The ash trees were starting to come down, 7 years ago

In May of 2012, the La Crosse park board was told by tree specialists that about 5000 ash trees might have to be removed from city parks, following the local discovery of the emerald ash borer, an invasive insect that was destroying the ashes.  The park department had been warned about the spread of the bug six years earlier, and there were warnings that the borers would eventually kill all the area’s ash trees.  

Wisconsin’s lieutenant governor was traveling the state that May, fighting for her job.  Rebecca Kleefisch was the target of a recall drive, along with Governor Scott Walker, because of the opposition to the Act 10 law putting limits on some labor unions.  Kleefisch believed that voters were sick of non-stop campaigning and political fighting, going on for three years.  She told reporters that a Wisconsin state law limits recall attempts against any single elected official to just one special election per term.   

And a new summertime music festival was being introduced in La Crosse.  The Valley View Rotary launched “Noon Tunes” at Riverside Park, a live concert at the bandshell one afternoon a week during lunch time, for a 12-week period.  Within a few years, the concerts were switched to early evening, and are now called “Moon Tunes.”  The concerts began in 2012, yesterday in La Crosse.