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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Up North News.
Now, for my Lake Minnesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglow.
Hey, good morning.
Welcome back.
Nice to have you here up north on a Tuesday morning, November 4th, 2025.
I'm Pat Cratlow here in Jipple Falls, Parker Olson, producing things down in Madison Studio A2.
We're going to be talking to Emily Berge, candidate for Congress in just a minute or two here.
And then later this hour, Hans Brighton Moser will be along.
He's brought a couple of guests that want to talk about a special kind of forest management and using Wisconsin forests as a way to help
capture more carbon out of the atmosphere and reduce the impact of climate change.
But first, a personal question for Parker, since we have to get up so darn early to do this show.
And I noticed that my my second cup of coffee is almost gone already, which usually does not happen till the end of the show.
Oh, must be good.
But
Well, I'm I'm trying to go to bed at the same time, even though I'm really tired because of the time change.
And I'm still waking up at my quote unquote, usual time.
So, you know, it the clock says 3am, but my body's thinking, well, it's four o'clock time to get up.
So I've been up since three and the coffee's almost gone.
And I got a feeling I'm not the only person who's making that adjustment.
I often I think about
people's pets, of course.
But then if Sherry were here, she would talk about the cows.
Oh, cows do they are not a fan of daylight saving time.
First off, because cows can't tell time.
That little wrist, the wristwatch just does not fit.
No, it's hard to get your hoof up that close to look.
No.
And when when you're used to eating at the same time, it's just it's not work or we're getting milked in the case of the cows.
They're like, they are not happy.
So this is a week of adjustment for everybody.
Just want to let y'all know, you're not alone.
And for that reason, I'm
I'm gonna have to figure out what to do when this coffee's all gone here, but we'll we'll endure together.
Won't we I'm sure the third cup.
Yeah, exactly.
So we'll be talking again about forest management coming up how it relates to a changing climate.
We will be talking to James Kelly from our newsroom here in the Chippewa Valley about some of the stories he's following in this part of the state for civic media.
But first, speaking of this part of the state, I am just a
literal stones throw away from the third congressional district, which cuts right through Chippewa Falls or Chippewa County, goes down to Eau Claire de la Crosse and then
Arches around and gets up into the Stevens Point area and there are two Democrats currently running in the primary looking to unseat the incumbent Republican Derek Van Orden One year from now its election day in several states around the country Not here but a year from today on that first Tuesday in November People will be going to vote to pick a new governor and perhaps pick a brand new member of Congress Emily Berge is one of those two candidates run the Democratic primary next August Emily
is also the president of the Eau Claire City Council.
Emily Berge, good morning.
How are you?
with the
Oh, yeah.
And then you throw a Halloween candy into the
Depending
what the what the sugar has done to them one way or another.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It is it is a week of adjustment.
I was looking over at the Facebook page for your campaign.
You can learn more at Berge.
That's B E R G E Berge for Congress.com or Berge for Congress on Facebook.
And I found it rather
interesting that one of your latest posts talks about having made more than 125 campaign stops in the district so far, which is a heck of a lot more than the incumbent member of Congress has held in terms of town halls or or anything about leaving his basement.
Well, I've been very much my whole focus is on the district and prioritizing the voters and so you gotta show up for people.
As elected official right now, I know that's important.
I do that as council president and running for Congress.
It's also important because right now with me being everywhere, meeting all the people, that's the tech.
That's how I want to serve the district.
And I think what I'm doing now because behavior is consistent.
So I want to prove to people that I will always show up for you and be there and listen.
And that's what I'm and I love people.
It's super fun to be down in Roca, down in Grant County, over in Point and Portage, Adams County.
You know Black River like it's it's all and we're falls.
I mean, it's a huge district, but it's so much fun just meeting people listening to people I mean we'll get into it, but I'm hearing on the ground too, but yeah, I'm hearing a lot and I think that's important to show up
Well, it is it's incredibly important and again much more than what you know the incumbent Derek Van Orden has been doing to this point But even before the government shutdown when we talked about you getting into this race originally
It was in part because Derek Van Orden had been, you know, downright hostile toward Eau Claire and the Chippewa Valley.
