Housing or sustainability? La Crosse County leaders, public have different preferences

La Crosse County leaders and members of the public agree on the two most important needs for which $23 million from Washington could be spent.

They disagree, however, on which need is more important.

Deputy La Crosse County administrator Jane Klekamp cited Monday, during a public input session, a month-long public survey to indicate what county taxpayers prefer.

“The highest priority (among the public) has been affordable housing, followed by sustainability and the environment,” Klekamp tells the La Crosse County Board. But the board recently put sustainability as its top priority for federal funding, with housing coming second.

Child care was the No. 3 priority among county leaders, but in the survey, it is ranked fourth behind infrastructure needs, such as fixing highways.

There is still time to fill out the survey (found here), aimed at getting opinions on spending pandemic relief money from the American Rescue Plan Act. The final day is Wednesday and results may be presented to the county board in December.

About 1,400 people have participated so far.

In other county board business, leaders who declared that racism is a public health crisis decided to figure out a mission statement and get expert advice, according to county human resources director Stephen Conrad.

Hiring a consultant to determine future actions to combat racism could be done in the next few weeks. The racism declaration was announced last April.