Weekly News Blast – Town of Grant, Portage Co

Weekly Blast!: The F3 tornado that severely damaged the City of Menasha last week has been devastating to that community. Have you ever wondered what the Town of Grant would do in case of a similar disaster? Recently Portage County Emergency Managers Bob Weinert and Tanner Arnold, T. Grant First Responders Jim Yetter and Keith Kardash, and Clerk Stefanie Schlapa and I met to work on a Local Emergency Response Guide. All Portage County municipalities are required to have this document available, but it needs to be reviewed and updated every so often. Case in point…Menasha. So, what does this Response Guide entail? We must identify where could residents go if their structures were in danger or uninhabitable, and who we the Town could call on to supply three critical items: food, water, and power. Emergency contact names and their numbers are included in the Guide. Questions including if there are critical infrastructures that could be impacted, for example chemical, commercial, communications, emergency services, energy, transportation, etc. In the next few weeks, we’ll be reconvening to make updates to our Guide. Do you have large equipment or a skill set that might be helpful to us in case of a disaster? If so, let Clerk Stefanie Schlapa at 715-213-7370 or me at 715-213-1717 know so we can add your name to the list of contacts. It’s important that we work together if disaster strikes. Have a good weekend. Perhaps rain may fall, Sharon

Posted on December 13, 2024, Edited December 13, 2024 by webmaster

Weekly News Blast

The Board met this week for their monthly meeting. We passed the 2025 budget – yeah! However, one of the big unknowns for next year will be our legal budget. We placed $25,000 in that line item, a large sum for any Town. Unfortunately, our insurer has covered what they will from the lawsuits filed by former Supervisor Heather Grys-Luecht. At Wednesday’s meeting another $4,000+ bill was paid to the attorneys representing the Town; now totally more than $7,000 in legal fees above our insurance coverage of $10,000. We anticipate that we will continue to receive more legal bills unless/until this case is settled or goes to court. It is because the Town itself has been sued that all landowners will be paying legal fees from town taxes. This, versus the case of the utility solar project wherein all our legal fees were reimbursed.

Just in time for the holidays you’ll be receiving your 2024 tax bills from the Portage County Treasurer’s office. You’ll also be receiving our Fall newsletter. There’s lots of news to take in including special reports from both the Portage County Highway and Solid Waste Departments.

Enjoy the weekend; at least it’s warmed up a bit. Sharon