ARCADIA, Wis. – Since the first of the year, every police officer in this Trempealeau County municipality of 3,700 has resigned. The crisis began in January. Chief Diana Anderson turned in her badge. Like dominos the next few weeks, every other officer quit. Why? Overwork. Too many calls for too few officers. Burn-out. By April everyone was gone. There had been an interim chief in February. The City council hired Eric Puent, a former Galesville police officer, as the interim chief. That didn’t last, Puent quit, saying he had “drastically underestimated how much time and energy would be required to do the job correctly.” In desperation, the City Council put Council member Kyle Myhre in charge to hold things together as best he could. Myhre had earlier experience as a deputy sheriff, but all he had to work with was a patchwork of part-time volunteers moonlighting from full-time civilian jobs. At full complement, the force had five full-time officers. About the current arrangement, Myhre said in a WKBT interview that the part time officers come in as they can, but all, he noted, have full time jobs too. The county sheriff, Brett Semingson, has diverted some patrols to Arcadia for the time being, but this, he said, cannot go on forever. As sheriff, Semingson is headquartered 11 miles away in Whitehall and lives 32 miles away in Osseo. Perhaps there’s light appearing at the end of the tunnel. Myhre said he recently found an officer from long ago, Nicholas Scholl, to come back. Still, the city has an unusually high volume of emergency police calls and traffic accidents — and not enough officers.
Downtown. Classic small town Midwestern shopping district.
Wanek presence. Arcadia has benefitted from the largesse of the Wanek family of LaCrosse. Wanek philanthropy has included the Arcadia schools, spacious recreational parks, and the annual Ashley for the Arts festival with world-class pop and country music performers. Festival proceeds go to charity and community improvement.
Arcadia profile
With a population of 3,700, Arcadia is the largest municipality in rural Trempealeau County. It’s 36 miles from Winona, 50 from LaCrosse, and 46 from Black River Falls, and 16 miles up the Trempealeau River from the Mississippi. The major employer is the Ashley Furniture factory, which is the largest furniture manufacturer in the nation. Another major employer, still called Arcadia Fryers locally, processes chickens for national distribution. The poultry plant has gone through several owners and name changes since 1993, including Gold’n Plump and now the the multi-national Pilgrim’s Pride. The city has grown in the past quarter century with the arrival of Hispanic immigrants for farm work, mostly in the poultry and dairy industries. Ethnic assimilation has been relatively rapid. More than 20 businesses in town are Hispanic-owned. Life hasn’t been easy for many Hispanics, however. In 2018 the immigrant population was targeted by federal agents in deportation raids.