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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Kratlow powered by Up North News.
Now, from our Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Kratlow.
Back with our number two for a Tuesday morning, November 18th.
Nice to have you back here up North.
Parker Olson producing things down in Madison Studio A2.
Hans Wright and Moser will be here about 7.35, dairy farmer from the Merrill area.
And we'll talk a bit about...
the ongoing pressures on undocumented immigrants and the impact on Wisconsin farmers and the dairy industry in the state.
So that will be coming up in just a bit to which Tony puts on YouTube Hans with a big exclamation point because it's always great to hear from him from Robin Tigerton.
Good morning.
It's cloudy, 28 degrees.
It is snowing just south of me in Wapaka County.
He says farmers are in the area very busy getting corn off the fields and he says watch out for slushy roads around the highway 10 corridor area in central, Wisconsin Let me tell you I do not miss driving the highway 10 corridor In now we're again, we're going back 30 40 years But imagine being a student at UW Eau Claire and your college girlfriend Every time she wants to go home to Manitowoc County
You got to take highway 10 all the way across the state and this was in the time before Highway 29 was expanded as Rob from Tigerton likes to Do such a good job of tracking the history of that project.
It was two lanes It was known as bloody 29 and so there was no advantage to taking 29 versus 10 so we'd take 10 and we took 10 and Some I mean we I remember taking it through an ice storm once
going through the Clark County forest and trying to get there.
I remember in my parker I had a 1973 Plymouth Fury and there's nothing quite like driving that 10 corridor again in the middle of some forest land and you hear a thud and your car gets really loud and in the rear view mirror getting smaller and smaller is your muffler spinning on the in the center of the road because it fell off it fell off it had rusted through so badly.
first cars are the best.
That's that's a sarcastically
And hope not to.
But we got to do that for a question of the day.
One of these days is is a first car beater beater car.
Horror stories about first cars.
But not today.
Today's is about apps.
And we we asked with with culvers adding an app.
Is there any kind of a tipping point or do you just, you know,
use whatever apps you got to add and Alisha.
really puts her finger on part of the problem.
She writes on YouTube, it's a tad irritating that I have to have one app for parking in Appleton and a different app for parking in Milwaukee.
And I bet there is a whole another one from Madison and the answer is yes.
And I have them all because of all the traveling.
I had to put them all in their own separate group called parking.
I've got them on my phone here someplace.
Yeah, they're all there and
You don't know when you pull into town which one you're going to need but you're gonna need one of those apps and again I don't mind You know the the convenience of being able to pay electronically.
I hate it having to go fish for dimes and quarters and feed parking meters and everything else But you got to have the right app and if you don't have the right app You got to stand there or sit in your car or stand there in the parking lot
Point your camera at the little Gizmo QR code.
Hope that your signal is strong enough to download an app.
Now put your information in there, your credit card number and everything else.
Yeah, your license plate.
And again, once you've got it set up, it's okay.
I've been able to go into places now and just like boop, boop, boop.
All right, parking's taken care of.
But boy, that first time, it's like, oh, another new app.
Could be, although I
that's easier.
They would, they would argue, you know, that the app is quicker and easier once you use it.
The thing that gets me about the apps is though the ones that aren't actually apps, they have you download an app and then the first time you go use it, you realize it's just a shortcut on your browser.
It just opens up your browser and goes to that website.
So it's not really an app.
It's a bookmark.
You know, which I guess is, again, fine, but call it a book part.
Don't call it an app.
Don't sell me something.
And then that's not what it appears to be.
That's really crappy.
855-75 Civic, 855-7524-842.
The subject is apps, apps that you recommend, app horror stories, apps for food, apps that you'd say you can get a good bargain off of.
I spoke in the last hour about how I stopped using the McDonald's app after like the third time I got double charged for something.
But somebody else might be calling in and going, you got to get that back.
I'm saving so much money on every Big Mac or whatever the case may be.
Or one is particularly more convenient than the other.
