The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources announced today that State Park passes may now be purchased online. Most of the State Park System is now open with restrictions. Previously passes needed to be ordered by telephone, but a new system has been developed to purchase passes online for the first time in state history. Passes may not be purchased at the state parks due to the pandemic crisis.
There will be a regular meeting of the Menomonie School Board on Monday, 5/11/2020 at 5:30 PM. The Live Stream of the meeting will be available here. The agenda is attached below. Public comments to the board should be emailed to [email protected] by 5 PM on Monday.
It was again difficult to hear most of the board in the Zoom meeting.
We will be attempting to cover more of the city and county government meetings by reporting briefly on them and making recordings when possible of the new online meetings. This is a recording of the 5/4/2020 Menomonie CIty Council Meeting, which was held as a Zoom conference.
#000000; font-size: medium;">5A – proposed temporary trailer storage extensions for Stepping Stones – this is a temporary extension of 90 days. Passed by voice vote.
This morning Governor Evers declared a state of emergency due to wildfires in the state.
“Our first priority is protecting the people of Wisconsin and this executive order helps us control existing wildfires and use all available state assets to prevent new ones from starting,” Gov. Evers said. “With the Wisconsin National Guard, we'll have the resources we need to appropriately assist in potential wildfire response and recovery efforts.”
Tonight's meeting was held virtually on the Zoom platform because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A recording of the Zoom meeting will be available after 10 PM.
Adventures in covering Zoom meetings continue - some of the recording will be a little rough and the first part will have the colors mapped incorrectly as I worked through some of the settings to collect the video in OBS Studio on my end. An official recording of the meeting will be available from the city later.
The ill-advised Wisconsin Spring Primary roared to life this morning. Perhaps that's inaccurate, it's more like it stumbled over the starting line, knowing the finish is six days in the future.
#000000; font-size: medium;">The hours at the Boyceville, Colfax and Elk Mound Area Collection Stations will be temporarily extended due to the COVID-19 pandemic effective Wednesday, April 8, 2020. The extended hours are being provided at the request of residents, and to encourage safe social distancing practices at the collection sites.
Wisconsin voters elected Democrats to the state-wide offices of Governor and Attorney General. As we are so often reminded by the Republicans, elections have consequences. There is supposed to be a balance of power between the Governor's office and the legislature. Yet the still-GOP-controlled legislature is holding a lame-duck session starting tomorrow with the sole purpose of clawing back power from the Governor's and Attorney General's offices and moving it to the legislature.
The monthly Special Board Meeting was held on Monday, 11/26/2018 at 5:30 PM. This meeting discussed budget plans, and also included a discussion on board leadership, and an election of new board officers, as suggested at the last meeting. The board agenda and board policy on leadership are attached. Notes on the meeting are below, and the video of the meeting will be added some time Tuesday afternoon.
The agenda for the meeting is attached below. The meeting included a slightly contentious discussion about board ethics and the work that Board President Dan Paulson and his work with other organizations. In particular the issue was raised that Mr. Paulson is a member of the group Menomonie Cares, which has written to the board objecting to the money expended on the second development phase of the Sports Complex.
School referendums around Wisconsin have been steadily increasing in the 2010s, particularly years when a general election is held. In 2017, the state Legislature enacted Act 59, a biennial budget bill that limits a school board from approving no more than two resolutions in one year authorizing school funding increases. But it has not slowed the number of school districts that have chosen to go to referendum in 2018.
Agendas and supporting documents for tonight's school board meeting are attached. Perhaps the most interesting portion of the meeting will be the vote on funding Phase 2 of the Sports Complex.
The League of Women Voters of the Greater Chippewa Valley Area sponsored a candidate forum on 9/25/2018 at the Dunn County Judicial Center. Candidates from the 27th District that participated were John Rocco Calabrese (D) and Rob Stafsholt (R) - the incumbent candidate. Brian Correia (L) was unable to attend the forum. Questions were submitted to the candidates from the audience and time limits were set on their responses.
This is the video recording of the Menomonie School District special meeting of 9/24/2018. Particular items of interest include a discussion of the Home Sweet Menomonie program and if the district should contribute funds to it to help pay for down payments on homes for people moving to Menomonie for jobs, and a particularly spirited discussion continued from the last meeting about funding for the second phase of development for the Sports Complex.
