Where did Wendt Park go?

 

 

Most people will recognize the Lakeside Park sign made with parts of the Meadow Hill bridge.   Lakeside Park appears to the most recognizable name for quite a number of years, even when the Lake Fair was being held in the 1990's, "Lakeside Park," was the stated place it was being held.

Then the March 10, 1999 reference Wendt Park during a fish crib inspection, along with Wendt Park being labeled on 1990's fishing hot spots maps, leads one to wonder what happened to "Wendt Park?"

Then again, there's the spelling of Wolske vs Wolski, or other combinations.

Or Butch's bay vs the sometimes called "Butcher's Bay."  

In modern times, the Parks and Recreation department of Menomonie seems split and is often confusing to figure out who does the what and where exactly. 

The City of Menomonie website continues to be a horribly outdated design and useless source for finding out information in general, if you're lucky, you'll get a response from someone there if you have a question.  After decades this piece of city infrastructure has gone neglected for far too long.

Menomonie's Lakeside Park

Lakeside Park is a very large space.  Coming around in the later 1980's the park hosted larger events such as the Lake Fair.

Today, the Menomonie Public Library's Storywalk is the most active item in the park, feature different stations of a story to take in while walking around this park's nice asphalt path.

Lakeside Park is THE ONLY place you will find a fishing pier that truly rates for handicapped in the city of Menomonie, ... and it is as far from the parking lot as can be.


The park is well mowed and has some great trees.  The playground equipment is okay, the classic metal slides being removed more recently, there is not much left for the young kids.  Even when the city of Menomonie gets Federal Covid Aid (ARPA) money, the Mayor has his own plans for that and to hell with some newer play equipment in a location such as this.  Or even sprucing up LaPointe park.


But with such a great open space next to a very large parking lot and an existing restroom structure with modern electrical, why wouldn't this be the most logical spot for the 3M Club of Menomonie to set up their company's holiday party location?

Oh, that's right, because it's not all 3M, it's the Mayor's pet project using those ARPA funds.   And only Mr. Mayor has the best ideas in this city.  And 3M has people willing to be obedient.



But let's take a look around Lakeside Park in Menomonie.  It's easy to imagine a very large city light display here, as well as space for different vendors to set up mobile stands in the parking lot, serving visitors to the holiday decorations, as well as being available right near the boat ramp for ice fishing enthusiasts passing through.

 

Wolske Bay Dredging

 Pulling out an oldie image from before any aerators, pumps, or super-expensive dredging "fixes" were done to the north bay and putting it alongside the 2022 north bay dredged area.

Well over a quarter million dollars is the left pictured result of Mayor Randy Knaack's "lake fixing" in just the north bay alone.  It looks almost WORSE than it did before.

But it takes teamwork to make the dream work and in this case, it is the Menomonie City Council that showcases their horrible fiscal decision making by allowing an out of control Mayor to spend this wastefully all while rewarding his loyal citizens that vote the Mayor's way.  Council Member Mary Solberg and Council Member Eric Sutherland voted to support the green outcome above in 2015. This dynamic duo continue their trend of free-dealing loyalist rewards cash in 2022 when voting to give out ARPA funds to the Mayor's pet projects while denying everyone else in town access.

The Ward Two council representative has a longer standing relationship (likely hand-picked for the last election) with the Mayor as well and will easily be a rubber-stamping "yes" Mr. Mayor motion-maker for another year from this point.

Meanwhile, the Mayor's takeover of Wolske Bay Park continues the ever-expanding Christmas Miracle Winter Wonderland, now with $50,000 more to play with.   Plus the Mayor of Menomonie does not have to leash his dog in a public park like everyone else does, looks like the pandemic cash handout lifestyle really works for the loyalists and King.

If one little corner of Menomonie shows this amount of simply wasteful spending, what more are these people doing all over Menomonie and who are the loyal people to the Council Crowd and King that are first to get the dollars from the public dollar trough that you never hear about until it's already a done deal?



Then again, maybe the Mayor of Menomonie will simply continue his trend of not picking up after himself, using city property as his personal storage for his personal projects and this will all turn out to be a great city asset.

But more than likely it will turn out like the lake water warming goose-attracting sand-box Wakanda park beach that the Mayor personally put a border on as seen here in fall of 2022:

Many days of manipulating weak-willed city council members to bend to the Mayor's whims were held here at Wakanda Park Beach years ago over the grilling of hot dogs and staging a "beach cleaning" day by city council people to show "that they are doing something."




Now the bullshit "restore our beaches" campaign has yet to see any progress.   Below, the Wakanda Park Beach house sits deteriorating in 2022 as that city council approved pandemic COVID cash supplies the Mayor's pet projects elsewhere. 

