Contractors and county officials are on site this week for community decay abatement at 1500 Adams Blvd in Sun Prairie.

The action comes after several years of complaints and legal processes.

On June 13, Cascade County Commissioners finalized a $27,150 contract to Western Sky Enterprises for the abatement, which includes the removal of all junk, trash, and debris and any other debris deemed to be a public nuisance and to deliver it to the landfill or recycling center.

Commissioners had initially approved the bid on May 13 and the county attorney’s office drafted a contract proposal. County officials met with Western Sky Enterprises on June 9 to finalize the details.

During the May 13 meeting, Commissioner Jim Larson said, “we’re still battling this thing. Hopefully we’ll get it cleaned up soon.

During the June 13 meeting, Commissioner Joe Briggs said it was “long overdue.”

GFFR responds to fire, year after another fire, at same address; proposing code changes to recoup costs from nuisance structures

The county received complaints of community decay at 1500 Adams Boulevard, owned by Robert Davison, in April 2023.

Based on those complaints, county planning staff visited the property and verified the violations.

Under county ordinance and state law, the county commission may impose fines and/or imprisonment for the violations.

County officials sent a notice to Davison on April 11, 2023, ordering that he take corrective action.

The same violations were identified and referred for prosecution in 2021 and 2022 without resolution, according to the county staff.

City declares vacant property nuisance [2024]

After receiving the initial complaint in April 2023, the county planning department received another 29 complaints about the property.

Davison did not address the violations and the case was referred to the county attorney’s office for prosecution in May 2023.

The county attorney’s office charged Davison with a public nuisance violation in March 2024 and he accepted a plea agreement, giving him 90 days to abate the nuisance, which he did not.

Justice of the Peace Eric Bailey issued an order in December 2024 that the county abate the property, allowing county officials to file a lien against the property for those incurred costs.

The county is also providing a deputy onsite during the abatement, in case of any issues with the property owner, for a cost of $85 an hour for an estimated 40 hours to billed to Davison as an administrative fee. That’s an estimated cost of $3,400, according to county staff.

In January 2025, commissioners had awarded a $23,519 contract to Dick Anderson Construction for the abatement but later staff determined it wasn’t feasible to move forward with that contract, for reasons that were not detailed during public meetings or documents on the issue.

In their April 2023 notice of violation letter to Davison, staff wrote that during their site visit, they “observed an unkept and delipidated modular home surrounded by an unsightly ‘accumulation’ of tires, carboard boxes, machinery, appliances, furniture. chains, scrap lumber, scrap metal, car seats, tarps, carpeting, tools, toys, coolers, pallets, bricks, kitchen cabinets, upholstery, auto parts, hoses, a beer keg, a topper, a boat, an ATV, a junk vehicle (a late model, Maroon Ford Focus) and numerous unidentifiable pieces of junk, trash, toys and debris that were ‘uncontained, openly
stored and visible from the public roadway'”. Although we were unable to observe and photograph the rear of the property, the complainant indicated the rear of the property was unsafe and unfit for children to play.”

In comparing photos from the 2023 complaint investigation to the 2022 and 2021 cases, staff wrote to Davison that “the subject property is progressively decaying and continues to create conditions injurious to health, indecent and offensive to the senses.”