Brian Jopek
Recent Stories
Winchester town board mulls law enforcement needs
The four Vilas County towns that worked to get the Northwoods Emergency Medical Services District (NEMSD) formed and operational – Winchester, Boulder Junction, Manitowish Waters and Presque Isle – are looking at possibilities regarding sharing other services.
Trash talk in Winchester; to lease or not to lease the transfer station
What the town of Winchester will do with its transfer station – continue to operate it or let a private firm run it – was a topic of discussion at the Dec. 8 town board meeting. Town chairman Joe Discianno said he’d visited with Chad Metzger, owner of Lakeland Disposal, following the November meeting in Eagle River of the Landfill Venture Group (LVG).
Cassian town board approached about room tax
The Cassian town board is weighing the possibility of entering into a room tax agreement with the Tomahawk Regional Chamber of Commerce (TRCOC). The topic came up at the town board’s November meeting and Charis Lau, the TRCOC’s executive director and a resident of Cassian, attended to introduce the topic.
AV-W schedules more interviews for principal position
The search by the Arbor Vitae-Woodruff (AV-W) school board to find a successor for principal Rich Fortier will go into January. Fortier announced at the September school board meeting he was retiring from AV-W and the Wisconsin education system. He will stay on until the end of the 2025-26 school year.
Vilas County files lawsuit against Woodruff company
Months after Arbor Vitae residents who live near the area of the U.S. Highway 51 and Snyder Road intersection began showing up at town board meetings to complain about land clearing activity near their homes, Vilas County filed a lawsuit on Dec. 2 against Richard and Nick Trapp, or R&N Real Estate Holdings of Woodruff.
Oneida County public works committee conducts ‘after action review’ of storm response
In the wake of what was not, by many accounts, a good showing by the Oneida County highway department in response to the season’s first major snowstorm on Nov. 27 and the days after which dumped at least a foot of snow in many places throughout the county, the Oneida County board’s public works committee discussed the matter for nearly 45 minutes at its Dec. 4 meeting.
Town-owned building for sale in Lac du Flambeau
The former fire station in downtown Lac du Flambeau is officially for sale. That was the result of a brief discussion regarding the structure on Wild Rice Avenue known as the “Wild Rice station” at the Dec. 3 town board meeting.
First snowstorm of the season
The first storm of the winter season arrived in the Lakeland area and points north overnight on Tuesday, Nov. 25. Through Sunday, snowfall totals, according to Gus Kaiser, a forecaster with the National Weather Service office in Green Bay, ranged anywhere from a foot in the Minocqua area to nearly two feet in Manitowish Waters, two and half feet in Land O’ Lakes to nearly three and half feet or more of snow in the Hurley area.
One man dead in Presque Isle fire
A structure fire in the early morning hours of Nov. 28 destroyed a home in Presque Isle. According to a press release from the Vilas County Sheriff’s Office, the dispatch center received a 911 call at 6:25 a.m. reporting a structure fire on Crab Lake Road.
