And welcome back, Chad Holmes with you here on 98.9 WXCO and online.
I won't list off all those different areas.
You can catch us.
You know it.
I say it all the time.
And we're very happy to be joined here in studio by Katie Rosenberg, former Watson mayor, candidate.
Hello.
District one.
That fits you perfectly, right?
Yeah.
The
Marathon County Board.
But yeah, you are running for the Marathon County Board.
Yep.
What are the issues that animate you in this run?
What have you noticed?
I mean, because you Bobby, we're watching things now from the outside a little bit.
Oh, what jumps out?
Yeah.
So I think the kind of moment that kind of got me percolating was during the budget process.
And you know, I heard folks saying things like.
We should sell the nursing home.
We should figure out what to do with North Central healthcare.
And so things like that, the aquatic therapy pool that we worked so hard on, that was the moment where I was like, we can't do this.
I need to make sure my person knows that I don't stand for this and I don't think our whole district does.
So I'm talking to him and I did ask him.
I was like, you're running for reelection, right?
And when he said he wasn't, I was like, oh, well, who's running?
And he said, well, you know, I've been talking to some people and I was like, well, just stop talking.
I was like, I have enough passion still about.
I mean, health and human service issues for sure.
But across the board, what we're seeing nationally right now, I was at the library last night, and it was an overflow room for a discussion on that 287G agreement that the Sheriff's Department signed.
And so people are paying attention, and they want to know more.
And the questions people were asking were very specific, very important.
the county board had a meeting, so there's nobody there that can answer a question about that stuff.
So it's really, it's important.
I think this, this moment requires it, right?
Isn't that interesting though, that again, that I think there is a sense, and again, maybe even for myself once in a while, that people are not engaged on the issues as we were just talking about personally, but then you get an example that sort of.
reinvigorates your hope for the entire system because, as I said, the only way the system works is if people show up at these kind of
events, right?
You have to participate.
And across the board, you have to participate.
Again though, like, step one.
Just know your neighbors.
I think that is something that we're losing and maybe it's partially COVID, partially, I don't know, this online culture, but we need to get out of our homes and talking to our neighbors.
We need to know what animates them.
We need to make sure that we're helping
each other.
The idea of local government.
Yes.
I think so much of our lives rotate around what the president says or what the Congress says or even what the governor says or what the state legislature says and does.
you still have that ultimate passion because you could have run for different offices, you could have run, no, you could have, you could have, you could have run for different offices, but yet you still seem to have this laser-like focus on what's happening in your backyard.
Why is that?
Why is your backyard, and I think a lot of people need, I think would be better served by using their energies to try to do things whether it is with through.
talking to your city council person or the mayor or a school board member, county board member.
There's so much that can be done here in our backyard, isn't there?
Yeah, there is.
And I think, you know, when you show up to a city council meeting or when you show up to a county board meeting as a citizen and have a public comment, I mean, you are talking to people.
who live within a few miles of you, and they're listening to you.
And I think it's a lot, I'm not gonna say it's easy, but it's a lot more accessible to kind of change the ordinances and the statutes locally to match your values.
I think that is doable.
I don't know if you've ever tried to go to a public hearing at the legislature or the House or the Senate.
I've never attended something in the House or the Senate.
It's scary.
It's intimidating as a person, I'm assuming, but I've done this at the state level.
My voice shook when I was talking to these committees.
It is nerve-wracking.
And so you also wonder, like, am I making an impact?
Are these people's minds decided already?
I don't know, because this person is from Dodgeville or this person, you know, I only know what feedback I get live.
What
other issues are you looking at in terms of the future on the Marathon County Board?
Anything else stand out that you're hoping to be a positive influence
on?
Yeah, you know, I think there's a lot of discussion that we could have as it relates to our water table and our water issues, obviously.
I'm still very much focused on water as an issue and I think that we should be
focused as a county on some of these things.
They've done some good things with, they had a Fenwood Creek kind of a project that they did with the state that was successful.
Farmers were engaged, but I do think we need to very specifically focus on this.
We're talking about biosolids and land spreading and PFAS, right?
There's some things that we could have a conversation about.
Data centers?
I mean, I don't know if we're talking about this at a county level.
I mean, maybe some folks are, but what do we do?
What if we're approached?
What do we say?
What if they approach a town that doesn't have their own zoning?
How are we going to support that town?
That's a discussion we need to have.
