After the fireworks comes the round of applause

Another Liberty Fest is in the rear view mirror and according to all the major players – Chetek PD, Chetek city shop, Chetek Chamber of Commerce – it was one of the best on record. According to Chief Mark Petersen in his 39 years with the department it was the best (and if you know the Chief you know that's high praise.)

Here's a few factoids that may interest you:

■ Chief Petersen shared with me that they put out a “car counter” near the VFW on Saturday to get a count of how many vehicles were making their way out to the Fishy Four, the Craft Fair and the Vintage Car Show. When he asked me how many I thought they had counted I guessed 5,000. I was 17,000 short. Yes, you read that right: 22,000 vehicles crossed the marker sometime on Saturday alone! Think about that for a moment and then think on this: given all the people that were town over the last four days there was only 1 fender-bender, 23 traffic citations issued and no major crimes whatsoever (rape, robbery or assault). “What other town of 30,000 people in America could boast such numbers?” the Chief asked me.

Our driver on Monday, Mark Palma, who has been driving in parades for over a decade, assured me that the reason things run so smoothly here is credit to our police force who are efficient and professional in the directing of traffic and ensuring that things run as seamless as they appear to do. Indeed, every time I saw any one of the guys and Jessica this past weekend, they were going about their duties as they are wont do on point and with a smile on their face. Even Chief, who thinks the Fishy Four is a traffic nightmare waiting to happen given how many pedestrians and vehicles are in close proximity to each other over the length of the course, almost seemed to have a smile on his face on Saturday morning as I ran by him.

Almost.

■ Meanwhile, the City shop guys were busy picking up after all us revelers hauling – wait for it – just under 11 tons of garbage off to Almena over the past four days alone. According to Director of Public Works Dan Knapp, he shared Chief's assessment that it was one of the smoothest run Liberty Fests in many of years. The parks and the streets were in reasonable good shape afterward and in case you weren't paying attention, the city street sweeper was out early Tuesday morning giving the streets a good once-over. When that job was complete by 7:30 a.m. you wouldn't have guessed that just the day before the streets from Knapp to Douglas to Second to Leonard had been lined with people in some places a couple rows deep.

■ I didn't hear back from Jennifer Blatz, Liberty Fest coordinator, but according to Chief Mark between Friday, July 1 and Monday, July 4 “she never called me and I never had reason to call her” which by inference I take to mean things ran pretty much without a hitch. Think of all the people that were in town – playing ball, running the Four, strolling through the Craft Fair or the Car Show, attending the street dances or the beach party, sitting somewhere either on the shore or in the water watching the fireworks – and not one thing to write home about? That is something to raise an eyebrow or two and to be thankful for!

Plus the weather was nigh unto perfect – a constant light breeze, temperatures in the 70s, plenty of sunshine and low humidity. I don't know if we could have dialed up a better weather pattern.

So here's to you Chetek PD for keeping us all safe and doing so in such a capable manner. Here's to you City Shop guys. You keep us looking good and do so while the rest of us are hard at playing and contributing to your work load. Here's to you, Jennifer Blatz and your stalwart band of volunteers for your hard work in helping pull off our annual celebration of liberty. Here's to the wait-staff of every restaurant and eatery in these here parts and to the cashiers at Gordy's, Kwik Trip and all the other service places in town. I have it on good

authority that while most customers are patient and accommodating, there are enough bad eggs and jerks out there to make your job unnecessarily stressful. (To the guy who left my daughter a 1 cent tip – yes, 1¢ - the other night at the restaurant she waits at complaining all the while how slow the service was, well, there are plenty of other communities out there who await your largess. Feel free to visit them.)

Yesterday (Wednesday) as I walked into Gordy's it was clear the storm had passed. Instead of every lane and the service desk packed six deep with anxious customers a welcome calm pervaded the store. We live just a few blocks off of Second Street and as I sat on my front porch reading last night the town felt decidedly more settled after the frenetic activity of the weekend past. We can all now catch our collective breath. You may even be able to turn left onto the main drag for a change. It sure was fun, wasn't it? But, gee whiz, it sure is nice to get back to the quiet normal that we're accustomed to. 

 

Flush

Flush.