We want to hear about that as well.
Let's see is I'm looking here.
Oh, Tiffany tells me I have the wrong date on the YouTube channel.
My apologies.
I'll go back and fix that.
And do I do I see a voice note that came in through?
Oh,
through the Civic Media App.
Which you can download as Greg Bach would say.
Absolutely free.
Absolutely free.
So let's give a listen.
We got a voice note here.
Good morning tell Parker that when my husband and I were in Ireland 20 years ago and listening to the radio They did a remake of Elvis's I can't help falling in love and it was the cheeriest most upbeat version I've ever heard wise men say Only fools rush in But I can't help hey calling in love with you It was
something
Oh, Jane Mattener using the voice note feature on our app to give us a little tune.
I love that.
That was awesome.
Parker was talking earlier about Irish music and that you kind of follow it.
And there's Jane saying, yep, there's something about Irish music.
They can even take a dirge and make it up, eating happy.
hey, hey.
Alicia says, yeah, when I first had to download the app from Milwaukee, my signal near my son's school was so patchy, it took about 30 minutes to finally pay for parking.
Yes,
I have had that happen.
Though Adam says, the luxury of extending parking meter time while sitting in a restaurant through your app is pretty convenient.
That's true.
That is true.
I've never had to run back out and refeed the meters.
So there again, take the good, you take the bad.
Take them both.
And then you have the facts.
Anyway,
you've never seen the facts of life.
Have you?
All right.
But what now?
Exactly.
See.
All right.
We'll do 80s TV shows some other time.
Let's see the Milwaukee Bucks.
They lost to Cleveland last night.
But more importantly, they lost Giannis Anatocumpo to a left groin strain with no indication how long he will be sidelined.
Bucks losing Cleveland last night, 118 to 106.
The Badger men's basketball team is now 4-0 on the season.
after defeating the powerhouse Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, 94 to 69.
They next play Friday afternoon in Salt Lake City against BYU.
Badger women's basketball plays tomorrow at UIC in Chicago.
While we're on a little sports kick, let me update you on some of the national rankings for Badger sports.
The Badger men's hockey team is still ranked seventh after last weekend's split with Michigan State.
They next play the number one team in the nation, Michigan State.
Let me make sure I said that right.
They split last weekend with Ohio State and now they play top ranked Michigan State this Friday and Saturday.
Badger women's hockey team, still number one in the country, 12-1-1 on the season.
They will host St.
Thomas Thursday and Friday nights.
Speaking of women's hockey, UW River Falls.
They are still the nation's top ranked team in division three at four and oh, right now.
The Badger women's volleyball team.
rose a spot to number 10 in the national rankings after sweeps on Friday and Saturday to go to 20 wins and for losses.
And of course, in football, the Packers host the Vikings next Sunday, then they play on Thanksgiving in Detroit, and the Badger football team will host Illinois in a Saturday night game.
All right, there are a couple of new proposals out there, one in Madison, one in Washington, DC.
related to SNAP or what I knew as food stamps when we were growing up in a low-income family and the ongoing effort by some politicians to have this very strange superiority complex over single moms and other families who are struggling and I don't get the appeal of it other than
You know, there are just some bullies who go into politics.
They love to talk about fiscal responsibility.
You don't get to talk about fiscal responsibility now.
When we've seen what you've done with this last bill adding $4 trillion to the debt and the deficit.
And to watch Republicans in the legislature try to squander away a $4 billion state budget surplus.
It's never been about the money.
It's been about the superiority complex.
In Washington, the Trump administration is going to require SNAP participants to reapply for benefits more often.
But here's the thing, food aid recipients are already required to recertify their information.
But USDA Chief Brooke Rollins says she wants to, quote unquote, overhaul the program and make people reapply over and over.
Same thing that they're doing for things like Medicaid is
these folks who love to talk about red tape.
Oh, they hate red tape.
Big government is the worst.
