Even bats could use a good home…two years ago

Just before Halloween, in 2015, the Wisconsin DNR announced that it had built new condos for brown bats that had been living in the old I-90 bridge at Dresbach, which was about to be torn down.  As many as 3000 bats had set up a colony inside the metal bridge…a good warm place to raise their young “pups”, according to DNR bat specialist Heather Kaarakka.  The condos were built on poles beneath the interstate bridge.  By the following summer, about 500 bats had moved into those new homes.  
 
That October, a large audience packed into a La Crescent community center to debate the future of a lighted cross and star on a local hillside.  The Lions Club had posted the light display many years earlier, but the Freedom From Religion Foundation wanted the structure moved off public property, because it violated the separation of church and state.  The city of La Crescent eventually decided to move the star and cross to a different hill.  
 
The most popular prime-time TV show in America that fall was “Sunday Night Football” on NBC.  Also making the top 10 that season…”The Big Bang Theory,” “Dancing with the Stars,” “The Voice,” and the record company drama “Empire.”  Two years ago, 2015, yesterday in La Crosse.