LA CROSSE TALK PM: La Crosse County admin Jane Klekamp debuts, talking new job, housing homeless, fix the damn roads

A few months into the new job, La Crosse County Administrator Jane Klekamp in studio Tuesday for La Crosse Talk PM. We discussed a slew of things from what is a county administrator, to bridge housing to hiring a diversity consultant.

La Crosse Talk PM airs weekdays at 5:06 p.m. Listen on the WIZM app, online here, or on 92.3 FM / 1410 AM / 106.7 FM (north of Onalaska). Find all the podcasts here or subscribe to La Crosse Talk PM wherever you get your podcasts.

Klekamp has worked within La Crosse County since 1989. She took over for Steve O’Malley mid-January, after he retired after 19 years as the county’s first-ever administrator.

A big part of the conversation was about bridge housing for families and how the county is doing in that regard.

Also spent some time on “fix the damn roads,” free jail phone calls, and declaring racism a public health crisis. The county recently hired a diversity, equity and inclusion consultant named Chanin Kelly-Rae to help deal with that.

Lastly we hit on some of the programs that were expanded during COVID that are coming to an end, a new south side meal site and potentially a fifth one in West Salem through the Aging-Disability Resource Center and using American Rescue Plan Act funding for solar panels on county buildings.

Oh, and had to ask Klekamp what kinds of things she’s commenting on, on social media.