Since that time, you know, in the wake, for example, of the Charlie Kirk murder, he's made all this talk about cutting off federal funds to Eau Claire because of things that city council members had to say, which again,
you already have a base of support in the Eau Claire area, but Van Orden's conduct between the Charlie Kirk murder and then the government shutdown.
I have a sense it's not one him much for new voters in the third district.
What are you hearing?
I mean, I've had people come up to me say, you know, we voted for Derek Van Orden in the past, but we cannot.
This isn't.
not okay.
He's not acting in a professional way.
It feels like he doesn't care about Eau Claire, doesn't care about us.
So I'm hearing that in Eau Claire especially.
And because they said they're not going to vote for Derek or Jordan, they'll vote for me.
Mostly because they've seen me lead.
And in these areas where he's come after Eau Claire, they have seen me stand up to him and defend the city.
And that's what people want from a leader.
They want someone to fight for them.
And that's what I'm doing.
Now, fighting doesn't mean yelling and blaming.
Fighting just means standing firm in your values and standing up for people.
But I'm hearing that throughout the district too, not just Eau Claire.
They voted for Eau Claire.
A lot of veterans voted for Derek Van Orden.
But they're done with him and they're supporting me.
Well, we're certainly seeing that from President Trump as well, people who thought they would give him another chance and did not think that he was going to go as extreme as he did.
And there's really nothing much more extreme than shutting down the government as they have.
And of course, we can talk about it on a couple of different fronts with Emily Berge, candidate for Congress in the third district.
There is the cutoff of SNAP.
uh, the, uh, arguably illegal cutoff snap and its impact locally.
And of course, the whole basis behind the shutdown and that is Republicans wanting health insurance premiums to skyrocket under the affordable care act.
Uh, you can take whichever one you want in terms of what, what you're hearing the most from people about their reaction to the shutdown overall.
I'm hearing so much that we could talk forever on this.
So what I'm hearing more actually is
is health care and staff.
I mean, it goes back and forth.
But I think where people are feeling with staff, with SNAP benefits, I mean, I've heard from some people that are directly impacted from that, from those cuts.
I mean, guys, remember, this is two cuts.
So this is cuts from the big, beautiful bill that Derek Van Oren voted for, which he said he would not cut some SNAP benefits.
And then now with the shutdown,
the November allocation of food benefits that will not be coming forth.
So I've talked to a few people that are directly impacted by that, but a lot of people are just concerned about our community and people that won't be having food and children will be going hungry.
Also healthcare, I'm hearing more from people that are directly impacted by healthcare right now as I'm going around the district.
Again, a city council president talking to constituents.
People are getting notices in the mail right now that their healthcare is going up.
110%, more than 100%, and they don't know how they're going to afford it.
And people are, it's like this thicker shock.
And I think some people maybe, if you're super paying attention, you might know it was coming, but a lot of people didn't know this was coming.
And people are really concerned and it just adds to the already anxiety and fear and certainty that people have been feeling.
We're talking to Emily Berge, who's a president of the Eau Claire City Council and a candidate for Congress here and learning more about the race and talking about the the government shutdown and the impact as well.
As we mentioned, there are two Democrats in the race, including Rebecca Cook, who was the nominee last time around and is running again.
I was surprised to see the see an endorsement come down from Senator Tammy Baldwin for Rebecca Cook.
She's had other
people from outside the state come in and endorse her and campaign for her.
So, you know, we'd obviously have to say what your reaction was to the endorsement and to the people who have been endorsing your campaign so far.
I'm very proud of all my in-district, all my support has come from, and endorsements have come from people who live in the district who can vote in this election.
That's been my priority.
I'm the local candidate as a local government leader, and I'm really focusing on the local folks in the third congressional district.
So yeah, I have endorsements from elected leaders throughout the district.
You know, the La Crosse County Board Chair, I have, Stevens Point Mayor has endorsed me.
most of the city council here in Eau Claire.
