A Fatal Crash, a .8 Million Road Grant, and a Wisconsin Stat

A Fatal Crash, a $1.8 Million Road Grant, and a Wisconsin Statute That Could Void It All

Last updated: June 2026

By Price County Fun Editorial Team | Price County, Wisconsin

On August 28, 2025, a United Pride Dairy semi-truck collided with a pickup truck at the intersection of Highway 13 and Highway 111 in the Town of Worcester. Two people died. The same day, federal inspectors logged 17 violations against the carrier.

Six months later, the Town of Worcester accepted a $1.83 million state road grant to rebuild Little Chicago Road — the road that runs past United Pride Dairy’s front door. The town supervisor who oversees that road is Jeremy Pesko. Public records list Pesko as a supervisor for the Town of Worcester, the same municipality where United Pride Dairy operates its 5,300-cow concentrated animal feeding operation.

Wisconsin Statute 946.13 says a public official who participates in a contract where they have a private financial interest has committed a Class I felony — and the contract itself is void.

None of these facts are in dispute. They come from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the Town of Worcester’s own website, the Wisconsin Legislature’s published statutes, and the Environmental Working Group’s farm subsidy database. But nobody has connected them publicly , until now.

The Crash: Two Dead, 17 Violations, One Inspection Record

FMCSA records confirm that United Pride Dairy LLC (USDOT 1009930) had one crash in the 24-month reporting period ending in 2025. Crash, on August 28, 2025, killed two people in a pickup truck at Highway 13 and Highway 111 in Price County. The Price County Sheriff’s Office, Wisconsin State Patrol, and WisDOT all responded.

The FMCSA’s SAFER system shows United Pride Dairy operates 18 power units with 40 drivers as a private carrier , meaning they transport their own dairy products, not for-hire freight. The company has no assigned safety rating, which is common for private carriers.

LoadWrap.com, which aggregates FMCSA inspection data, shows that the inspection conducted on August 28 recorded 17 violations. The FMCSA database shows a total of 5 inspections over the 24-month period , not 1, as some sources have claimed. But 17 violations on a single day, the same day as a fatal crash, raises questions about the carrier’s maintenance and safety practices that neither FMCSA nor United Pride Dairy have publicly addressed.

The Grant: $1.83 Million for Little Chicago Road

On February 25, 2025, the Town of Worcester published an announcement on its official website confirming it had received an Agricultural Road Improvement Program (ARIP) grant. The numbers:

Total project cost: $2,087,555.40
State reimbursement: up to $1,830,786.09 (87.7%)
Town share: $256,769.31 (12.3%)
Roads affected: Little Chicago Road (Highway 13 to the railroad tracks) and Cranberry Lake Lane (Little Chicago Road to the culvert) . 3.5 miles total

The ARIP program was created by the Wisconsin Legislature in 2023 to help towns improve roads used for agricultural and forest product transport. The grant explicitly requires that improved roads be “currently subject to load limits” and used to “transport agricultural and forest products.”

Little Chicago Road is the physical address of United Pride Dairy (W5993 Little Chicago Rd, Phillips, WI 54555). The road reconstruction directly benefits the dairy’s transportation route , the same route its 18 trucks and 40 drivers use to move product.

The Conflict: Jeremy Pesko, Town Supervisor

Multiple public sources confirm that Jeremy Pesko is a supervisor for the Town of Worcester. The Town of Worcester’s official website describes supervisors’ duties as including participation in grant decisions, road projects, and town contracting.

The question that Wisconsin Statute 946.13 raises is straightforward: If Jeremy Pesko has a private financial interest in United Pride Dairy , whether as a co-owner, a family member of an owner, or through any other pecuniary connection , and he participated in the town’s decision to apply for or accept the ARIP grant, did he violate the statute?

The Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions maintains corporate filings that would show ownership of United Pride Dairy LLC. This reporter has not yet obtained those filings. But the geographic and operational connections are not in doubt: Pesko supervises the town where the dairy operates, the grant rebuilds the road that serves the dairy, and the dairy is the largest agricultural operation on that road.

Wisconsin Statute 946.13: What It Actually Says

The statute, titled “Private interest in public contract prohibited,” is published in full on the Wisconsin Legislature’s website. Here is what it says, in plain terms:

Subsection (1) makes it a Class I felony , punishable by up to 3.5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine , for any public officer who:

(a) In their private capacity, negotiates or enters into a contract in which they have a private pecuniary interest, while also being authorized in their public capacity to participate in making that contract; or
(b) In their public capacity, participates in making a contract in which they have a private pecuniary interest.

Subsection (3) is the one that should worry the Town of Worcester: “A contract entered into in violation of this section is void.” Not voidable , void. The state incurs no liability. If the ARIP grant contract was made in violation of 946.13, it was never legally valid. The state might claw back the $1.83 million.

The statute does include exemptions. Contracts under $15,000 per year are exempt , the ARIP grant is $1.83 million. Conservation and farmland preservation contracts under specific statutory programs are exempt . ARIP is a road infrastructure grant, not a conservation payment. The $15,000 threshold is not even close.

