Matt van de Kolk is joining us today.
He is the chief deputy for the Greenland County Sheriff's Office.
Hello there.
Good morning, Bob.
How are you?
Gosh, I can't believe we're coming up on Thanksgiving next next couple of weeks.
You know,
unbelievable time flies and especially with the warm weather we've had.
Oh,
yeah.
Incredible warm fall and doesn't seem like we're we're that close to November and soon after that'll be Christmas.
Wait, and I hate to say it, but um
I was looking at one of the longer range forecast and they're calling for above normal temperatures through the deer season.
Yeah, which start a week from tomorrow.
Right,
that'll be a week, about a week away, yep.
So anyway, we thought we'd talk a little bit about the deer season.
I know in the past we talked about tree stands, but
yeah, yeah, just safety in general, right?
When it comes to deer hunting and making sure that
All our outdoor enthusiasts are enjoying the sport and doing it in a safe manner.
Obviously, safe stand practices, making sure those stands are secure, checking them before the hunt, and making sure that you've got the proper safety gear there with harnesses and all those things as well.
And then, obviously, firearm safety, making sure that you're doing all those things appropriately.
You're not going to have any problems in the woods or field.
People get excited and things like that when game comes their way.
It's just important to be mindful that there's nothing more important than the safety of you and those that you're hunting with and make sure that you know you're targeting beyond and you're always aware of what's going on in the field.
So just encourage everybody to do that with the upcoming deer season.
Hope everybody has a safe and fun hunt and hopefully we get some good venison and a lot of freezers, right?
That people
can enjoy
over the course of the next year.
But yeah, deer season obviously around here is something that a lot of people enjoy and I'm glad they do.
Just hopefully we do it safely and responsibly and successfully.
Do we say a lot of hunters in Green Lake County during that season?
Yeah, absolutely.
We've got a lot of public land in Green Lake County.
We've got the White River Marsh and the Grand River Marsh, so both big popular hunting locations for public hunting.
And then there's also certainly a lot of private hunting in Green Lake County.
Green Lake County is blessed with a
combination of ag land and wooded and marshy area that supports a very healthy deer population.
So a lot of folks know that and they come to Greenlake County to do their hunting.
So we definitely see an influx during the deer season.
I see quite a few deer here on Radio Road from time to time.
It's usually the does, but I want to leave one day.
You know, I've looked both ways before I leave.
Well,
I was looking one way and I look at the end of our driveway and there's a great big buck stand in there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it's that time of year, right?
And I guess we could talk about that too.
The, you know, just being safe on the roadways when it comes to travel during the fall, obviously all the activity with the rut.
There's a lot of deer that are going to be much more active also with the decreased daylight hours, which I am definitely not a fan of.
I miss that sun, but
you know that that adds to that dear travel as well so and conflicts with people coming in going to work right because
yeah
it's dark during the time sometimes people are coming home now so yeah just be extra cautious maintain a good good driving speeds and make sure that you're not
distracted by anything and try to prevent as many of those car-deer crashes as possible.
Not too many of them have injuries, but on occasion they do.
We just want to make sure that people aren't injured and certainly we don't want property damage either.
It's no fun having
to
wait for your car to get fixed.
So what should you do if you hit a deer?
Should you call 911?
Who should you report that
to?
We, we in Greenland County, we take cardio reports.
Not all agencies are doing that.
A lot of agencies are sending people for self reports.
We feel it's important to provide that service to our community.
So in almost all circumstances, we're going to respond to that scene.
So go ahead and call the sheriff's office, not emergency number if you have it.
which for us is 920-2944,000.
And then we'll send a deputy out as they're available.
In the event that our deputies are tied up on more pressing matters, we may advise you to do a self-report.
But go ahead, call, stay on scene, let the deputy come and complete that report for you.
Your insurance agent will appreciate it, definitely, and things will go smoother for you in that regard.
And we're happy to help.
We want to be out there and a servant to the community and make sure that
You're getting home safe too.
You know, sometimes there's complications with your vehicle and you need a ride or whatever it might be.
And we want to be able to help you out in those ways too.
Okay.
Um, they used to call them deer men.
Do they still have deer men out there collecting the carcasses when they get hit on the side of the road
or most?
Yeah, we have contracts, um, for Greenland County.
Um, that's through our highway department.
They contract with providers to remove the dead carcasses and, um,
You know, I honestly don't know how they, they dispose of them specifically, but we do have contracts for folks to come and pick those up.
Okay.
Earlier, you and I had a little discussion about residency requirements for employees.
It used to be a whole controversy surrounding that, especially with administrative positions.
You had to live in the city or county that you worked in, but I mentioned that, you know, there is.
so much competition for law enforcement officers.
Yeah, maybe there's some flexibility in there.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think much more common now in this day and age is as a retention and recruitment tool, you know, many, many sheriff's offices specifically have one to one squads.
And that that affords them the ability to respond to major situations with the appropriate resources and do it quickly.
And as part of that, you know,
Most sheriff's offices many anyway, I guess I shouldn't say most but many have a take-home squad policy and Some before them the ability to take that squad out of county to the residences.
So Definitely, you know law enforcement in general public service is trying to find ways to recruit and retain Employees as much as possible.
It's a very difficult labor market out there.
We're very blessed green light counting right now.
We're very
very fortunate to have the folks that we have and but it's it's challenging to to get good people to come in and work in law enforcement so a lot of agencies definitely are using tools like that to make sure that they they get and keep good people.
I know finally I can dodge counting both to the one-on-one program where you take home the the squad but as one sheriff put it
He says, it's like having a big dog in your front yard.
It's a deterrent.
So
yeah.
And, and, you know, that's definitely beneficial when that's in your community, right?
Where, um, you know, you live in a community and you have a squad parked in the, in that area, people recognize that and it does impact behaviors and things.
So it's good to have those.
Um, and I don't necessarily know that people recognize where that squad is always from, right?
Um, just the fact that it's a squad is a deterrent.
Right.
Well, we're coming up on the holidays, man.
I was wondering if you wanted to say anything about drunk driving because there is a little bit of imbibing that goes on around the holidays.
Yeah, Wisconsin, right?
And so we have a lot of social events, obviously, in Wisconsin.
that involve alcohol.
Trending lately has been non-alcoholic parties and drinks and that's good to see.
But I just want to encourage everybody to continue to be safe and make sure that you've got a sober driver if you're partaking in alcoholic beverages and make sure that you're getting to and from those locations safely.
You don't want to be involved in any arrest, certainly.
And even worse, you don't want to be involved in a crash where there's injury or even fatality.
So there's lots of options out there.
In every community, there's safe ride type programs where you can get home safe if you're...
done too much.
So be wise, you know, and make sure that we're doing stuff smart.
We all want to have a great holiday season, and that means we all need to be safe.
We don't need tragedy during that time.
Hopefully we won't have to see you before Thanksgiving, but if that's the case...
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.
Much to be thankful for and always good to look around.
Count your blessings.
Beautiful morning like today.
Take a look around and find a spot, take a picture, enjoy it.
Much to be thankful for.
Matt, thank you for joining us today.
Thank
you.
We've been talking with Matt Bandicoke, the Chief Deputy for the Green Lake County Sheriff's Office.