I have the county board members here in Eau Claire, Chippewa, Dunn, you know, I have elected leaders and just community leaders who are endorsing me and these are the people who vote in the district and who have direct connections with people in the district.
So my focus
in the district because that's who I'm serving, that's who I will serve, that's who's policies, that's who I'm connected with.
When I'm in Congress making policies and deciding what's best, I need to be connected to the people in district and I will always prioritize the people in the district over interest, over the establishment even, and over big money.
We are talking to Emily Berge.
She's a candidate for Congress.
You can learn more at BergeForCongress.com or BergeForCongress on Facebook.
And Berge is B-E-R-G-E.
And in running this race, how much of it is reflective of, you know, Derek Van Orden and or local concerns?
Or do you, how much of it do you feel like is out of your control and the whole midterms next year are going to be a referendum on Donald Trump and his presidency?
Well, I saw my whole, my kind of life model and as a counselor, a therapist is what I tell people is to put energy into what you can control.
And so that's where my, how my brain works.
And it's like, okay, what can I control?
And I'm going to put energy into that.
And I think we have a lot we can control.
That's why I'm running because I'm standing up for the people in the third congressional district.
I've done that for Eau Claire, the community as past president of the League of Wisconsin, Mississippi.
I've set up for cities small through large.
in DC already and so I have that experience and I can stand up and go against Derek Van Orden and we can flip the seat.
People are fired up right now in the district.
You know there's a lot of fear, a lot of anxiety.
People come up to me with
tears in their
People are ready to work and they're asking me how they can help.
What can we do?
And so I think we have a lot of control.
This seat is flippable.
I mean, Derek, in order, even before the last election, he underperformed five points in a mock-up and he still won.
So this seat is flippable and we can do this.
Emily, when you talk about people with tears in their eyes, I can absolutely vouch for that.
I hadn't told the story yet this morning of being I was running errands yesterday and how a clerk very tearfully told me about her, you know, son in the military, who is on furlough.
And by being on furlough, it means he won't get back pay.
You know a lot of federal employees will get back pay when this is all over.
He will not and can't make the house payments and the daycare bills and as aging parents now they're having to support somebody who served in Iraq.
That's the amazing part about this and that somebody like Derek Van Orden is
in support of that.
Emily Berge is our guest.
She is the president of the Eau Claire City Council.
She is a candidate for Congress.
And again, her website is BergeForCongress.com, Berge for Congress on Facebook as well.
Quick sports note before we go to break the Wisconsin Badger Men's basketball team won their season opener over Campbell University 96-64 and the Milwaukee Bucks got a buzzer beater from Yanis to beat the Indiana Pacers 117 to 115.
From the heart of America's Up North live from Lake Wissota, thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
Remember, you can sign up for our daily newsletter at UpNorthNewsWI.com, UpNorthNewsWI.com for a weekday newsletter and our Sunday morning political newsletter that includes a link to the stories that Selena Heller and I have done about the cutoff of snap food aid to families as part of the government shutdown.
Again, UpNorthNewsWI.com.
This is normally the spot where you hear Dan Hagen from NewsWatch 12, and you will.
He's right here, but we're also continuing our conversation with Emily Berge, City Council President and Eau Claire and a candidate for Congress.
Dan, good morning to you.
Good morning, Pat.
How are you?
I'm good.
Thanks.
We're going to find out more about what you're following in the Rhineland area.
But first, I want you to join me just for our final couple of minutes here with Emily Berge running for Congress.
And Emily, like you, like we've said, you're also City Council President and Eau Claire.
And I feel like the last time we talked about city council matters and city matters in Eau Claire was because, you know, a couple of members of the council will being targeted by Derek Van Orden for having the the gall to express an opinion or to state anything about Charlie Kirk.
Hopefully that's behind us now.
But what are some of the other matters that you're following from a local level?
I stood up.
right away, came on your show.
I was, you know, protesting in front of City Hall with folks saying that this cannot stand, not come after our city, Derek Van Orden.
And I haven't heard much.
Well, he did that bill in Congress.
