City Council hears presentation on Safe Haven Baby Box program

The Rhinelander Fire Department may soon become home to a Safe Haven Baby Box, a device that would allow parents in crisis to anonymously surrender newborns without facing criminal charges.
Two Oneida County foster parents, Nicole Ziolkowski and Jenna Toms, presented the proposal to city officials during the Jan. 26 meeting of the common council, requesting support for installing the box at the 24-hour emergency facility. The presenters emphasized they plan to cover 100% of the costs through fundraising, with no expense to the city or taxpayers.
Fire Chief Adam “AJ” Johnson told the council that the box would be installed near the training room at the front of the station, which is well-lit and adjacent to the police department. The installation would require removing a window and making modifications to the city building.
The Safe Haven Baby Box program was founded in 2015 by Monica Kelsey and allows parents to surrender infants up to 72 hours old anonymously. According to the presenters, when a baby is placed inside, multiple alarms sound immediately and emergency personnel are dispatched. According to the presenters, the longest a baby has remained in a box at any location was four and a half minutes.
“Many women in crisis need anonymity when surrendering an infant, either because of fear of being recognized, the stigma associated with the surrender, or fear of prosecution due to the lack of knowledge and misunderstanding of the safe haven law,” the presenters explained.

When the box door opens, an orange packet containing information about local resources, parental rights, and options for potentially reclaiming the child falls out for the parent, they added. Inside the box, Wisconsin law requires video monitoring, though no cameras face the exterior to preserve anonymity.
The initial cost for the box is $16,500 for Wisconsin installations, which includes the required video surveillance component. An additional annual maintenance fee of $500 would be required. The presenters said their fundraising goal is to raise approximately $30,000 to cover installation and ongoing maintenance, with donations managed through the Safe Haven Baby Box organization’s 501(c)(3) tax-deductible account.
City Council President Carrie Mikalauski, who is employed by the Oneida County Human Services Office, expressed support for the program, noting that the county has seen multiple safe haven surrenders in recent years. “I can think of three just last year,” she said. “This is really a need in our region, and it’s not just for Rhinelander — this would affect the surrounding communities too.”
The closest existing baby box to Rhinelander is located in Howard, near Green Bay. Other boxes exist in the southern part of the state, including Kenosha.
Questions raised during the meeting included concerns about security and vandalism. The presenters said vandalism has not been a significant issue at other locations. “They said it’s really not been an issue for them,” Ziolkowski noted. “One of the things they have experienced is that somebody [surrendered] a litter of kittens in the box.”
Chief Johnson addressed concerns about response times if fire personnel were away on emergency calls, noting that logistics would need to be finalized but emphasizing the importance of the program. “Think of the other possibilities without having the baby box,” he said. “That’s the part that I think some people need to focus on.”
Council members also asked about the box’s lifespan and whether it could be relocated. The presenters confirmed the box, which is manufactured in Indiana, can be moved if needed — a consideration as the city is in the early stages of planning a new police and fire station.
The next step in the process is for Chief Johnson and city administration to finalize a contract between the fire department, the city, and Safe Haven Baby Box. That contract will then be presented to the common council for review and a vote.
The Safe Haven Baby Box program operates as the only initiative of its kind in the United States, bringing anonymous surrender devices to local fire stations. After a baby is surrendered, it is taken to a hospital for medical evaluation and then placed in the care of social services, following the same protocol as face-to-face surrenders at hospitals, police stations, or fire stations.