A 10 out of 10. That’s how interesting, or maybe it was how "important," Mac Kiel thought the April monthly city council meeting was.

She stopped in studio to help recap the meeting, which included things like the city police being a couple hundred thousand dollars over budget, while other city departments were under budget and how the city council learned of this over the past few weeks. 

Another thing the council apparently learned over the past few weeks is that the city had around $300,000 in ARPA interest funding with no official plan to use it. That led to one council member proposing using $90,000 to open the North Side Community Pool this summer last minute. So, we discussed that revelation and the dilemmas to having the pool open for the season — while there are also plans to build a new indoor pool facility at that site potentially.

We also discussed — to a degree — using $400,000 in TID money on the Civic Center Park District. It’s a thing we discussed before it made its round on council and how the TID money does or does not have to be used before it expires. 

Lastly, we talked about the La Crosse School Board’s decision earlier this week to keep the old name for a new elementary school, while renaming an old school. We also discussed briefly the names that were not picked.

Kiel is a former La Crosse City Council member, who is an advocate for providing the public with what is happening with city government. She also serves on some city boards and works with the unsheltered population.