All of us who live in town do it at least once a day. Realistically, a lot more than that. In fact, it's such a routine activity of our daily lives that we don't even think about it when we do it. Until something breaks and then it's about all we can think about until the matter is dealt with.

The same goes for our wastewater treatment plant. Out of sight, out of mind. Until something goes south there and then – if that happened – it would literally be the talk of the town.

Mike quipped that the barbed wire is to keep him in

The other day I got the grand tour of our municipal wastewater treatment plant and received an education from Plant Operator Mike McGinnis. Of all the guys who work for the city, Mike is the grand old man now in his 35^th year of service. He's not only smart and affable but able to explain in lay man's terms the mystery of what happens at the facility below the dam.

Sexton Street Lift Station

The gate where it all flows in

The Primary Clarifier

One of our RBC turbines. That sheen is the "slime" that does the eatin'

Inside the Final Clarifier

That big round building is the Digester

The Sludge Holding Tank - NOT potable water

The ultraviolet disinfecting happens in the right-hand tank and then it is released
into the Chetek River

Follow the arrows and dotted lines

In very simple terms, it's like this: When someone on, say, Pleasure Street, uses their toilet, the waste runs to the lift station on Sexton Street. One of six spread throughout the city, a lift station does exactly that – it lifts the refuse and makes sure it keeps flowing to the treatment plant on Water Street. When it gets there it enters the plant through a Fine Screen and then moves through the Primary Clarifier that essentially separates the liquids from the solids. From there it goes to the RBC Units and that is where the “magic” happens. If you were to google “waste-water treatment technologies” a page would come up at Wikipedia that lists about sixty different terms. A rotating biological contractor essentially grows bugs to eat bacteria that in turn removes pollutants. According to Mike, it's a bit like the trickling filters they used to use before the present system was built – it's the slime that grows on the rocks.

That big panel is antiquated. The newer systems can
be run off a unit the size of a thumb-drive.

After it's spent some time there it moves on to a Final Clarifier where the sludge goes one way and the liquid another. The “sludge” moves to the Digester that operates pretty much like our own stomachs: it breaks it down and then moves it on to the giant blue holding tank in the back where it is ultimately used as spread on area cropland. And the liquid? It moves to the Ultraviolet Disinfection tank where it is “zapped” and then released into the Chetek River, which according to Public Works Director Dan Knapp, is “drinking-water clear”.

The Chetek River has been really moving
these days

Clearly there are a lot more intricacies involved in this process (like phosphorous removal, for example) but essentially this is my version of Chetek's Wastewater Treatment Plant for Dummies. Built in 1982, for the last year or so the facility has been functioning over the design capacity of the plant. On a “normal” day, 380,000 gallons of water will be treated. Just the other day, 500,000 gallons passed through forcing Mike, in his wonderful turn of a phrase, to temporarily store “six gallons of water in a 5 gallon bucket.” Apparently this happens more than we'd like to know but Mike artfully makes it happen which is why we never hear about it. The culprit? These days, Mother Nature what with all the rain we've had and every day lots of otherwise clean groundwater gets processed. That's why Public Works Director Dan Knapp urged us recently to pursue grant money that would help pay for relining the pipes and alleviate a lot of that problem.

Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator, Mike McGinnis.
We should all be grateful that he's on the job.

“She may not be the prettiest girl on the dance floor,” says Mike, “but she still gets the job done.” That being said he is quick to add that we are one year into our current 5-year permit from the DNR and by 2021 we will have to have a plan in place for replacement or serious upgrade of our current facility. Whether we want to hear that or not, we'll be crossing that bridge before we know it and hopefully it won't be over a river of sludge.

Mike McGinnis will be honored for 35 years of service at the June City Council meeting this Tuesday night, June 14, at 7 p.m.

Free dirt

And its totally free

“The moon belongs to everyone
The best things in life are free
The stars belong to everyone
They gleam there for you and me”

“The flowers in spring
The robins that sing
The sunbeams that shine
They're yours, they're mine”

“And love can come to everyone
The best things in life are free”

“The Best Things in Life Are Free” by the Ink Spots

You know the old saying, “There ain't no such thing as a free lunch”? Well, right here in the City of Lakes we got something that is free. Granted, it's dirt. But it's free dirt all the same.