Last time I checked, I think I had three co-sponsors.
I haven't heard much about that at all, which is good.
Of course, then he went after the Mayo Clinic.
Also not cool.
But with other things that are affecting the city, we're doing district discussions right now.
The city manager and I just wrapped that up because I think it's really important that elected officials are available to their constituents.
We've been having meetings at local parks in Eau Claire.
We have beautiful parks in Eau Claire.
So just hearing from people, it's just kind of this open forum of what are on people's minds.
And like we talked about before, actually healthcare came up, SNAP came up, transit, of course roads always come up at local government, garbage came up, our budget will be passing our budget next, meeting next week, that came up.
So it's just really good always to have that connection with local folks and hear what's on their minds.
Sometimes at the end of a show, we're not exactly sure what the soundbites gonna be.
And then sometimes a guest makes our job easy, like Emily did just now.
He went after the Mayo Clinic.
Also not cool.
Yeah, words to live by.
Let's see, Dan, you want to jump in with a question for Emily?
I know you're way up there in the seventh district, but I'm sure you've got some questions for a candidate for Congress.
So Emily, you know, you said earlier that Derek Van Orden, he underperformed by five points.
I'm sure that Rebecca Cook would frame that as she overperformed by five points.
I know she was one of the more overperforming candidates.
So why do you think you have a better shot at defeating Van Orden than Rebecca Cook does?
She's had this.
She's tried it twice and she hasn't been able to do it.
And people are just losing faith in that.
They're ready for a new candidate.
Someone with experience like me, I have eight years of elected experience.
I've been elected three times.
I'm essentially, I'm the highest, I'm essentially the mayor.
We don't have a mayor, the highest elected official in the largest city in the district.
I'm very connected to my local community.
And I am connected to the people.
That's how we're going to win.
This is how we're going to win in 1st August and then November.
It's not going to be, I mean, big money in politics.
It's not going to be what the establishment wants.
It's about the people who live in the district.
And it's about them showing up.
It's about them volunteering.
And they're ready.
I've had hundreds of volunteers sign up for my campaign.
I've made over 100 campaign stops in the district.
People are saying they've supported Rebecca in the past and no more.
They're ready for something different.
There you go Emily Berge running for Congress Berge for Congress calm and at Facebook Berge for Congress as well Emily we always appreciate catching up safe travels with all those stops Again, you've only outnumbered Derek van Orden by like a hundred and twenty four out of his hundred twenty out of your hundred twenty five But keep at it and we'll touch base another time soon.
All right.
Thanks
much.
Hey Dan
Let's go back to the other big story that you're covering up there.
The long suffering drought that has had to be endured by a local hunter man.
Anything new on that front?
in a big way so I was
after five
I thought maybe a stalker you are a TV anchor.
Go ahead.
Yeah,
yeah, but it could have been too but I saw it was a deer and once I saw that antlers You know, I had buck fever.
I have to admit I was kind of raggedly breathing and I was just kind of waiting for a good time to bring up my crossbow
And he actually started to kind of run away.
So I was like, okay, this is my chance.
I brought up the crossbow.
He stopped 50 yards away.
I set the scope on his right behind his front legs shot.
And I think I hit him.
I thought I hit him.
So I sat there for a little bit.
So the idea is if you shoot a buck, you should wait, you know, for a little bit because you want to let the deer die instead of just kind of running around.
And the adrenaline actually ruins the meat if that's the case.
So I wait a little bit.
I go to where I shot him and I do see blood Sorry for the viewers out there and listeners who are
Well, congratulations.
I mean, it's it's like like I was listening to my old colleague Dave Carlson telling stories from the hunt here and instead I got it from Dan Hagen who as we mentioned earlier people magazines sexiest man alive in Rhinelander.
Dan always good to catch up with you.
Thank you so much.
All right.
Have a great day.
When we come back, we're going to be talking about forest management and carbon capture and about
ways that we can use our own resources right here to help mitigate a changing climate.
That and much more ahead, I'm Pat Critello from Up North News.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
Welcome back tomorrow on the program.
