The Tarrant Park Pool project will move forward. Last night, the Durand City Council voted to accept the bid from Durand Builders to build the pool with 6 of the 7 amenities for a total cost of $4,124,284. The council decided to exclude building a concession stand with the pool due to concerns from area businesses, and state licensing requirements for a concession stand. Construction is slated to begin in 2024 with the new pool opening in 2025.
One person was injured in a three-vehicle accident in Ellsworth Township last Friday. According to the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, 73yr old Barbara Olson of Durand was stopped at the stop sign at Hwy DD and Hwy 72 and started to cross Hwy 72 when she collided with an eastbound vehicle driven by 48yr old Antohny Mader of Elmwood. Mader then colled with a westbound dump truck operated by 21yr old Andrew Grant of Downing. Mader was taken to Western Wisconsin Health, while Olson and Grant were not injured.
The village of Alma and the City of Ellsworth have both received grants to improve their municipal wastewater and stormwater infrastructure. Alma is receiving $829,000 to replace lift station 4 while Elllsworth is receiving $3.1 million to rehabilitate the sanitary sewer lines on Grant, Piety, Woodworth and Strickland Streets. The money is coming from the Wisconsin Clean Water Fund Program.
Heritage Hall at UW-Stout has been approved for construction to make a new unified home for all the programs within the College of Arts and Human Services. The project will provide greater space efficiencies, utilization and opportunity for collaboration and informal learning. The project was one of $589 million in projects that was approved by the Wisconsin State Building Commission.
Police in Chippewa Falls say a woman is in custody after she drove through parts of the Christmas Village in Irvine Park. It happened yesterday morning. Officers say they got a call about someone running down Christmas decorations with a van about 7:45 a.m. When they arrived, police say parks department crews were trying to pen the woman's van in. Eventually, officers were able to stop the rampage and arrested 32-year-old Ebony Hudson of Loudon, Tennessee. Chippewa Falls Police say Hudson wasn't drunk or high, they say she intentionally ran over the Christmas displays. The damage was cleaned up, and the Christmas Village reopened last night.
All of Wisconsin's Republican congressmen voted for the impeachment inquiry into President Biden. In fact, every Republican on Capitol Hill voted for the inquiry yesterday. Western Wisconsin Congressman Derrick Van Orden says Congress has a 'Constitutional duty' to ensure the president is acting honestly and morally. Northwoods Congressman Tom Tiffany says the American people deserve some transparency as to whether the president benefited from his son's foreign business dealings. The impeachment inquiry vote simply extends the House investigation into President Biden, it doesn't impeach him or remove him from office.
Eight Wisconsin communities will get eleven million dollars for building safer roads. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation says the City Madison will get more than six-point-two-million, the City of Milwaukee will get four million, and Chippewa County will get 200-thousand dollars. The federal grant money is meant to create infrastructure and traffic safety programs to prevent road injuries and deaths. One-point-one billion dollars will be given out nationally through the Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program.
There's a new billboard, and a new county resolution opposing the resettlement of refugees in Eau Claire. The billboard is up along Truax Boulevard, on the city's north side, and claims that tax dollars are being spent to help traffic Somali refugees to Eau Claire County. It is the latest public opposition to move 75 refugees to the area, though it's not known just where those refugees will come from. The billboard is not the only opposition, though. Five county board supervisors have written a resolution that asks to see the feasibility data for the proposed refugee move. The group World Relief is working to resettle the refugees in the Eau Claire area, but has yet to answer questions about who the refugees are, where they will live, or what they will do for jobs once they arrive.
People who work for the University of Wisconsin will get their pay raises, and Republican lawmakers will get a small victory over diversity, equity, and inclusion spending. UW regents yesterday changed their mind and voted to accept the agreement that swapped 800 million dollars for raises, a new engineering building at the Madison campus, and millions more for other needs in exchange for repurposing just over 40 DEI administrators. Three regents changed their minds. Yesterday's vote came after regents voted down the same deal on Saturday.
Wisconsin's Supreme Court won't hear the challenge to school choice in the state, at least not yet. The new liberal-majority court yesterday said the challenge, which is being paid for by the progressive owner of the Minocqua Brewing Company, needs to go through the lower courts first. Kirk Bangstad, the owner of the Minocqua Brewing Company, claims that school choice is unconstitutional and hurts Wisconsin's public schools. School choice supporters say ending school choice would hurt over 50 thousand kids in the state. School choice supporters yesterday celebrated the Supreme Court's announcement. The court rejected the case without comment.
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul yesterday refused to say if he is investigating, or planning to bring charges against Wisconsin's alternate electors. Prosecutors in Michigan have filed charges against Trump electors there, and there are investigations in Arizona and Nevada. Kaul has been silent for months on an investigation here. Last week Wisconsin's Trump electors settled a lawsuit over their plans, without admitting any wrongdoing.
It's been six months since a Sauk County boy allegedly walked into Devils Lake State Park on some sort of survival mission. The sheriff's office yesterday said there are no new updates in the search for James Yoblonski. He's been missing since mid-June when his dad said he took-off for the woods. Investigators say they have not gotten a report of a sighting in months, though they say their investigation remains open. Yoblonski's father says he believes his son is alive. The sheriff's office says they gave the dad a lie detector test, and are confident he didn't have anything to do with his son's disappearance.
A research boat that a UW-Madison doctoral student reported missing over a month ago has been found. Chelsea Volpano said she was collecting data about coastal erosion along the shore of Lake Michigan in Grafton, when the small orange boat she was using to gather the data drifted away. Tuesday, Volpano said the vessel was found more than 100 miles across the lake in the northwest Michigan city of Frankfort. It’s not clear if the data collected by the boat remained intact. If it was lost, it would put Volpano back a year from finishing her degree in geoscience.
A new Wisconsin program will give nearly 42-million dollars to reduce homelessness and expand affordable housing statewide. Governor Tony Evers says the HOME-American Rescue Plan will also support programs aiming to help low-income and housing-insecure families. The federal program was created in response to the COVID pandemic and is giving out five-billion nationally. Applicants looking to develop rental units and provide support services can apply for funding on the State of Wisconsin's website.
Unseasonably warm, dry weather has increased the risk of wildfires across Minnesota. The Department of Natural Resources says the lack of snow and unusually dry conditions for December are to blame. Wildfire prevention specialists say its risky to burn dead vegetation right now, especially with windy conditions and temperature increases forecasted for next week. Vegetative debris could catch fire easily, and the blaze could quickly spread. Experts expect there will be an increased wildfire risk until at least three inches of snow covers the ground this winter.
It's a safe bet that the racing sausages aren't going anywhere anytime soon. The owners of Johnsonville Brats have bought a piece of the Milwaukee Brewers. The team yesterday said that Ralph and Shelly Stayer, the owners of Johnsonville, bought a minority stake. No one is saying just how much the Stayers paid, or how much of the team they bought. The Stayers have been lifelong baseball fans, and Johnsonville has been the Brewers' official sausage since 2018.
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