Phillips Headlines

The Park Falls Girls' Softball Club's 16-U Diamond Dusters battled back-and-forth with Three Lakes on Thursday, July 9, at the Park Falls Athletic Complex, going three extra innings in a 7-6 loss.

The Dusters erased a 1-0 deficit with a three-run second inning with Maggie Miller leading off with a single, Hope Grubb drawing a walk and Kylie Sales and Tess Richard driving in runs with hits. Three Lakes scored once in the fourth and two times in the fifth to pull ahead 4-3 in the scheduled five-inning game. Mackenzie Dane walked and Kayla Herbst singled to lead off the bottom of the fifth, with Dane scoring to send the game to extra innings.

After a scoreless sixth, Three Lakes tallied in the top of the seventh and the Dusters answered in the bottom half with Dane doubling and scoring on an RBI single by Korrie Herbst. The Dusters had two on with no outs, but couldn't push across the winning run.

Read More: Price County Review

I know that I don’t have a very long memory anymore - or even much of a short term memory either - but it seems to me that this is the nicest summer maybe ever.

Sure, we’ve had a lot of rain, but really not too much and despite the rain, we in the Northwoods have very few mosquitoes. There has been one perfect day marching in right after another. It makes it hard to stay in the house and attend to my writing chores.

The summer of 2015 is going down in my personal record book as a stellar example of a great season.

Read more: Price County Review

When one makes any purchase in Price County there is a five percent sales tax added on to the cost – plus a one half percent for the county. Now the possibility of bumping that half percent up to one percent is being discussed – in the interest of funding repair and replacement of area roads.

The question of tacking a new half-percent to make it a six percent sales tax was discussed at a recent Price County Board meeting and although some thought it was a necessary evil as an alternative for excessive long term borrowing and paying related interest, it was still not exactly greeted warmly.

The issue of funding roads is a hot topic in Wisconsin currently with Governor Scott Walker saying that he does not want to boost the state’s gas tax or the license registration fees, but would rather borrow and bond for $1.3 billion to cover the state’s road budget.

Read more: Price County Review

Power pedalers, wave-busting swimmers, trail-tested runners and triple threats will all have a place in the 2015 Zing Zang Phillips Chain of Lakes Triathlon, returning to Phillips Saturday, July 11 at 9 a.m.

This annual bike, swim, and run showdown got its start as a sprint triathlon back in 2008.

Annie Knudson, one director of the race, observed that the event has grown since that first year.

Read more: Price County Review

A firefighter who had fallen off of a ladder and injured his neck while fighting a house fire in Park Falls June 29 was welcomed home in a big way Thursday, July 2 when crowds gathered outside his residence to greet him.

On June 30, the department announced that that firefighter, Mike Bush, had made it through surgery successfully with his injuries repaired using a set of hardware and bone from an organ and tissue donor.

“It’s just a matter of healing up now,” Park Falls Fire Chief Larry Reas said.

Read more: Price County Review

The truck pull held as part of a larger 4th of July celebration in Kennan saw 13 truck entries make a total of 37 pulls.

Here are the results:

Class A-Showroom Stock under 5500 pounds: first place-Wayne Houle of Merrill with a pull of 300 feet; second place-Sadie Drew of Gleason with a pull of 261 feet 4 inches

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Republican state lawmakers have approved a plan that would cut $450 million from Gov. Scott Walker’s transportation budget, but would still increase transportation debt to an all-time high.

Despite a substantial cut to the governor's transportation budget, the plan that Republican lawmakers approved on Thursday night would still borrow $850 million for roads and leave the state spending nearly 21 cents of every transportation dollar on debt service.

State Rep. Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh, told Republicans that they punted on this issue.

Read more: Price County Review

Your neighbors are always quick with a “hello.”

You’ve spent many nights atop their deck and under the stars, enjoying a roaring firepit and hoisting a few. Your kids babysit their kids. Their kids bring you vegetables from the garden. But once you’ve read “Beneath the Bonfire” by Nickolas Butler, you may start looking askance at them.

You share recipes and parking spots, gossip and news. What goes on behind closed doors in your neighborhood (and in these ten short stories) could, however, surprise you.

