Hello City of Eau Claire employees, residents, and Council Members –

Here are some updates from around Eau Claire. This week's updates mostly relate to our relatively sudden onset of winter. Note that prior updates can be found here, and you can use these linked forms to send feedback to the City Manager’s Office or City Council.

City Manager Stephanie Hirsch

CITY UPDATES

Tonight’s Clearwater Festivities: Don’t forget that tonight (Friday, 12/5) is the City's annual Clearwater Parade and Fireworks. Here’s a bit more information about the festivities…

Parade and Fireworks: Fireworks (sponsored by Market & Johnson, Xcel Energy, and West Grand Business Improvement District) will start promptly at 6:30PM, and they will be launched off the Grand Avenue pedestrian bridge. The parade will follow, with 50+ floats! This year’s parade theme is “Under the Sea.” The weather is chilly, but one great thing about fireworks in the winter is that they can start early.

Letters to Santa: As part of the parade, children can bring letters to Santa and hand those letters to postal service workers who will be walking in the parade. The mail carriers will make sure each letter gets sent to Santa at the North Pole. (Please make sure to write Santa’s address -- 123 Elf Road, North Pole, 88888 -- and your return address on the envelope. Place a stamp in the top right corner of the envelope.)

Warming Shelter: Before the festivities begin, stop by the warming shelter that’s located in the basement of Grace Lutheran Church. There will be complimentary drinks and snacks, plus a photobooth, face painting, and other fun activities.

Telecast: If you can’t make the parade, watch it livestreamed on WEAU: https://www.weau.com/ (Thank you, WEAU!)

Road and Bridge Closures: Due to the parade, there will be street closures along the route from 5:30PM until the end of the event. Also, the Grand Ave walking bridge will be closed for firework set-up, show, and take down from 9AM to 8:30PM.

All Clearwater Winter Parade details here: https://www.eauclairewi.gov/recreation/family-fun/clearwater-winter-events. Pictured below is a map of the route, which starts on Grand Avenue, travels along the river, and ends near the tennis courts in Owen Park. 

Deadline to Submit Candidacy for Council President: Another completely different sign of the winter season is the start of the period of time when candidates for elected office can begin circulating nomination papers. There are eleven members on the Eau Claire City Council that are nominated and elected to three-year terms. Five of the members are elected from aldermanic districts, five of the members are elected at-large, and the Council President is elected at-large. Each year, one of these groups is elected, and this spring, the Council President will be elected.

Candidates can pick up or download nomination papers as of December 1st. The deadline to return the Declaration of Candidacy, Nomination Papers, and Campaign Finance Registration Statement is 5PM on January 6th. More information can be found here: City Council Candidate Information | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. An image of the cover of the "Council President Candidate Information Book" can be found below.

Urban Wildlife News:

Turkeys: You may have read some news recently about our urban wildlife, such as this story from last May from WEAU, or more recently these two from WEAU and the Leader Telegram. To recap, for about a year, we have been receiving complaints about wild turkeys that are harassing passersby. One person wrote to us, saying: “My husband and I were recently forced off the path by two turkeys while biking. Friends report similar incidents, and a female friend was attacked again this morning. This suggests the issue is ongoing and dangerous, especially for children or elderly people. I hope the City can take action to ensure public safety.”

The options we explored were:

• “Harvesting” the turkeys, as in, finding a way for the turkeys to be hunted (which can be challenging with regard to concerns about hunting in a populated area);

• Trying to encourage people to assertively scare them off with noise and hand motions (which many people have said hasn't worked); or

• Relocating them.

Because there’s a cost of over $1,000 to relocate the turkeys, we were trying to avoid doing so. However, as we continued to receive reports of aggression, we reached out to the DNR and the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture). The USDA will try to capture and relocate the turkeys, as was done in recent years with a bear who was living in the wellfield.

The work will be carried out in coming months, and it may or may not be successful. The scope of work they will undertake is described in our contract as follows: “Wild Turkey (Meleagris Gallopavo) are posing unacceptable risks to human health and safety by harassing, chasing, and attacking members of the public, and also creating an overall nuisance due to their behavior…. APHIS-WS will attempt to capture the Wild Turkeys using a drop net. The turkeys will be translocated to and released at a location determined by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.”

Pictured below are a few turkey-related photos:

• Turkeys I encountered on Old Wells Road (not sure if they are THE aggressive turkeys, but they were pretty bold with me),

• A statue downtown entitled "City Turkey", and

• An image from a Police Department Facebook post that thanked staff who worked on Thanksgiving Day to support the Turkey Trot, which is a road race where many runners dressed as turkeys hit the streets.

