Party like it’s 9/9/99

Twenty years ago, on September 9th of 1999, some people were nervous about what would happen at the end of the year, when it became Y-2-K, 2000. But area church leaders were treating the end of a millennium as a chance for spiritual renewal, and for people from different religions to come together. Channel 19 presented a town hall meeting called ‘Y-2-K and You,’ hosted by news anchors Scott Hackworth and Martha Koloski.

The Brewers were building their new ballpark to replace Milwaukee County Stadium, but the opening date had to be delayed a year because of a deadly accident. Three workers were killed in July of ’99 when a construction crane collapsed at the Miller Park site. The ball club announced that the planned opening in April of 2000 would be put off until 2001.

The La Crosse city council took a final vote to ban smoking from city restaurants, with the ban to take effect on the first day of 2000. La Crosse would become the fourth community in Wisconsin to adopt smoke-free dining.

Popular movies playing in area theaters that September included The Blair Witch Project, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, American Pie, and The Sixth Sense. I see Bruce Willis, in 1999, yesterday in La Crosse.