Read more: Price County Review

A light rain was just starting to taper off as we crashed through the brush. The spicy fragrance of crushed sweet fern tickled our noses pleasantly. Birds sang all around us. Pushing through the clumps of head-high, stump-spouting scrub oak and red maple, we stepped carefully over the sooty remains of trees. Coming up on a long, narrow open area, a tall metal pole appeared out of nowhere – like finding the lamppost in Narnia.

With a little squinting, we soon noticed some filmy, black netting strung from the pole, 30 feet through the open area, and hitched to a matching pole. A few raindrops sparkled on the web. Here, our small group of Wisconsin Master Naturalist students gathered around Jim Bryce, a retired biologist with the USDA Forest Service and National Park Service, and long-time bird bander.

Briefly, Jim explained how the mist net works. The fine black threads are nearly invisible, and they are strung to form long, floppy pockets. When an unsuspecting bird flies into the net, it drops into a pocket, and gets tangled in the net. Then a bander can carefully extricate the bird for processing.

Read more: Price County Review

A drop in federal funding and in the number of users of the Chequamegon Nicolet National Forest over the past few years is now translating to trimmed back recreational services and facilities, according to a recent news announcement from the CNNF.

The majority of the recreation sites in the Forest will remain open at the usual full service levels; however, there will be closures or a reduction of services at more than 30 others, including some local sites.

Hilary Markin spokesperson for the CNNF said that the reductions were necessary to balance the budget shortfall as the decreasing number of visitors had tipped the revenue versus expenses scale out of balance.

Read more: Price County Review

The June 15 meeting of the Phillips School Board wrapped up last school year and introduced the coming school year. Testing has concluded, with district administrator Rick Morgan saying that the district is overall very pleased with the results they have in hand. The district has still not received the district-wide ACT test results, although students are able to access their individual results. Results from the Badger exam test should be received at the district by mid-summer.

Changes will be coming for high school students this fall with the implementation of a new scheduling system, which returns students to a five-period day. For the past three years, the high school has been using an eight-period day, which was instituted more because of cuts and reductions than because it would be a good fit with Phillips students, according to principal Colin Hoogland. In the interest of using their resources to the best of their abilities, PHS staff felt the eight-hour days were ineffective and unproductive.

The schedule that will be implemented during the 2015-16 school year has been in development since August 2014 when a committee was formed with the end goal of creating a schedule that would work long-term for the district. “Our kids are involved in so much – extra curriculars, sports – we needed something that works for them,” Hoogland added.

Read more: Price County Review

It may be “school’s out” for the rest of the Chequamegon School District, but the business end of things goes on as usual throughout the summer. The school board met last week at the Glidden campus and although there were no members of the public in attendance, the usual reports and communications were presented.

It appears that next year’s district budget remains on tender hooks until which time the state budget is signed, sealed and delivered – hopefully by the end of this week.

A written report from district administrator Dave Anderson stated that the state Joint Finance Committee had finally recognized the financial challenges faced by school districts coming out of consolidation. A motion was authored in regard to resetting revenue limits to ease those challenges; however the motion included only the district of Chetek-Weyerhaeuser and excluded the consolidated Chequamegon (Glidden/Park Falls) district.

Read more: Price County Review

Band students from the Prentice and Phillips High School traveled to Boston earlier this year, where they had the opportunity to experience a different world of musical highlights and historical sites.

Justin Lindgren, Phillips band director, and Andrea Cress, Prentice band director, accompanied the students on the trip. “Justin Lindgren asked if I would be interested in taking any of my band students on a trip to Boston with his group,” said Cress of the trip, which included Prentice students for the first time. Some of the students on the trip had never been out of the state of Wisconsin, and this offered a great opportunity for them to experience different areas of the country.

Prentice ninth graders, Tyler Andreae and Carolyn Bauer, gave a presentation on the class trip to school board members at a recent meeting. “We really want to share our activities with you,” said Bauer, “because you are the ones that made this all possible.”

Full story: Price County Review

On May 25, Family Dollar officially welcomed customers into a newly constructed store on Park Falls’ Highway 13, moving local retail operations of the merchandiser from the city’s downtown.

The physical relocation process kicked off last fall with the demolition of the old Hardee’s building on the property where the new shop was set to go up.

“Our goal was to locate the store closer to where our customers live, as our stores are rooted in value and convenience,” stated Cliff Cermak, community affairs specialist for Family Dollar. “We’re very pleased with our new location.”

Full story: Price County Review