Since the end of April, the city compost and brush site has been open for business on a limited basis. Just like last year, city residents may bring their grass clippings, leaves and small brush to the site at no cost to tax payers. All that is required is a driver's license or a water bill that proves you are indeed a city resident. That's about all of the “Open Sesame” you're gonna need.

Ah, springtime in Wisconsin

A lot of us remember the days when the site was open 24-7 and ran pretty much on an honor system. The May 2 Blizzard of 2013 changed all of that. In the aftermath of the storm, every tree cutting service in the area began dumping truck load after truck load of downed trees, brush and stumps the size of truck tires in our back yard. It was open season and we were ground zero for the clean-up efforts in this part of the county. What's the harm in that? Well, if you recall, the resulting brush pile grew to an unmanageable size. Why not just burn it? The DNR would not allow us to so in the end to alleviate the risk of fire the City had to pay thousands of dollars in unbudgeted money to have it hauled away. A big deal had become an even bigger deal and led to the creation of the system we have in place today.

He really is a friendly guy

While this was before my time here at City Hall, the way it has been explained to me is that in 2014 the city operated without a compost site. In 2015, we reopened the place with the site being manned a few days a week in the spring and fall and every other Saturday during the summer months. Christian Watts is an affable young man and is the gatekeeper to the site. He works for minimum wage and is a credit to our town the way he politely checks residents in as they come to drop off their yard waste. Last week when I asked him how things were going he quickly replied, “Wonderful” with no sarcasm implied.

I know some of us in town wish we would go back to the “old” way of doing things when people could just come and go at their convenience. A few of said as much to me so I thought I would do a little research and learn how our neighbors handle this matter and this is what I learned:

• Barron:They have a no-fee brush site with no posted hours. According to the woman I spoke with you can dump small brush and leaves but no bags are allowed and no grass clippings whatsoever (but how they police that is not clear to me). Director of Public Works Dan Knapp shared with me how he got a phone call from Barron's public works guy just this morning inquiring about contractors who are working in the area as apparently someone dropped off some mighty big trees recently that he believes is related to the storm the other day. Hmmmm....

• Bloomer: The “Jump Rope” city to our south has a compost site that is open 24-7 and that is strictly on the honor system. They'll take leaves, brush and grass clippings no charge. According to the person I spoke with they were pretty confident that abuse is minimal and the system seems to be working. I wonder if their city shop guys feel the same?

• Cameron:Unlike Barron, Bloomer or Cumberland, The Village of Cumberland's website displays the following announcement prominently on their home page:

SPRING CLEAN-UP DAY

VILLAGE OF CAMERON

The Village of Cameron spring clean-up day will be held Saturday, May 14th, 2016, 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Dumpsters will be set up in the vacant lot just North of the Library and Cameron Auto Body. E-Waste and white goods will be collected at no charge. Brush, leaves and household items will be accepted. Proof of residency will be required (tax statement – water bill – driver license). NO CONSTRUCTION DEBRIS OR TIRES WILL BE ACCEPTED.  Anyone found dropping items off early may be subject to a fine.

I think one of any municipality's goal should be disseminating what information its citizens need to know. I think knowing where to dump your yard refuse should be included in that. And yet Cameron and Chetek are the only two municipalities that have this kind of information posted on their website.

What I had to find out by phone, however, is the unique system the Village has in place for its residents. First, their site is only open on the first Friday of every month. Second, in order to dump there you have to stop in at the village hall, get a key for the gate and sign a form. Third, the site is only open during office hours which is not very convenient if you don't get home until after 4 p.m. And finally, you may not leave any bags there, compost ones included.

• Cumberland: The “Island City” also has a compost site which, like Bloomer's, is run on an honor system and essentially accessible 24-7. And just like the person I spoke with at Bloomer's City Hall, I was assured that the privilege was not being abused. What is unique to them, however, is the fee for making sure the compost site remains accessible is passed on to the tax rolls to the tune of $3-$4,000 a year.