Beavers: Another wildlife challenge that the City sometimes deals with are overzealous beavers. For example, this large tree next to the Eau Claire River shows signs of beaver damage. They have an instinct to fell trees, even when the trees are too large for them to move or the river is too large to dam. The City monitors these issues to avoid loss of mature trees.

Snow Management: We had a snowy Thanksgiving week and weekend, and temperatures have remained low with flakes continuing since then. The Thanksgiving week snow removal was a bit extra challenging, as many people were out of town, so unable to come in on their off hours. Here is a timeline of the storm and the City’s response…

• On Wednesday, November 26th, snow started falling at about 3AM and was sticking to shaded areas and bridge decks. At 4:15AM, 15 plow operators were called in to cover all ice routes, and two mechanics came in as support staff.

• On Saturday, November 29th, snow began to fall at 9AM. Ice routes were spot treated and plowed throughout the snow event, while snow accumulated on secondary and residential roads. The Street Division carried out a full plow operation first thing on the 30th, achieving bare pavement on ice routes, with residential routes plowed and sanded.

• On Monday, December 1st, crews carried out sidewalk clearing of City properties and right of ways.

• Then, on Tuesday, December 2nd, snow started again around midnight. We sent out one plow truck to salt the hills in the downtown area. At 3:30AM, a full crew of 13 operators were called in to begin scraping and salting the Ice Control Routes.

Our staff ask the public to help with snow removal in a few ways:

• Parking: Please continue to adhere to alternate side parking rules. When people don’t move cars, it impacts the City’s ability to clear snow. More information on those rules can be found here: Alternate Side Parking | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin

• Notification of Issues: Residents can notify our Streets Division of snow-related concerns using a service request form, which can be found here: Service Request | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin

• Keep Our Drivers Safe: Finally, please give plows and snow removal equipment plenty of space. Our equipment has quite a few blind spots that make things challenging to see. Our operators are trained and excellent at their jobs, but the extra space is appreciated to keep everyone safe.

Thank you everyone for your compliance and patience! And thank you to our awesome crews. More information on the City’s winter operations can be found here: Snow & Ice Control | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin Pictured below is a plow clearing snow on a residential street and a smaller vehicle clearing trails.

Winter Sports Season: With the snowy weather, we are looking ahead to winter sports season. Our Recreation and Parks Divisions shared that they are beginning to prep rink surfaces for flooding. This needs to wait until there is sufficient frost before we can add water). Pinehurst’s supervised warming shelter is scheduled to open on December 15th, and rinks are planned to open on December 26th, though this is weather dependent. If rinks are skateable before then, we will announce this. Rink info can be found in Recreation Division's Prime Times. Pictured below is Pinehurst sledding hill. 

Keep the Wreath Green: Our Fire Department shared this information:

“As the fall holiday season begins, families should take time to ensure their season is safe, happy, and memorable for the right reasons! In addition to the seasonal fire safety tips recommended by the Fire Departments of the Chippewa Valley, the Eau Claire Fire Department (ECFD) is once again promoting the fire prevention initiative, ‘Keep the Wreath Green!’

ECFD, Altoona, and Township Fire Departments are placing five-foot wreaths in front of fire stations. The wreaths will be decorated with green lights, which represent a fire safe community. Each time a structure fire occurs within Eau Claire, Altoona, or Township Fire’s response areas, a red light will replace a green light on the wreath. A fire may be a grease fire on a stove at home, a wastepaper basket fire at work, or a mattress fire from smoking in bed. Any fire that causes structural damage to a home or a business will add a red light to the wreath. All of these fires are structure fires and have the potential to take lives, displace families, or disrupt businesses. The goal of the project is to 'Keep the Wreath Green' by preventing fires and the tragedies that can accompany them.

Also, in keeping with a practice begun in 2008, the wreaths will contain a single white bulb as a reminder of all the men and women in the armed services who are serving our country throughout the world and a single blue bulb in support of our law enforcement partners.

In 2024, we had zero fires in the area during the holiday season. Let’s all work together to do it again in 2025. Let’s ‘Keep the Wreath Green’ and leave the red lights in their package! Residents are encouraged to keep an eye on the wreaths throughout the Chippewa Valley as a fire safe reminder for us all. Please call the Fire Prevention Bureau at 715-839-4825 if you have any questions regarding this fire prevention program.” The wreath outside of Station 2 at City Hall is pictured below.