But let me ask
you about that, because that is something that I want to talk about with gubernatorial candidates and candidates of all stripes, because things have happened so quickly in that realm.
We don't have the right laws to
regulate.
Do we have the folks that actually understand it?
I mean, I have to admit, there's a lot that I don't understand.
I'm sure
there's a lot of other folks.
Do you have ideas on what steps you'd like to see maybe taken as quickly as possible?
Because things are happening so quickly when
it comes
to the AI revolution, the data centers, and everything else going on.
Yeah.
So I don't know if you recall back, I don't know if it was 2017 or 2018, when the law changed for metallic mining.
And the county was then, it was important that the county created its own ordinance to kind of have regulation and oversight of metallic mining should it show up in this county.
So we went straight to work and we were the first county in the state to have an ordinance.
And so I'm imagining a world where that's the kind of discussion we have.
Do I know if Marathon County is even a place where one of these companies would be looking?
Not necessarily.
Again, what are they looking for?
They're looking for transmission.
They're looking for water.
So thinking about what they're looking for is important.
But maybe we do need to have a work group to be focused on this, to start thinking about best practices as it relates to policy making.
So I can imagine that being something that works.
Absolutely.
Coming up on the bottom of the hour, we have an information update coming up.
We'll have the farm report.
We'll also have news, sports, and weather.
And then we'll come back and have more with Katie Rosenberg.
I want to talk a little bit about...
the crazy four years in office.
Oh boy.
Hey, we got to learn a little something here.
If you don't learn from the past, you bound to repeat mistakes and also forget the successes in the future.
So we'll have more with Katie Rosenberg coming up here on WXCO.
And welcome back chat home show here at ninety eight point nine wxco again with our new format We have the first hour live here at ninety eight point nine wxco and of course stick with us after nine o'clock starting at nine oh six You can tune in on youtube at youtube.com and the ninety eight point nine wxco channel You can go to wxco.fm and the civic media app and click on the sports to stream We have the primary stream and then the sports to stream and we continue because
I always have more to say.
Shocker.
I know, I know.
So hopefully you all can join us.
And of course, after 10 o'clock, we put the entire two hours as a podcast.
You can get that on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts and at our website as well.
A few more minutes with Katie Rosenberg, former WASA mayor and candidate for the Marathon County Board.
something that kind of builds on what's been going on in Minneapolis and I think the country is large and I think it goes back again a number of years I think again maybe you're ahead of the curve and others ahead of the curve not just you obviously a lot of folks have been fighting for this idea of a community for all and and and trying to be a place that people could all come to and feel comfortable with as we look back at all the that discussion as well
It's crazy to think again that there are two sides to that issue, but yet there were What do you think maybe looking back at it and maybe what do you think about the future?
Do you think that maybe I'd like to see things and I may I don't I'm always not I'm not always thrilled about the fact that we have these pendulums I think that people need to start thinking about the the ideas and the issues that they should vote for every time and I go back and forth But do you think that after?
hopefully maybe no more than a little more time with this anger that comes from the top and trickles down, that we'll see maybe the thought that, hey, we do need to bring more thought and kindness into our public discourse.
Yeah, I sure hope so.
Because I do think that corrosive kind of scenario that we're...
encountering and engaging with every day, it really takes a toll on your humanity.
I know that if I'm listening to news all day, I am cranky at night because it's devastating.
And I don't think we should talk to each other the way we're talking to each other.
I certainly don't want to be the person perpetuating any of that kind of violent rhetoric.
And so yes, I do hope that we can get to a point where we are truly a community for all in that aspect that people feel welcome.
They feel that they can talk through their issues.
They feel that they matter.
And whether or not there's a resolution doesn't really matter.
I think it's how we engage with the public and how we engage with each other.
I'm gonna true my best to be the person who can take it, right?
So.
Are you saying that legislation like that really is not the most important aspect of it?
I'm not sure.
Maybe the idea or?
You know, I'm not part of.
a marginalized group necessarily.
And so it's hard for me to sit here saying like, we're all equal, it's fine.
I recognize that people experience the world differently.
And it's important that sometimes we do need to memorialize that, hey, we care about your thoughts and your feelings and that you feel included.
And we're not gonna just like skim over the fact that you said you experienced this thing.
I think that's an important thing.
But again, like the way that discussion happened in Marathon County was awful, awful.
I hope we don't have a discussion like that again.
And I guess finally in our last few minutes, it is a 2026.