We will have our regular monthly visit with Congressman Mark Pocan to tell us more about the government shutdown and whether there's any progress being made.
We'll talk to the Congressman about that.
That's also the subject of a conversation in our next hour with Cam Stevenson from Courier Newsroom live from Capitol Hill joining us on these mornings powered by Up North News on the Civic Media Radio Network.
A time to check in with Hans Brighton Moser, dairy farmer from up in the Merrill area where
That has occasionally been the coldest spot in the state these past few days.
You've definitely felt the change of seasons.
We didn't even get to talk to you last time, Ron, because you were out there doing field work.
How are things coming along up there?
I was going to say, they have not been bad conditions here.
And we may talk more about this in a couple of weeks, but I know you were in Washington DC.
What would be the quick overview of what you got out of that?
help lobby with ABIC, American Business Immigration Coalition, talking to our legislators and their staffs about the importance of immigrant labor and how we just cannot farm without folks who come from different countries to come and do a lot of the work in this country with labor, or excuse me, with agriculture and with hospitality and nursing and all sorts of things.
Sounds like the kind of thing that should not be a partisan thing and people should be able to come together.
I was walking around and bumped into these guys and learned more about what they do.
And I was interested in this because myself and most farmers have some small woodlots and the carbon market exists.
And it's trying to connect small wood lot owners with that carbon market so that we can maybe capitalize on that by changing how we do our practices and so forth.
So I think they've got something interesting to share with us.
And they would be Keith Phelps and Scott Hirschberger from UW Madison Extension Forestry who join us now.
Scott and Keith, good morning.
Good morning.
Nice to have you both here.
You guys are going to be helping put on a webinar about this, about the Family Forest Carbon Program.
You can learn more about it.
You're going to need a pencil here.
We'll put it in the show notes as well.
go.wisc.edu, that's go.wisc.edu slash carbon dash webinar.
Having said all of that, I don't know which one of you wants to take this first, but
What exactly is the Family Forest Carbon Program?
What does this have to do with mitigating and changing climate?
Sir, I can take this one Scott if you don't mind.
So the Family Forest Carbon is one voluntary forest carbon program that is operational in Wisconsin.
As you mentioned, this is a program that private landowners can participate in in order to kind of generate carbon credits and receive financial payment for that service.
The family forest carbon program is kind of operational in the northern third of our state.
And they kind of have a handful of enrol leaves currently and are looking to kind of expand enrollment.
There are also two other carbon programs available, forest carbon works and land yields.
But family forest carbon program may be the ones that most Wisconsinites are familiar with.
Alright Scott, let's go back to the basics on this.
Why is it important that we maintain and even grow healthy forests when we're talking about a changing climate?
Right, so about half of the dry weight of a tree is carbon and so forests are constantly absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they're growing through photosynthesis and storing that carbon in their trunks, their branches, their roots in the soil as well and so maintaining healthy forests is a really important way to
Draw that extra carbon dioxide that we've emitted as a species from the atmosphere.
So currently our forests in the United States are sequestering or absorbing about 10 to 15 percent of our annual greenhouse gas emissions And so we really want to maintain that or potentially even increase that percentage and so
these forest carbon programs are basically a way to try to create financial incentives for landowners to manage their forests with carbon in mind.
I do want to emphasize that it's totally possible for a landowner to focus on carbon in their management strategies without being enrolled in a program.
This is just one option of a way to do it.
So the basic idea is that companies or other organizations are trying to reduce the amount of carbon emissions that they're responsible for in their operations.
And if they have some emissions that are really hard to reduce, one thing they can do is they can pay the forest carbon company, who then in turn pays the landowner to implement these carbon management strategies on their land.
And then the company can basically take credit for those reduced emissions and meet their emissions goals.
So it's kind of this market based solution to mitigating climate change.
And Keith, that's the part that I want to get into with you is this notion that there are industries that would essentially, you know, purchase these credits and, you know, a critic would jump right on that and say, well, that's just a convenient way for a factory to throw money at the problem and continue polluting the atmosphere.
