City council’s Kiel, Dickinson with homeless update, replacing council member and sale of Fire Station No. 4

City council members Mac Kiel and Tamara Dickinson in the WIZM studio Wednesday for La Crosse Talk PM discussing different aspects of homelessness, replacing District 5 rep., moving the aviation board and the sale of the old Fire Station No. 4.

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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.

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Kiel and Dickinson are on the Judiciary and Finance Committee, as we previewed some that upcoming Tuesday meeting, including how to replace Janesea Hameister (4:40), who resigned from the council a month ago. There’s two pieces of legislation on how to replace her, including the council appointing someone and holding an April special election.

After that (13:05) we talked about the River Point District, a day after a conversation with project manager Jason Gilman was on WIZM. Part of the discussion was on the idea that Costco had shown interest in building there, but also that the 28 acres of developable land is going to be 90 percent housing.

In the second half of the show (18:00), we hit on a couple different angles of the city’s homeless issue, including the special city council meeting last week putting a three-week deadline on coming up with short-term shelter solutions. Kiel also goes out about once a week with the Homeless Outreach Team, so she talked about the work they’re doing with the Pathways Home project to end homelessness. Part of the discussion also included how the short-term demand for solutions could end up cutting into the long-term project, where it could then perpetuate the city’s homeless situation.

Lastly, we talked about the Aviation Board moving to an advisory committee and literally moving. Dickinson is the chair of that board, which also saw the city’s new airport director, Jeff Trip, take over on June 17. And, we hit on the historic Fire Station No. 4 on Gillette Street being sold to the former assistant fire chief.