A few after hours folks don't know how to read

When I asked Dan about how crazy it would be to return to the pre-2013 site conditions, he replied, in so many words, “very.” Unfortunately, despite the signage to the contrary, far more than brush was dumped off in years' past – appliances, couches, tires and the like were often left and clearly they are not biodegradable. As I've been reminded by more than a few city residents, based on what some people leave at the two recycling bins – TVs, stereos and what-not – how could you trust people to abide by the rules when some clearly have not abided by them in the past? Apparently, last summer one of the issues that arose is some contractors entered the compost site illegally after hours by coming down Hochmayr Drive (near Parker-Hannafin) and then drove their truck down an ATV trail to unload their stuff and a lot of that was construction material (see the picture). Unfortunately, a few bad eggs ruin it for everyone else.

I recognize the limited operating hours is an inconvenience but based on what other municipalities are offering, I think we're doing the best we can with the limited resources we have to work with. Dan assured me that providing that a water main wasn't breaking somewhere in town or some other emergent event, the guys would come through on the last week of every month and pick up brush for those with no ability of their own to haul it to the site. Again, it's not what we used to have but something is definitely better than having nothing at all. Christian will be there to greet you in a friendly manner and he'll direct you where to dispose of your waste. What's more, if you're in a need of some good, fresh dirt for your garden or your flower boxes we got that a plenty and you're welcome to it. My mother loved listening to her collection of records by the Ink Spots when she was in college back in the 50s and like those boys used to sing some of the best things in life truly are free, good composting soil among them.

The sign is presently down in need of being updated

The City of Chetek's Compost and Brush site receives small brush, grass clippings and leaves and you can even leave them in the compost bags you collected them in. Check out the schedule at the city's website City of Chetek or on our Facebook page (City of Chetek)

Lest we forget

“I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.”

Frodo's words to Sam in the closing pages of The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

With the Memorial Day weekend just a few days away, our little town is beginning to feel larger as summer residents continue to trickle home and lots of relatives begin to arrive in anticipation of commencement exercises for the Chetek-Weyerhaeuser High School's Class of 2016 on Saturday evening. Nationally recognized as the unofficial beginning of the summer on account of the holiday weekend, weather providing lots of us will enjoy time in our backyard firing up the grill or out on our pontoon at the lake or frequenting the many graduation parties that will be hosted around the town over the next few days.

What I remember most of Memorial Day when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s is that I spent almost everyone of them in the back seat of our family car returning from a long weekend “up north” at Grandma & Grandpa Martin's cottage. Memorial Day wasn't a day to picnic or visit a cemetery. It was a day to endure the long four hour drive home and then, after maybe a little time to play with my friends in the neighborhood, get ready for bed because after all, as my mom would remind me, “tomorrow is a school day.” No, I had to move to Chetek to really appreciate what the day is all about.

We moved here in the fall of 1991 so our first experience of Memorial Day Chetek-style was the May 1992 gathering at the cemetery the following spring. Back then, the Legion and the Vets used to call upon one of the local ministers to give the address at the cemetery and as the rookie in town I was asked to speak. So there I was on the Long Bridge dressed in a suit and tie, surrounded by a sea of people decked out in shorts and flip flops awaiting the commencement of the parade.

First came the color guard, followed by the CHS Band decked out appropriately in their marching uniforms after which came members of the Boys and Girls Scouts bringing up the rear. The procession paused on the bridge while tribute was given for those who had served and died at sea including a 21-gun salute and a toss of a ceremonial wreath into Prairie Lake. Following this we all completed the walk in respectful silence to the cemetery for the gathering which included a few selections from the band and the seemingly endless playing of “Findlandia” while the Women's Auxiliary arrayed their memorial there. And then there was the speech. I don't recall what I shared. My guess is anyone who was there doesn't recall what I said either – the address system they used then was so antiquated you usually only heard a portion of what anyone said. After I was done, the program concluded with another 21-gun salute and the solemn playing of Taps. When the moment had passed, we were all invited to the Legion Post for dinner, the band recessed to the awaiting school buses and everyone walked home to celebrate the rest of the day grilling, skiing or working in their garden.

