Documentary-style videos shed light on the impact of fentanyl and
opioids within the local community.
Fentanyl Video Series Up For National Award
Waukesha County staff at the Department of Health & Human Services have received a nomination as a finalist in the 2024 National Information Officers Association in the category of "Best Use of Video." The videos nominated were launched publicly in May 2024. Four videos feature stories of loss, recovery, front line heroes and efforts Waukesha County is doing to combat the fentanyl crisis.
More than 100 total submissions were received for the seven categories for the 2024 NIOA Awards, which will be presented at the annual conference in August.
"Proud to see the hard work of our staff’s efforts being recognized. Waukesha County is one of the top three finalists for best use of video for the documentary series we produced in our efforts to fight the opioid/ fentanyl crisis. Congratulations to our team on this accomplishment," HHS Director, Elizabeth Aldred said.
In 2022, County Executive Paul Farrow declared fentanyl a community health crisis.
According to the Waukesha County Medical Examiner’s Office they's seeing at least a 20% decrease in overall overdose deaths from 2022 to 2023 and a 35% decrease from 2021 to 2023.
Participants can learn more about city government operations and services.
Apply for Waukesha Local Government Academy
The City of Waukesha in partnership with the UW- Division of Extension, Waukesha County are excited to announce that applications are now open for the 3rd Annual Waukesha Local Government Academy. Applications are due by July 5. The Waukesha Local Government Academy will run from September – December 2024. This program is for City of Waukesha residents who are interested in learning more about their city government and civic engagement opportunities. In this program participants will: • Learn more about city government operations and services. • Widen their network of relationships with city staff, departments, boards, and decision makers. • Discover opportunities to become more civically involved. There will be a total of seven sessions held on Thursday evenings (one Wednesday session on November 26) with each session lasting 2 hours (6pm– 8pm). There is no fee to participate, but applicants must make a commitment to attend 6 of the 7 sessions to receive the local government academy certificate of completion.
The program has been held for the past two years with overwhelming success. Of the recent graduates, 95% said they felt more prepared to talk with residents about factual issues the City government is facing. Most participants said they felt the academy helped increase their awareness of opportunities to serve within the city and helped to widen their community relationships with residents and/or City leadership.
For more details and the 2024 application, visit the Waukesha Local Government Academy webpage at
Construction on CTH VV (Silver Spring Dr) starts June 24.
Railroad Crossing Construction in Sussex
Beginning Monday, June 24, the Canadian National Railroad (C.N.R.R.) is planning to reconstruct their crossing of County Trunk Highway (CTH) VV (Silver Spring Drive). The railroad crossing is located just east of CTH F (Waukesha Avenue) in the Village of Sussex.
Construction will continue through Tuesday, July 2, 2024.
CTH VV (Silver Spring Drive) will be closed to traffic at this location for the duration of construction. Traffic on eastbound Silver Spring Drive will be detoured to CTH F (Waukesha Avenue) north to CTH F (Main Street) east to CTH V (Town Line Road) south.
The 1.4-mile segment between CTH I (Beloit Rd) and CTH ES (National Ave) has been under construction since summer 2023.
Moorland Road Re-Opens in New Berlin
Friday, June 14, 2024, Waukesha County Department of Public Works and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation officially marked the completion of a segment of the Moorland Road reconstruction project, CTH O (Moorland Rd) between CTH I (Beloit Rd) and CTH ES (National Ave). This 1.4-mile-long project included improvements such as pavement replacement, increasing turn lane capacity, reconfiguring intersections, storm sewer improvements, sidewalk and curb upgrades, replacement of older traffic signals and medians to improve safety.
County Executive Paul Farrow, DPW Director Allison Bussler, New Berlin Mayor David Ament, County Board Chairman Jim Heinrich and WisDOT, Project Development Chief David Nguyen, held a ribbon cutting ceremony along Moorland Rd to mark this momentous occasion.
“This project reflects our commitment to improving infrastructure and enhancing the safety and convenience for all our residents. The collaboration and hard work from our dedicated team has truly paid off, and we look forward to seeing the positive impact this will have on our community,” County Executive Paul Farrow said.
In 2020, Waukesha County began a study of Moorland Road between Beloit Road and National Avenue in the City of New Berlin to address growing local and regional traffic volumes, and to enhance traffic flow and safety. Construction began in the summer of 2023. The reconstruction of this segment on Moorland Road is part of the County’s capital improvements program which included funding from the state and county.
“Moorland Road serves as a critical north-south route and is a major economic engine in Waukesha County. Improving this roadway and how it operates was a vital investment. We’re proud of the local partnerships and collaboration that helped deliver this complex project,” WisDOT Project Development Chief David Nguyen said.
This Moorland Road project is the third in a series of Moorland Rd improvements to be completed (first segment was I-94 to Bluemound Rd).
“The City of New Berlin would like to extend our sincerest appreciation to the State of Wisconsin, Waukesha County, and all project partners for their efforts in reconstructing this section of Moorland Road. This arterial serves not only our community, but it is a corridor that connects Muskego to Brookfield and I-43 to I-94. Moorland Road carries over 31,100 vehicles per day connecting homes to businesses and beyond,” New Berlin Mayor David Ament said.
