Weekly Blast! – Town of Grant, Portage Co

Weekly Blast!: If you live on a hard-surfaced road you may have noticed it looks a little cleaner this week. Thanks are extended to Public Works employee Leo Krueger who used a motorized sweeper to push off the sand mix used this past winter. Others have recently noted bright yellow flowers blooming along our roadsides. It’s likely a plant called Yellow Mustard Seed or Wild Mustard (Latin name Sinapis arvensis) which is a common annual weed in our area. It looks rather attractive this time of year, but it can quickly outcompete other more desirable plants and is deemed an invasive species in Wisconsin. It’s particularly troublesome in farm fields. Three years ago, the Town Board approved mowing Best Management Practices (BMP) to help us address the problem of invasive plants. It’s our chosen way to manage this very real problem using a sensible mowing regiment rather than resorting to pesticide use. The latter is sometimes necessary, but we have not used it to date. I’ve attached the map and narrative here. Grant Road Side Mowing Best Management Practices for Roadside Mowing If you have questions, just give me at call at 715-213-1717. Clerk Stefanie Schlapa, Supervisor Doug Steltenpohl and I met with the WDNR Electronic-Cycle Compliance Specialist Mallory Susdorf this week. She inspected our E-Waste storage trailer, noted our record-keeping, made suggestions for additional signage, and more. Overall, it was a very interesting and positive visit. Clerk Schlapa will be working on additional ideas for signage, and Supervisor Steltenpohl and I are looking at options to consider taking used anti-freeze; something that has been requested for some years. More to follow on these and other upcoming improvements... Perhaps the morning frosts are on their way out soon. I’m tired of wrapping and unwrapping my finicky rhododendron! Take care, Sharon

Posted on April 17, 2026 by vanja

Weekly Blast!

I’m going a little crazy listening to the sump pump run day and night! Got rain? And more on the way…geez. Unfortunately, there is little we can do about the weather. We have received a few complaints about potentially blocked culverts and filling of ditches and are investigating these. The amount of tree fall in our road rights-of-way is adding to potential blockages. Our Public Works crew is doing their best to clear this debris.

You may have noticed what looks like discing along some of the road edges of our unsurfaced roads. That’s what’s being done along some road sections so that we can reclaim some of the road base materials before being graded this spring.

The Plan Commission was being proactive this week by looking at sample ordinances from communities where data centers are being proposed. Because of the large-scale solar projects now slated for our community, plus easy access to plentiful groundwater resources, we may be of interest to these large-scale developers. As such, the Plan Commissioners met with Lynn Markham, UWSP Land Use Specialist to learn how other communities are dealing with these types of industrial developments. Fortunately, unlike large-scale solar developments which are decided by the Public Service Commission of WI, data centers would be under local control should one be proposed in our community.

Always something to worry about… Sharon