Brian Jopek

Recent Stories

From Lakeland to the Air Force Academy

A graduate of Lakeland Union High School (LUHS) is headed for the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Kristiana Clay graduated from LUHS in 2025 and spent the past year at the New Mexico Military Institute at Roswell, N.M.

On the road to a resolution? Oneida County weighs 30–mile Lynn–Minocqua takeover

The Oneida County board’s highway committee continues to gather information related to requests from the towns of Lynn and Minocqua regarding a jurisdictional transfer request submitted to the highway committee in March. The request is, essentially, asking to transfer Willow Road in Lynn and Pine Lake Road and Squirrel Lake in Minocqua transferred from the town road inventories to the county highway system.

LdF search for Beson continues

Law enforcement personnel from several different agencies were out in force on June 3 and 4 in another round of the search for a missing Lac du Flambeau woman. Melissa Beson was 37 years old at the time of her disappearance; the last time she was reported to authorities as having been seen was March 17, 2025 and on April 3, 2025, an “endangered person alert” was issued by the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Wisconsin Crime Alert Network (WCAN) that included two photos of Beson.

Woman arrested for cemetery vandalism

A 20-year-old Lac du Flambeau woman was formally charged June 4 with criminal damage to a cemetery or mortuary, a Class I felony, in Vilas County court in connection to vandalism and damage at Lac du Flambeau’s Memorial Cemetery.

AV-W school board hires a new EL coach

Nearly a month after committing the Arbor Vitae-Woodruff (AV-W) school district to a $44,450 contract with Expeditionary Learning (EL) for the 2026-27 school year, the school board Monday approved the contract for the district’s next EL coach.

Winchester town board to appoint third member June 22

With Nicholas Newton presiding over his first Winchester town board meeting as town chairman Monday, he and town supervisor Robert Silvis made the decision to appoint a new town supervisor during a special meeting on June 22.

Winchester, Presque Isle to explore sharing a town administrator

Winchester’s town clerk will serve on a joint shared services committee made up of people from the towns of Winchester and Presque Isle. That was the result of a discussion during the Winchester town board’s June 8 meeting at which town chairman Nicholas Newton, who opened the discussion by saying he’d talked to Presque Isle town chairman Al Eschenbauch and that the Presque Isle town board had “addressed a similar topic” at a recent meeting there.

Vilas County public property committee forwards housing resolution

The Vilas County board’s public property committee Tuesday forwarded a resolution to buy a tri-plex in Eagle River not far from the county courthouse for $650,000. Committee chairman Joe Muelbach said the funding, if ultimately approved by the county board, to purchase the structure with two double bedroom units and a single one bedroom unit would come from the county’s general fund.

Woodruff’s Dr. Kate Museum begins its 38th year

The Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb Museum in Woodruff opened its 38th year with an open house on Tuesday, June 2. For three hours, visitors were welcome to tour the museum’s exhibits, which this year includes a special exhibit intended to mark and celebrate the 250th birthday of the United States.

MHLT school board commits to an operational referendum

The possibility of the need to go to financial referendum of some sort to help fund operations at the Minocqua Hazelhurst Lake Tomahawk (MHLT) school district had been hinted at over the course of the past few years by Dr. Jim Ellis, former district superintendent.