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Contact: Local News Editor Gary Johnson

City/Region
715-833-9211 800-236-7077

LEADER-TELEGRAM

Monday
July 23, 2012

3A

gary.johnson@ecpc.com

Blogt Bea

Farmers market withstands weather

Cold-growing crops, apples affected, but downtown mainstay still bustling
Editors note: Gimme 5 is a five-question interview on a topic of local interest. With the Chippewa Valley having an unusually early spring and recently enduring droughtlike conditions, how has the market been affected? It mainly affected specific vegetables or fruits. (For instance), some of the first asparagus that came up this year froze, so we may not have had the quantities we would usually see. With the heat we are not seeing as much of the colder-weather crops such as lettuce greens, spinach and radishes. Are prices changing at all related to the weather conditions? I havent seen any changes in prices that are weather-related. Prices seem to be in line with what we saw last year. Will some produce be harder to find this summer? As most of us have heard, the apple crop has been deeply affected by the early, warm spring and then a freeze. Apple supplies will be down by about 80 percent, which may very well drive up prices too. We may see less sweet corn from the farmers who are unable to water. Will the weather have an impact on income for some of your local vendors and, if so, what will it be? It may be in a different way than you would think. On the very hot days we are seeing a drop in our customer base. Not as many people are venturing out in the heat. Is there still a good selection at the market, and do you expect that to continue? There is a beautiful selection of vegetables and berries right now. The vender tables are heaping with a large variety of fresh, local produce. I expect that to continue throughout our market season. Eric Lindquist

Protect pensions
Report praising states system reinforces need for ongoing attention to budget matters
Editors note: Following are excerpts from more than a dozen staffwritten blogs posted each week at LeaderTelegram.com. Recent reports have praised Wisconsin as having the best-managed public employee pension system in the country. Thats great news, because a number of other states have badly underfunded pension systems that are going to overwhelm them if they dont take action soon, according to a recent report by the State Budget Crisis Task Force. State governments are getting hit from all sides, the report said. One of the biggest hits is that Medicaid spending is rising far faster than state revenues, resulting in cuts elsewhere, notably state aid to K-12 schools and public universities. Other problems, as gleaned from the report in the July 18 New York Times, include states not setting aside enough money to cover health and retirement benefits for their workers, sales tax revenue lost to Internet purchases, gas tax revenues not keeping up with road-building needs, and distressed major cities needing state help. Wisconsin recently went through a painful exercise to lower public spending through Act 10. That hasnt solved all of our budget challenges, but, as was noted, we are in far better shape than most other states because we stopped whistling past the graveyard. The task force report noted problems in other states, ranging from New Jersey and Virginia failing to make all required payments to its pension fund, Texas pushing off paying $2 billion worth of payments into the next fiscal year to make it look like its budget is balanced, and Illinois simply piling up billions in unpaid bills and borrowing money to put in its pension funds, the Times story said. State and local elected officials in Wisconsin need to stay on top of our budget situation including longterm pension liabilities because the Medicaid funding challenge isnt going away, and that will continue to strain budgets elsewhere. They also need to be ready to scream bloody murder in the event the federal government concocts a scheme in which Wisconsin taxpayers are asked to bail out taxpayers in other states whose lawmakers gave away the store for lack of backbone or simply to buy votes. Don Huebscher, editor

Deidra Barrickman
Title: Market manager for Eau Claire Downtown Farmers Market. Talks about: The impact of this years unusual weather on the market.

From left, Keith Brantner and his sons Kyle, 14, Ajay, 5, and Evan, 6 check out their cucumber patch recently in their section of Our Roots Community Garden in Durand.

Two green thumbs up

Community garden sees increased demand in its second year
By Chuck Rupnow Leader-Telegram staff
URAND Evan Brantner was pretty sure the greencolored lump on the end of a vine in the Our Roots Community Garden would be a pumpkin. The 6-year-old was pretty proud of that pumpkin, and brother Ajay, 5, had one to show too. Keith Brantner, the boys father, said the gardening experience has been awesome for us. We rent one of the duplexes near here, and we dont have the availability to have a garden there, so when this came up, we jumped at it. Its great to have fresh produce from here. Keith and his wife, Heather, run a day care center. The garden offers an op-

Staff photos by Chuck Rupnow

Around Town

Durand
portunity for the Brantners to take children on trips to the site. Weve walked over here a few times, and its been good for them to see how things grow, Keith said. The group planted corn, green beans, peas, cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe and pumpkins on their two 20-by-20-foot lots. There are a total of 30 lots, as well Our Roots Community Garden near Chippewa Valley Hospital in as two raised beds for those Durand is in its second year of operation. All the lots have been with difficulty bending. claimed, and produce from the garden must be used for personal See GARDEN, Page 4A use or donated, but not sold.

Paramedic goal achieved

The Menomonie Fire and Ambulance Service reached a seven-year goal recently by becoming the first paramedic service in Dunn County. Menomonie fire Chief Jack Baus said having paramedic service is considered the gold standard for emergency medical service care. Within five hours of the change, the department used paramedic drugs to help patients being transported. Having the designation of a paramedic service means ambulance crews can provide more cardiac, respiratory, psychiatric and pain management medications and procedures for patients. We have a lot of tools at our disposal, Baus said. We can do a lot more good for people in our county. In the first two weeks, paramedic medications were issued 24 times to 18 patients to provide pain relief or possible life-saving measures long before they were at the hospital. The department has eight paramedics on staff. They work two shifts with three paramedics and one shift with two on duty. The goal is to eventually have four paramedics on duty per shift. Baus plans to continue hiring firefighters who also are paramedics to meet this goal. In addition to providing service to city of Menomonie residents, the Menomonie Ambulance Service contracts with eight surrounding towns. Pamela Powers, reporter

Aldean lets his voice make big statement

By Alyssa Waters Special to the Leader-Telegram
Country music star Jason Aldean performs Saturday night at Country Jam USA west of Eau Claire in the town of Union. View more photos at LeaderTelegram. com/photo.
Staff photo by Shane Opatz

Fireworks burst in the distance behind Jason Aldean as the country superstar took to the Country Jam USA stage Saturday night. It was perfect timing considering his energy level resembled that of a firecracker. The crowd definitely was in for a treat considering Aldeans first six songs all were radio hits. No need for Aldean to ask Jamgoers to sing along. The mostly 20and 30-something crowd took on that task with no prompting.

See ALDEAN, Page 5A