The distinction here is on
industries that are where it's very challenging to decarbonize.
And those are things, I don't know if you have particular examples that you could share of where this program would really add value.
Sure.
So we are aware kind of like on this question, there are kind of two current
market systems that are operational.
There is a compliance market, so this is more of a government regulation market that sets emission limits for certain industries, so that could be methane gas producers, say electric utilities.
Wisconsin does have forest land enrolled in some of those heavy polluting industries, but these are typically forest lands that are not in private ownership, so among kind of industrial based forest lands.
The voluntary carbon markets, these are more kind of non-government stakeholders for people generating carbon credits.
companies kind of participate in these voluntary carbon markets.
That's where landowners kind of are seeing most of their enrollment and engagement with.
So I think as a landowner, it's kind of important to think about if you are interested in one of these forest carbon programs, what are the companies that the forest carbon program itself is engaged in?
who do they buy and sell credits to kind of doing your due diligence as a landowner to kind of understand what organizations are behind.
the generation of carbon credits is always a good protocol.
That is Keith Phelps with UW-Madison Extension Forestry and Scott Hirschberger from UW-Madison Extension Forestry talking about a forest carbon program.
Hans, I don't know how much of this is in your wheelhouse, but we certainly talk a lot about the conservation reserve program and all of the other areas that are designed to help reward
good land stewardship.
So is this like just another, you know, tool in the toolbox that encourages setting aside, you know, certain lands?
Is it a way of getting even more bang for your buck?
I don't know if you can double enroll in both a conservation program and a carbon management program, but it clearly caught your ear.
Yeah, yeah one and it caught my ear because I am concerned about the climate I mean I live and die by the weather forecast and we we know what we've seen this change over the past 50 years and you know in my lifetime here on the same Exact farm so so it is an urgent concern But when you break it down into more of a local economic thing I think that it's those of us who are out on the land whether we own forest land or prop land who are going to be the engines of mitigating the climate
Emissions and so forth with forest land with cover crops and so forth.
This is something that we can do out in the countryside and as industries You know understand their roles and their responsibility It is the case that some of them are having a hard time Lowering those emissions as quickly as they'd like but I might my research suggests that most of these companies are trying to do something above and beyond but and and in a
addition to their paying for these carbon credits.
So it's a way that we can really do some good, do well by doing good and having those dollars come into rural areas where they're desperately needed.
And you lay that on top of the fact that we've had paper mill closures like Wisconsin Rapids and so forth.
So the economy has changed in the paper industry and that's going to
you know, kind of drive how we manage our forest lands as well.
So if we, you know, small forest lot owners can manage to extract some income by changing our management slightly of these forest lands, I think it's a win-win.
And the
other thing I'd like to point out if I could real quick is that I feel like the UW is a good resource for us anyways, but this is one of those
this is one of those arenas where I really appreciate their presence because the the carbon market is the wild west right now and my hope is that it gets regulated and settled down so that so that there
you know, it's easier for people to connect the dots.
Nobody wants to leave any money on the table.
Nobody wants to get screwed over by some fly-by-not outfit.
And so it's nice to be able to have somebody who doesn't have any particular skin right in the game to be able to help out and say, yeah, this makes sense.
This might not be a good deal.
Here's what the market is doing.
Just some advice from somebody who can give that sort of...
referee perspective.
Right.
Well, I mean, that always has been the magic of what we have in Wisconsin with the UW extension.
You know, it is the Wisconsin idea in action rather than waiting on, you know, some corporation to come tell you what they think is best for you.
So there will be this webinar.
And again, the web address is go.wisc.edu slash carbon dash webinar.
So for folks who sign up, it is free.
So Keith, is it basically just for landowners or can any other schmuck like me tune in and learn more about the issue?
Great question.
So we have designed this for landowners, but we absolutely welcome anybody who is interested in this topic.
So if you're a forester, if you're a land manager, if you're somebody who does not own land, but is interested in this topic, we welcome you to attend.
A lot of the content will be geared towards land management.
We'll be talking about basic eligibility requirements, what you should know as a landowner.
