MONROE — After securing millions of dollars for area municipalities and programs in the last federal budget, U.S. Representative Mark Pocan (D-WI 2) was in Green and Lafayette County on Oct. 9 to check in on some of the progress.
He toured the Green County Family YMCA along with the facility’s Executive Director Trent Henning and Membership & Community Engagement Director Luke Smetters. They looked across the current facility and some of the programs used in each space.
They discussed the expanding child care center and the more than 80 openings it will allow for. The track above the gym is currently not accessible to those with mobility issues, with only stairs available to get there.
“For some of our older members, it can be difficult or impossible to get up and down those stairs,” Smetters said. “It’s a real safety concern. I’ve seen it a couple of times before — one day, an older member is standing in the doorway of the stairwell and they just decide they can’t do it anymore. It just breaks my heart.”
The new facility will have a new, fully accessible and larger track, among other additions. In all, the YMCA will go from about 40,000 square feet to nearly 100,000.
Previous capitol projects included expansions in the mid-1990s and in 2004. The original facility was built in 1993.
Elsewhere in Green County, Pocan has earmarked money for the area Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRC), the Driver Opera House in Darlington, a new water tower in New Glarus, and the next budget will have updated body cameras for the Green County Sheriff’s Office, similar to what Lafayette County recently received, he said.
After visiting Monroe, Pocan headed to Darlington to meet with city, county and Main Street/Chamber of Commerce officials.
Pocan, a Democrat, is up for re-election this November and faces Madison-area lawyer Erik Olsen. Pocan defeated Olsen in 2022, 71-27.
Pocan, who has served in his role since 2016, is a member of the House Appropriations Committee. He said there is not a lot of progress being made on a variety of bills anymore due to hyper-partisanship and general house dysfunction, thanks in part to some rules put in place by previous speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). Congress this term is on pace for the fewest bills passed since 1860, just months before the onset of the American Civil War.
Congress has been dismissed until mid-November — after the Nov. 5 election — and depending on how the party numbers come in will depend on how quickly fresh bills get passed.
Recently, House Republicans in leadership failed to pass a bill that would secure over $20 billions in funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), despite full support from congressional Democrats.
Two back-to-back hurricanes (Helene and Milton) have devastated southeastern states over the past two weeks. Pocan said that if House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) called Congress back into session to vote on FEMA funding to help the victims and of the states affected, he would hop on the next flight to Washington D.C. to vote for it.