They really know how to weaponize red tape when it's to their own enjoyment of hurting and struggling families.
And if you can't do that, well, maybe at the state level, you can just have grocery police because that's apparently what some Republicans in Madison want to do.
There is a proposal that will be up for a vote in the assembly tomorrow that says soft drinks, candy, and energy drinks would no longer be allowed to be purchased using SNAP funds.
That's according to a Rich Cramer story from Wisconsin Public Radio.
Republicans are saying, well, it's about, you know, low income residents' health and that taxpayers shouldn't have to foot the bill for junk food.
And critics rightly call it an effort to punish people living in poverty because that's what it seems they want to do.
But always it's the, well, we're looking out for the greater good.
No, they're not.
And as one Democratic legislator said, I'm not going to be the one just before the holidays to tell families they can't buy candy for the kids' Christmas stockings.
That's just not the way we should be using government.
To me, there is just something especially frustrating that you have politicians with real
and large problems to solve in this country and in our state.
But they're getting their jollies out of micromanaging things like how low income families can buy the groceries that they choose.
Now, SNAP is not something where people spend, you know,
decades luxuriously on a hammock.
It is a safety net.
It is something that most people are not proud to use.
They are in between phases of their lives.
And the last thing they need is another kick in the pants by people who want to micromanage their grocery shopping while they look for ways to get that next job or to pay the rent.
But that's the kind of thing that we're seeing right now in Madison and in Washington DC from
our legislators on the Republican side of things.
That bill, by the way, for SNAP coming up before the Assembly is opposed by Feeding Wisconsin and the Milwaukee Hunger Task Force, along with associations that represent grocery stores and gas stations.
A fiscal estimate from the Department of Health Services claims the department would incur about $6 million in costs to create a database of soft candy and soft drink products and candy.
So are we really saving money or are we just again engaging that superiority complex because we always feel like we got to be beating up on somebody and we're too helpless to beat up on billionaires, so we're gonna take it out on somebody else instead.
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 Crite, Lohans Brighton Moser, coming up in 15 minutes here on 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.
Nice to have you back on this Tuesday morning.
It's November 18th, 2025, 855-75 Civic.
Is the phone number here as we do every Tuesday at this time?
We welcome in Dan Hagen from NewsWatch 12, WJFWTV and Rhinelander.
Mr. Hagen, how are you?
I'm doing pretty well.
We are just less than a week away from gun deer opener.
So
I'm
excited for that.
Hopefully to get my second buck of the season.
Yes, that's right.
Are you in a tree stand?
Are you driving?
Are you?
like using a drone or some other kind of...
Yeah, I'm gonna probably, you know, do an air raid so get my squadron of F-35s and we'll just
drop
off.
Now, sorry, those all went to Saudi Arabia.
We don't have any more to spare.
You're a tree stand guy, right?
That's right.
So I'll be sitting in a tree stand.
I've had good luck during a bow season.
So hopefully I get another one.
We'll see.
Yeah.
And so everybody stay safe out there.
Among the stories that you're following, you know, you're in a part of the state that when we talk about global trade.
you know, other places have their own specialties, you know, Detroit with cars, you know, things like that.
But central and north central Wisconsin, when it comes to things like hemp are and ginseng and things like that, you know, there are real markets there.
And in the case of hemp, this this new bill that
ended the government shutdown.
I mean we were talking last week about some of the stuff that was kind of snuck in there.
It turned out not to be a clean bill and one of them really has an impact on hemp and CBD oils and things like that in Wisconsin and you're following kind of the local impact there.
Yeah, that's right.
So this couple from Tomahawk, they started the CBD store a couple years ago and they did very well.
They expanded to Minakwa and they really got a large following because, you know, they were helping people move again.
We heard a story yesterday of this grandfather who can play ball with his kid again, thanks to the CBD that he was using from the store.
But yeah, this provision was snuck into the continuing resolution by Mitch McConnell that basically ends this kind of weird loophole that allows for hemp products.
