Route 51, September 28, 2017

September 28 at 10 a.m., Wisconsin Public Radio’s Route 51 looks at the challenges facing the recently created Village of Maine as it works to absorb the dying paper mill community of Brokaw. Glen Moberg will moderate a discussion with Betty Hoenisch, Maine Village President; Keith Rusch, Oversight Commission Administrator for the cooperative boundary agreement between Maine, Brokaw and the Town of Texas; and State Senator Jerry Petrowski (R-Stettin), who sponsored legislation in 2015 that helped Maine become a village. Petrowski also added a measure to this year’s state budget that provides almost three million dollars in aid over five years to Maine and Texas as they acquire Brokaw and its outstanding debt. Brokaw was left insolvent by the closure of the Wausau Paper Company mill in 2012. The City of Wausau is suing Maine over the cooperative boundary agreement, which prevents the city from annexing territory to its north.