Brew pub hosts winter broomball league
Milwaukee-based Horny Goat Hideaway has transformed the volleyball courts on its property into an ice rink. The rink will be used to host an 8 week broomball league to the city.
“We are in this to entertain and have as much fun as possible” said Jim Sorenson, the company’s owner and managing partner. “Broomball was a no-brainer for us this winter.”
The outdoor winter sport is played with wooden brooms and a small rubber ball; the object of the game is to score more goals than the opposing team. Players where rubber street sneakers instead of skates.
The league will begin the week of January 3 and run seven days a week for eight weeks. Contact Horny Goat Hideaway at 414-755-9055 if you are interested in entering Horny Goat’s broomball league.
Communications company opens regional data center in Milwaukee
Fairport, N.Y.-based Paetec Holding Corp., a Fortune 1000 company that provides data, voice, and Internet solutions to business-class customers nationwide, today opened a new Midwestern data center in downtown Milwaukee.
The data center at 731 N. Jackson St. will serve as Paetec’s Midwstern hub, according to company spokesman Chris Miller.
Miller said Paetec considered a half-dozen cities before deciding upon Milwaukee for its regional hub.
“The location is ideal,” he said, citing Milwaukee’s proximity to Chicago. Many large Chicago corporations require their data centers to be housed in another city as a precaution for a local calamity or inconvenience, Miller said.
"We looked at many sites in the Midwest, but ultimately determined that this location in Milwaukee would best support the needs of our customers," said Jeff Howe, president of Paetec’s central region. "This new data center extends our unmatched support of customers’ ever-changing and more complex needs with regards to data storage, security, and the shift towards cloud computing."
The Milwaukee data center will provide customers with a secure facility for their critical data, networking, and communications infrastructure. Services will include space, power, and connectivity to private networks or the Internet. In addition, customers can work with Paetec to develop personalized hosted server and storage solutions. Value added services such as Data Backup and Recovery and Shared Web Hosting will also be available.
“Think of us AT&T without the cell phones. That’s what we do for businesses,” Miller said.
The data center has six employees, and the company also has a sales staff of about 30 employees in the same building.
WISN-Channel 12 to expand nightly newscast to full hour
WISN-Channel 12 will expand its 10 p.m. nightly newscast to a full hour, beginning Monday, Jan. 24, 2111.
ABC’s news program “Nightline” will be broadcast immediately after the expanded local news hour.
The move follows a strong November sweeps performance, in which WISN dominated the Milwaukee television news ratings.
“12 News is expanding from a position of strength,” says Jan Wade, president and general manager of WISN 12. “Our November numbers are evidence the people of southeastern Wisconsin want additional coverage from the news team they trust. We are proud to be able to answer the needs of our viewers with an additional half hour of WISN 12’s distinct brand of journalism.”
Veteran anchor Kathy Mykleby will continue to co-anchor the newscast with Toya Washington. The newscast also will include chief meteorologist Mark Baden and sports anchor Dan Needles.
"This is a unique opportunity for us to showcase what we do best,” said Channel 12 news director Lori Waldon. “WISN 12 News is recognized and respected for its high quality of journalism. By expanding our 10 p.m. newscast to an hour, we can devote even more time to in-depth and enterprise reporting. We can dig deeper behind the headlines to produce the kinds of meaningful stories that are important to our viewers."
WISN-Channel 12 is owned by Hearst Television Inc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hearst Corporation.
WISN-Channel 12 is a media partner of BizTimes Milwaukee.
M&I Holiday Display open to the Public
M&I Bank has opened it’s 2010 holiday display. The Enchanted Forest display is free and open to the public and features M&I Bank’s collection of more than 150 life-sized costumed animals including lions, kangaroos, penguins, monkeys and bears.
The M&I holiday collection of animals began in 1972, when 30 life-sized Steiff animals were discovered at FAO Schwartz in New York City. Steiff animals are collectors’ items originally made in Germany, by Margarete Steiff, who hand-stitched the animals. Many of the figures are no longer being made. The Steiff Company made the original teddy bear in 1903.
The display is located in the lobby of the M&I Bank at 770 N. Water St. and is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. On Weekends, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day the display will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The display will remain in the lobby until Monday, Jan. 3.
Santa to visit Sprecher
Santa and his elves are scheduled to appear at Sprecher Brewing Company, 701 W. Glendale Ave., for the annual Soda with Sana event on Sunday, Dec. 19 starting at 11 a.m.
Families can take a brewery tour, visit with Santa, have a photo taken with him and even have the picture placed on a bottle of Sprecher root beer.
Brewery tours will be given on the hour from 12 to 3 p.m. Pictures with Santa cost $5 for adults and $4 for seniors and includes a brewery tour, a commemorative glass, beer and soda samples. Pictures with Santa are $3 for children and include a tour, a coloring book, and soda samples. U.S. Military personnel with valid ID are free.
The personalized Sprecher Root Beer will be ready to take with you when you leave and will cost $2 per bottle, minimum 12 bottle order.
MillerCoors lights up Miller Valley
MillerCoors will kick off it’s annual “Holiday Lites Show” on Friday, Dec. 3. This year’s display has more than 300,000 LED lights synchronized to a series of holiday songs. The display will run through Saturday, Dec. 18.
“The Milwaukee Brewery celebrated its 155th anniversary in 2010, and the Holiday Lites tradition is one way we can show our appreciation to the Milwaukee community,” said Mike Jones, MillerCoors vice president of corporate affairs. “We have more lights than ever before in this year’s show and hope that all who visit our Milwaukee Brewery Tour during the holiday season enjoy the program and have a great time.”
The show is one of the largest of its kind in the Midwest and shows run every 20 minutes and are included as part of the free Milwaukee Brewery Tours that begin at the Visitor’s Center. Visitors are encouraged to participate in the Brewery’s Toys for Tots drive or to donate non-perishable food items to benefit Feeding America.