And I said to you that off the air, I think it was that in 2024, you were at the front edge of a certain year.
Oh, yeah.
It was a tough year for certain politics.
I felt like a bellwether a little bit after November.
What do you think is going to happen here in 2026?
And again, maybe as well, what do you hope we're talking about?
Because there's elections at so many different levels, including with yourself.
What are the things that you'd like to hear?
Maybe folks, the folks that are running for governor and maybe all the way down to county board and...
school board and everything else, what should we be talking about in 2026?
Yeah,
I mean, I think, first of all, conventional wisdom is dead.
So anybody that's telling you like, oh, well, always with the president here and these are the kind of people that get elected, like, don't listen to that.
You know what you need to do?
You need to get out there and talk to your neighbors and you need to vote.
You have to commit to that.
Okay, but what do I hope people are talking about?
The usual things, clean water, clean air, good governance, transparent governance.
I hope that we're talking
about policies that make us prosper as a community and you know a lot of times those discussions happen during a budget cycle I hope we can start our budget cycle earlier so that maybe we can talk about some of the things we'd like to inject that do make those changes important you know instead of just being like oh we cut it this low
Well, let's talk about the services that people are needing, right?
Like this nursing home thing.
I'm gonna keep hammering it because it's so critical.
Our community is getting older.
We need to make sure that we are serving everyone.
That nursing home has served.
I watched my great grandmother in that nursing home.
I watched my grandparents in that nursing home.
And I'm sure that I will watch my family members who are listening and I'm not gonna mention who they are.
They're gonna go to that nursing home too because it's a really important service that we have.
So we need to
Continue on with these services that help our community prosper and that help our community be healthy.
Real quickly, you talk about that.
You mentioned you kind of touched on, I think, shared revenue earlier.
Oh, yeah.
Do we need to think bigger when it comes to the, yeah, because knock on wood for you that you'll be in a new position talking about some of these things?
Sure.
Do we have to, and you talk about this often, things happen so quickly.
Right.
Do I have time to really talk about the way things should be?
What kind of changes if you, again, you don't have that magic wand?
What kind of changes do you, in the relationship maybe between Madison and the county and the communities?
What can be done to make things better?
Yeah, well the thing with county board is that you just have this really natural relationship with the state government.
I mean, everything that the county board can do is outlined in state statute.
So that natural relationship should be, we're hearing from our legislators, we're hearing from our folks who are running state government.
So I think that conversation needs to continue happening, right?
There was a discussion last night at county board that was,
talking through should we lobby for, I don't even know necessarily the details of the issue that they were talking through.
But I think instead of that, let's talk about shared revenue.
I mean, school board, let's talk about school board funding.
That is critical right now.
So I think this funding discussion needs to evolve.
It was great.
It was a one-time fix, but we need to keep having this.
It's an ongoing thing.
It's not a set it and forget it thing.
Absolutely.
It's been great to talk to you.
It's always interesting.
This
hour really went fast.
I know.
This is a great thing because anytime it's a good, it's a good day on the job and you're not looking at the clock.
Katie Rosenberg, thank you again.
Thank you so much.
We're going to take a timeout.
We'll be back at 906 on YouTube and the sports two stream.
So hope you can join us.
Chad Homeshow, WXCO.
WXCO 98.9, Wasau's Real News and Great Conversation.
Here's your daily news roundup.
Amerithon County Local is in the running for both state and local office.
Yi-Ling Xiong is the executive director of New Beginnings for Refugees, a nonprofit aimed at supporting refugees in the Wasau area.
He's also an incumbent in the race for the DC Everest School Board and for the Marathon County Board of Supervisors.
Now, he's thrown his hat into the ring for State Treasurer.
The State Treasurer position, often when people look at it, that position and feel that it's a ceremonial position, but it's not.
It's about accountability.
This position here has held accountable by the Wisconsin Knights.
It's not accountable to the governor or the state legislator.
I'm very passionate about school district and passionate about counties.
So I want to make sure that all my residents, all my constituents are taking care of anyway here, especially the students because the most important assets that we have is our people.
As the state treasure, one of my goals here is to be working on that intentional effort and grassroots effort to ensure that there is accountability, there is transparency, returning money back to individuals, expanding financial literacy, and working with partners, building coalitions to address the affordability crisis in the state of Wisconsin here.
