Phillips Headlines

The first Chequamegon School Board meeting in the spring is traditionally the time to elect members to administrative positions and get the board organized for the upcoming year. Such was the case with the April 28 meeting.

It was announced that former Board President Adam Hoffman has recently accepted new employment and although he wasn't present at the meeting, District Administrator Dave Anderson said that Hoffman had indicated that he would decline a nomination to be re-elected to the position of president because of his new work schedule.

Elected to serve as president was board member Jim Wilson, representative of the Towns of Eisenstein and Sherman.

Read more: Price County Review

The Phillips Logger track teams each placed sixth in Abbotsford Tuesday, April 28. The girls had three athletes win their events and both teams had solid contributions from all their athletes.

Megan Meives won the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:05.67. Emily Kopecky won the 300-meter hurdles with a time of :51.70. Danielle Norwick won the 800-meter run with a time of 2:41.32.

Read more: Price County Review

University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross said on Friday that he doubts a public authority will become a reality for the state’s university system.

The idea to make the UW System more autonomous was included in Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget.

But since then, some lawmakers have come out against the public authority proposal, since UW leaders still wanted to maintain shared governance, tenure and control over tuition.

Read more: Price County Review

A few miles east of Park Falls on Highway 182 stands a very tall TV signal tower, looking oddly like a science-fiction structure stuck in the center of remote northern forests. Standing at 1,466 feet tall, the Wisconsin Public Television tower is the tallest structure of this kind in the upper Midwest, drawing in signals for people to watch on glowing TV screens. But the tower serves another purpose as well, quietly operating as a scientific data-collecting point for the past two decades with support from the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

UW-Madison Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Professor Ankur Desai is one of the scientists who gathers information from instruments on the tower, using it to study changes in the atmosphere. He said, “This particular area is very representative of the landscape across Minnesota and the Upper Peninsula, so it gives us a good overview of the entire region.” Desai also works with the Nelson Institute Center for Climatic Research (CCR) and other groups to use the data gathered in the field.

Read more: Price County Review

The relisting of the gray wolf as an endangered species in the western Great Lakes region has renewed debate over its recovery and how to manage wolves.

Fifty-five years ago, gray wolves were nonexistent in Wisconsin. Since then, their numbers have grown to just under 700. Dave MacFarland, a large carnivore specialist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, said the back and forth with the wolf’s protected status changes how agencies manage them.

“Now that we have implemented a hunting and trapping season in the state that was designed to reduce the population and was effective in doing so, that’s a pretty significant change in the management of the species,” said MacFarland.

Read more: Price County Review

The Iron County Board is seeking reimbursement from the state for expenses related to an iron ore mine proposal in the Penokee Hills that the company Gogebic Taconite has recently backed away from.

Iron County Board Chair Joe Pinardi said the board unanimously approved a resolution to seek around $60,000 to $70,000 in reimbursement from the state. Pinardi said the county’s Mining Impact Committee will submit an application to the Mining Investment and Local Impact Board.

Read more: Price County Review

It's not the casual users. The reliable and responsible drivers of All Terrain and Utility Terrain vehicles cause few problems and bring valued tourism trade to Price County.

Park Falls Police Chief Scott Straetz says he's not concerned with those riders and he is indifferent to the current amendments to county ordinances that would allow the vehicles to be ridden on the pavement of Price County Highways. After all, Park Falls is open to ATV riders and Straetz said that riders can get to anywhere in the city.

"Opening the county highways would not make much difference in the ATV traffic here," he said on Monday night, before the Park Falls City Council meeting. "They can get anywhere they want on the marked routes and the city is surrounded by trails. Once you get on the trails, you can go just about anywhere in Northern Wisconsin."

Read more: Price County Review

A great many people have been riled about a great many things in the proposed 2015-17 Wisconsin state budget and Price County is no exception. That fact was made clear by several resolutions authored to underline budgetary concerns at last week’s meeting of the Price County Board of Supervisors.

Despite the long list of over two dozen resolutions, the supervisors elected to vote on each resolution individually before sending the documents on.

Health and Human Services presented their priority number one to support retaining the existing model of Family Care. The idea of dropping the community care and placing both physically and mentally disabled individuals under a statewide insurance umbrella had many worried.

Read more: Price County Review

The Price County CDAC met for the last time this year on Thursday, April 23, to go over public comment received and make a final recommendation on the antlerless harvest permits issued for the 2015 hunting season.

Approximately 70 people filled out the online questionnaire, while 50 people completed the written survey. Only one member of the public attended the actual meeting on April 23.

In the written comments received, there was a running concern over predator numbers, which (according to the comments) many of the commenters feel are rising and doing damage to the deer herd. Commenters seemed divided between youth, disabled, and veterans receiving doe tags (a topic the CDAC meeting has no control over), with several stating absolutely no doe permits should be issued for anyone, including members of those groups.

Read more: Price County Review

At the Monday, April 20 meeting of the Phillips School Board, a preliminary snapshot of the 2015-16 budget projections was reviewed – a picture which finance manager Leah Theder noted will be clarified throughout the summer.

“As the numbers firm up, and after the governor updates his budget, we'll have a better idea of where we're at. But right now it looks like we could have a $41,000 deficit for next year,” said Theder, reminding board members of the difficulties of trying to predict changes.

Board member Stephen Willett noted that almost certainly the school district will not see the shortfall, and district administrator Rick Morgan agreed

Read more: Price County Review

Hello friends,

Each spring, on the second Monday in April, the Department of Natural Resources and the Wisconsin Conservation Congress hold their annual spring meetings, which are held in all 72 counties in Wisconsin.

These meetings provide the opportunity for the public to vote on potential rule changes and modifications that quite often benefit those of us that enjoy the great outdoors.

Full story: Price County Review

There isn’t much you could do, though, when a long-anticipated event gets rained out. You can rant and shake your fist at the sky but you know that’s energy wasted. The best you can do is rent a movie, re-schedule your event – and read “Rain: A Natural and Cultural History” by Cynthia Barnett.

Eons ago, just after Earth became more than a bit of debris flung off in the birth of the sun, water vapor got trapped in our planet’s atmosphere. Eventually, Earth’s surface cooled enough that that moisture poured down and it rained for years. That’s a good thing: without it, there would be no life here.

Read more: Price County Review

A freshman Republican lawmaker from northwestern Wisconsin is working to spare the state's two-year colleges from Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed cuts to the University of Wisconsin System.

State Rep. Romaine Quinn of Rice Lake said he isn't opposed to the governor trimming the UW System, but he’s drawing a line when it comes to the 13 UW colleges across the state. Walker’s budget would cut the state’s two-year campuses by $6.5 million. UW-Barron County is in the heart of Quinn’s district and he said there’s no fat left to trim.

Read more: Price County Review

The ground behind me absorbs my wet boot prints, their outlines ghosting as the snow melts into the soil leaving marks like faded tattoos.

The woods are eerily silent this morning, as if the thin layer of new snow was a blanket muffling sound. On the marsh, the only sign of life is a pair of mallards drifting among the softly falling white snow flakes.

Read more: Price County Review