DOWNTOWN GETS SPRUCED UP
    On Saturday, May 16, hundreds of volunteers clad in red t-shirts that read “I love EC” will storm downtown Eau Claire for the annual Our Spring Spruce Up, an effort that beautifies storefronts and outdoor areas in celebration of spring. Organized by Downtown Eau Claire, Inc. and Valleybrook Church Youth Pastor CJ Clymer III, project efforts have included painting benches, the bus transfer center, and the YMCA building; picking trash off the riverfront; and pouring concrete for the Eau Claire Children’s Theatre, and this year’s group is even more dedicated. Anyone interested in volunteering for the event, which lasts from 9am to 3pm, can visit www.ourcityec.com for the required registration information and free t-shirt.

EAU CLAIRE TRANSIT RECEIVES $2 MILLION IN STIMULUS FUNDS
    Eau Claire Transit will be getting much-needed updates thanks to $2 million in federal stimulus money. Gov. Jim Doyle announced April 23 in Eau Claire that the funds would purchase five new buses, a bus surveillance system, and a new maintenance shop truck. The buses will be five to 10 fee t longer than the 12-year-old buses they are replacing. One aim is to accommodate soaring levels of passengers (1.1 million last year) with the extra space. In addition, the vehicles will release fewer emissions and save money by using fuel more efficiently. Before we see any shiny buses around here, though, the federal government must approve the plan.

LOCAL ART DISPLAYED IN MADISON
    Eau Claire clay artist Barry Weiss has been selected to be featured in a statewide gallery space in Madison. The Wisconsin Arts Board Exhibit Space in the Department of Administration Building in Madison will be showing Weiss’s crystalline-glazed pots, pitchers, and platters through May 29. Designed to promote the work of Wisconsin visual artists, the gallery accepts work “from all corners of the state.” Paintings by two other chosen artists will accompany Weiss’s work. Weiss is the owner of Hummingbird Studios in Eau Claire, where he teaches pottery classes and sells his one-of-a-kind pieces.

FAIRE THEE WELL
    Hear ye, hear ye! Due to last year’s poor attendance and looming construction debt, the Wisconsin Renaissance Faire in Chippewa Falls is probably done for. Faire co-owner McVey cites $4 gas prices as the biggest troll the faire couldn’t slay on the quest to fierce-hearted dragon, “$871,518 owed to A-1 Excavating of Bloomer.” So A-1 foreclosed upon the noble land. The only chance the faire has of reopening is if the land is purchased as soon as gallantly possible and the new owner starts the faire anew. Take heart, milords and ladies. You’ll have to find jousting, juggling, corset-and-tights-wearing action elsewhere.