First departure of Diny administration | The Weekly Wausonian

Wausau news for the week of June 6, 2024

Mayor Doug Diny’s administration announced Wednesday its first department head departure. Community Development Director Liz Brodek is leaving the city effective July 5.

The Wausonian broke this news last night to paid subscribers, possibly prompting the press release Wednesday morning.

According to the release, Brodek is taking a role with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. “I speak for the entire city when I say, best wishes, Liz Brodek, on your next venture,” Diny said in a press release. “We’ll miss her creativity and passion, but we’re excited for her next steps.”

That news comes on the heels of positive news about the Wausau mall redevelopment project (which The Wausonian was the first to report that it is actually happening) but also on the heels of city council concern over Diny’s committee assignments.

Wausonian readers got the scoop on the Wausau Center mall redevelopment project kicking off:

And we shared details of the Riverside Fire District Chief allegations:

What else in Wausau?

The boring capsule: Wausau School District officials celebrated finding a time capsule from 1961 while doing work on John Muir Middle School — only to find it basically contained paperwork. The capsule contained exciting items such as a Wausau Daily Record-Herald newspaper, an operations manual and some tax information. (To be fair, the hippie stuff didn’t really surface until the late 60s.) District leaders said they plan to bury a new time capsule with stuff that’s a little more interesting that will better signal the zeitgeist of the time.

Whose parks? Our parks: The city’s parks committee this week erupted into controversy over a decision on whether or not it should become a standing committee. Apparently when the city and county formed a joint parks department, they both nixed their own committees to form a joint parks commission with members from both. But now the city has its own parks committee and handles city parks issues, with the county parks commission handling county issues. That leaves three city council members on the county parks commission spending two hours on issues that have nothing to do with the city. The whole thing is kind of a confusing mess and city leaders decided to take a month to sort things out.

Veto spaghetti-o: Mayor Doug Diny announced this week he was vetoing a decision to spend development department money on developing a plan for the north Riverlife area. You can read the details in The Wausonian’s story here (second item). Since then, The Wausonian learned that there hasn’t been a mayoral veto in Wausau since Mayor Jim Tipple involving the sober server ordinance. That means none happened under Robert Mielke or Katie Rosenberg. The veto will automatically come up at the next City Council meeting for possible override, and under state rules one of the four who voted no would need to change their vote for the veto to be overridden (because it would require 8 votes to achieve a supermajority of the 11 members).

Around the metro

High-speed pursuit: Marathon County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested 21-year-old Justin Allen Phillips following a high-speed pursuit that began in the town of Mosinee and ended in Wausau early Wednesday morning. Deputies say they attempted to stop his vehicle, which had been reported stolen to the Plover Police Department, on Highway KK and Burma Road. Phillips was transported to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries and then taken to Marathon County Jail. Deputies stopped him using a tire deflation device and then a pursuit intervention technique to stop him on Highway 51.

This week in data

Population decline: Greater Wausau Chamber of Commerce President Dave Eckmann delivered a gloomy speech to the city’s Economic Development Committee Tuesday. Eckmann said Wausau is losing the battle for talent as the population is shrinking. The metro statistical area (which includes all of Marathon County and Lincoln County) gained steadily in the 2010s, only to start dropping off since the pandemic. Wausau’s population looks similar, nearly hitting 40,000 before pulling back a few hundred people recently.

Letters to the editor

Just a reminder that paid subscribers can submit letters to the editor! Be sure to send your letter to the editor to keepitwausome@gmail.com, and we will run it in a future edition.

Business

New Dudley Tower neighbor: According to Department of Revenue records, a shell corporation of Lokre has bought the building at 11 Scott Street, across from the Dudley Tower. The building sold for $250,000, according to those records.

Thrive to sell to new owners: Thrive Foodery is selling to new owners, according to a report given at the city’s Economic Development Committee. That came up as city leaders were discussing debt Thrive owned on its commercial rehabilitation loan. The new owners, who expect to close on the business by the end of the month, operate another restaurant in Marshfield.

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Entertainment

Thursday, June 6: Kevin Troestler is one of those old-school country players, and I am here for it. Whether he’s jamming a blues riff or rolling with some country, Troestler can shred. Troestler will be joined at Sconni’s by Chris Lalonde as part of their patio music series. 5-8 pm. More at their Facebook page.

Saturday, June 8: Pizza on the Farm at Stoney Acres is a summer must-do already, but this particular night might truly be a must-see. Emily Triebold is an opera singer who has performed at Carnegie Hall and is a finalist for the Pasadena Vocal Competition — so to say she’s got the chops is an understatement. Triebold and her husband Adam, a music teacher in Athens, will bring you a night of opera (along with a pop set) to go along with your pizza and beer. Music typically runs 5-8 pm, pizza typically starts at 4 pm. See Stoney Acres for more.

Tuesday, June 11: In the world of children’s entertainment, Tom Pease is a local legend. Pease has been performing children’s material for decades now, starting his programs in 1982. Pease performs more than 200 shows per year, now performing for children of the children he once performed for. Pease’s philosophy is that our society sings less and less, and he wants to spread the joy of singing to children to reverse that trend. Expect plenty of audience singing, laughs and joy as Pease puts on this 45-minute show at Oak Island Park. Two shows, 10:30 am and 1:30 pm. Free. See the event page for more.

Looking for kids/family events? Check out the family-oriented listing from The Wausonian’s partner Wausau Mama, who puts together a weekly listing of children/family activities.

Sports

Baseball: Wausau East lost its second playoff game to SPASH last week, eliminating the Lumberjacks from the tournament. Wausau East was the last area team alive in the playoffs.

Boys tennis: D.C. Everest’s Ted Kitchell lost his first-round match to Andrey Semin of Brookfield Central in a close 6-3, 3-6, 10-7 match. Kitchell was the only other player in the tournament.

Girls soccer: D.C. Everest beat Eau Claire Memorial 2-1 Saturday to advance to the WIAA Playoff Finals. The Evergreens will face Hudson today (Thursday) 7 pm at home. No other Wausau area team is still in the tournament.

College baseball: The Wausau Woodchucks are off to a record start to the season, undefeated at 8-0. The team’s second sweep of the season came against the Fond du Lac Dock Spiders. The Chucks faced the Dock Spiders again Wednesday night after press time.

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