“T

here’s a lot of time, there’s a lot of commitment, and there’s a lot of people involved in that journey to help you get where you need to go.”

— Jen Meyer a Medford resident of her bodybuilding journey.

veryone here should have had the chance to get the shot, and if they didn’t, that’s their decision. So we should get back to normal.”

— Taylor County personnel committee member Lester Lewis about the remote work policy.

hat is significant to one person may not be signifi cant to another.”

— School board member Steve Deml during review of a school policy that discourages gifts of significant value between students and staff members.

riority number one is to keep the industries we have.”

— Mayor Mike Wellner about the need to move quickly to address housing needs that are impacting the ability of businesses to get workers.

o a certain degree it is smoke and mirrors, but it is very lucrative smoke and mirrors.”

— Taylor County Forest Administrator Jake Walcisak about carbon credit programs involving county forests.

t is like one big family and I really like that part.”

—Stacey Pickerign, new owner of Hemer Funeral Service about her excitement in coming to Taylor County.

ack of maintenance on things only causes more expense.”

—Medford School Board member Steve Deml about the need to move forward with maintenance work at the high school.

here do my freedoms start and my freedoms end?”

— Rib Lake School Board member Rollie Thums about the mask rule in place at the district’s schools.

e should have a choice.”

—Medford Area Senior High School Student Sara Hamm about the reason for a protest at the school.

believe that health should never be political and that is what this has turned into.”

— Rib Lake School Board member Amanda Treffinger about discussion over if masks should still be worn in school.

very year more and more seniors are getting clobbered.”

— Peter Roepke to congressman Tom Tiffany about the tax threshold for people receiving Social Security during the listening session held Tuesday.

he reason you wear a mask is for the other people who aren’t vaccinated.”

— School board member Barb Knight during discussion on how the district should handle if the state mask mandate expires.

udges should not usurp the legislative lawmaking function, but simply apply the law.”

— Outagamie circuit court judge Greg Gill who is running for the 3rd District Court of Appeals.

e would have been doing streets to just do them.”

— Medford city coordinator Joe Harris about the decision to skip doing crack filling on city streets this summer.

s for things attempted today, maybe they got them, maybe they didn’t quite get them, but they attempted them 100%. For that, I’m proud of them.”

— Medford gymnastics coach Steve Cain about the athletes’ efforts at state.

e are only going to get back to normal, if the government lets us get back to normal.”

— County supervisor Scott Mildbrand about the need to move back to normal as rapidly as possible and reopen public buildings.

he Taylor County broadband project is one of the most innovative public-private partnerships we have seen in Northcentral Wisconsin.”

— Sen. Jerry Petrowski in a statement about the benefit of the broadband project.

e need to prepare ourselves for more people working from home than we have right now. We cannot afford to stand still we need to prepare.”

— County board member Rollie Thums about the need to prepare for remote workers.

reat ideas bring about sticky conversations.”

— Property owner Doug Gasek about the need for conversation about placement of homeless shelters and other community efforts.

e are addressing what that committee says needs to be addressed.”

— District administrator Pat Sullivan about the district’s comprehensive planning committee calling for infrastructure improvements four years ago.

he longer we wait, the longer we will have to be playing catch up.”

— Rib Lake school board member Stacey Tlusty about the need to move forward with possibly switching to 8-man football.

f I don’t like it I don’t expect somebody else to like it.”

— Nancy (Gerstberger) Dohrwardt about why she feels the flowers in her arrangements must be the best possible.

hat else are you going to do when sitting home alone during this COVID thing?”

— Irene Dums, 81, of the town of Greenwood on finishing her 500-page local history book.

s you get older you realize what is important and the priorities shift, that brings you home.”

— Andy Leischer, one of the new owners of Ackeret Appliance in Medford about the decision to move back to the area.

don’t think I’ll ever forget that feeling I felt when I came down the road seeing it engulfed in flames.”

— Dawn Brockhaus about her reaction to a fire that destroyed her family’s storage building and its contents.

hat is the argument against testing?”

— Medford school board member Jodi Nuernberger in response to opposition to a plan that would require daily

on-site testing to allow students who have been contact traced to return to school while quarantined.

he end of kindergarten is a huge deal to lose.”

— Laura Lundy, curriculum director at Medford Area Public Schools about COVID-19’s impact on education.

t sounds mean, but rules are rules.”

— Highway committee member Earl Hinkel about denying county bridge aid to the town of Deer Creek until a culvert is placed correctly.

re we leaving Cindy in a lurch?”

— Alderman Tim Hansen questioning switching to a new assessor after the current one said she planned to retire in the next few years.

t keeps making the divide bigger.”

— Alderman Dave Roiger questioning percentage-based wage increases for city employees.

his is a staggering amount” — Bryan Schultz to members of the city’s board of review about the 86% increase in assessment value for his commercial property.

can’t say enough good things about her.”

— Rick Cardey about Erica Burns who was recognized as educator of the month.

am honored and humbled at the same time.”

— Brooke Klingbeil in reaction to being named the Wisconsin Wastewater Operator of the Year.

e need to be very transparent and very courteous with someone in the room or we won’t pass the referendum we need to pass.”

— Lynn Skabroud to members of the Gilman school Board during Monday’s annual meeting.

t is pretty hard to care if someone is screaming at you at the other end of the phone call.”

— School board president Dave Fleegel about the need for parents to be civil when working with teachers to get student work caught up.

t is not a good spot for the dog park.”

— County board member Jim Gebuaer about the proposed location for a dog park adjacent to county land.

don’t think this would be a bad precedent to set for this money.”

— County board member Ray Soper supporting a powerline grant for the Jean M. Thomsen library in Stetsonville to create a maker space.