Sawyer County Record

08/06/2025

08/04/2025

The public can now rest easy knowing the bear with a plastic jar stuck on its head was freed near Cable over the weekend.

Since this 70-pound, 2-year-old sow was first spotted with a jar on her head on July 26, she traveled more than 50 miles for about a week while incapacitated. She was spotted in Sawyer, Bayfield and Douglas counties before being freed by a trained wildlife professional.

The sow did not have any injuries and has been relocated to a safe wooded area to recover.

Photo courtesy of the USDA APHIS Wildlife Services.

08/04/2025

8/3/25 @ 9:40am

--Daylight Loss in August--

I don't know about you, but I've definitely been noticing that the amount of daylight has been getting shorter lately, especially within the last week or two. Unfortunately, we are going to continue to lose more and more daylight as the month goes on. After all, the summer solstice was nearly a month and a half ago.

Here's a map that depicts roughly how much daylight will be lost throughout this month. About 70 minutes for southern and SE WI, along with portions of SW WI. About 80 minutes for all western, central, NE, and eastern WI, most of northern WI, and portions of SW WI. About 90 minutes for all of NW WI and a small chunk of northern WI.

Wausau had a sunrise at 5:44am and sunset at 8:24pm on August 1st. By the 31st, the sunrise will be at 6:19am and sunset at 7:38pm. That is a daylight loss of 35 minutes during the AM and 46 minutes during the PM. 81 minutes of daylight lost in August total. We will add even more daylight loss to this as we enter the fall months! A sure sign that winter will be here before we know it!

07/31/2025

Editor Rich Jackson column: Veterans tribute is not worth $250,000--just look

The sad thing about the secrecy of approving the veterans memorial is that we’ll never know what was said.

But we know some things.

This from a transcript of the open meeting.

As supervisors talked about a full board vote, some supervisors noted what had happened outside of public meetings. Supervisor Jim Evans noted he saw a rendering of the tribute, helping him to support it.

With that came the rendering attached to this column.

The rendering is a public record despite it being shared in an email to supervisors rather than during the board meeting on June 19.

Supervisor Marc Helwig, who once adamantly opposed the tribute, said the rendering changed his mind. “Especially with this picture she brought forward. And we know that’s just an idea at this point. But, with the flag, something like that.”

Next Supervisor Ron Buckholtz said, “I know it was talked a lot in the finance committee. There was talk there would be money left to do — to help out the vets that are running a raffle to get money to do whatever they want to do for the vets down there.”

Down there means the Winter area.

Next Buckholtz said, “if it don’t get approved here, then that’s saying that Winter is not gonna get a part of that money.”

Then Supervisor Stacey Hessel, the person behind the veterans tribute project, said “But keep in mind, some of the discussion was made in closed session.”

When it should not have.

Keep in mind the point of the closed meeting was for the county to enter into negotiations. But county Administrator Mike Markgren had already done the work of negotiations, so that’s a moot point.

None of the talk about how to spend up to $250,000, once negotiations were done, should have been in closed session because it had nothing to do with what’s covered by the state statute.

Twice, Hessel admonished fellow supervisors that their remarks were from the discussion was in closed session.

Legally, there’s nothing wrong with that. Closed session is only allowed in a handful of situations where the municipality needs protection from legal or financial action. It should be the anomaly, not the normality.

And yet 10 supervisors, most of them Republican or conservative in nature, have voted to spend public funds — and remove a property from the tax rolls — that didn’t have to be spent.

And on what?

Please look at the rendering attached to his column.

It’s ridiculous.
The county is going to spend a quarter million dollars for something that is little better than a billboard — and not an attractive billboard.

In an email to the Sawyer County Record, county administrator provided the rendering and promised to shepherd county meetings more closely so that violations of state law. That was after the newspaper consulted an attorney who represents the Wisconsin Newspaper Association said it seemed clear violations were made.Ultimately, the question is this: Does any supervisor have the integrity to re-open the vote so that this money is either spent more wisely or not at all?

