Ladysmith Wisconsin

6 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 12 when there isn’t something happening.” In addition to all of those events, Ladysmith also has several private music venues and a historic, single-screen, art-deco movie theater that still shows first-run movies. The Rusk County Historical Society Museum has a wide variety of displays that include antique farm machinery, an original one-room schoolhouse, a replica log cabin, and artifacts from the two World Wars. “We also have several railroad displays, including an old steam locomotive, and an early diesel passenger locomotive with three cars and a wooden caboose. Those are wonderful attractions that we’ve invested money into in recent years,” Christianson notes. “We also have several murals around town dedicated to our area veterans, and we’ve got a beautiful veterans memorial in our main park, Memorial Park, which is a point of pride here in Ladysmith; we’re very proud and supportive of our veteran population.” Caring for the necessities While all of those cultural and community events are taking place above ground, the city council and staff have been hard at work making sure that the city’s underground infrastructure is functioning and up to date. “We have a project out for bid, right now, that will take place in the spring of 2024,” Christianson says. “It’s a $4 million rebuild of the century- old utility lines under Miner Avenue, which is our main street. We received a Community Development Block Grant (from the federal Housing and Urban Development Department) to cover up to a million dollars of that; we also have applications with the Wisconsin DNR (Department of Natural Resources) for both water and sanitary sewer work. So, once that’s all done, there will be all new underground utility lines, new sidewalks that are ADA-compliant, new curbs and gutters, and new pavement.” Another major infrastructure project was recently completed in the city’s main industrial park on the south side of town. “We received a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration