La Crosse County Board congratulates Sheriff Wolf on retirement

La Crosse County voters chose a new sheriff last month, to succeed retiring Sheriff Jeff Wolf.

Now, Wolf is working his last few weeks before leaving the department after 34 years.

One of the stops Wolf made before he steps down at year’s end was a final visit to the La Crosse County Board meeting Monday night, where he was thanked with a plaque honoring his service.

Wolf mentioned that three current supervisors were already on the board when he started in 1988. He asked if they remembered his first day at work, when he was enforcing a law requiring garbage to be taken to the French Island incinerator.

The county had recently decided to stop sending garbage to Jackson County.

“I stopped a garbage truck on its way to Black River,” Wolf said, as supervisors laughed. “I had no clue where I was goin’, or what this ordinance was about.”

Wolf noted that he took the truck to the Xcel incinerator for inspection.

“And the next day, front page of the Tribune, sheriff deputies stop garbage truck (for) inspection,” Wolf said.

Wolf served under three other sheriffs — Butch Halverson, Mike Weissenberger, and Steve Helgeson — before becoming sheriff himself in 2018.

Wolf thanked many county officials, including recently retired administrator Steve O’Malley, for their support. He said the transition to newly elected Sheriff John Siegel is going fairly well.

“We’ve been working, and he’s been overwhelmed with files, most of ’em I’m throwing away” that were left to him by other county officials, he says.

Siegel was recently in the WIZM studio for La Crosse Talk PM.

The three men who ran for sheriff this year to succeed Wolf were all veteran members of the sheriff’s department.