For Hub City Times

MARATHON COUNTY – Marathon County is set to release its first batch of Uniform Addresses in anticipation of the project’s expected April 9 start date.

In late March 2018, Marathon County’s Conservation, Planning, & Zoning (CPZ) Department will begin sending a staggered mailing of Official Notices to residents, landowners, and business owners whose addresses will be changing as a result of the county’s Uniform Addressing project. The project will assign each location a unique, six-digit address to aid Marathon County emergency services.

Official Notices will be mailed in a series of batches late March – Nov. 2018, beginning on the east side of the county and moving west. A few weeks before sign installation is projected to begin in a given municipality, Official Notices for that town or village will be mailed, informing recipients of their new address, as well as other details of the project. Recipients should keep the Official Notice for their records, as they may need it later as proof of address.

Following each mailing, the county will update the Sign-Installation Progress Map at www.MyMarathonCountyAddress.org, indicating which municipalities are completed, in progress, and next in line for sign installation. At the same time, the county will post cross-reference spreadsheets of the old/new addresses for the next municipalities scheduled to have their address and road-name signs installed by the County’s contractor: Lange Enterprises. Additional address cross-reference tables will be uploaded to the website at specific intervals throughout the year, in sequence with the mailing of each batch of Official Notices.

These downloadable spreadsheets will be essential to businesses, utility companies, schools, and other non-profits that will need to update their customer, client, and member databases with the address changes as they are released over the next several months.

Over 20,000 properties will receive new addresses, and more than 600 roads will be renamed as part of the county-wide project, which is expected to be completed by Nov. 2018. First, Diggers Hotline will be requested by Lange to spray-paint lines on the property for placement. Then, a blue, flag-style address sign will be installed on the side of the driveway for most properties.

A small number of properties are slated to receive a black-and-white, building-mounted address sign. Lange Enterprises will mail selected property owners this new address sign when workers are in the corresponding municipality installing any flag-style signs. Recipients should use the instructions included to hang the new address sign on their home or building as indicated, so it is visible to emergency personnel.

Property owners can begin using their new Uniform Address after their flag-style sign is installed in the ground or they receive their building-mounted sign in the mail.

Marathon County is partnering with the U.S. Postal Service to automatically forward any mail sent to former addresses for a period of one year from the property’s address-activation date, so property owners do not need to file a Change of Address with the USPS. Marathon County will also take care of notifying the following of all address changes: Marathon County E911 Communication Center, local fire and police departments, municipal officials, Marathon County Clerk, Marathon County Treasurer, and other Marathon County governmental departments.

Property owners and businesses will not be charged for a county-issued replacement address sign, as the Marathon County Board voted to commit funds to cover the costs.

The project was first approved by the Marathon County Board of Supervisors in Feb. 2016 in an effort to improve public safety county-wide. Marathon County is one of only four counties in Wisconsin without a Uniform Addressing System.

For more information on the Uniform Addressing System, visit www.MyMarathonCountyAddress.org .