December Respiratory Virus Outlook: Another trend to watch in the winter is the spread of illnesses. Our Health Department shared this update:

“Throughout the winter and year, we monitor illnesses, and we have not yet seen any increase yet. Covid-19 levels in Eau Claire’s wastewater are ‘very low’ as of December 4th. In western Wisconsin overall, respiratory illness activity is at low levels, according to state respiratory virus data. According to that dataset, COVID-19 activity is ‘very low’ but increasing, flu activity is ‘low’ but increasing, and RSV activity is ‘very low’ and stable.

Though levels are low now, we are expecting to see rates of respiratory illness rise in coming weeks. With holiday gatherings happening soon, it’s smart to take those extra precautions right now to reduce your chances of getting sick. Wash your hands often, cover your coughs and sneezes, take advantage of flu and COVID vaccines, and if you do get sick, stay home.

To stay on top of the virus outlook, please consider signing up for the Health Department’s monthly communicable disease email newsletter. It includes trends, resources, and updates on the current state of flu, COVID-19, RSV, vector-borne diseases, and more in our county. You can subscribe to the newsletter by clicking here.” An image from the state respiratory virus dashboard is pictured below.

Non-Emergency Calls: Our IT Department has asked that we put the word out that if you’d like to reach the Police Department on their non-emergency number, please call 715-839-4972. More information is here: Report A Crime | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin Due to the evolving influence of AI, as we understand it, web searches have directed residents to call a bunch of different numbers that are not connected to the Police Department, and even some that are not connected to the City. 

Outdoor Recreation and Tourism Planning: The City of Eau Claire has been participating in a regional planning effort to determine the best approaches to marketing our amazing recreation assets. There will be an opportunity to share your feedback as part of this planning process next week.

The project manager from the West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (WCWRP) shared this information. “We invite residents and stakeholders to hear about the draft plan and learn what is proposed for recreational assets in Eau Claire County and the eight-county Region. Please join us! The meeting will be held on Thursday, December 11th in the Carnegie Room of the LE Phillips Library." The meeting will have two sections – from 5 to 6PM, there will be a review of ideas related to marketing of the more rural areas of the region, and from 6 to 7PM there will be a review of ideas related to the more urban areas. For more information contact: Ross Pietrzak at rpietrzak@wcwrpc.org or 715-836-2918.

4th Annual Seasonal Train Exhibit: The Friends of the Library shared this note: “Trains will chug down the track starting on Saturday, December 6th as the 4th Annual Seasonal Train Exhibit kicks off, hosted by the Friends of the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library in partnership with the Standard Gauge Module Association. The exhibit will be open on Saturday afternoons from 1 to 5PM and Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 4:30 to 7:30PM in the Riverview Room located on the third level of the Library.... Tickets can be purchased in person on the day of visiting the exhibit or online at www.ecpubliclibrary.info/friends/trains."

COUNCIL UPDATES

Next week is a Council meeting week, and the full packet of information can be found here: Council Packet. Monday night’s meeting has been cancelled due to a lack of agenda items. Tuesday’s meeting has a pretty quick agenda, but we are pointing out one item below. There will be no second December meeting due to the upcoming holidays.

Weeds and Yards Ordinance: One agenda item that may interest some is a revision to our ordinance that governs how yards should be maintained, which is Chapter 8.28 Weeds, Yards, and Lawns of the Code of Ordinances. The proposed changes to the ordinance include an allowance for natural planting areas, as well as the elimination of the current required waiver for naturalized plantings in boulevards. These updates were directed as part of the Century Code process, and we’ve been working to get them adopted before the end of the year.

WAYS TO SERVE

Employment Openings: Take a look at our open positions here: Job Openings | Sorted by Posting Date descending | JOB OPENINGS (governmentjobs.com)

NEW: Bus Operator - Full-Time (Transit): Where customer service skills, service to your community, and a fulfilling job intersect – Eau Claire Transit! We are currently hiring for a full-time Bus Operator. This position includes driving citywide bus routes while maintaining the schedule and obeying traffic laws, providing information to customers regarding the Transit System, tracking passenger count data, and more. Deadline to apply: Sunday, December 14th at 11:59PM

NEW: Police Officer (Police Department): Enhance the quality of life in Eau Claire by partnering with the community to solve problems, reduce crime and disorder, safeguard individual rights, and improve public safety. Join the City of Eau Claire’s Police Department. We are now accepting applications for current Police Officer openings and a hiring eligibility list. Now accepting lateral transfers. Deadline to apply: Sunday, January 4th, 2026 at 11:59PM. Watch a video here: Working for the City of Eau Claire

Boards, Commissions, and Committees: We have several openings on the volunteer Boards, Commissions, and Committees that are listed below. Learn more about these roles and apply here:  Boards, Commissions & Committees | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Zoning Board of Appeals: The work of the board is to hear and decide appeals where it is alleged there is error in any order, requirement, decision or determination made by the Zoning Administrator. An understanding of zoning and land use is helpful, but not required.

