City planner Acklin explains Lincoln school historic challenge; Country Boom co-founder previews West Salem festival

La Crosse City Planner Tim Acklin joined to talk about the debate over Lincoln Middle School getting historic designation, but before that, Country Boom co-founder Jon Holthaus talks about the huge event in West Salem this weekend.

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.

Some of the interesting things we talked with Holthaus included booking guests a year in advance, and by the time Boom arrives, they’re gigantic stars. Also, he casually mentioned having the move the entire stage the first year, because 19,000 people showed up.

More info and tickets can be found here. General Admission tickets are avaialble for all three days, but VIPs are only available for Thursday — they’re out Friday and Saturday.

LINEUP
Thursday July 13
The Pat Watters Band – 6–7 PM
Blue Collar 40 – 7:30–8:30 PM
Jo Dee Messina – 9–10:30 PM

Friday July 14
Anderson Daniels – 4:30–5:15 PM
Megan Moroney – 5:45–6:30 PM
Warren Zeiders – 7–8 PM
Dylan Scott – 8:30–9:45 PM
Kip Moore – 10–11:45 PM

Saturday July 15
Lauren Watkins – 4:30-5:15 PM
Jackson Dean – 5:45–6:30 PM
Larry Fleet – 7-8 PM
Chris Cagle – 8:30–9:45 PM
Dustin Lynch – 10:15–11:45 PM

After that, Acklin, who manages the Heritage Preservation Commission, breaks down how a debate will happen before the city council decides if Lincoln Middle should retain historical status. The La Crosse School District is challenging that designation, because it feels it can better sell the building without historic status.

We also discussed why Lincoln got that designation in the first place.

After that, Acklin talked more about the commission’s Top 10 most endangered buildings, we threw him some new ideas for ranked lists, and we got his Top 3 most untouchable buildings in La Crosse.