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Courier Sentinel

Cornell has hit on a new idea to deal with an ever increasing Canadian geese problem at Mill Yard Park. With excessive droppings and feathers, a coyote decoy has been purchased. The device has worked successfully in keeping geese away from the Burnet Island State Park beach. +++ Cornell has been home to the DNR Ranger Station for many years, but the time to move on has come, as plans are in the works to construct a new building on County Hwy. S in Jim Falls. The old ranger station has been outgrown and is no longer large enough for the modern equipment. It is hoped that within the next two years, the new station will be built. +++ The first week of school for the Cornell School District has gone well. Superintendent Paul Schley noted that the district is down 77 students. The 4K class, which normally has around 30, or higher, has 19 kids. Many parents have opted to wait a year to enroll their children.

The Thorp Courier

Thorp High School students will be attending school five days a week. The school is using the Cohort Model to help reduce exposure to other students. Students will be assigned to a group that will attend classes and events together without mingling with other groups to help avoid spreading the virus. Cohorts have groups of 18-24 students assigned to a specific classroom. +++ Thorp’s 7th Annual Midsummer Shootout was held on Saturday, August 23. There were 91 pullers in the truck and tractor categories and the event was judged a huge success.

Bloomer Advance

A picture of excavation and site preparation for a Dollar General Store in New Auburn was shown in the Bloomer Advance. However, it was reported that a company representative states that no decision to open a store has been finalized. Another area community, where Dollar General will be opening a store is Cameron, where an opening will be occurring in September. +++ The Bloomer FFA Alumni and Chippewa County Dairy Promoters are teaming up and donating $600 worth of cheese curds to the Bloomer Kids Lunch Program. The cheese curds were purchased from Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery. Since mid-July, free lunches have been given to any kid wanting one thanks to the Bloomer Food Pantry and area churches.

O-W Enterprise Chris Kulinski of Lublin was recently one of two recipients of the HL Kuse Award for preserving the history of Taylor County. Chris has been active in promoting and preserving the Polish heritage of Taylor County through the Eastern European Cultural Society.

The Clark County Press

The Neillsville City Council unanimously approved a women’s suffrage event for August 26, at the downtown gazebo. A local group will be putting on the celebration noting the 100th anniversary of a woman’s right to vote. +++ Recently it was discovered that having two city alderpersons on the library board was illegal. State statues indicate only one council member can be a part of that board. Council Member Dave Harnisch was removed, but not without his stating he held the legal position as he had replaced the former council member legally in that position.

Tribune-Phonograph

Members of the Fire District serving Abbotsford, Colby, Dorchester and several area townships saw their dues lowered by $106,500 for the 2021 budget. This 29% reduction in the annual assessments comes from a combination of added revenues and reduced expenditures in the district’s 2020 budget. +++ The auditor for the City of Abbotsford said during her annual presentation that she would like to see the city replenish its general fund balance after several years of watching it drop. The city’s fund balance decreased over $61,000 from 2018 to 2019 according to the report from the accounting firm. Fund balances should be 15-25 percent of the overall budget, which would have been $281,000 in 2019 for Abbotsford. +++ Abbotsford’s Plan Commission signed off on a raze order last week that will compel the owner of a dilapidated garage to tear down the structure within 30 days. The garage has been deemed “Dangerous, unsafe, unsanitary or otherwise unfit for human habitation and unreasonable to repair.”

The Sentinel & Rural News

Local contractor Jim Bohl has made an offer to purchase another lot in Owen’s Countryside Estates to build a three bedroom duplex. Since building his first duplex, he has had 15-20 people call to rent a duplex. +++ The Clark County Chapter of the Friends of the Black River are again cleaning the river shores in the Neillsville area. They had hoped this year to expand their efforts into the Greenwood and Withee areas. However, due to the coronavirus those plans have been pushed back at least another year.

Tri-County News The Osseo-Fairchild School District was another rural school district to be awarded $15,000 from the Bayer Fund’s America’s Farmers Grow Rural Education Grant. Osseo-Fairchild will use the funding to offer access to and train students on using humanmachine interface robotics to control systems in pneumatics, hydraulics, electro-mechanical, electronics, and process control so they can better prepare for future employment. +++ A busy August 10, Osseo City Council Meeting resulted in approvals to build a new band shell in Central Park and the purchase of a new piece of voting equipment – ICX Touch Screen Tabulator and ICE Optical Scan Tabulator.

Buffalo County News

There are four “farm to fork” venues in Buffalo County. They all serve wood-fired pizza topped with fresh ingredients grown close to the kitchens that produce the pizza. They each have interesting histories and several are run by transplants from the Twin Cities who were looking to escape big city living. These are their names: Sunset Gardens Pizza Farm, Farm to Fork, The Stone Barn and Barn Again Lodge. Each has their own unique features and several offer other amenities. Check their websites for more information and directions as to how to get to them. +++ A new traveling exhibit on 19th century poverty and housing is being featured at the Chippewa Valley Museum in Eau Claire from September 1 to October 20. The exhibit titled “Jacob Rijs: How the Other Half Lives,” features the use of photography to show the face of poverty at the turn of the 20th century. If your interested you can call 715-834-7871 to learn more on attending these live programs by phone or computer.

Banner Journal

Black River Falls Schools are looking forward to reopening. They also have contingency plans if they need to close. “If a building or district is needing to close, the health department talked about short-term closures being far more effective than any long-term closure. If the school needs to close for two-weeks, everyone will go online; then return to face-to-face.” +++ The Jackson County Board voted to approve setting aside $170,000 in American Transmission Impact Funds towards construction of an automatic truck wash at the Jackson County Highway Department.