Landmark Commission: The Landmark Commission designates landmarks and regulates construction, reconstruction, and exterior alteration to landmarks, landmark sites, and structures within historic districts. The City of Eau Claire's Landmarks commission is currently in need of two resident volunteers (one should have a realty background.)

The Housing Opportunities Commission: This Commission recommends and reviews ordinances and other policies that ensure the availability of affordable housing, promotes public-private partnerships that stimulate the development of local housing units and expand the diversity of housing types, and reviews strategies that increase home ownership opportunities. The Housing Opportunities Commission is currently seeking people with knowledge in: Housing real estate, building/development, accessible design, property management, home financing, and local business ownership.

CLOSURES/DETOURS, OPENINGS, DEADLINES, ALERTS, & REMINDERS

Here are a few reminders...

• Toys for Tots: Here's a reminder that the Fire Department is collecting Toys for Tots until December 9th! Drop off toys at any of the six fire stations.

• Santa’s Reindeer Round-Up: Join in the Recreation Divisions clue search. Register to be eligible for prizes at: Reindeer Round-Up.

• Eddy Street Bridge: Eddy Street Bridge is open with a 15-ton weight limit.

• Green Waste Facility: The Green Waste Facility is now closed. It will re-open for Merry Mulch season.

• Odd/Even Parking Restrictions: Alternate Side Parking rules are in effect. If you're new to Eau Claire or just need a refresher, visit EauClaireWI.gov/AlternateSideParking for what you need to know. Alternate Side Parking rules do not replace more restrictive parking regulations, including any street posted with No Parking sign.

WAYS TO GET IN TOUCH: We encourage you to use these different ways to follow City news and reach out to us.

• Follow our social media accounts. Those accounts include: Police, K9 Murphy, Fire, Transit, Parks/Recreation, Fairfax Pool, Hobbs Ice Arena, Economic Development, and the General City account. Some of the accounts allow constituents to send direct messages, which staff will respond to.

• Use web forms. Submit a question or comment via our web forms: Service Request | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin We will reply, and I will continue to share the FAQs we hear in the weekly newsletter.

• Contact City Council. Council Members welcome contacts, and you can reach them here: City Council

• Sign up for City notices. The City sends out notices on many different topics, and you can elect to receive any of them here: Sign Up for eNotifications | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin

• Attend Council Meetings. Individuals can stream or attend City Council meetings, and each Monday evening session has a period of public comment. Meetings can be found here: Meetings | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin

• Attend (or apply to be part of) a Board, Commission, or Committee: Individuals can also attend the meetings of our different volunteer committees. Those also have a public comment period. Residents can learn more here: Boards, Commissions & Committees | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin

• Invite us to a meeting. We are also always happy to send staff and Council Members to other meetings residents or stakeholders would like to hold. We can attend book clubs, lectures, classes, church assemblies, etc. We will come to you -- just let us know where and when.

• Join (or form) a Neighborhood Association. Neighborhood Associations are the building blocks of community ties and community change. Visit this site to learn more about how to join or create a Neighborhood Association: Neighborhood Associations | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin

• Try the ECPD app. Download the app to find the Report a Crime form, track career opportunities, and get instant alerts: https://www.joinecpd.org/ecpdapp

• Volunteer. Get involved in the nuts and bolts of City Operations by volunteering to staff the winter parade, to help maintain a park, or more. Learn more here: Volunteer Opportunities | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin

• Contact the ADA Coordinator. Have a question about accessibility? Contact the ADA Coordinator here: ADACoordinator@EauClaireWI.gov, or learn more here: ADA - Americans with Disabilities Act Information

• Contact Us. Find more ways to reach us via this page: Contact Us - Service Directory | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin

COUNCIL CALENDAR (Tentative – Please see: City Calendar | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin (eauclairewi.gov) for most complete and up-to-date list of public meetings)

• CANCELLED: Monday, December 8th, Public Hearing, Council Chambers, 6PM

• Tuesday, December 9th, Council Meeting, Council Chambers 4PM

• CANCELLED: December 22nd and 23rd Meetings