And this couple, they say they're probably going to go bankrupt.
They have these two employees that have been with them since the beginning, and they were supposed to hand over the business to them.
And that's not going to happen anymore.
If this, I mean, it seems like it's going to happen on January 1st when this loophole is closed.
the Civic Media Radio Network.
Oh, that's that's where Pat gets a cue that he should turn his mute button off there.
I tried to be as I was saying so nicely to myself and to nobody else.
It's just such a surprise even for somebody with my level of political journalism and political experience that when there was something as big as this government shutdown that you'd still have people finding ways to sneak things into bills that
did not get much for public hearings or exposure till it was voted on.
And that just had to, I can't even imagine the gut punch it was to that family and others who, you know, made similar entrepreneurial investments.
Yeah, that's right.
You know Rand Paul made a stink about it that the senator who's serving with Mitch McConnell And you know people are sounding the alarm right now.
We have a state representative Vinnie Moresi in the Stevens Point He's trying to get the state to do some sort of legalization so these businesses can stay around we also stopped stopped by a smoke shop owner in Stevens Point who's kind of in a similar boat.
He's gonna have
products on the shelves that he either has to just get rid of, or people are going to stop making these products as well once the loophole is closed.
So not being familiar with the way the laws would work this way or that way, what I'm hearing from the assembly representative is that despite the federal move, there might be ways that at the state level, you can legalize these products?
Yeah, so Illinois and Michigan are going to be fine.
because they have their state has acted and they've legalized these products, right?
But for all of the states that have no state action, they're the people that are going to be suffering from this loophole being closed.
So this thing might actually force the hand of a Wisconsin legislature that for years and years and years has talked about potentially legalizing parts of marijuana, you know, THC, CBD, whatever the case may be, and then
almost nothing ever comes of it, this conceivably could be the thing that forces action in much the same way as the Trump mega bill finally forced action, you know, in the state budget, like the couple of days before the state budget passed to do something about rural health care.
And it's a heck of a way to run a railroad, Dan, but if that's the pressure it takes on this Wisconsin legislature, maybe we will see some action yet in this fall session.
Yeah, potentially, and I think many of our viewers know this already, but it really comes down to Robin Voss in the Assembly.
State Senator Maryfelskowski is our State Senator in the Northwoods.
She's the Senate President, and she's been supportive of medical marijuana for years and years and years, but she again blames Robin Voss in the Assembly for never just taking up the bill.
Well, yeah, I mean, it's he's got the power to do that.
But there are bills that he single handedly holds down.
And this is one where I think there's going to be, you know, more pressure on him once again on the text line here from Jim in Brookfield.
Always great to hear Renaissance man Dan Hagen, who will be out at sunrise for Gundersie's an opening day and also at the starting line at the Berke in Hayward.
More importantly, he is always fighting for the common good.
Good luck this Saturday, Dan, Jim and Brookfield.
Hey, thank you, Jim.
And just so you know, I'll be in Canada the next two Tuesdays, everyone.
I'll be cross-country skiing up there, getting really ready for the burkees.
Oh, my gosh.
You are really taking this seriously.
Yeah.
So is this, is bird just Meredith going with you?
Is this like a rocky thing where he's training you on skis, you know, to chase chickens and things like that?
This sounds like, this just sounds wild.
Yeah, my dad will be there.
He'll be whipping me into shape, so the whole, the whole Hagen gang will be up there.
This is great.
Well, we're going to look forward to hearing about it, but we'll miss you the next two weeks here, but have a great time.
Travel safe and come back with stories.
Sounds good, will do.
All right, thank you, Dan.
All right, there's Dan Hagen.
You can catch him on NewsWatch 12, WJFWTV, up in Rhinelander.
When we come back, Sheila Everhart will be here from the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association, along with Lincoln County dairy farmer Hans Brighton Moser.
A little bit about Christmas tree farms in Wisconsin, a little about immigrants on dairy farms and dairy farm labor, all coming up.
