The second CEO in less than a year has resigned from North Central Health Care.
NCHC announced Jill Meschke’s resignation Friday. Meschke had served as the interim CEO of the quasi-governmental health care organization since July, following the resignation of Michael Loy. Loy had resigned amidst an investigation into a retention program that provided school loans.
Meschke appeared to be serving both as interim Chief Executive Officers as well as Chief Financial Officer. Her resignation leaves the organization without either position unless someone is appointed internally as interim in both roles. No interim employee was announced for either role.
The Wausonian has requested a number of documents related to the situation and is working on a longer story about this.
What else in Wausau news?
The new Children’s Imaginarium, which is supposed to open this year yet, is now hiring a director. The Imaginarium has reached 94% of its fundraising goal, putting it at $3.6 million raised toward the museum. The Imaginarium also could receive a grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. that could help cover the $253,000 the museum has left to raise.
A consultant hired to study the city’s bus system from the ground up found the majority of adults surveyed wanted expanded service days and routes to other municipalities. The city hired the consultant to look at the transit system from the ground up, and developed a new plan to address the bus system’s declining ridership. Currently the system is in a catch 22: lack of weekend or evening routes, or routes outside the city limits, limits the growth of ridership; but the lack of riders makes it hard to grow services. The consultant, RLS and Associates, will provide recommendations this summer and will help apply for grants to help the city put those recommendations into place.
Around the metro
Remember that proposal to help “decriminalize” marijuana? The county’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee decided to look at all the county’s ordinances and the fines and forfeitures related to them. Part of that is due to the fact that a large portion of the fines the county collects from many of its ordinances end up going to the state.
Want more? Check out the latest issue of City Pages (and the Spring Fine Arts Preview), on stands along with the full issue online every Thursday.
Entertainment
It might be hard to think about anything outdoors right now, with Wednesday temperatures reaching the double negative digits, but it will be much warmer for Winterfest this Saturday at the 400 Block. Running from 11 am to 1 pm, check out the ice skating, curling demonstrations, ice sculptures, a gaming tent all outside on the 400 Block with kids crafts, temporary tattoos and other indoor activities in the nearby Great Hall. (Mask required indoors.) See the event page for more details.
CORRECTED: And if you're looking for a more athletic adventure, check out this year’s Wausau Winter Triathlon at Nine Mile Forest Recreation this Sunday. Nordic ski, snow bike and snowshoe run the course starting at 10 am. $90 individual, $150 relay. Sign up by noon Saturday for the Sunday race, no on-site registration. See the event page for more details and registration.
Want to go wild and crazy this weekend… playing bingo? No, I’m serious! The Eagles Club will host a Moonshine Bingo 7 pm Saturday - it’s glow in the dark, wild and crazy bingo, and it gets pretty rowdy I hear! This isn’t your grandma’s bingo (it’s past her bedtime anyway) so come on out for this fun time. Playing bingo. Who’da thought? See event page for more details.
Sports
The Wausau West girls basketball team remains undefeated in Wisconsin Valley Conference play. The Warriors defeated D.C. Everest 63-46 on Tuesday to remain 8-0 in Valley play. The Warriors have the lowest scored against average in the conference, and have benefited from the rebounds of Kelly Kray (second in the Valley) and the shooting of Alexis White (3rd in the conference in 2-point and 3-point baskets). Everest is 4th at 3-5 and East is last at 0-6.
Wausau West Hockey is still atop the Valley Conference standings, but now with a loss on its record. West loss 6-5 to Wisconsin Rapids Tuesday in double overtime, bringing the Warriors’ record to 7-1. They next head to Marshfield Feb. 3. Everest is fifth in the league at 2-6 and East is last at 0-8.
The Central Wisconsin Storm (girls hockey) is now 14-3 on the season after getting an away 11-1 win against Medford Tuesday.
On the pod
This week we welcomed Wausau Mama, who has built a Wausau institution around guides for parents to the Wausau area. And she also launched a book this week! Find it here: https://amzn.to/3H5N4lC
B.C.’s picks
This week I wanted to highlight the music of Zola Jesus. She’s a dark pop/experimental star who has played internationally, but who calls the forest between Merrill and Wausau home.
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