Over the next few years DPW will be completing the remaining Moorland Road segments from CTH HH (College Avenue) to STH 59 (Greenfield Avenue), which will provide a 4-lane north-south corridor from CTH L (Janesville Road in Muskego) to US 18 (Bluemound Road in the City of Brookfield).
About the Moorland Road Improvement Project
The project is being built through the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s (WisDOT) Surface Transportation Program - Urban (STP-U). The state program allows federal funding to be used for a wide range of transportation-related activities, including projects on higher function local roads not on the State Trunk Highway system, and local safety improvements.
These projects have required cooperation and have been coordinated closely with our local municipal stakeholders in Muskego, New Berlin and Brookfield.
PulsePoint is a 911-connected app that can immediately inform you of emergencies occurring in your community and can request your help for CPR.
County Launches Lifesaving App "PulsePoint"
Tuesday, June 4, 2024, In conjuction with "National CPR and AED Awareness Week" Waukesha County announced the launch of the PulsePoint app. The mobile app is free, and designed to empower citizens to help save lives by notifying them of nearby cardiac emergencies, including overdoses.
At a news conference June 4, at the Waukesha County Communications Center, speakers detailed the benefits of PulsePoint, a free-to-download mobile app, which 1) alerts CPR-trained citizens of cardiac events in their vicinity so they may administer aid, 2) helps build a comprehensive Automated External Defibrillator (AED) registry and 3) informs the community of emergency activity in real time. The AED registry also allows users to indicate if naloxone is co-located with the AED, enabling Waukesha County to continue making naloxone widely available to assist when overdoses occur.
The initiative stemmed from alarming statistics revealing that more than two-thirds of all drug-related deaths in Waukesha County in 2021 involved fentanyl. In response, County Executive Paul Farrow declared a community health crisis in 2022, launching various efforts to address the epidemic head-on.
"In Waukesha County, we are committed to leveraging every available tool to support and protect our community,” Waukesha County Executive Paul Farrow said. “The launch of PulsePoint is a significant step forward in our efforts to save lives. By empowering our residents with real-time alerts and access to life-saving resources, we are enhancing our emergency response capabilities and fostering a safer, more resilient community for everyone."
According to the Waukesha County Medical Examiner’s Office we will see at least a 20% decrease in overall overdose deaths from 2022 to 2023. 35% decrease from 2021 to 2023.
"It's encouraging to see our overdose death numbers moving in the right direction, but until that number is zero, our work is far from over,” Director of Waukesha County Department of Health and Human Services Elizabeth Aldred said. “By making life-saving resources like naloxone more accessible and engaging our community in emergency response, we are striving to save lives and build a healthier, safer Waukesha County."
PulsePoint Respond empowers everyday citizens to provide life‐saving assistance to victims of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). PulsePoint Respond app subscribers who have indicated they are trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and willing to assist in case of an emergency can be notified if someone nearby is having a SCA and may require CPR. If the cardiac emergency is in a public place, the location-aware application will alert users in the vicinity of the need for CPR simultaneous with the dispatch of advanced medical care. The application also directs these potential rescuers to the exact location of the closest AED and other lifesaving resources such as naloxone.
The companion app, PulsePoint AED, lets you report and update AED locations so that emergency responders, including nearby citizens, can find an AED close to them when a cardiac emergency occurs. You can help build the community registry by using PulsePoint AED to describe the location of an AED and add a picture. This information is then staged for local authorities to verify. After that, the AED location data can be made available to dispatchers and anyone using the PulsePoint Respond app. This information will also allow Health and Human Services staff to reach out to registered AED owners and ask them to co-locate naloxone with their AED.
About the PulsePoint Foundation
PulsePoint is a public, 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation that builds applications for use by public safety agencies to increase community awareness during critical events. The PulsePoint Respond mobile app notifies trained individuals of the nearby need for CPR and the PulsePoint AED registry identifies AED (automated external defibrillator) locations for use by the public and 9-1-1 telecommunicators during emergency call taking. PulsePoint also provides specialized mobile apps for professional responders. Learn more at pulsepoint.org. The free apps are available for download on the App Store and Google Play.
About Sudden Cardiac Arrest
Although a heart attack can lead to sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), the two are not the same. SCA is when the heart malfunctions and suddenly stops beating unexpectedly, whereas a heart attack is when blood flow to the heart is blocked, but the heart continues to beat. Each year, more than 326,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur, making it the leading cause of death in the United States. Survival rates nationally for SCA are less than eight percent, but delivery of CPR can sustain life until paramedics arrive by maintaining vital blood flow to the heart and brain. However, only about a third of SCA victims receive bystander CPR. Without CPR, brain damage or death can occur in minutes. The average EMS response time is nine minutes, even in urban settings; after 10 minutes there is little chance of successful resuscitation. The American Heart Association estimates that effective bystander CPR, provided immediately after SCA, can double or triple a person’s chance of survival.