But first, I'm Pat Quitelow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
I mean, we have packed in so much already, and we're only halfway through the program today, and you can't necessarily sit around for three hours.
Well, some of you can, and you have my undying gratitude.
For the rest of you, you want to follow us as a podcast as well, that way we can go back and listen to guests, pick up on subjects you might have missed, head over to Spotify, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts, and be sure to follow Mornings with Pat Crichtlow.
powered by Up North News on your device.
All right, Hans Brighton Moser is here, a dairy farmer from up in Lincoln County.
Sheila Everhart from the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association joining us as well.
Good morning to both of you.
Nice to see you both today.
Good morning, Pat.
Good morning.
Hans was just hearing from Rob and Tigerton saying that near him some folks are still racing to get the corn off the fields.
How's the field work up by you?
that.
All right, so that Getting ahead of the work helped you with your ability to spend a little time in Washington DC You've been active with the American Business Immigration Coalition, which I'm sure
has those discussions have been a lot different since Donald Trump took office and began what he's done with undocumented immigrants on farms and everywhere else.
So what was that visit like?
So I spent close to a week out there in DC talking with legislators on behalf of ABIC.
There were plenty of us farmers and, you know,
all sorts of small businesses who rely on immigrant labor to try and educate our legislators on how important immigrant labor is and remind them that the president himself has said on a number of occasions that we need to protect our farms and we need to protect our hotels.
That statement has come out of the White House on a number of occasions and so our job at that point was to get our legislators both
Democrats and Republicans, to sort of remind the president that that's the rhetoric that's been coming out of the White House, despite the actions that have been coming out of ICE.
And so, ABIC's been around for a long time, but you're correct in that.
The fact that this administration has put so much pressure on this whole system with ice raids and so forth.
The urgency of the mission is greater than ever.
And so part of my role was to try and help educate people as a business owner who actually employs immigrants.
And again, it's not just dairy farming.
It's not just factories.
It's not just hotels.
It's, you know, all manner of industries.
And we're going to talk to Sheila Sack here and about Christmas tree farms.
I am quite certain that forestry and other things are a part of that Hans as well.
I mean, we've got a local Christmas tree guy here that, you know, he's been hiring H2A type.
folks for years.
And he said that his business runs.
So m Christmas tree industry reliant on immigrant l you know, when you when you off the Christmas tree lot immigrant because I'm he would not be there wit doing all you know, when you in the summertime and you see them in the heat and it's m
That's so you have a nice Christmas tree at Christmas time.
That's not because people are out there doing that recreationally.
It takes a lot of work to raise a tree and it's, and that work is being done by immigrants.
Well, let's get into that with Sheila here and talk about people like not just the Agricultural Tourism Association, but the Wisconsin Christmas Tree Producers Association.
I believe there's, there's also people that, you know, help out from the Wisconsin Forestry Timber Professionals Association is what I
to say.
So, Sheila, what more can you tell us about the Christmas tree industry in Wisconsin?
Well, the Christmas tree industry is a booming business and it is the dedication of our small family farms who employ others from other countries to help bring that beautiful Christmas tree into your living room.
We have hundreds of family farms that are gearing up for their season.
They're eager to see you.
We've had some tree cutting, officially ceremonial trees cut to start the beginning.
of this season.
A real tree is very important for sustainability.
It brings in fragrance and beauty into your home.
Our listening audience can go to the real Christmas tree board to download a buyer's guide in case you've never gone out to a farm to cut your own Christmas tree or even to a holiday lot where those
Wisconsin Christmas trees were cut and brought closer to your home.
But what is it that you look for for a real tree?
You can download that buyer's guide at realchristmastreeboard.com.
But you know, the holiday.
The state capital holiday tree was cut in Ocanto County, a 30-foot tree that was planted 23 years ago in 2002, grown by Wisconsin Christmas tree producers Dave and Mary Vander Velden of Whispering Pines Christmas Trees.