07/31/2025

Jane and Dan Fastelin of Hayward were surprised recently when they found a fawn on their front welcome mat at their home.

After looking more closely at the creature they discovered the fawn had porcupine quills embedded in her nose area. This is a serious situation since quills have barbs that cause them to work their way deeper into the flesh. The quills carry bacteria and infection, and can easily take hold. The fawn was also in danger because she was unable to nurse with the quills there.

Jane said they started to call around to figure out what they could do.

--

Read more from Kathy Hanson in the July 30 edition of the Record or online: https://www.apg-wi.com/sawyer_county_record/paywall/baby-fawn-quilled-saved-by-hayward-couple/article_7acd49ad-1e30-41db-8ba5-9467640e3c9b.html

07/30/2025

It's Wednesday, which means it's time to grab the newest copy of the Record!

Catch updates on local food pantries, the Tricky Trout Triathlon, editor Rich Jackson's latest column on the veterans' tribute and lots more.

Thanks for reading.

07/27/2025

07/24/2025

Gov. Tony Evers announced on Thursday that he would not seek reelection to a third term.

In a social media video thanking his family and supporters, Wisconsin's Democratic governor shared his decision to retire. His term will expire in 2027.

07/22/2025

STORM TRACK WEATHER ALERT! As of 3:30pm Monday afternoon heavy rain leading to flooding through Wednesday could become a major issue. Amounts and locations can change so stay tuned for future developments at www.wdio.com/weather

07/19/2025

Editor's column:

A reader on our page wrote a nice note about my last column that she enjoyed the use of humor.

Good thing she doesn’t know me personally.

Those who do note that when I’m not working, I try to be funny all the time. That only works about 20 percent of the time but as my daughter notes, if her jokes only land 35 percent of the time, that’s a baseball hall of fame rate.

And that’s the opinion of a professional.

You see, my kid has an actual degree — with honors — in comedic arts from Emerson College. The school is only one of two in the country with the degree, competing with Columbia College in Chicago.

A huge chunk of Hollywood’s funny people come from Emerson, going back to the 1950s with Norman Lear.

But I think I’d like a little credit for my kid being a professional smart-ass. You see, I was raised by unprofessional comedians who always searched for a punchline to something I said. When I was a kid, I felt a great joy in my heart when I could make mom or dad laugh. When I was in second grade, my dad bought me a collection of the great radio comedians so I grew up on those. Bob and Dave remain my favorites for their surrealism years before Monty Python showed up.

If there was a comedy show on TV and I somehow had control of the TV with three brothers, we’d watch comedy. Three Stooges, Marx Brothers, Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, and Laurel and Hardy topped the list.

When my kid was about 10 years old, she made a funny comment to me in front of a store clerk. He said, “You have a funny kid.” I told him I was trying to teach her the history of comedy. He said, “I hope you go all the way back — to The Smothers Brothers.” I said calmly that I was going to take her back to Aristophanes, the ancient Greek who parodied Socrates and others 300 BCE.

But kid wasn’t ready until she was 13 because there are more mature themes.

“Dad,” she said. “The ancient Greeks were dirty.”

Look up “Lysistrata” if you want to know what I mean.

Classic comedy, I said. Blue is easy. Classy is tougher.

She went to comedy camp in Los Angeles when she was 16. Killed.

She started college at 17 because I entered her into the public school system early — I honestly didn’t know what else I could do with her.

My favorite story of her in grade school, in fifth she had a gifted-and talented-class where part of the process was creating a product. She made a Rasputin Pillow Pet.

Now she’s in Hollywood, working on a show where she’s assistant show runner and learning the process of making a TV show. She was asked to read for a part on the show of a 35-year-old ugly woman. HBO executives said she was too young and too pretty.

I love her much.

Rich Jackson is regional manager for newspapers
in Hayward and Spooner. He can be reached [email protected] or at 715-718-6445.

07/19/2025

FIRST ALERT: Here's the latest Air Quality Forecast from the MPCA. The smoke will move in Saturday afternoon from north to south. The smoke will linger Sunday as well.