Wausau news: County closes juvenile detention facility amidst worker shortages

Weekly Wausonian for April 14, 2022

Apr 14, 2022

Marathon County late last month closed down its secure detention facility for juveniles. Why? Because they don’t have enough workers.

The county is down 13 people at the Marathon County Jail, and is scrambling to hire more. That led to the county closing the detention facility after closing the shelter in December. It allowed the county to shift correction workers over to the jail.

The secure detention facility typically only housed one or two Marathon County juveniles; most of them were from other counties, and those counties paid Marathon County to house them there.

The county has an agreement with Portage County for one secure jail bed - if there are more juveniles sentenced in juvenile court, they’ll have to go to facilities such as Eau Claire.

Paid subscribers this week read exclusive reports about the Wausau real estate market trends, and my analysis of the 2022 spring election. See them below, and subscribe to read in full:

The Wausonian

Is Wausau real estate finally plateauing?

Only a couple of months after I’d bought my first home in 2016, I’d had a chat with my realtor who happens to live next door. I asked how the real estate business had been going. She was completely sold out of homes, she told me. That year, 2016, was the year that average home prices of those sold started rising, and they haven’t really stopped since. The numbers are similar: houses sold every month nearly always beat the previous year. Even the pandemic seemingly couldn’t seem to stave off demand…

a year ago · B.C. Kowalski

The Wausonian

Analyzing the spring election

Both my City Pages and Wausonian stories declared the spring election largely a victory for conservatives. I wondered a bit how this would be received. Would it look like cheerleading? Or the opposite of that? I assure you neither. If anything depresses me, it’s that partisan politics found their way into local elections. But otherwise I consider myself an objective spectator. In the spirit of baseball season, I’m just here to call balls and strikes and the occasional close play at the plate…

a year ago · 1 like · B.C. Kowalski

What else in Wausau news?

Wausau received seven new city buses with money from a class action lawsuit settlement against Volkswagon. Bottom line: City gets new buses to replace its older ones. BUT, the buses come at a time when the city is hurting for drivers. Of 26 positions, it’s short nine drivers, the transit director tells The Wausonian.
Northcentral Technical College received a $250,000 grant from the Dudley Foundation. The tech college will use the money to start a communications center focused on video production and other communication media. The center, called Studio 7, will be built out in existing campus space.
John Kroll has requested a recount in the District 1 City Council race. Kroll lost to Carol Lukens in District 1, an open race to replace Pat Peckham. The recount will take place at 11:45 am today (Thursday) in the Maple Room at City Hall.

Around the Wausau Metro

Speaking of recounts, Timothy Shaw requested a recount in the Kronenwetter village board race. Shaw tied with Danielle Bergmann after the board’s canvassing of the election, after initial results had him in fourth place. After a recount, Shaw won a tiebreaker.
The plan to build a regional morgue in Marathon County got a boost as there is now a plan to help fund it with $2 million in pandemic relief funding. The funding should help spark additional investment, and if that money doesn’t come through, the $2 million could go to something else.
Marathon County will get two new prosecutors as part of a state plan to eliminate court backlogs across the state. Marathon County Court has seen tremendous backlogs thanks to the pandemic shutdown. The county will need to add support staff to help the prosecutors.

Entertainment

Friday, April 15: It’s pretty safe to say at this point that Adam Greuel is a household name. The lead singer of nationally known bluegrass act Horseshoes and Hand Grenades also has two solo albums, a partnership with comedian Charlie Berens and is part of a supergroup of bluegrass greats. So getting a chance to see him for $10 at Sconnie’s, with an all-star backing band The Rib Mountaineers (a great name, BTW) is a pretty big deal. Check out the events page for more.

Saturday, April 16: That’s right, it’s Easter, and also too it’s time for holiday puns in event titles. The latest is the Eggstravaganza at Marathon Park. Sponsored by the county parks and rec department, bring your kids to the park to hunt for easter eggs and enjoy arts and crafts and other kiddy-type stuff. 10 am, hunts for all ages. Here’s the event page to mark your calendar.
Also Saturday, April 16: I quipped on Twitter today :
B.C. Kowalski @BC_Kowalski
OK, hear me out: What if it's an easter egg hunt, but at 8 pm, for adults, and the eggs are filled with various liquors and mixed drinks?
7:24 PM ∙ Apr 13, 2022
Turns out, someone did it. (Sort of.) The Office will have an adult easter egg “hunt” — basically you get an egg with some kind of prize, and there are $2 mamosas. Probably safer than my idea, which would likely prove to be a drunken disaster. Here’s the event page.

Sports

The Wolfpack Girls Lacrosse team regrouped after an earlier loss to win in comeback fashion against the Wauwatosa Crusaders.

The Wausau Wolfpack Girls Lacrosse team split a pair of games Saturday. The Wolfpack lost its first game to the Westside Madison Crusaders 15-1 but rallied from behind to win its second game against the Wauwatosa Blazers 6-5.
Girls softball finally got off the ground Monday - but unfortunately the result was a lost for Wausau West. The Warriors dropped their first game of the season to Marshfield 9-1. Most other games were postponed, and no Wausau area baseball team has played yet either because of rain postponements.
Wausau West Soccer lost its first game of the season, as postponements delayed other teams’ first games. The Warriors lost 3-0 to Wisconsin Rapids on Tuesday.

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