Now that is like...
The suit winning the Super Bowl or having an Academy Award having your tree in the rotunda at the state Capitol and having a second tree in the governor's Mansion in Maple Bluff that second tree is 25 feet in height And this family is been known for growing Just beautiful trees and even one of their trees adorned the White House in 2020
2016 when the Obama family was there.
You know, this year the state capital tree is called the learning tree.
The governor has focused on education and childcare initiatives, so children will be adorning ornaments and making them, and they will be put on the tree in the official.
Governors state capital tree will be lit on December 4th.
We are talking to Sheila Everhart from the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association.
And by the way, if you want that real tree finder, you can go to ChristmasTrees-wi.org, ChristmasTrees-wi.org, and look for the real tree finder.
It's right up there in the upper right corner of the screen.
Alicia writes on YouTube, wow, a tree that was planted when I was celebrating my first Christmas away while my family was in the Navy.
There is Hans, I mean, there's
Never mind the business, it's just the tradition, what we see with families and homesteads in Wisconsin that make a real tree so attractive for so many people.
I know our family we we always go out to a local tree farm that we've been visiting for years and we get our tree for our house and one for my mom's house and one for my mother-in-law's house and Then go and distribute those accordingly.
So everybody everybody gets a tree and and my kids are getting older now So there's less and less of that going on
But I
You got to explain the circle of life there.
And Sheila, there is something to be said there about not just sustainability, but frankly, if you're interested in doing something about a changing climate, supporting healthy forestry is a good thing for the climate, not just the state or the economy.
Absolutely.
And it's all about sustainability.
It's helping our students learn about the life cycle of a Christmas tree.
And they have to realize that Christmas trees don't grow in one year.
Our farmers work hard three to five years, seven years before that tree is about a seven to 10 foot tree for your home.
Yesterday, the 17th, there were 104th grade students in the Wausau area.
that learned about Christmas trees and then they went back to their classroom and did hands-on learning activities through the Wisconsin Egg in the Classroom program.
So it's really important that you understand what a real-life Christmas tree does for our rural economies and for our family traditions.
So whether you choose to cut your own or whether you choose to go to a retail lot,
near you, it's renewable for every tree that is cut.
The farmer will plant a new one.
It's a life cycle.
It absorbs carbon, provides wildlife habitats, and supports our healthy rural landscapes and our rural economies.
So when Christmas tree farms thrive, so do our rural economies.
But you can also go out to these open houses.
These Christmas tree shops are open.
You can go and learn how to make your own wreath or even a kissing ball.
did you know a kissing ball is a Norwegian tradition?
It's kind of like a mistletoe.
So you can create your own kissing ball, Pat, for the holidays.
And there's also porch pots, which I don't know that I'm totally familiar with those either, Sheila.
Porch pots are beautiful displays that people put at the entrances of their home to welcome them to the holidays by the front door or the back door.
But it's something that our garden centers, our Christmas tree growers, and our florists love to bring people in to do hands on.
porch pot classes.
You know, it's always beautiful when you make it yourself, right?
You assemble it yourself.
Well, well, for most folks with a little bit.
Yeah, Hans, Hans and I are shaking our heads here.
If I were to try to make a porch pot, I guarantee it would be the Charlie Brown Christmas tree.
Needles falling off it like crazy.
But I do recall now one time when a family friend came over and just brought all these, you know, raw materials out, you know, a pine bough and a pot and everything else.
And by the time she was all done,
I guess this is what that porch pot is.
And I mean, it was just beautiful.
Whereas I would just, like you said, stick in a little tree and call it good.
So thank goodness for the people that actually have taken some classes or done some practice at it.
There's just so many ways to take a little piece of Wisconsin nature and brighten the home for the holiday, Sheila.
Absolutely.
So go to wiiagtourism.com or christmastreeswisconsin.org to find that real tree family farm locator near you.
There you go, christmastrees.wi.org is where you will get that.
