👀 Data center “prospector” has eyes on Dane County

✈️ Airport Planning For Future Growth: The Dane County Board has approved a $5.8 million contract to create a new master plan for Dane County Regional Airport. The plan could include runway changes, terminal expansions, and noise mitigation measures. [🔒WSJ]

🗳️ Wisconsin Gov Pollsters: We Made It Up! Eyebrows raised before the Aug. 11 primary when a poll by a little-known company called Median Strategies showed State Rep. Francesca Hong with a 23-point lead over Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. Now that Crowley has won the primary, Median has admitted the poll was fake and a “social experiment.” [🔒WSJ]

🚗 Safety First For Milwaukee Street Redesign: A stretch of Milwaukee Street on Madison’s east side is set for a significant redesign as east-west traffic grows. The plan would change the layout of the street between Starkweather Creek and West Corporate Drive, including medians, a shared-use path on the street’s north side and a bike lane on the south side. [Cap Times]

💻 Is a ‘Data Center Prospector’ Looking at Dane County? A Houston-based company that looks for potential property for data centers may be interested in several Madison Gas & Electric-owned land in southwestern Wisconsin. Cloverleaf, a middleman for developers, filed a motion with the state Public Service Commission over proposed new rates for hyperscale data centers, which to Citizens Utility Board executive director Tom Content suggests the company may be looking at land in Dane County. [Isthmus]

🍛 The Chowpati Opens Friday at Public Market: An Indian street food restaurant will have its grand opening on Friday at the Madison Public Market. The Chowpati, whose name is derived from two Marathi words that mean “from all four directions,” says it will offer food from all four corners of India. [In Business, The Chowpati]

🇺🇦 Ukraine Fest Goes On As Refugees Worry: The 5th Annual Ukraine Fest takes place Saturday in Olin Park, but this year’s celebration of Ukrainian culture is tinged with worry. The Temporary Protected Status given to Ukrainian refugees by President Joe Biden in 2022 runs out this fall, and it’s unclear if the Trump administration will extend them.

• 🎧 Dig deeper: Allison Suchon of Friends of Ukraine Madison is on the City Cast Madison podcast today to talk about the festival. Plus, DJ Femme Noir talks about Madison’s queer dance scene, and producer Jade Iseri-Ramos tells host Bianca Martin about her early impressions of the Madison Public Market! [InBusiness, 🎧 City Cast Madison]

With its boarded-over windows, weed-choked grounds and cracked parking lot, the Wonder Bar Steakhouse at 222 E. Olin Avenue has certainly seen better days. No wonder that a developer wants to tear down the bar, which has been closed for five years, and the also-shuttered Coliseum Bar & Grill next door and build a project that includes housing, commercial space and a bike trail.

But some neighbors say that if the building is demolished, so will its colorful history. They want to see it preserved somehow for future generations.

That preservation plan had a big setback recently when the city’s Landmarks Commission recommended denying the building landmark status. However, the commission did say the site has historic value, which could add extra requirement permits to be secured before the building is demolished. [WMTV, WKOW]

Here’s a look at the Wonder Bar’s colorful history of mobsters and ghosts:

🔫 A Mobster’s Castle

The Wonder Bar was opened in 1929 by Roger “The Terrible” Touhy, an Irish-American mob boss in Chicago who was a rival of Al Capone. Some say Touhy was raking in over $1 million a year from bootlegging and gambling, and he opened the Wonder Bar as a place to launder his illicit gains out of state, and make more money smuggling booze into Wisconsin.

It was also an opportunity for Touhy’s bartender brother Eddie. The castle-like building was originally known as The Garden Lunch and then Eddie’s Wonder Bar, and its clientele supposedly included famous mobsters of the day, including John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson. Although, as with so much surrounding the Wonder Bar, it’s hard to separate lore from reality. [ 🔒MJS, Cap Times]

🚨 Protection From the Law

The bar was often under surveillance by the FBI, and rumor has it that sections of the turret towers could be removed for mobsters to poke their tommyguns through in case of a raid. No shootouts were ever recorded.

There was also reportedly a tunnel that ran east towards Lake Monona that gangsters could use to smuggle booze and to escape if the “G-men” ever stormed the bar.