From the Wausau Area Events Page.
Friday, August 20th
Robert Allen, Jr. 5pm
Johnny & the Mo-Tones 7pm
Big James & the Chicago Playboys 9pm
Saturday, Aug 21st
The Jimmy’s 1pm
John Primer 3pm
Harper 5pm
Ruthie Foster 7pm
Bobby Rush 9pm
Voice the official Citizen Wausau blog
District 1
Romey Wagner 46 Votes
Greg Foye 44 Votes
Jay J. Carlson 33 Votes
District 3
Jonathon Havel 33 Votes
Craig Gardner 26 Votes
Chuck Szalewski 36 Votes
Matthew Sann 18 Votes
District 10
David E. Nutting 64 Votes
Chuck Gering 27 Votes
Dan McMullen 31 Votes
District 11
Tom Wohlfahrt 26 votes
Debra Weiss 7 votes
Sherry L. Abitz 64 votes
DC Everest School Board
Rita A.Kasten 19 votes
Valerie A.Palarski 10 votes
Helen Ackermann 19 votes
Andrew E. Sutton 11 votes
Thomas N.Rosenberg 12 votes
Jim Foss 16 votes
Joshua Dickerson 13 votes
Clearly we encourage everyone to vote. Voting is the life blood, and the engagement in the political process, and your voice. Something that we should exercise often.
We even have two members of the Citizen Wausau community running in these primaries.
We took this information, which should help out your finding polling places etc, from the Marathon County Website.
This is a list of polling places we found.
Title: ELECTIONS
When: Tuesday, February 16, 2010
(Go to election reports)
MARATHON COUNTY ELECTIONS:
SPRING PRIMARY ELECTION – TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2010:
PRIMARY ELECTIONS WILL BE HELD IN THE CITY OF WAUSAU ALDERMANIC DISTRICTS 2; 3;10;11 – MUNICIPALITIES WITHIN THE EDGAR SCHOOL DISTRICT FOR A REFERENDUM AND THE EVEREST SCHOOL DISTRICT FOR A SCHOOL BOARD RACE.
TO OBTAIN PRIMARY ELECTION NIGHT RESULTS YOU WILL NEED TO CONTACT THE CITY CLERK’S OFFICE – THE EDGAR SCHOOL DISTRICT OFFICE AND THE EVEREST SCHOOL DISTRICT OFFICE.
SPRING ELECTION – TUESDAY, APRIL 6, 2010:
CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE – BRANCH 2
COUNTY BOARD SUPERVISORS – DISTRICTS 1 – 38
FOR LOCAL MUNICIPAL RACES AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS RACES OR REFERENDUMS CONTACT THE MUNICIPAL CLERK AND THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OFFICE.
Information on the April 6, 2010 – SPRING ELECTION will be available after the Tuesday, February 16, 2010, Spring Primary Election.
2010 Election Schedule:
* FEBRUARY 16, 2010 – SPRING PRIMARY
* APRIL 6, 2010 – SPRING ELECTION – Ballot Races: Marathon County Circuit Court Judge Branch 2; County Board Supervisors; Municipal Offices; School District Offices; Referenda.
* SEPTEMBER 14, 2010 – PARTISAN PRIMARY – Governor; Lt. Governor; Attorney General; Secretary of State; State Treasurer; U.S. Senator; Rep. in Congress; State Senator; Rep. to the Assembly; District Attorney; County Partisan-Sheriff & Clerk of Circuit Court; if required Referenda
* NOVEMBER 2, 2010 – GENERAL ELECTION – Governor; Lt. Governor; Secretary of State; State Treasurer; U.S. Senator; Rep in Congress; State Senator; Rep. to the Assembly; District Attorney; County Partisan-Sheriff & Clerk of Circuit Court; if required Referenda
Today WAE announced that Kari Rasmussen has accepted the position of Director of Wausau Area Events. Kari has been the Events Coordinator for roughly three years, and during that time the prominent events in the community have all seen growth and improvement.
I have known Kari for over a decade, and I think she is a great choice. The naming of someone so familiar to both the community, and to the events, is a wise choice.
In a press release Terry Sturm, the President of Wausau Area Events, said: “We are certainly pleased to have someone of Ms. Rasmussen’s capabilities and talents helping to continue the Wausau Area Events tradition of bringing top-notch entertainment options to the Wausau area. Her familiarity with the organization and the events themselves will make for a very seamless transition as we enter into the 2010 event season. “
Congrats, Kari. We wish you well. Knock ‘em dead!
John Jordan has a plan. A plan that gets Public Access out of the City, off the books, and over to the University. Times are tough, and as such the University cannot fund it. So, he must raise the $40,000 to do that very thing. But it might be just the solution this problem calls for.
