Supervisors approve resolutions for River Trail, opioid litigation
A look at the current progress on the jail addition on the Crawford County Courthouse grounds in Prairie du Chien. The county supervisors scheduled a walkthrough of the facility after their August meeting. (Steve Van Kooten/Courier Press)
By Steve Van Kooten
The Crawford County Board of Supervisors approved a spate of resolutions and heard Couleecap Executive Director Hetti Brown’s annual report during their June 17 meeting.
“Couleecap has been providing services to about 23,000 residents in a four-county region,” said Brown. “Our mission is to fight poverty and create opportunities for economic and social mobility so that all people can succeed and thrive in their communities.”
Couleecap employs about 60 people throughout La Crosse, Vernon, Monroe and Crawford counties and has worked with residents in Crawford for nearly 60 years.
According to Brown, Couleecap has invested approximately $12 million back into their communities.
Couleecap has 20 programs, including housing, food assistance, small-business development and transportation programs.
During the past year, the organization distributed 314 farmer’s market coupons, 661 holiday and senior food baskets, 392 food deliveries and over three million pounds of food. The agency reportedly saw a 29 percent increase in new visitors to their pantries.
“That is a statistic from our local pantry here in Prairie du Chien,” said Brown. “We’ve seen a pretty big jump in food pantry demand this year. At the same time, we’ve seen a drastic cut in our food commodities from the USDA.”
Couleecap also received notice that, starting this month, all of their dairy, egg and meat orders were cancelled.
“We’ve reached out to the USDA for answers. We’re not getting a response. We’ve also reached out to Congressman Derrick Van Orden to see if he can assist. We’ve yet to see a response. So, we’re not getting a lot of feedback on why these government food commodities have been decreased or cancelled altogether, but it is placing a strain on our network of food pantries at the same time that we’re seeing an increased demand,” said Brown.
For housing statistics, she referenced the 2025 Asset-Limited Income-Constrained and Employed (ALICE) Report published by United Way of Wisconsin, which compares the wages among county residents against the cost of living in their area.
“These are employed households that don’t earn enough to afford the basic cost of living here,” she said. “That means housing, childcare, transportation, paying taxes — they’re living right on the edge and experiencing hardship by covering just those basic expenses.”
The report says that 40 percent of households in the county meet the criteria to be considered ALICE houses.
“These are the households that Couleecap really tries to assist. These are the houses we are working to serve with our programs,” she added.
Couleecap is one of many community organizations that faces an uncertain future due to federal budget cuts proposed by the Trump Administration. Several programs, including energy assistance, may see funding reductions next year or even elimination, according to Brown.
“We’re watching that very closely because if those funds go away, these programs would likely be halted,” she said.
The nonprofit’s total funding, which is primarily acquired through community block development grants, may also be in jeopardy from federal budget reductions.
“We rely on a community services block grant,” said Brown. “That is a block grant that community-service agencies receive, and it’s our core funding. That has been proposed at the federal level to be eliminated. If community services block grants are eliminated, it would impact our ability to serve Crawford County.”
River Trail
The supervisors also re-approved a resolution from more than a year ago for the Mississippi River Trail.
The trail is a bicycle and pedestrian path that follows the Mississippi River from northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. In total, it is approximately 3,000 miles in length.
Sherry Quamme, chair of the Wisconsin Mississippi River Parkway Commission, explained that the resolution needed additional language defining where the trail connects to other states within the county.
“We learned in January that, in addition to the language we presented then, we need to include language that says we connect to a neighboring state, and there is a connection to Iowa over the bridge,” she told the board.
She said that the draft application for the state of Wisconsin is currently being “put together” and edited before submission.
“In 2000, all of the 10 states had an opportunity to apply for and be designated as a federal Mississippi River bicycle trail,” said Quamme. “For whatever reason, Wisconsin chose not to move forward on that and not to take advantage of having the signs and designation.”
In 2022, the commission and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation started the process to obtain the designation.
The commission had a goal to get 69 resolutions from counties along the river approving their membership as part of the Mississippi River Trail. With Crawford County’s approval, they have 67, which is the required amount needed to move forward, according to Quamme.
She added that the cost for signage was already figured into the state’s draft budget currently in process.
Other business
• Approved a resolution designating the week of April 21 through 25, 2025, as Workzone Safety Awareness Week.
• The board received a copy of the county’s emergency plan for the County Line Festival, which will take place in Bridgeport in August. No action was taken.
• Approved a resolution to give the county authority to add defendants to future opioid litigation cases and a resolution amending the county’s fixed asset policy.
