97.5 W-F-H-R and 105.5 W-I-R-I, your Wisconsin Rapids Home for locally grown radio.
Here's your Daily News Roundup.
For WF-H-R and W-I-R-I News, I'm Melissa K.
Another candidate has entered the crowded Democratic field for governor, Savannah Tome Olsen reports.
Joel Brennan announced his campaign yesterday.
He's currently president of the Greater Milwaukee Committee.
He previously led Discovery World in Milwaukee and served for three years as a cabinet secretary under Governor Tony Evers.
Brennan says he's worked in public policy for three and a half decades,
and he gave other numbers when he introduced himself in a campaign video.
The NBA star Nick Van Exel and I combined a score when we played each other in high school.
I had eight. He had the rest.
Five. That's how many jobs I had to help pay my way through college.
Like landscaping.
Making copies. Retail. And deep frying egg rules.
Zero.
The number of functioning blinkers on my first car.
Brennan spent three years as secretary of Wisconsin's Department of Administration.
Here's what he had to say about his service to the state to civic media's pack-crightlo.
He did things like trying to restore some of the things we had lost under Scott Walker and the right wing legislature.
By the time that I left after three years, we had a surplus of about $4 billion,
a rainy day phone that had gone from a couple hundred million dollars to nearly $1.7 billion.
And it was a time that I was really proud of.
Brennan's brother-in-law is Kevin Conroy, CEO of Exact Sciences.
The publicly traded company is headquartered in Madison and in the process of selling to Abbott Labs
for a whopping $23 billion. Brennan joins a crowded field of Democratic candidates.
It's gotten so long we're not going to name them all here.
The most recently added one was former lieutenant governor Mandela Barnes,
who announced his campaign last week.
For civic media news, I'm Savannah Tomay Olsen.
Wassa is outpacing other municipalities in replacing lead water service lines,
just two years into a five-year plan to replace all privately owned lead water pipes in the city.
Isabellanieto reports.
In a presentation to the city council on Tuesday, Sean Aguid with community infrastructure partners
said Wassa is setting an example nationwide.
In year one, we started construction in July 2024.
We replaced 605 lines this year.
We were able to start in April and we've replaced 1534.
So collectively, that's over 2100 lines to date.
Aguid said Wassa's speedy replacement project has helped the city secure funding to continue replacing lead service lines
and has encouraged owners to work with the city to get their service lines replaced.
We are maintaining a greater than 96% consent rate.
This is a voluntary program. There's no mandate that property owners have to buy in,
which is also a very impressive metric nationwide. A lot of other programs are around 60%.
Aguid said the State Department of Natural Resources granted the city additional dollars to continue replacing lead service lines.
Because other communities throughout Wisconsin were understanding their funding awards,
so they couldn't replace as much lines as they had hoped.
So there was an extra million dollars at DNR said If Wassa has the capacity, you know,
feel free to take the money.
He also said they're on track to maintain their rate of progress and will secure funding from the state to do so.
And we have about a thousand right of entry agreement secured for 2026.
Governor Tony Evers announced Wednesday nearly 160 million dollars in statewide financial assistance aimed at helping municipalities speed up their lead pipe replacement work.
Wassa is set to receive over 16 million dollars in funding in 2026.
An update to our story on Wednesday on Senate Bill 559, a bill being proposed at the state legislature on community solar.
We characterize the bill as one that would make it easier for utilities, but the bill primarily allows non-utility developers to lease land to develop a solar farm.
Under the bill, enrolling subscribers would pay for a share of the energy made at those farms.
Carl Rabigo is an energy consultant from Colorado and spoke at the public hearing this week.
He also spoke with WFHR on Thursday.
Set a bill 559, just being considered and had a committee hearing on Tuesday,
would create a community solar program in Wisconsin that would operate in the areas where the privately owned investor owned utilities provide electric service.
He explained how this works for subscribers.
Then they receive a credit on their utility bill for the power that gets delivered to the utility.
The public service commission would have responsibility for some oversight consumer protection rules and other such things.
And the bill also provides that local municipalities will provide the ultimate approval for development, the construction of these solar farms.
If this bill were to pass as written, local governments would need to approve a project by a two-third vote.
The Wisconsin DNR is sharing some recycling tips for the holiday season.
This time of year, more items than usual end up in the trash that don't belong there.
Things like cardboard, aluminum cans, and glass bottles can always be recycled anywhere in the state.
However, things like electronics, batteries, or strings of holiday lights can cause issues at typical recycling facilities.
Check with your local municipality to see what they accept.
I'm Melissa K for WFHR and WIRI News.
A win for the Bucks.
Hi, I'm Mike Clemens with Sports.
NBA, the Bucks with a much-needed victory.
116-101 over the Boston Celtics in five-serve form Milwaukee's Kyle Kuzma with a Season I 31 points.
Doc River says the adjustments they worked on in practice this week leading up to the game work.
One of the things we talked to you guys about going in a break was correcting our spacing.
I thought we had room tonight.
When a guard drove, he knew where the other guy was at.
I thought we played a very organized basketball game tonight.
NFL, the Packers, decided to Denver to mild to play the Broncos Sunday afternoon to 325.
Denver tied for first place in the UFC with a record of 11-2.
How has Denver been able to win so many close games with a young quarterback like Bonix?
Nine of the 11 games had come back in the fourth quarter,
and so I think that, obviously, deservedly so he gets a ton of credit for that.
And then the defense and special teams, I mean, it's a really good football team.
That's Packers head coach Matt LaFour with sports on Mike Clemens.
Cloudy today becoming breezy with some light snow.
It won't be a lot less than an inch of accumulation,
but it's going to get cold with falling temperatures into the single digits by late afternoon to early evening.
Tonight, partly Cloudy, down to around 12 to 15 below zero tomorrow sunshine,
with a high of only two below.
That's your Wisconsin Rapids news roundup from WIRI and WFHR locally grown radio.
Find more news anytime at WFHR.com and WIRI.FM.
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