The “High Five” segment to be published in tomorrow’s new issue of Volume One covers some random local statistics. Here’s a sneak peek, including a some sweet bonus stats: last year’s most checked out books from the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library (thanks to Ian Jacoby for those).

4,900 TONS
Public Works Director Brian Amundson says the City of Eau Claire uses between 4,000 and 5,000 tons of salt in a typical winter, and right now we have enough for a 4,900-ton winter (but we could buy more if we need it).

37 ALBUMS
By our count (meaning ones mentioned in the magazine and on the Soundboard blog online) that’s how many LPs, EPs, and even tapes (Farms) local artists released in 2009. We may have missed a few (let us know), but either way that’s an impressive number.

200 TO 260 KIDS
That’s the estimate of how many more elementary school students will be in the Eau Claire Area School District in 2012. Applied Populations Laboratory at UW-Madison completed the study for ECASD, and further estimated that we’ll have about 5,100 K-5 students by 2018 (we have about 4,500 now). Guess we need to start making room ...

9,116 EMPLOYEES
That’s how many people work in Eau Claire’s downtown, including the courthouse, Water Street, medical sector, and Barstow/Farwell streets. That means a whopping 25 percent of the city’s workforce (35,944 people) are downtown. Meanwhile only 2,852 people live downtown, representing 4 percent of the city’s population (65,950).

149 YEARS OLD
Our master historian Frank Smoot says the oldest commercial building in Eau Claire is right across from the V1 office on South Barsow Street, and will soon house Obsession Chocolates (“the Kneer building”). The two-story brick building was built around 1865, a year after The Dells Mill (just north of Augusta), which still gives tours at the ripe age of 146. However the “Adin Randall house” at 526 Menomonie St. was built in 1862, making the abode likely the oldest in Eau Claire.

BONUS: 2009’s MOST CHECK OUT BOOKS
(from the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library)
compiled by Ian Jacoby

Top Fiction
1. The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks
2. The Associate by John Grisham
3. Change of Heart : A Novel by Jodi Picoult       

Top Young Adult Fiction   
1. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
2. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
3. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

Top Juvenile Fiction    
1. Eve of the Emperor penguin by by Mary Pope Osborne
2. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by by J.K. Rowling
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by by J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince by by J.K. Rowling

Top Books on CD       
1. Twelve Sharp: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich
2. The Poet by Michael Connelly
3. Step On a Crack by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
           
Top DVDs       
1. 3:10 to Yuma
2. Dreamgirls
3. National Treasure: Book of Secrets