The issue landing in your hands today is the 15th edition of our Best of the Chippewa Valley Reader Poll. For 15 years, you’ve voted on your favorite local stuff in growing numbers – this year more than 13,000 of you placed nearly 150,000 votes – making this poll the clear leader on taking the pulse of what this community loves. The gold badges you award to the businesses, places, and ideas of this community appear everywhere – on windows, billboards, TV commercials, service trucks, and right here in our pages. Despite the pandemic, which continues to dominate our national collective consciousness, one theme has clearly been present locally on a level we’ve rarely seen before: development and construction. So that’s where we took inspiration for this year’s cover. Dozens of high-profile, large-scale projects have taken root this past year, sprouting towering cranes – both temporarily and permanently altering our skyline. These unavoidable monoliths have become a defining characteristic of the community in recent months, serving as breathtaking beacons of what’s yet to come. Despite tumultuous times, our community pushes forward, continuing to build itself and celebrate our future. And that’s what our Best of the Chippewa Valley Reader Poll, and hopefully most of what we do at Volume One, has always been about.

Click Here for Best of the Chippewa Valley 2022 Results!