An issue with a power pole in Downtown Durand caused a power outage in most of the city. The issue happened at around 5:45pm when sparks were seen coming from a power pole on Madison Street between 3rd and 4th avenue west. That caused the substation that provides power to the city to cut power. The power lines on the pole were repaired and power was restored at about 7:15pm.
The Joint Finance Committee has approved spending $3 million for improvements to Lake Pepin. Due to sediment coming from Minnesota, it has caused a large sandbar that is affecting recreational and commercial boating traffic in the Bay City area. 93rd Assemblyman Warren Petryk says he has been working with legislators from Wisconsin and Minnesota, the Wisconsin DNR, and the Army Corp of Engineers to address the problem. If the project is approved by the Governor in the final budget that project could begin as soon as next year.
Officials report former Eau Claire County Treasurer Larry Lokken is lagging behind on repaying the money he stole from taxpayers. Lokken paid just 356 dollars over the last year, bringing his total to 18-thousand dollars. He and former assistant Kay Onarheim were convicted of taking one-point-three million dollars and the court ordered them to repay 700-thousand. Onarheim has repaid almost 90-thousand. Lokken has requested an early release from prison.
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers has vetoed a bill that would have raised the income eligibility for the state’s private school voucher program to three times the federal poverty level. Republicans said the change was needed because more families wanted to send their students to private schools during the coronavirus pandemic. Evers says he doesn’t want to divert additional resources from public schools to private schools. His move pleased the Wisconsin Education Association Council and groups representing public school administrators, school boards, and rural schools.
Rainfall across Westen Wisconsin and Minnesota came as a relief to many after dry and hot weather dominated the early parts of June. With a large portion of the farmland across both states relying on rainfall for irrigation, farmers are at the mercy of summer storms. University of Minnesota ag experts told FOX-9 in the Twin Cities that only around 500-thousand of the 25-million acres of farmland have irrigation systems in place. With the conditions as dry as they have been, one or two rain events per week throughout the summer are needed to help crops recover. Here in Western Wisconsin, anywhere 3/4 to one inch of rain fell on Sunday.
Firefighters from Chippewa Falls responded to a fire at Advanced Lazer on Saturday morning. Firefighters found heavy smoke and employees had evacuated the building. A laser machine had caught on fire. Damage is estimated at $1.5 million and most of that estimate is from the laser machine. Two people were treated for smoke inhalation.
There's an urgent need for blood donations right now. Justin Kern with the American Red Cross of Wisconsin says it's more than just the usual seasonal shortage of available blood. As a result of this shortage, some hospitals are being forced to slow the pace of elective surgeries until the blood supply stabilizes. A blood drive is coming up on July 12 at the Plum City American Legion. Call Pat at 647-4952 to schedule an appointment.
Dunn Energy Co-Op is working with Dairyland Power, River Country Co-Op to install a fast-charging station at 29 Pines for electric vehicles. Dunn Energy Co-Op CEO Jessie Singerhouse says the charger should be able to charge a vehicle in 30 minutes. The charger is expected to be installed before the end of the year.
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Two Democratic lawmakers are sponsoring introduced a bill that would increase Wisconsin’s minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour. State Senator Melissa Agard of Madison and State Representative Lisa Subeck of Madison introduced the legislation Thursday. It would initially raise the minimum from seven-25 an hour to 10-15 an hour, then bump it up again to 15 dollars an hour the next year. Agard says, "Honest work deserves honest pay." The proposal backed by Agard and Subeck would also adjust the Wisconsin minimum wage based on the consumer price index each year.
Two men busted with around six thousand oxycodone bills in Rochester are pleading not guilty to felony drug charges. Twenty-five-year-olds Dahir Omar Dahir and Abdullahi Islaw are facing first-degree sale and possession of drugs. They were arrested during a traffic stop in February after officers smelled marijuana and searched the vehicle. Police said the pills had an estimated street value of 180-thousand dollars. No trial dates have been set for Dahir and Islaw.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has identified 35 cases of the new Delta variant of COVID-19. The new variant is said to be more resistant to vaccines if the patient has received only one dose. It often results in more severe medical outcomes. The new strain has caused big problems in India recently and is fueling a surge of new cases in the United Kingdom. The Delta variant represents only about six percent of U-S cases but could become dominant here as it has in those other regions. Public health officials have elevated it to a “variant of concern” for Wisconsin, a step taken earlier this month.
State officials say Minnesota has gained about 60 percent of the jobs lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. The state lost 416-thousand-300 jobs from April 2020 through February - and has since added just under 250-thousand positions. Department of Employment and Economic Development Commissioner Steve Grove says we are seeing our jobs come back across the state. Grove said "the strongest growth regionally is Duluth and the Twin Cities. Again those are two of the metro hubs, two of the hubs just more generally that were hardest hit by the pandemic." Minnesota's unemployment rate dropped slightly to four percent in May.
It’s the first new paper mill built in Wisconsin in 35 years. Green Bay Packaging ceremonially cut the ribbon on its 500-million-dollar mill Thursday. The original mill was built 74 years ago. The family-owned business says it basically built a new paper mill from the ground up. It includes two new boilers and will switch from coal to natural gas. C-E-O Will Kress says that’s a big environmental improvement. There’s a new water effluent treatment plant which means no discharges into the Fox River. Owners are predicting a 50-percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
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