ST CROIX FALLS, WI — DrydenWire.com — Susan Badtke is a Senior Planner with the West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission. She assisted in the completion of the 2020 Polk County Housing Needs Assessment, a housing study seeking to understand the current housing challenges and help municipalities address population growth and future housing needs.

The host, Kirk Anderson, is the Mayor of St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, and has for the past 4 years has tried to encourage the development of new housing for seniors, families, and the workforce, both at market rate and affordable costs. Joined by Susan Badtke, WCWRPC, together they talk about the challenges we face in the housing market, projections for future growth/needs, and how municipalities can work with developers and state government better to facilitate a more comprehensive focus on housing than what is typical in many cities, towns, and villages.

Focus: Housing Shortages & Affordability.

• What does the future look like for the next generation of homeowners in West Central Wisconsin?

The entire wide-ranging chat was live-streamed at 8:30a (CST) on DrydenWire’s Facebook page Thursday, May 16, 2024.

ICYMI: You can watch the recording on Facebook Watch (here), on YouTube (here), or stream below.

The Wisconsin Badgers football team offered N’Kye Wynn, a three-star interior offensive lineman from Muskegon, Michigan, on Tuesday. The 6-foot-5, 277-pound athlete is a junior in high school and still has one more year before making the jump to the collegiate level.

Wynn has now picked up 25 Division 1 offers, including from Michigan State, Rutgers, Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The Wolverines have yet to offer from within his home state, but Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan and Central Michigan have also joined the Spartans in extending scholarships to the offensive lineman.

Wisconsin is entering its first season with new offensive line coach AJ Blazek, who ultimately offered Wynn, looking to reestablish the program’s identity as an elite producer of talent on the offensive line.

So far in class of 2025, the Badgers have received commitments from three-star offensive tackles Michael Roeske (Wautoma, WI) and Cam Clark (Dexter, MI) on the offensive line.

After a Great conversation with @CoachBlaz I am blessed to announce that I have received an offer from the university of Wisconsin Go Badgers!!!#AGTG#GoBigReds#OnWisconsin @BadgerFootball @247Sports @Rivals @On3Recruits @AllenTrieu @alex_pallone pic.twitter.com/28UHstUDjN

— N-kye Wynn (@therealnkye) May 15, 2024

I tend to be naive. When I stop at a motel, I assume everything is fine. I’ve learned that I am often very very wrong as there are a whopping 404 Wisconsin bed bug reports right now.

If you’re planning a vacation or stay-cation in Wisconsin anytime soon, you might want to look at the website Bed Bug Reports. You can do a search for virtually every Wisconsin town to see if motels in that city or town has any recent visitor reports of bed bugs. I was shocked to see this total number current as of this writing in Wisconsin.

I decided to look at motels in Madison just for giggles. Since I can’t 100% verify that these reports are accurate, I won’t keep the hotel info hidden, but here are a couple of incidents reported:

Anonymous – “I stayed at this hotel on ******* for one night. The hotel is very average in terms of cleanliness, room size, staff friendliness, etc. On Monday, I noticed some bites in clusters around my feet and ankles. I was immediately concerned about the possibility of bed bugs.”

Anonymous – “We stayed at the ******** ******** ****** prior to UW Madison winter graduation…After checking in our teenage daughters found bedbugs in their bed”

Then there’s this one from a motel in Milwaukee:

Anonymous – “Woke up today with about 15 bed bug bites across my ankles and lower legs.”

On second thought, maybe don’t read the Milwaukee motel reviews if you like to sleep at night.

I found these unfiltered visitor incidents very helpful in determining potential trouble spots at Wisconsin motels. If it’s any consolation, it appears Wisconsin places to stay have less problems with bed bugs overall compared to other states.