So just be prepared for that perspective.
And Scott, I'm sure people are asking about the dollars and cents in this and whether I mean, should I go buy an acre of forest land right now and rolling this and this is this is my powerball ticket or are we talking like a $5 check and thanks for doing your part for the climate?
Right, that's a really important question.
So a couple things on that right now that you have to have at least 30 acres of forested land for the family forest carbon program, at least 40 for a land yield and at least 100 for
forest carbon works.
And the amount of payments is changing over time.
Right now, kind of the ballpark estimate would be about $10 per acre per year.
So definitely not a powerball ticket.
This is more like a little bit of supplemental income that can help with your property taxes or help, you know, fund some of the like invasive species management that you need to do other things like that on your land.
So yeah, you're not going to get rich off of this.
No, but you're going to be doing your part for again.
And this is something that is achievable because again, we know what forests do.
We know the benefits of them.
So, you know, why not make that part of your land management?
So Scott Hirschberger and Keith Phelps are with us from the UW Madison Extension Forestry and Dairy Farmer Hans Brayton Moser from up in Lincoln County.
Gentlemen, this was great.
I learned so much.
Thank you so much all of you for your time today.
Thank you.
It was our pleasure.
All right.
Good to see you all.
Hans will see in a couple of weeks here and we'll talk more about your trip to DC and I think we're going to get into Christmas tree farms around Wisconsin as well in a couple of weeks here.
All right.
Still ahead, we're going to be talking to Dan Schaefer from the Recombobulation Area, Civic Media's political editor and live from Washington DC, Cam Stevenson from Courier Newsroom with his Below the Beltway newsletter update.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
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All right, we've got a focus on the Chippewa Valley again in this segment We talked to Eau Claire City Council president Emily Berge a half hour ago And now we've got James Kelly here from Chippewa Falls in our civic media newsroom to talk about the stories that he's following you can follow James at 93 5 the tap that's WCFW HD 2 in the Chippewa Valley or on the civic media app or the tap dot FM is the web page where you'll get his current headlines weather upcoming local live sports and
and all of that.
James, good morning.
How are you?
Good morning, Chippewa Valley Hour.
I love it.
It is.
This is, we excel in our hometown radio roots
right here.
Thank you very much.
So we were talking to Emily Berge about the shutdown, about a snap being cut off.
We've certainly heard from State Senator Jeff Smith and Assembly Rep Jody Emerson through Selena Heller's report yesterday that there are a whole lot of people, you know, they may
Whatever they're feeling on the shutdown, they're not just reacting verbally.
They're taking action.
They're actually doing things that would help their neighbors.
And you're seeing some of that right here in our backyard.
Yeah, there's a lot of food drives going on now, even in smaller places where they're maybe not as advertised as they were.
Over the weekend, I was at the Democratic Resource Center for a campaign event with Rebecca Cook and Jody Emerson, and even they were doing a little food drive there, just people coming in dropping off some canned goods.
But we have a lot of food drives going on in the area as people are kind of struggling with access to food, with the SNAP issues going on at the federal government.
I got Lance's Fresh Market in Altoona doing a food drive.
Western Dairyland is actually
doing one for Head Start programs.
Head Start programs are another field that are facing sort of issues with the federal government shut down right now.
The Menominee Market Food Co-op is doing a food drive and High V is actually providing some free kids meals right now.
So a lot of different places where residents can get some food assistance if they need it right now while these larger issues get worked out.
That's right.
And we also mentioned the high V1 in our daily newsletter at UpNorth News.
You can sign up for that over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
There's also a transmission line project that's being proposed in Western Wisconsin.
What's the latest on that?
Yeah, so the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin approved the Route 2 plan for this.
There were two proposed routes for the plan.
One of them would have cost about 670 million dollars.
This is the cheaper one at 483, roughly million dollars.
It's going to take a couple years to get this project up and running.
Construction scheduled to start in 2027 right now.
It could be wrapped up by 2029, but it's all about improving the energy grid, making it more reliable so storms don't really necessarily knock out power for as many residents.
resistance, and just getting more renewable energy into the flow.