On December 21st, Mayor Jim Tipple announced that the City of Wausau would stop funding Public Access television. This elimination of Public Access, and the staff housed there, would save the city roughly $90,000. The Mayor said that the City had to make this cut based on the fiscal needs of the city, and that Public Access would cease operation on January 31, 2010 — roughly 40 days later.
The timing of this action by the Mayor could not have been worse given the proximity to Christmas and by connection the amount of available funders in their offices, and as more than one city council member stated, the action was totally unilateral, since it appears in no committee minutes, or agenda items. But, this issue is incredibly complex, and some of it is very much in dispute.
I spoke to John Jordan, and he seemed positively hopeful about a plan and a tentative budget that he has put together, and the future of his station. Clearly community media can bring out the best in people, and, in fact, build community.
Jordan, who appeared on Glenn Moberg’s Wisconsin Public Radio show “Route 51″ on January 7, said that he has spoken to UWMC in regards to creating a home for the station at UWMC. This moves it out of the City, and Jordan thinks he needs to raise about $40,000 to get the station moved and keep it operational for six months. During this time he would even move himself to a part-time employee to save funds. He seems in high spirits about this challenge.
There is an ongoing court case between the City of Wausau and Charter. The scope of the case is in regards to what are called “PEG funds” and “franchise fees”. The source of the lawsuit is the refusal of Charter to pay PEG fees, and instead pay franchise fees. It is all very confusing. There are federally mandated dollars called PEG funds. PEG stands for Public, Education, and Government. These are federally mandated dollars that are used specifically to fund Public Access programming and operations with the intent of making those types of programs available.
These funds that are in dispute are not directly related to the franchise fees that are being discussed by Barbara Morgan later in this article — they are PEG fees. These fees are specifically allocated by the state from companies like Charter for the support of public access television stations and programming. This money is from a previous agreement that Charter says it no longer needs to pay, since a new franchise agreement was made.
This conflicts with the city’s position, which seems to be that this money was agreed upon for three years, and Charter should pay it. The current franchise agreement states that Charter has to pay a percentage of its billing to the municipality, but this number should not exceed a specific percentage. Charter believes that the franchise fee, combined with the PEG fee, would exceed the maximum percentage, and as such Charter has chosen not to pay the PEG money.
Jordan said that this matter did not help the budget process in regards to the Public Access station. Maryann Groat said that while the disputed money has not been paid to the city; the City has paid for Public Access out of franchise fees. But, with a tight budget, and rising costs of Public Access, the Office of the Mayor had to make a choice.
Along the way there has been talk about streaming the meetings online, or like the Village of Weston, creating a podcast that is available for download. Obviously we believe more transparency is better, and city government should be as open as possible. Consider Internet usage in our town. Sure, you’re a reader of Citizen Wausau, so you are an Internet person, but studies have shown that the rate of broadband penetration in rural areas (most of the area) has diminished from a 40 percent growth in 2005/2006, to a dismal 12% in the last year. So fewer people get the Internet, and fewer people have broadband than we thought. Streaming is out.
Creating podcasts, while part of most of our daily lives, is also something that is technologically forward. My mother does not subscribe to any podcast (not even the two that I am a part of). So that is the standard I apply. It would be hard to convince me that the elderly population who have spoken out about seeing church services, or city meetings, are going to be the first to download iTunes, and find the RSS link to the city podcast (the city makes things so easy on their website), and then download and listen. I mean, I can do that, but not sure that my mom can.
Clearly, the importance of community media cannot be overstated. These are voices of our community, voicing, often times, issues that are not covered by other media outlets. With our daily newspaper being owned by Gannett, and our talk/news radio station being owned by Midwest Communications, we are losing local media. And as such, a resource such as Public Access television is important and something that should be saved.
Wausau is developing itself into a progressive media city in some regards. The existence of the only Hmong-operated radio station in America in WNRB-LP FM is part of this story. As are the municipalities that use things like podcasting to communicate the business of their municipality with their residents.
In the Wausau Daily Herald Barbara Morgan wrote a passionate column about how Public Access is the one utility in this area that pays for itself. She makes this point, “Every month there is $2.60 on the Charter cable bill for “franchise fees.” This totals $330,000 per year collected from cable subscribers and paid to the city.
That lump sum goes toward some additional city expenses. When I spoke to Maryann Groat she said that the dollars are for various things like utility pole right-of-way, licensing, underground cabling, etc. But, at the same time, it all ends up in the general fund, so I am not exactly sure how this works.
Groat confirmed that the money does in fact all end up in the general fund. This fund is used for the run of the mill operations of the city. One of them being Public Access of course. But, like I stated before, this is not as simple as it seems. These are two agreements, and one of them seems to cancel the other out. At least that is Charter’s position.