Then again, local power isn't in the hands of the many.   Every good authoritarian politician needs a wealthy power base for support.  And this circles back to the $800,000 city lot used by the Mayor's Christmas Miracle Winter Wonderland group, given glowing reviews and admiration by the wealthy power base and the elite hockey parents who feared not having access to the indoor Dunn County Ice Arena during COVID protocol.


"It has been a huge hit, with Farrah once counting 170 people on the site, which the City Council agreed to lease to his nonprofit for a small fee with the understanding that the facility would be maintained by volunteers and open to the public.

Mayor Randy Knaack is a big proponent of the project, calling it “a fun new thing we put together in Menomonie” that provides an outdoor recreation option for residents right in the city. The facility, which is open seven days a week, officially launched on Christmas Day.

“Winter Wonderland is fun for everybody — young, old and in between,” said Knaack, who identified the site and promoted the addition of activities beyond skating ...."

Everyone patting everyone on the back.

Of course now, the simple $1 a year lease at the Wonderland and run completely by volunteers is now a split divided $25,000 up there and $25,000 down at Wolske Bay Park for the "3M Community Club."


Why do certain people always get the rewards?  Maybe it has always been this way in small town Menomonie?

Why should Mayor Randy Knaack get to live out his fantastical imaginations at the expense of taxpayers after failing with such dollar expense to keep the green out of Wolske Bay? 

Most people in the real world, being the real world workers here in Menomonie, would have been fired for failing to produce with such waste as the Mayor has done here at Wolske Bay Park.  But they give certain classes of people's kids free passes these days, maybe?

What happened to the fiscally responsible elected representatives that years ago shut down the stupidity of a person that wanted public money for a poorly thought out contraption?

Why is Mayor Randy Knaack actively working to shut down other existing city of Menomonie outdoor ice skating options, is it so that everyone has to go play with him in his own little taxpayer owned playgrounds?

Instead of allocating $50,000 to the city of Menomonie Parks and Recreation department to upgrade and maintain what we have in Menomonie, the Mayor of Menomonie is going to personally grab the cash for his own projects.

Be sure to congratulate him for stealing the COVID cash for himself and wasting millions of dollars while you visit with him around the campfires he will be starting at both locations this coming winter as the press serves its' public relations regurgitating the hazy warm-filled "it takes a village" Christmas miracle stories from the charitable people snapping up the cash.







This is a great example of how the office of the Menomonie Mayor works.  Vote for him, do his bidding, get more city cash.  It is that simple.

Wolske Bay Christmas Island of Wonder 2022-2023 evolution

October 28, 2022.

Wolske Bay Christmas Island of Wonder 2021-2022 part three

Check out part 2 if you haven't caught up to this months long secret project.   So the 3M club got the go ahead from the City of Menomonie to do their Christmas even on December 11, 2021.  This one day event featured a lot of lights hung up by that wonderful group and the plan was to leave them up through the holidays for the rest of everyone else to enjoy.

But before that could happen, Mayor Randy Knaack had to clear up his garbage piles, finally remove his algae mixer device after over 6 years of free storage, and the strange pile of bikes and other items  that Mayor Randy Knaack was storing (for free) in the old bait shop.   (Who questionably trimmed the trees here remains unknown but so far, one tree has succumbed to the wind with one of the older, larger pines currently showing signs of potential uprooting.)

After a long time, stumps were finally removed by the city, but Mayor Randy Knaack's budget probably had things like this not a priority for the every day people.  But the 3M was coming....

The interior space of the old bait shop was cleaned up, painted.....

Wolske Bay Park began to be decorated with lights, some of the decorations went against the normal city code when attaching to city park infrastructure or landscaping but when the rules and regulations don't apply when Mayor Randy Knaack is around.

 

The December 11, 2021 3M even occurred and the lights were left up for everyone to enjoy.  Most people don't get out in Menomonie in general, most won't go farther than they can park their car. Questions abounded on the light display, no one knew what was happening, who was doing it, or if anyone could go into the public park.

Of course, this is a public park but the entry definitely created a "gated" event, especially to those who don't make their own fun and use and enjoy Menomonie's great many parks.

Soon, a cleared ice area appeared with landscaping added to the park well after the holidays were over. 

Different items began getting moved around and brought down to Wolske Bay Park, well after the holidays were over....

Such confusion on the light display prompted extra signage indicating YOU, the public, were WELCOME in YOUR city's public park.

Then out of the blue creepy handwritten signs began to appear indicating the "warming house open."

New signs were everywhere.

People associated with the Christmas Miracle Winterwonderland and Mayor Randy Knaack began to appear well after the holidays were over....

Confusion abounded as sketchy people seemed to be operating a bonfire area near the concrete pad and no one could quite figure what was going on and the City of Menomonie was not giving out any information as this group of people seemed to be taking over from the Christmas Miracle Winterwonderland group up the road at 802 Tainter Street.