The Legion and the Vets call upon one of their own these days to talk at the service at the cemetery and several years ago they added the World War II warplane flyover (which never ceases to thrill me). But other than this, the parade and the service follow the same worn path that has been followed for decades so that being present is like stepping into a time warp of sorts, entering into a sacred liturgy if you will to remember one thing: the cost and price of freedom is beyond counting and we should be ever grateful for those who have done their part to serve and defend our country, that we may enjoy the freedoms and the blessings that we do.

Before the tradition of asking local pastors went away, I was asked several years later to speak at another Memorial Day gathering at the cemetery. In this case, I do remember what I said because I shared a family story that I will relate here in as terse a manner that I can.

My dad in camp "back in the day"

I never served in the military. Both my dad and my father-in-law did, however, serving in the Wisconsin National Guard in the late 50s and 60s. But beyond that it seems that the Martins missed out on all the conflicts of the 20^th Century – both World Wars, Korea, Viet Nam and Persian Gulf I. But in 1861, when President Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers, three brothers from Oskaloosa, Iowa heeded the call – George Washington, Francis Marian and James Madison Martin, my second-great grandfather.

Not him but young like him when he left for war

George, the oldest, mustered into the 7^th Iowa Volunteers and saw action at the Battle of Belmont, Missouri that fall. The fracas, which pretty much ended in a draw, is more known for the fact that it was the first time a yet unheard of Union commander got his baptism of fire – Ulysses S. Grant. George was shot three times and while they were successful in removing two of the bullets a third, lodged right behind his left knee cap, was left in and for the rest of his life, when the temperature plummeted he experienced excruciating pain.

Francis served in the 9^th Iowa Calvary and his war experiences consisted of going out on patrols in Arkansas looking for one Confederate force or another but never encountering the enemy in the field of combat. He was mustered out in 1866 and by year's end he was dead of consumption. Following his death his mother wrote the War Department seeking his pension claiming that all those years sleeping on the ground brought about the condition that contributed to his demise. Her request was denied.

Not him but from the same unit

James joined the 15^th Iowa volunteers and was at Vicksburg. Like a lot of guys involved in that siege he spent some time in the camp hospital suffering from malaria. In 1864, his unit was in Georgia under General Sherman and at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain he was shot in the left arm which led to its amputation. He spent the rest of the war in an army hospital returning to Oskaloosa a year or more after the conflict was over. 

He married, settled down on a farm and they had three children in short order, my great-grandfather Harry being the baby of that brood. But somewhere along the way, something went wrong with James. The way Cora, my great-grandfather's sister who lived to be a venerable old lady living into the Kennedy administration, tells it, one day, when her momma was sickly, James informed the family that he was leaving. Despite the children grabbing him around the legs and begging him not to go, he shoved them away and rode out of their lives for good. He crossed the Mississippi, married the woman he had taken up with and they settled in Minneapolis where he died in abject poverty in 1888. The local G.A.R. post buried him at was is now known as the Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery at the corner of East Lake Street and Cedar Avenue. All that's left of him is a marker whose name was barely legible the last time I was there five or six years ago. And as for the wife he had left behind according to Cora she died of a broken heart leaving the children orphaned.

Three brothers heeded their country's call and marched off to war. One returned lame, the other mortally ill and the third with the use of only one good arm. They served like so many other men in that conflict without distinction. They did their part, they shouldered their weapons and because of their efforts and those of their fellow

servicemen, the Union was saved. But not necessarily for them. Certainly not for Francis, dead by 24, while his brothers' lives were irreparably changed.

So as I gather at the cemetery this Monday morning along with so many others from town when they get to the laying of the wreath at the G.A.R. Memorial, I'll be thinking of those brothers who like so many other young men in that conflict marched out whole to war and returned home wounded and lame or not at all. Regardless of what kind of people they were in life, their sacrifice deserves my respect and a pause out of a day set aside for recreating in a country that is gratefully still free all these years later.

Pvt. James M. Martin's marker

The Howard-Campbell-Ganske American Legion Post #179, AMVETS Post 25, and the Veterans of Foreign War Post #10331 of Chetek service will be held this Monday, May 30 at Lake View Cemetery. The parade will commence at 10:42 a.m., pause on the Long Bridge to pay tribute to those who died at sea and for the World War II warplane flyover at 10:50 a.m., and then begin the service at 11 a.m. at the cemetery.