Morgan further states: “Another disappointing aspect of the demise of public access is that it was done under a cloak of secrecy. Not one word of discussion, not one opportunity for Charter subscribers, who fund the channels, to state their case.”
Clearly, this is an issue that this administration has struggled with; the perception that transparency is not very high on the list of operating principals. No one is entirely sure as to the way the cut was made by the Office of the Mayor. Clearly there are differing accounts, and lots of people are assigning blame. The timing though, is not in dispute.
For more information about Jordan and his attempt to save Public Access television, go to Glenn Mobergs radio show and listen to what John Jordan had to say about his plan to save Public Access.
It appears that we will be having a primary in some of these districts. We have to be proud of everyone running for office, that sort of desire for civic involvement is admirable.
District 1: Jim Rosenberg, Roland “Sonny” Neitzel
District 2: Greg Foye, Romey Wagner, Jay Carlson
District 3: Craig Gardner, Chuck Szalewski, Jonahtan Havel, Matthew Sann
District 4: Jim Brezinski
District 5: Gary Gisselman
District 6: Gary Lee Klingbeil, Edward Marek
District 7: Lisa Rasmussen
District 8: Karen Kellbach, Chris Barr
District 9: Matthew Kaiser, David Overbeck
District 10: David Nutting, Chuck Gering, Dan McMullen
District 11: Sherry Abitz, Debra Weiss, Tom Wohlfahrt
District 12: Ed Gale, Cody VanRyn
Further contact information can be found in this document.
This afternoon IC Willy’s accepted a voluntary suspension of its operating license. This suspension will run from January 4th through January 18th.
IC Willy’s owner Tom Nowell agreed to this compromise with the Public Health and Safety Committee. The voluntary nature of the suspension allows the owner and the City to reach a compromise on consequences of the complaints, and to allow for formal suspension and revocation later on if needed.
Nowell was also instructed to meet with the neighborhood residents. This meeting will be held and hosted by Chief Hardel at the Wausau Police Station in February.
Police Chief Hardel initially suggested a 30-day suspension, but after a reading of the ordinance by City Attorney Anne Jacobsen, the 15-day voluntary suspension was agreed upon.
At issue are the 15 noise violations since opening as a business, as well as numerous concerns rendered by the neighbors. One of the hot, sticking points was the allegation that owner Nowell lied to police officers in regards to the Girls Gone Wild event.
From what was said at the meeting, it appears that Nowell has purchased and installed “decibal meters” and “sound baffling” to make the club more appropriate for the neighborhood.
Again, a 15-day voluntary suspension will run in January for IC Willy’s.
Look, I know there is a Wausau Century Plan, or the 100-Year Plan, or the Used to be A Lumber Town Plan, or the Plan to Keep the Kids at Bay Plan. But really, is there a plan for the City of Wausau, and where can I see it in action?
A few weeks ago my main man Dr. Rent went to a CISM meeting. He reported to me that they essentially gave up on the idea of changing the direction of 3rd Street downtown. Just gave up. No big whoop. We are moving on. Like it was never a thing to do anyway.
How does that work? A city committee puts forth an idea, some study is given to the idea, then some public discussion, and then like it never mattered in the first place, they just stop. Essentially the government says: “Whatever, nevermind!” to an issue. Just a governmental shrug of the shoulders and a big “eh”.
But, if they can just sort of change their mind about something as significant as urban planning, I have to ask, what exactly do these people have the convictions to actually DO?!?
I read the minutes from the December 10th CISM meeting, which was strongly attended by local businesses, and was shocked to find that this has been a discussion since 2005. The altering of this traffic has been a part of every discussion that involves the pedestrian mall, or downtown parking. The minutes reflect that.
At the meeting Mr. Marquardt, who I must assume works for the city, talked for a while about the different options, and how this or that would be impacted. Then it was a parade of business owners all seeming to express their own self-interest. Which is fine, unto itself. It only borders on not fine when self-interest hinders the common good of the city. The voices had no agreement on anything. Some, like Mark Craig, thought parallel parking was the way to go. He made good points about looking to the future, and how we have had this pedestrian mall in operation for 20 years, and he hoped 30 years from now people would look back and talk about how the vision we had now, worked going forward.
Jane Janke-Johnson stated that she wanted to see the street remain the same, even bringing up some numbers that appeared in the initial debate about the pedestrian mall, the number being that every parking spot is worth $15,000 in retail sales. No idea where that number comes from, but she brought it up.
There had to be ten or more varied opinions on what was best, but again, they were all opinions based on self-interest. People with expertise really were missing from this discussion. Leah Alters from Main Street did a survey of business owners(prior to hitting the highway to Columbus), informally it would appear, and even her results were varied.
