Back in the 1970s, two businesses set down roots in the Chippewa Valley and managed to become cultural icons in our arts community. For 40 plus years, these businesses wiggled their way into our hearts and became ingrained in our favorite memories. But 2015 came along and both of these businesses went dark – for good.

2015 brought with it a slew of entertaining, educational, and downright incredible events for the Chippewa Valley. From major music festivals to charitable sporting competitions, the Valley has been alive with people just doing things. While there have always been great events to attend, 2015 certainly was the year for new happenings to take shape – and with them, they brought fresh activities, shenanigans, and awareness to the Valley.

Currently under construction, Haymarket Landing is slated to be a multiuse building sporting 33,000 square feet of commercial space and 119 apartments that can accommodate up to 400 people in downtown Eau Claire. But in April of 2015, cracks were found in the nearby river retaining wall leaving Haymarket Landing on shaky ground in more ways than one.

The Menomonie Market Food Co-op’s dream of more impressive digs came to fruition this year with a brand spankin’ new, 12,000 square-foot building. They’re offering new products, more selection, and more space to dine at the deli (a.k.a. The Lunchbox). Even though their space on Main Street in Menomonie is more impressive now, this wasn’t always the case.

In 2015, we added two ginormous music festivals to the Chippewa Valley’s already impressive musical landscape. This year saw the debut of the Blue Ox Music Festival (where the country’s most elite bluegrass heroes converge) and the Eaux Claires Music & Arts Festival (a Justin Vernon-curated festival where indie music’s best and stunning visual artists come together on the banks of the Chippewa). The Eaux Claires Festival saw over 20,000 attendees in its first year and was named in the Top Ten Music Festivals In North America by Consequence of Sound. It’s all due to the strength of the vision of its creators Vernon, Aaron Dessner from The National, and creative director Michael Brown.

Built around two rivers and various other puddles of water, Eau Claire has been called a “city of bridges.” But 2015 turned it into the “city of bridge detours.” It started with the Lake Street bridge reconstruction project, then the Madison Street bridge, and will end with the $8 million total replacement of the Water Street bridge (which is still underway). While the detour routes make for some new sightseeing, it has yet to work as an excuse to be late for work. Maybe in 2016.

The University of Wisconsin system was dealt huge, painful budget cuts this year to the tune of $250 million dollars. This meant big changes for local colleges – UW-Eau Claire lost $7.7 million in funding, while UW-Stout was cut $5.3 million. Colleges lost staff, business services were consolidated, and restructurings became necessary in the wake of Gov. Scott Walker’s budget being finnalized.

Eau Claire’s historic State Theatre opened it’s doors as a vaudeville theatre in January of 1926 after the enterprise of Finkelstein and Ruben dropped about $315,000 on it’s construction. Eventually it was converted into a movie house and rolled out major motion pictures like Star Wars before closing in 1982. Two years later, the State Theatre landed in the laps of some arty community members that were given the mission of restoring it into a place of artistic expression. Then 1986 rolls around and the newly renovated State Theatre announced its Cinderella-esque makeover with a production of, well, Cinderella. Fast forward to 2015, and the State Theatre sells out a bunch of productions and pays off their mortgage.

Many local writers released great books in 2015, with new offerings from well-established authors such as Nickolas Butler, Julie Bowe, B.J. Hollars, David Tank, and W.H. Beck – alongside a gaggle of other writers steadily building their own pile of publications. As usual, New York Times bestselling author/Chippewa Valley humorist Michael Perry (Population: 485, Coop, Visiting Tom) was also working hard, releasing his second work of fiction – this one geared for grownups after last year’s youth novel The Scavengers.

In August of 2015, the city council gave local food trucks a trial run in three parks. It apparently went well because they later decided to allow them to spread their mobile culinary wizardry to all parks within the city.

Outside Magazine held a reader poll earlier this year to rank the “Best Towns In America,” out of 64 possible towns. Scrappy little Eau Claire – with its Bon Ivers and its biking trails – sprung past trash heaps like Evanston, IL, Rapid City, SD, Rochester, MN, and Spearfish, SD, before eventually getting outmatched by Chattanooga, TN and taking an anticlimactic fourth place in the poll (but Best in the Midwest). “Outside” loved Chattanooga’s climber culture, its mountain bike-friendly terrain, and its farm-to-table restaurants so much, the city went on to win the contest, and we’re not at all bitter about it. So...

The Eau Claire area saw extensive bridge renovation projects over the past year, but of particular interest was the repurposing of the abandoned railroad bridge over the Chippewa River, just north of the Xcel Energy dam. While the bridge’s “DANGER KEEP OFF” sign previously drove away the fainter-hearted and more law-abiding among us, the newly reborn “High Bridge” became an of cial part of the city’s extensive trail system. The 898 foot long, 80 foot high bridge was originally constructed in 1898 by the Chicago and North Western railways, and was later sold to Union Pacific who abandoned it in the 1990s.

The River Prairie Development, a happening piece of land that spans over 120 acres near the 53 bypass and River Prairie Drive, has exploded in 2015 with new tenants and big plans (some of which include a waterfall). Most notably, Woodman’s opened the doors to their 240,000 square foot (which is 2.5 times the size of any other supermarket in Eau Claire and Altoona) facility on August 26th and added approximately $15 million in tax base to Altoona. But their influence didn’t stop with just being the biggest, baddest new kid on the block. They also started a tidal wave of super low gas prices by dropping their prices by 23 cents in 24 hours.

Lots of crazy stuff happens around here every year. In 2015, we found out that a prominent Eau Claire church was led by a charismatic pastor who used “cult-like” practices, and a wandering Minnesota moose was roaming around Eau Claire and Chippewa counties for a while. In one of the craziest news stories out of the Valley this year, it was revealed that there was much, much more than number-crunching going on in the Eau Claire County Treasurer's office – like, literally in the office – between Treasurer Larry Lokken and his office manager Kay Onarheim.

The Chippewa Valley’s craft beer brewers maintained considerable growth in 2015, alongside some new additions. The Brewing Projekt – an experimental microbrewery – opened a popular taproom in Eau Claire, started canning, and is already looking to expand. Menomonie’s Lucette Brewing Company celebrated its fifth anniversary with a sizable expansion, including the addition of a wood-fired pizzeria. Meanwhile, Eau Claire’s beloved Lazy Monk Brewing has renovation well underway on its larger Madison St. location, with big plans for expanded production and a huge taproom offering authentic German/Czech food. The Coffee Grounds even opened its own K Point “nano-brewery.”

On May 27, we learned that the Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee approved $15 million in funding for the Confluence Project, a little ol’ performing arts center slated to be built next to the Haymarket Landing development using a mixture of public and private money. You may have heard of it – the $40 million arts center is to be shared by UW-Eau Claire and the community. This was a huge turn of events for both the project’s supporters and detractors, as it reversed a vote taken weeks earlier which actually cut the funding from the two-year state budget.