Weekly News Blast – Town of Grant, Portage Co

Weekly Blast: The Town Board held its monthly meeting on Wednesday. Here are several noteworthy items: Road base material awards went to Earth Inc. for ¾” hard rock and to Red Rock Granite, Inc. for 1 ¼” screened red granite. To start, the Board agreed to allocate $14,150 to purchase hard rock to complete a section of Evergreen Ave. west of County Road F which began last year. The final count on Tire Day was 358 tires collected with $2,344 received from residents. The invoice we received from Liberty Tire Recycling was $3,499.51 creating a differential of $1,155.51. This amount will be paid from our town budget and added to the 2026 operational costs of the Transfer Station. Sadly, this difference is due to “road-killed tires” that people live in our ditches and road rights of ways. If you ever see this happening, please note a license plate or other descriptive information that we can pass on to law enforcement. Each year we receive a grant from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for our recycling efforts. We received $2,289.05 based on two components: $1,841.99 from the basic recycling grant award and $447.06 from the recycling consolidation grant award. Thanks are extended to Clerk Stefanie Schlapa for compiling the required information for the Dept. on our behalf. Last evening I attended the Ambulance Board meeting with our partners from the Wood County Towns of Grand Rapids, Rudolph, Seneca, Sigel, and the Village of Rudolph. Gary Johnson, co-owner of United Emergency Medical Response (UEMR) provided an update. If you were at the Town of Grant’s Annual Meeting you may recall two areas of concern which were reiterated last night: People are calling 911 for “lift assists” instead of calling their family, friends, or neighbors. UEMR receives 2 to 4 of these calls per week. These people are not injured but need help getting off the ground, out of chairs, off toilets, out of their cars, etc. Although UEMR is happy to provide this service current state laws to not allow ambulances to divert from a lift assist to a “true” 911 call. UEMR’s concern, due to the large geographic area that they service, is that one day they may have to delay a response to a heart attack, stroke, or other emergency due to a lift assist where the individual has other options for assistance. Accidental Medic Alert activations (bracelets & necklaces). UEMR receives about 2 of these calls per week. Like above, rather than calling 911, family, friends, etc. should be the “first alert” on the device rather than the ambulance. The life alert companies that boast about saving a life every so many seconds do so because they recommend 911 as the first call in a successful effort to boost their statistics. Garry reported that many times people activate these devices simply by rolling over them in bed. This results in UEMR sometimes breaking doors or windows to gain access to homes to find the resident sleeping. It really is true…you learn something every day! Enjoy the weekend, Sharon

Posted on January 17, 2025, Edited January 18, 2025 by webmaster

Weekly News Blast

There are two issues of note this week. The Plan Commission met and reviewed a PowerPoint presentation regarding revisions to the Town of Grant Zoning Ordinance. Our thanks are extended to Secretary Kathy Lee who put together a very comprehensive PPoint which will be presented on Wednesday January 22 at the Public Hearing beginning at 6:30pm. You can preview the UPDATED PowerPoint Presentation if interested.

Yesterday the Public Service Commission (PSC) of Wisconsin signed and served their final decision on the Vista Sands Solar project. If you are inclined to read the 70+ page document you can do that also (click for document). Jon Baker, representative for VSS gave a brief update to the Plan Commission on Wednesday indicating that construction may begin in 2026 and anticipated that it will take two years to construct. Like many decisions there are those that will agree and others that will disagree with the PSC. Regardless of where you stand there is no disagreement that it will change the Town of Grant landscape for a least a generation.

Enjoy the warm days while they last and be prepared for the Artic blast pending. Stay safe, Sharon