Sawyer County Public Safety Committee hears departmental reports, approves prior meeting minutes

The Sawyer County Public Safety Committee on an unspecified date met and reviewed routine monthly reports from county public-safety departments, directed staff to request a utilization update from the circuit court, and approved the minutes of the committee's previous meeting.

Committee members approved the prior meeting's minutes in a motion moved by Jim Evans and seconded by Marshall Savitsky. The motion passed by unanimous voice vote from those present.

The committee spent most of its time on informational reports. Lieutenant Rapinski of the sheriff's office told the committee that patrol call volume had been “kinda jumped all over the summer, kind of peaks and valleys,” reporting 742 calls for service for the month (down from 921 the same month last year). Rapinski said deputies wrote 61 traffic citations, 17 written warnings and 11 nontraffic citations in the month, and reported 15 crashes for the period, seven of them with personal injury and no additional fatalities. Rapinski also reported staffing and shift adjustments tied to the agency's traffic enforcement grant and said final grant reporting will show any funds the county must forfeit for unfilled shifts.

The jail report showed an average daily population of 60 inmates (8 females, 52 males). The report broke custody status into average probation incarceration of 23, pre‑sentence incarceration of 24, and sentenced inmates at 13; four people were on electronic monitoring. The report indicated roughly 58 inmates were in custody on the day the report was generated and listed an unemployment rate at booking of 66 percent.

Code enforcement staff member Jess reported lower animal‑control revenue late in the licensing season, fewer animals entering the pound, and that most impounded animals were reclaimed by owners; two animals were transferred to the Humane Society and one was surrendered. Jess also said the office is moving from renewal inspections for tourist rooming houses to enforcement work on units operating without licenses and is sending letters to encourage compliance.

Hector Repinski, emergency management, briefed the committee on radio equipment and grants. He said the county, the sheriff's office, GenComm and LCO (the tribal emergency management office) met to discuss equipment placement on the WOJB tower and that the county had provided specifications to verify fit with existing equipment. Repinski said the county had submitted a 2025 hazmat grant application to equip the Sawyer County Hazmat Team and described planning for active‑shooter tabletop exercises at the LCO Tribal Government Building.

Repinski also described new dispatch technology in deployment: RapidSOS mapping to show callers' locations in real time and an integration that will allow viewing of Axon body‑camera positions on the same map. He said text‑to‑911 deployment is progressing and that dispatch staffing and task delegation have been reorganized to limit burnout. For the month, the dispatch center received 645 911 calls and 3,098 nonemergency calls for a total of 3,743 calls handled.

John Fremmel, reporting for emergency services, said the county had handled about 1,200 calls so far this year and that average response time had risen modestly to about 10.6 minutes during the summer; unit 1 continued to take the bulk of calls while unit 2's call load is increasing. Fremmel described community outreach and training activities including a stop‑the‑bleed class at Hayward High School and event medical coverage at the Sawyer County Fair and Great Northern Rodeo. He also said a county EMR/EMS sponsorship program's funding period will end in January and that the department is exploring in‑school EMR programs in Hayward and Winter later in the year. Fremmel reported one death had been confirmed as a fentanyl overdose after the report was written and that seven cases were awaiting toxicology.

Committee members asked for more information from the circuit court on courtroom utilization. Marge, the clerk of courts, said she had no additional written material at the meeting but offered to request a utilization update from the judges and to provide written updates for the committee. The committee agreed that an update every other month would be acceptable.

A separate update on the WOJB tower noted the county has provided tower specifications to GenComm and the LCO partners and is waiting for confirmation that the county's equipment can be accommodated.

Ending: Committee members listed no additional future agenda items and adjourned after the routine reports.