Sixteen Vernon County businesses were chosen to share $150,000 in grant funding through the Elevate Vernon Grant Program, a local push designed to help entrepreneurs start, strengthen and grow their operations. The awards were among the clearest signs in this week’s local news that county leaders are trying to back small business growth while also drawing attention to safety, infrastructure and public service.

Vernon County Sheriff Roy Torgerson invited the public to attend the Annual Vernon County Police Memorial Service on May 16 in front of the sheriff’s office, where fallen law enforcement officers were honored and those still serving the community were recognized. That same community focus showed up in another new development: FixWIBridges.com, a website launched to highlight Wisconsin’s nearly 17,000 small bridges, including several in Vernon County.

The bridge site lands as local officials continue to press for repairs and planning around aging infrastructure. The weekly recap also said regional and local leaders are refining employee concealed carry policies, spotlighting deteriorating local bridges, and securing federal design funding to remove failing flood control dams and support La Farge’s storm water systems. The funding figure attached to that work is $250,000, underscoring how much of the county’s current agenda is tied to basic public safety and water management rather than new expansion.

Another voice in the May 2026 edition of the Grouse Hollow Journal brought a lighter turn to the week. Local author Greg Koelker wrote a humorous and reflective column in which he updated a graduation speech he was never asked to give, offering a reminder that not every local news item arrives as a policy fight or a budget line.

That broader recap, published May 17, pulled together a wide range of Vernon County stories, including a Viroqua city administrator hiring process, historic preservation recognition and a De Soto school board paid time off policy. But the clearest throughline was practical: money for small businesses, attention to public servants, and pressure to fix the infrastructure people rely on every day. The county’s immediate next steps are already visible in those choices, with grant recipients moving ahead, memorial observances completed and infrastructure work continuing to take shape around funding and design.