News

The Color Dash is a Minnesota-based organization whose mission is to raise local money for local causes.

The Color Dash is coming to Rhinelander for a 5K run in August to benefit Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Northwestern Wisconsin. Big Brothers and Big Sisters provides professionally-supported one-to-one mentoring services, serving 450 childen in nine northern counties including Oneida, Vilas,  and Price.

Mary Kinnunen of Big Brothers Big Sisters says this family-friendly 5K race is very different than most fundraising races....

Wednesday evening,  the public is invited to a return meeting to help shape what downtown Rhinelander will look like the next half-century.

City officials are planning an upgrade of the underground utilities in 2016 with a primary focus on Davenport, Brown and Stevens Streets. About the same time, Downtown Rhinelander, Inc. is helping to coordinate a re-do of the above ground portion called the "streetscape".

Lac du Flambeau celebrated the tribe’s purchase of the historic Strawberry Island Thursday.  The land was privately held for over a hundred years.

About a hundred people gathered on Sand Beach across from the island that gets its name from its strawberry-like shape.  It’s the site of an important battle between the Ojibwe and the Sioux peoples.  Lac du Flambeau Chairman Tom Maulson says it’s also spiritually important. 

Saturday evening(7/19) at Nicolet College in Rhinelander you can relive the radio days of yesteryear with a live production at the LRC Theater. Raven Radio Theater presents "Doc Merriweather and the Case of the Carved Wooden Box". Local actors help build the story of a mystery with Northwoods roots. Storyteller Joe McHugh wrote the production. McHugh has been heard on NPR programs and has traveled widely collecting and writing stories.

Joe McHugh talks about the performance...

Integrys Energy Group, the holding company which owns Wisconsin Public Service, has decided to sell about 200 acres of its Awassa Lodge property along Lake Content  in St. Germain. The land is divided into 23 primarily lakefront lots. Integrys also owns 235 acres not adjacent to the lake. They are negotiating with a single buyer for that land. An auction will be conducted on September 18 at the St. Germain Community Center.

Kerry Spees from Wisconsin Public Service says the land no longer was part of their mission...

Two bats in Vilas county have been diagnosed with rabies in the past week and a Vilas county health official cautions the public to make sure pets are vaccinated.

Rabies is an infectious disease affecting the nervous system of mammals, including humans. People and unvaccinated animals can get rabies from an infected animal. If caught soon enough in humans, it can be treated, but if left untreated, it is almost always fatal.

       At a meeting Wednesday,  the trustees of the Walter E. Olson Memorial Library in Eagle River discussed the effort to transfer ownership of the library property to the town of Lincoln.  The City of Eagle River has owned the property since the library was built in 1980.  However, City officials want to transfer ownership of the property and end its service as fiscal agent by August 15th.

The emerald ash borer is having a big impact on forest landscapes and some commercial interests, as it continues to wipe out ash trees in Wisconsin and other parts of the U.S.  It also threatens a traditional Native American style of basket weaving. 

It can be easy to forget that a wooden basket comes from a tree.    

Eagle River is hosting a long-running art show and sale this weekend.  About a hundred exhibitors will participate in the 42nd year of Artarama, the juried fine art event. 

Artarama chairperson Lori Hahn says it’s a competitive process to get into the show, and a committee tries to select a diverse representation of art forms.

“We jury the artwork in March, and we try to pick a number of artists in several different media.  It ranges from painters to potters, woodworkers, chainsaw carving, metal sculpture…” 

Vilas county authorities say no foul play is suspected in the death of Sandra Schinke of Plum Lake, whose body was found  almost 18 months after she disappeared.

Schinke was reported missing from her residence in Plum Lake on April 6, 2012. Her body was found near a snowmobile trail on September 20, 2013. Schinke's remains were found east of Sayner in the Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest. At the time of death she was 55 years old.