of time.
Never run out of
topics, but we always run out of time.
That's all right.
There's a lot, and I always appreciate the opportunity to be on your show and talk a little bit about what's going on.
Ryan, thank you for joining us this morning.
Appreciate your
time.
appreciate it, take care Bob.
We've been talking with the Fond du Lac County Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt.
