DE PERE, WI — Several school districts across northeast Wisconsin are closed on Wednesday, and as of Tuesday afternoon, the Brown County Public Library system announced they will be too. But in De Pere, city leaders are actually opening up a public building for anyone, to warm up at.
For the first time ever on Wednesday the city of De Pere, which doesn't have several shelters like Green Bay, has decided to designate their community center as a warming site for folks looking to escape the weather.
“De Pere is very community orientated and we wanted to provide something within our community so they wouldn’t have to go too far to be able to find a place to come in from the cold,“ says Debbie Armbruster a Health Officer at the De Pere Health Department.
With temperatures slated to come in on Wednesday ranging from negative 35 to negative 55 degrees, community leaders wanted to offer a space and resources that could help ease the sting of the cold.
“What we’re trying to constantly do is determine what our community needs and make sure we're stepping up and making an effort to try and provide that,“ adds Chief Alan Matzke of the De Pere Fire Department.
The community center will be open from 10 am until 4 pm and organizers are planning on offering resources to folks on how to help pay for energy assistance, transportation and a slew of other resources the community can possibly help to provide.
"This will be the first time that I’m aware of that we've opened a warning center and we’re not 100% certain as to what the need really is going to be. But it’s an opportunity for us to be there and available and work in cooperation with their cities health department to try and address that need,“ adds Chief Matzke.
There are resources in your community to help you stay in warm too, public health officials recommend that you call 211 to find out more about services your county and city provide to folks that could use the assistance. 211 is also a good resource to find out about shelters that have availability near your community.
