La Crosse council’s Kiel on city administrator, tearing down Kmart, homeless update

Mac Kiel, on La Crosse’s city council, joins WIZM’s La Crosse Talk and gives an update on the homeless situation, another update on when the Kmart is getting torn down, plus a committee preview where they could decide on adding a city administrator

La Crosse Talk airs weekdays at 6-9 a.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.

Kiel, who represents District 7, is on the Judiciary and Administration Committee, which meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday, where there is legislation to add a city administrator.

So we talk about that cost, if the mayor’s salary would decrease and the role of that position. We also talk about a couple items on the J&A agenda, including a zone change for a roominghouse, plus if the city will be changing its parking regulations, after the Neighborhood Revitalization Commission met earlier this month on that.

When it comes to the Kmart lot, which is in Kiel’s district, we talk how the real estate company that’s redeveloping that lot was granted a delay by the council for 18 months. We’re now six months away from that deadline.

One other thing we discussed was the homeless situation. Kiel goes out at least once a week with the homeless outreach team. We’re around a month removed from the council banning camping on city property and clearing out homeless from areas like the marsh trail.

So,we talk about where they’ve gone and how difficult things have been since that rule change.