Madison, the first week of March, 1961
Madison in the Sixties
The Spring primary on March 7 brings double-barreled bad news for Frank Lloyd Wright’s Monona Terrace auditorium and exhibition hall.
In the morning, construction bids are opened for the ambitious project which the city approved in 1954, but which opponents have delayed since then through litigation and legislation. And it’s quickly evident that their plan to kill the project through economic pressures was a good one, as more than six years of inflation knocked the budget completely out of whack.
In November 1954, city voters approved $4 million in bonds for the project which the world-famous architect said would marry the city and the lake. The city parking utility later added $1.5 million, for a total budget of five and a half million, and the project finally went out to bid earlier this year.
Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway says any expansion at Monona Terrace will have to wait until the convention center can recover financially from the pandemic.
âWeâve given him a broad brush,â said audit committee co-chair Rep. Samantha Kerkman, R-Salem.
During the audit committee meeting legislators peppered both Chrisman and WEC administrator Meagan Wolfe with questions about the election. Once completed in the fall, the audit could provide lawmakers ideas on how to improve election administration in Wisconsin, or clarify murky areas in state election law.
Republicans said they hope the audit will help increase public confidence in a presidential election that suffered widespread doubt about its integrity. Those doubts were fueled by false and misleading claims about election fraud pushed by former President Donald Trump and other Republican lawmakers.
Jerry C. Curren Site staff
MADISON – Jerry Charles Curren, 87 years old, of Madison, Wis., a leader in the Madison business community, passed away on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021. He was born on July 24, 1933, in Sioux Falls, S.D., and created a life filled with adventure, family, friends and love. As he always said, the world truly was his oyster and he took it by storm.
Jerry was the third child of Charles Austin Curren and Loretta Helen Curren. He was preceded in death by his siblings, Colleen Naomi Curren (Toohey) and Gordon James Curren. Jerry grew up in an Irish enclave in Sioux Falls, surrounded by family, neighbors, friends and the community of the local cathedral. The stories of the time flowed frequently, as did a multitude of others, as Jerry was the consummate Irish storyteller.
Madison in the Sixties – January 20, 1961
In 1960, Sen. John F. Kennedy didn’t carry Madison in the Democratic presidential primary or Wisconsin in the general election. But his candidacy still had a profound local impact.
His primary campaign against Sen. Hubert Humphrey created enough Badgerland bitterness to last for years, even damaging the federal judiciary. And his election utterly transformed local politics, and ended the effort to build Frank Lloyd Wright’s Monona Terrace auditorium and convention center.
Kennedy’s advisors didn’t want him entering the primary against the friendly liberal from neighboring Minnesota, who had two extra sectors of support. Some feared the Pope would unduly influence the Catholic Kennedy, while others who actually supported two-time nominee Adlai Stevenson were trying to block Kennedy from a first-ballot nomination at the national convention, hoping delegates would then draft the former Illinois Governor.