The Subsidies: $2.96 Million and Counting

While the ARIP grant is a state program, United Pride Dairy has also been collecting substantial federal money. The Environmental Working Group’s Farm Subsidy Database, which sources data from USDA via Freedom of Information Act requests, shows:

Recipient: United Pride Dairy LLC
Location: Phillips, WI (Price County)
Total subsidies (1995-2024): $2,959,254.92
Rank: #1 recipient in Price County

That is nearly $3 million in taxpayer money over 30 years, on top of the $1.83 million state road grant that benefits the same operation. The EWG database does not break down the subsidies by program (crop insurance, disaster relief, commodity subsidies, etc.), but the cumulative figure is verified against USDA records.

The DNR Permit: What Else Is Buried in the Draft

United Pride Dairy’s Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (WPDES) permit is currently up for renewal. The public comment period closes July 10, 2026. The draft permit . 33 pages, published on the DNR website , contains details that deserve more scrutiny than they have received.

The DNR’s own Fact Sheet (19 pages) includes an admission that has not been widely reported. In Sections 2.10 and 2.12, the agency states:

“Engineering evaluation of feed storage area (Wanish Farm) and associated runoff controls have been included per s. NR243.16(1) Wis. Admin. Code as the department has not previously evaluated this facility.”

“Engineering evaluation of the Wanish Pit (Wanish Farm) and associated waste transfer system have been included per s. NR243.16(2) Wis. Admin. Code as the department has not previously evaluated this facility.”

Translation: The DNR has never conducted an engineering evaluation of the Wanish Farm’s manure storage pit or feed storage area. The pit holds approximately 3.8 million gallons of liquid manure. The DNR is now requiring an evaluation report by October 30, 2027, plans to “permanently correct any adverse conditions” by April 30, 2028, and construction of corrections by November 30, 2029.

The Fact Sheet also confirms that the operation produces approximately 39 million gallons of liquid manure and 6,000 tons of solid manure annually, spread across 5,420 acres. Nine headland stacking sites were denied due to shallow groundwater. A 2015 Notice of Noncompliance was issued for “not verifying depth to water table on W-soils before manure application.”

And the draft permit includes a new structure: the “Kennan Pit,” a 2-million-gallon concrete-lined manure storage facility that would be the farm’s sixth. The Fact Sheet describes it as “voluntary” with no construction deadline , meaning if the permit is approved, United Pride Dairy can build it at any point during the five-year permit term without additional public review.

The DNR contact for the permit is Ben Mrdutt, Agricultural Runoff Management Specialist. His email is [email protected]. The DNR’s public notice states that a public hearing will be scheduled if 5 or more people request one.

The Safety Record: 17 Violations on the Day Two People Died

Returning to the FMCSA data: the August 28 inspection that recorded 17 violations was conducted on the same day as the fatal crash. The specific violations are not detailed in the publicly available FMCSA summary data, but 17 violations recorded on a single inspection is a high number for any carrier.

The FMCSA shows 5 total inspections over the 24-month reporting period for United Pride Dairy. The carrier’s safety rating is listed as “None,” meaning FMCSA has not conducted a formal safety audit. This is typical for private carriers, which are subject to less regulatory scrutiny than for-hire trucking companies.

The 18 power units and 40 drivers mean United Pride Dairy is not a small operation. Forty drivers working in shifts means the trucks run nearly around the clock. Forty drivers sharing 18 trucks means multiple drivers likely use the same vehicle across shifts, a practice that puts additional wear on equipment and can allow maintenance issues to go unreported between shift changes.

What Happens Next

Three things need to happen, and only one of them is within the control of Price County residents:

1. Public comment on the WPDES permit. The deadline is July 10, 2026. Five people requesting a hearing triggers a mandatory DNR public hearing. The permit, the Wanish Pit evaluation, and the new Kennan Pit can all be questioned. Ben Mrdutt’s contact information is above.

2. WDFI corporate filing review. The Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions maintains ownership records for United Pride Dairy LLC. If Jeremy Pesko is listed as a member or manager of the LLC, and he voted on the ARIP grant, the contract may be void under 946.13(3). Those filings are available at wdfi.org.

3. FMCSA safety investigation. A fatal crash followed by 17 violations on the same day should trigger a closer look from federal regulators. Whether it has is not clear from the publicly available data. The FMCSA’s Safety Investigation Program can be contacted through their website.

This is not an accusation. It is a chain of documented facts , each one sourced from a government database, an official website, or a published statute. The connections between them have not been reported before. Whether they add up to a criminal violation, a policy failure, or a series of coincidences is for investigators and voters to determine. But the facts themselves are on the record.

Sources: FMCSA SAFER System (USDOT 1009930), Town of Worcester official website, Wisconsin Legislature (Statute 946.13), EWG Farm Subsidy Database, Wisconsin DNR WPDES Fact Sheet and Draft Permit (WI-0062197-01-0), LoadWrap.com FMCSA data, 715Newsroom.com crash report.

This article is part of an ongoing story. Read the full timeline and all coverage: United Pride Dairy: ARIP Grant Conflict, Fatal Crash, Statute 946.13: Full Coverage & Timeline.