That's interesting.
That's quite a price difference.
It's almost like 30% less for that.
I kind of wonder what the difference is in the routes and what they would have done or wouldn't have done with that more expensive version, because there's always somebody, they may appreciate the grid being expanded, but not necessarily through their neck of the woods.
So I'm sure we'll be hearing more about that as the project comes to fruition.
Then, of course, you've got projects that are much more local.
street projects and something that's happening in Eau Claire right now for some, some of the, what is it, Farwell Street they're working on downtown?
Yeah, this is more of a general, we're looking for more community input in the future on these projects.
There's a lot of interesting projects going on in downtown Eau Claire.
And one, you know, one of the things that I love about Eau Claire specifically is just my city planning background.
I love a good walkable city with robust public transit.
You know this, Pat.
Yeah.
So this
potential plan on the table would reduce Farwell Street from four lanes to two lanes to improve parking access and pedestrian accessibility.
There's a project to kind of revamp part of the Chippewa River State Trail down there as well.
And they're really just looking for more community input overall as these projects go on.
We know that that project over on Farwell Street for the new transit center has had that single lane closure there for, well, since I moved to Wisconsin, it's been
there
the entire time I've been there.
So it's, you know, a bit of a hassle for residents.
and the city wants to get more input on these projects ahead of time so they can kind of talk out these issues that are gonna be faced due to construction.
I almost feel like the long time that it took for the transit center downtown with that one lane closure was almost like a rehearsal for taking that busy downtown street where you find city hall and places like that and narrowing it to two lanes.
But keep in mind that the other main street there, Barstow, that's been a two-laner for forever.
But Hastings Way as well, which, you know, when they built the Highway 53 bypass around Eau Claire, and so suddenly Hastings Way was no longer Highway 53, and they squeezed that down from like six lanes at one point down to...
two or four I forget now and at first as they're building it you're like oh are we just going to see all kinds of congestion here and no everything just kind of flows a little bit more smoothly people slow down as they're coming into a more residential area so there are definitely ways there's other people that want to
pave their way, just add 12 more lanes, and that'll solve everything.
Oh,
I know our friend Dan Schafer is going to be on that train as well.
If you add more lanes, it doesn't necessarily mean faster traffic.
He's got a lot to say about that.
But when you're in town, and yes, he would say that in Milwaukee about how much he thinks Interstate 794 needs to be torn down, it's an elevated freeway.
And people say, wait, can you tear down an elevated freeway and turn it into a parkway downtown?
Yes, you absolutely can.
Boston, for goodness sakes, showed how it could be done.
But again, you have to plan it carefully.
You need public input, and that's what Eau Claire is looking for on these particular projects.
And of course, we can't close talking about city streets without acknowledging that the calendar has flipped, and we are in that season again for parking, James.
Absolutely.
Alternate side parking is now in effect in the city of Eau Claire.
We mentioned it on the secret show during the break.
I just want to prevent one person from getting a parking ticket overnight from parking on the wrong side of the road.
until May 1st, and again, this starts at midnight.
When you're trying to figure out which side of the road do I park on, it starts at midnight.
The day, if it's an odd number day, you park on the odd number side of the street.
If it's an even number day, you park on the even number side of the street.
Should be simple enough to understand.
I know it gets a little confusing when you're changing the date.
I don't understand because, I mean, if you come home at 8 PM when you park the car, do you then go switch the car at midnight?
No, you don't got to worry about it then.
It's midnight to 7 AM that it gets enforced.
So you just got to make sure when you go to bed, you're parked on the correct side of the street and you will not get a ticket and I will feel good for everybody.
Yes.
you will.
Okay, thank you.
That is a wonderful public service from James Kelly.
Catch him on 93.5.
The tap and chip will falls.
Thank you very much, James.
Appreciate it.
Thanks, Pat.
I feel so much more at ease now.
The aforementioned Dan Schaefer will join us as will Cam Stevenson from Courier Newsroom coming up after the news at eight.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
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