Hans, what you got any big plan for Thanksgiving?
bring the stretch pants.
Sheila, special plans for next week?
Oh yes, our family will be getting together, but right now the farm is working hard to kind of button things up so our hunters can go hunting for the annual nine day statewide gun hunt.
And my granddaughter, 13, got her first deer during the youth hunt.
So she's very proud.
Probably now the seventh generation of family farm hunters.
Oh, that's fantastic.
And it's a 13 year old granddaughter.
So
we're
getting the youth and we're getting the ladies more involved.
Thank goodness.
This is just wonderful traditions that we get to hear about here.
And again, to learn more about a real tree finder for Christmas Trees, ChristmasTrees-WI.org.
Sheila Everhart of the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association and Hans Brighton Moser up in Lincoln County.
Thanks very much to both of you.
Sheila for the info on Christmas Trees, Hans for the info on what's happening with trying to finally find a solution for immigrant labor on Wisconsin's dairy farms.
Thanks for all you're doing.
It's good to see you both.
Have a wonderful day and a happy Thanksgiving.
Thanks, Pat.
You too.
All
right.
Good to see you both.
Parker, these real pine trees from Wisconsin, they're nice.
But I do have to tell this one story from life in the Caribbean.
And that is that they don't have, I mean, you can get a real tree down there, but it's going to cost you a lot of money because it's got to be shipped down.
There's something about a baby palm tree and being able to decorate it.
is just adorable.
It reminds me of
it's the vibe.
It does, it does, but in a very tropical way.
And I'm good with that.
More coming up on the Civic Media Radio Network, I'm Pat
Critello.
You're up north.
7.52 now on this Tuesday morning.
Time for a look at news around Western Wisconsin that James Kelly is following for civic media out of his newsroom there in Chippewa Falls.
James, good morning.
How are you?
Good
morning.
Still wishing it was warmer, but glad that it didn't snow up here.
I was going to say, you're going to be wishing for a while here, but yeah.
But no snow was a pleasant surprise this morning.
Yes, I'm not ready for the slushy stuff yet.
So for folks who are, hope they're just being a little extra careful and enjoy that preview of coming attractions.
So as we get closer to winter, though, this is definitely, we heard from Hans about getting all the field work and preparations done.
Other things have to be done that are seasonal include.
Making sure that if you're working with a population of folks who are unhoused and we want to avoid, you know, being outside in the elements, what kind of facilities does a community have?
And Eau Claire is one big step closer toward a new facility there.
Yeah, the Western Dairyland Economic Opportunity Council and Hope Gospel Mission are pairing on this new day resource center.
It should be operational within the next few weeks, at least by the end of the year, and then Western Dairyland is going to move into the new office facilities there sometime in early January, maybe February.
But it's going to be a huge boost for the unhoused population here.
It's going to provide year-round daytime shelter, and then people can move over to the Sojourner House or another shelter in the area at night.
But one of the big...
benefits to this facility is that running it through Hope Gospel Mission and Western Dairyland, you can connect these people to a lot of additional resources.
So it's not just, you know, somewhere to get out of the cold weather and grab a shower, grab a meal.
They also have a lot of other programmings like rapid rehousing, just homeless prevention, you know, things to get people off the streets for good, get them back on track.
A lot of times people who are unhoused are just kind of in a short-term struggle.
Maybe they had an unexpected bill that kind of
through their life out of whack.
So this is a good place where they can go and really get the resources that they need to get back on their feet, get connected to other services that they might need for help.
It's going to be quite a facility.
And as we tell people all the time, there are so many of us around us, neighbors, friends, family, who are
two missed paychecks away from life in real dire straits.
And that includes, you know, folks, not just in Eau Claire, but up here in Chippewa Falls, we've got Hope Village, which is the tiny houses model.
But again, the whole key to that.
much like in Eau Claire is access to resources.
It's not just, you know, it's not skid row.
It's not a play.
It's not a warehouse.