So, the idea gets put down. Nothing happens. And it leads me to ask: is there any sort of plan to move the city forward, or are we all just throwing darts at a board? Is there something more at play here than personal interest, and negative Nancys? How does it come about that something as significant as rerouting traffic to improve or not improve the businesses of downtown is met with so little scrutiny that no experts are brought forth? No plan is referenced in the minutes of the discussion. What is the plan, man?!?
We received this today, about Mayor Tipples press conference. Thoughts?
WAUSAU (WAOW) – Mayor Jim Tipple announced the closure of the Wausau Area Access Channel, Monday.
The announcement came in Mayor Tipple’s morning press conference.
Both the Public and Education & Government access channels (Cable Channel 98/980 and 96/981) will stop broadcasting after 2009.
According to a news release from the Mayor’s Office, the cost of maintaining the channels would be $90,000. According to Mayor Tipple, this may solve the city’s budget shortfall.
The Wausau Access Coordinator position will be eliminated and the Wausau Area Access Channel Office in City Hall will close. Mayor Tipple says tough economic times required “tough decisions.”
The Wausau Area Public Access Channels are most commonly used to broadcast community events including: forums, meetings, sporting events, graduations.
I think I need to preface this immediately. My good friend Rob Mentzer made a top ten list on his blog, and I am concerned that his top ten list is simply so far out of the loop that it will create a rift in the fabric of all space-time, and as such the universe will fall into molecular chaos and entropy. His blatant use of things like this list of his are apocryphal, and could very well lead to some sort of apocalypse.
That being said, this is a list of my favorite musical things that happened in Wausau this year. We would love to get more lists from you.
- “Godspell”: This show at the PAF was so overwhelming to me. It was one of those right place, right time sorts of things. Tough work schedule, tough whatever, and ka-pow, I ended up sitting there crying with tears of joy. The energy and exuberance was so high, so powerful, and so uplifting, I was moved to just heights I had not expected. It moved me, and it was grand.
- The release of ‘Before the Devil Knows Your Dead’ by Meantooth Grin: This album was 18 months in the making, and it started to feel like Tom Jordan’s ‘Chinese Democracy’, but when it came out it raise the bar for what all blues cats were going or should do next. It is a well-written, well-arranged, well-played local masterpiece. It puts all the False Dog records to absolute shame with its real emotions and amazing production.
- Triclops at the PI: I am not a PI sort of fellow, but the Triclops show was so amazing, and so powerfully destructive that it shook the walls off that whole block. Triclops are one of those bands that are sonically unique, and performance aggressive. It was pretty amazing.
- Scott Holt at Malarkeys: I am sure that including one of my friends in the list is not all that kosher, but objectively Scott did things even better than when he got a stand ovation at Big Bull Falls. City Councilman Rosenberg called him a virtuoso, and Tyler Vogt said ‘Now that Scott Holt has shown us what is possible with a guitar’. And, in my observance, I think Scott sang better than ever.
- Sneak Peak/Why Not Wausau: The set up concert on the mountain was epic. It paves the way for people to see Why Not Wausau as a legitimate thing. The guys from Flapjack Creative did something, in their first year, that few others do in a lifetime in town.
- The Rob Piehl/Tom Jordan/Eric Messenberg jam: I did not get to hear this in person, but by all accounts these three cats did something amazing. It is great when two guitar KILLERS like Eric and Tom can get together. You’ve got to hope Eric comes back bigger stronger, and heavier.
- Receiving a copy of ‘icantfeel’ by iloveghosts: I have said for a long time, that my favorite band to EVER come out of central Wisconsin is iloveghosts, and their record is an overwhelming assault on the senses. Brave, emotional, techie, and cool. Iloveghosts are rock stars. PERIOD.
- Rob Mentzer/Tom Neal/and Sam Staples on WNRB: I love WNRB, but do not catch as much as I should. But when these guys are on, I listen from start to finish. WNRB is cool.
- The Demise of the Fillmor: It is not okay to root for the decline of something, but I think the final nail in the coffin showed a lot of people that music is a profession, and not a hobby. And when you do not know what you are doing, a lot of things go wrong. I do not think Dan and Bill were bad guys, I just think they were in over their heads and made some bad choices. We all do. Now, the Fillmor is free and can be snatched up by someone who knows what they are doing.
- The Blueheels/Pat McDonald/Vinny Bex Dae. These cats have all played all over, and when they played Malarkeys (or anywhere else in town), they blew up the place. We are lucky musicians still see Wausau as a good place to come and play.
So, what do you think? Send us your list, and we can try to post them.
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