METRO BRiEFS
by B.C. Kowalski
School swap
Merrill’s school board approved sending Maple Grove to the Athens School District, saving it from closure After years of fighting the potential closure of Maple Grove School, parents of the little red school house can breathe a sigh of relief: It’ll be safe in another district. The Merrill School Board Thursday night approved granting a petition that would see Maple Grove, an elementary grade charter school, transfer from the Merrill Area Public School District to the Athens School District, a move that would prevent it from being closed. The Athens School Board on Saturday also approved the measure, which would see Maple Grove as part of the Athens School District by Fall 2021, petitioners hope. MAPS had talked about closing the school for some time, and the last time it attempted to close Maple Grove, the school became a charter school instead. But that didn’t prevent the latest attempt, which resulted in a foundation forming to save the school. Maple Grove is a historic elementary school that dates back to 1870 when the first iteration of Maple Grove was built across the street from its current location to serve the children of German immigrants who lived in the Hamburg area. The residents built a new school across the street around 1900, where the current school has stood since, with some renovations and additions over the years. Parents have long adored the school for its nature-based curriculum, snowshoe walks for gym class and activities such as maple syrup collecting and chicken raising. Parents who spoke in favor of the school at numerous meetings talked about driving their children longdistance, or moving to the Hamburg area just so their children could attend the school. It’s not yet clear whether that means the lawsuit MAPS filed against Maple Grove, alleging it hadn’t lived up to its contract as a charter school, will be dropped. The decision seemed a reversal from previous attitudes toward the school. While initially it was thought the Merrill district would lose money from state funding if the school and its students transferred (state funding is determined by per pupil calculations), analysis by the district showed the school would transfer $1 million in assets but gain almost $2 million in reduced expenses. That, coupled with the fact that Merrill no longer seems to want Maple Grove and Athens does, seemed to make the decision a no-brainer. The Department of Public Instruction will next review the transfer. Peter Wade, president of the Maple Grove Foundation, says there is a lot of work to do to hopefully be ready for Maple Grove to be part of the Athens District by fall 2021.
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CiTY PAGES
March 4-11, 2021
Convention and Visitors Bureau searching for new director
Richard Barrett, director of the Central Wisconsin Convention and Visitors Bureau has retired from the organization as of Friday, a source familiar with the situation told City Pages. The job listing is currently posted on the employment site Indeed.com, and lists a salary of $23-35 per hour. Barrett became a source of controversy last year after leaders in Wausau and several other municipalities that contracted with the CVB accused him of collecting and withholding room tax money meant for those municipalities. The money came from travel website Expedia, which under a new law was supposed to remit some room tax money to municipalities. Barrett contended that he always intended to turn the money over to the municipalities but agreed to collect the money from Expedia because Expedia reps couldn’t get in touch with municipal leaders. City leaders countered Barrett only turned over the money after city leaders learned about it and reached out to him asking about it. The incident led to several contentious meetings and several municipalities pulled out of their agreements with the CVB. Rothschild partnered with the Mosinee Chamber of Commerce to handle the money from room tax dollars that need to be handled by a tourism organization, for instance. Several municipalities are going through an arbitration process with the CVB to see if they can come to an understanding with the CVB and work with them in the future, Wausau Finance Committee Chair Lisa Rasmussen told City Pages. No interim director has been appointed yet, sources close to the situation tell City Pages.
City collected more room tax money than expected
Room tax dollars turned out to be a little higher than anyone thought in the city of Wausau. City Finance Director MaryAnn Groat told city leaders recently that there will be $153,000 worth of room tax money available for the city’s Room Tax Commission. The commission was formed so that it could control a portion of the room tax dollars the city receives to market toward new events. Initially the city funded only 75% of its continuing appropriations for ongoing tourism-related organizations, but the dollar amount the city received through room tax funding was higher than expected — because of the limits COVID placed on travel in 2020, less was expected to come in than normal. Groat told the city’s Finance Committee that the room tax commission would be reviewing some new grant requests related to tourism-related events and activities soon.
Sustainable Resources suing Schofield
The owners of the mobile home park in Schofield are now suing the city, according to court documents. Sustainable Resouces, the Cheyenne, Wyo. based owners of the Hidden Lakes Estates Mobile Home Park on Grand Avenue, is suing Schofield alleging that it was never told that it needed to renew its license and that the process followed as improper. Sustainable Resources bought the property in 2018 and promised to fix it up to health department and city standards. The park had come before the city council in Schofield many times with numerous health and building inspec-
▲ Children play on the playground at Maple Grove in Hamburg. The school will begin the process of transferring to the Athens School District, which essentially saves the school.
tion violations and previous owners were inadequate in addressing those issues. Sustainable Resources attorneys say COVID had a strong impact on the park. The company didn’t collect rent from residents for several months, it said in its filings, and it lost its property manager, who they simply stopped hearing from. The suit comes on the heels of Schofield suing Sustainable Resources over operating without a license and back pay to the city. Sustainable Resources hasn’t paid its taxes for 2018 or 2019, owes money on its utility bills, parking fees to the city, and for money the city spent to raze vacant mobile homes, city leaders allege. More vacant mobile homes need to be razed on the property, said Public Works Director Mark Thout, because they’re a health hazard. As it stands, according to city documents, Sustainable Resources owes $33,433 to the city and $66,743 to the county — a total of $100,000, according to the suit. And the city hasn’t had any contact with Sustainable Resources, Mayor Kregg Hoehn says.
Heroin bust confiscates nearly 80 grams
Police arrested a man they say was planning to sell nearly 80 grams of heroin in the Wausau area — and that heroin was laced with fentanyl. Officers with the Central Wisconsin Narcotics Task Force, with assistance from Everest Metro and Sheriff ’s Office