It's access to resources, whether it's, you know, vocational training or nutrition assistance or mental health or financial, whatever the case may be, maybe you've got to have that.
And so in Eau Claire, I think it's great that they've found a central location there downtown to make that happen.
Yes, and they renamed it from 610 Gibson Street to One Better Way for the One Better Way campaign, the capital fundraising campaign that they're currently working on.
Got it, okay.
James Kelly's with us, Civic Media Reporter in Chippewa Falls, covering some Western Wisconsin stories to tell you about here at just about 7.56 on this Tuesday morning.
In Eau Claire still, we'll keep it there because there's been a lot of anxiety, consternation, whatever you want to call it, about potential plans for closing or consolidating some of the elementary schools.
What's the latest there?
Yeah, so earlier this year, the Eau Claire area school district sent a letter to parents that they were considering the consolidation of a couple of elementary schools.
There were a lot of plans that were floating out there, but they involved long follow elementary, Flynn elementary and Roosevelt elementary, mostly just consolidating those schools and then figuring out, you know, which schools remain open, which boundaries do we change, things like that.
Superintendent Mike Johnson now says that plan will not be moving forward for consideration to the Board of Education.
There could
be some consolidation in the future but there won't be any significant changes until at least the 2027-2028 school year so there are a few years until we get to that point and who knows there could be changes in state funding that maybe affect that plan there could be population changes that affect that plan but for now there will be all of those elementary schools they will remain for now.
Well that's what I wondered about it's like well what changed you know whether it's
population or funding.
And yes, you can be, you know, opposed or want to know more details about a plan.
But at some point, the school district feels like it has to do something.
But it seems like they feel like they can, you know, kind of push this down the road a little bit and continue to reassess where things are.
Yeah.
And a lot of it was just
pushback from parents.
Parents were obviously not happy about the plans to potentially consolidate schools.
They say they like their smaller class sizes.
The district passed a referendum a few years ago, so they're pretty solid on funding, and they're also getting good grades on the DPI report card.
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Okay, and then next door in Dunn County, we are in budget season.
Counties and cities all adopting their budgets for 2026.
What's happening in Dunn County?
Yeah, so in Dunn County, it's interesting.
They're actually decreasing the tax rate for property taxes.
It's been a multi-year trend that they've been trying to do this.
In 2020, the rate was $7.10 per $1,000 of property value.
Now it's down to 4.30, so that's almost a $3 drop.
But the total operating budget will rise a bit.
It's going to be $83.4 million, and the tax levy going up to 25.2.
One of the main focuses in this budget is improving the roads throughout the county.
So they have nearly 17 miles of county highway projects planned for this year.
And that includes two bridge replacement projects and one rehabilitation project.
Some of the ways that they're getting to that number, they're kind of consolidating some of the positions.
One of the ones that was specifically noted was the Parks and Facilities Director role and the Transit Director role.
They'll consolidate that into one position and that saves $135 a year.
$135,000.
$135,000 a
year is that's that's nothing to sneeze at.
And of course, there's also county and city budgets are looking at things like like wheel taxes, for example.
And in our next hour, we're going to be talking to Dan Schaefer from the recombobulation area about several state political issues, including wheel tax increases around the state and what Republicans are proposing to
maybe make it harder to pass a wheel tax, although you'd like to think that would be accompanied by increased funding for local government to pay for the roads.
But in the meantime, James, you just continue to follow all these wheel tax debates and other things in counties around Western Wisconsin.
Yeah, Eau Claire City Council passed theirs, and Eau Claire County may pass one as well.
Yeah.
James Kelly, following things in Western Wisconsin for civic media out of our Chippewa Falls newsroom.
James, thanks very much.
Have a great day.
Have a good one, guys.
All right, so as mentioned, Dan Schaefer will be along.
We'll talk about that issue and so much more ahead on the third and final hour of these mornings with Pat Krightlow, powered by UpNorth News on the Civic Media Radio Network.
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