On the Democratic side, Chong faces Dylan
Helmenstein, a Black Earth Village trustee and school board member, and Eric Wilson, a small business owner and IT project manager, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
A proposal to partially extend the Knowles Nelson stewardship program passed in the Wisconsin State Assembly last week.
The Knowles Nelson stewardship program seeks to preserve the state's wildlife and expand its outdoor recreation opportunities.
Since its creation over 30 years ago, it has allowed
Wisconsin to borrow money for state land acquisitions, as well as providing local governments and conservation nonprofits with grant funding to support their goals.
The proposal passed last week, however, scales back the scope of the program.
If passed into law, the two Republican-authored bills would extend the Knowles Nelson Stewardship Program through 2028, but would not allow for new land acquisitions.
The program's funding would be used to maintain previously purchased land.
The proposed bills passed along party lines in the assembly, with Democratic state lawmakers arguing they don't uphold the legacy of the program.
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers has previously said he would support a proposal that preserves both the property management and land acquisition aspects of the program.
Average gas prices have risen 7.6 cents per gallon over the last week for an average of $2.55 on Monday.
This is 12.2 cents higher than a month ago and over 39 cents per gallon lower than this time last year.
Average gas prices have jumped for the second straight week according to gas buddy officials, saying this is due to oil prices climbing back above $60 per barrel.
Oil from Iran is struggling to make it to the market.
under new sanctions.
This is tightening supply in addition to the major winter storms sending temperatures below zero, which is likely to also affect refineries.
This could cause additional disruptions and reduced output.
A group of Marathon County residents spoke at an educational meeting of the county board last week to support local control over energy projects.
The board is considering a resolution to ask the Wisconsin County's Association to lobby in favor of two bills that would turn control over energy projects to local municipalities.
Under the bills, developers would need approval from each city, village, and town where a wind or solar project is proposed before the Public Service Commission can approve it.
Residents urged the county board to approve the resolution, raising concerns about threats to farmland, property values, and public health.
The Assembly Bill was introduced last January, and the Senate Bill was introduced last February.
Both bills have stalled.
An author of Braden's Law, a new state statute that criminalizes sex distortion, is already looking to expand upon it.
Representative Brent Jacobson of Mosany says victims of the crime, including their families, if the victim dies by suicide, should be able to sue for damages and be compensated for their losses.
Brayden's law is named in honor of Brayden Bone, a 15-year-old DC Everest junior high school student who died by suicide last March after falling victim to his extortion scheme.
Jacobson's proposal would clarify potential damages in state law, making it easier for civil lawsuits to stick.
A new survey shows Wisconsin employers don't think students are prepared for the workforce.
The survey from Wisconsin manufacturers and commerce finds over half of responding employers say Wisconsin's K-12 education system does not adequately prepare students for the workforce.
Survey data shows 64% of employers indicated their employees struggle with reading, math, or both.
Thirty percent of respondents have had to resort to remedial education or tutoring for employees.
I'm Isabella Nieto for WXCO News.
Hi, I'm Mike Clemens with sports.
Wisconsin Badgers at home against the Minnesota Gophers.
Wisconsin with a record of 14 and 6.
The Gophers at 500 with an overall record of 10 and 10.
Marquette with a victory 86 to 62 over the Creighton Blue Jays.
Perhaps the best performance of the year so far for the Golden Eagles.
Head coach Shanka Smart.
We got the pick and roll well.
We rotated well.
Obviously it helps to shoot 69% from the field in the first half.
But I thought that there was a connection between
between our guys aggressiveness.
NBA, the Bucks losing to the 76ers, 139 to 122.
Kyle Kuzma limping off the court, fourth quarter, but said it was just a leg cramp.
NFL Packers quarterback coach Sean Mannion to interview with the Eagles for their offensive coordinator job.
In Pittsburgh, Mike McCarthy introduced as the new head coach of the Steelers.
Do you want Aaron Rodgers back as your quarterback next year?
I mean, definitely.
I mean, I don't see why you wouldn't.
At Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy with sports on Mike Clemens.
Partly to mostly cloudy today with a high of only 6 above today and that wind chill is going to be in the teens below zero here all day today.
Tonight clear will drop to 12 below zero tomorrow sunshine with a high of 8 above zero.
I'm meteorologist Sean Cable.
That's your was on news roundup from WXCO.
Find more news anytime at wxco.fm.
Subscribe to this podcast on Spotify, Apple or wherever you find your podcasts.
