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• St. Croix County and New Richmond bringing back rain barrels
• Packers talk to Culpepper about back-up QB role

The New Richmond City Council is helping to bring back an old idea to help environmentally-minded residents have a new way to conserve water and reduce run-off.

The council approved a $15 rebate program for residents who want to purchase a rain barrel kit for their home.

The city is purchasing 100 barrels from the St. Croix Land and Water Conservation Department to sell through the utilities department.

The $30 barrels will be available at a discounted $15 price for the first 100 residents who buy one. The barrels store up to 30 gallons of water.

Under the program homeowners can only receive one rebate per address under the present guidelines of the program.

The Land and Water Conservation Department started the rain barrel program in 2006 with immediate success. More than 75 barrels were sold last summer season, with more than 50 alone in River Falls.

Due to that success, the county sent out letters to other municipalities to see if they'd be interested in sponsoring a rebate program.

New Richmond was one that jumped on the bandwagon.

"It's a good idea because of water conservation and storm water conservation," said Dennis Horner, city utilities manager.

According to county officials, the barrels are placed at the bottom of downspouts to catch rain draining from rooftops.

The water can then be saved for later to water plants, flower beds, gardens and trees.

The more rain barrels that are in use, according to Jonna Fedie, program assistant, the less storm water ends up in ditches, storm sewers and lakes/rivers in the county.

Tammy Wittmer, urban land specialist, said she has five rain barrels around her house to catch the water. Research shows that a home with 1,000 square feet of roof can produce 625 gallons of water during a one-inch rainfall.

"It just shows you what kind of a free water resource there is," she said. "It's an excellent resource for water that homeowners can use for a long time."

Wittmer admitted that few people will go to the trouble of placing five barrels around their home, but even one barrel can have a huge impact on water use and on run-off problems.

For more information on rain barrels or the county effort, contact Fedie at 715-684-2874, ext. 100 or e-mail jonnaf@co.saint-croix.wi.us. Or contact City Clerk Joe Bjelland at 246-4268.

The Green Bay Packers met Wednesday with veteran quarterback Daunte Culpepper who they are considering as a back-up to Aaron Rodgers.

Last year in Oakland, Culpepper completed 58-percent of his passes. He threw for 1,331 yards, five touchdowns, and five interceptions.

Culpepper has also played with Minnesota and Miami.

While other teams have expressed an interest in the 31-year-old free agent, Green Bay is the first place he actually visited.

Culpepper has completed 64-percent of his passes in his career for 22,422 yards. His career passer-rating is 89.9.

Practice schedule

The Packers have announced their practice schedule for May through July.

They'll hold a rookie orientation camp May 2 - 4, then organized team activities May 19 - June 12 and a full mini-camp June 17-19.

The rookie camp will be held inside the Don Hutson Center, which is closed to fans. Otherwise, folks can view the outdoor practices, weather permitting.

The Packers' training camp will start late this year. It cannot start until 15 days before the first exhibition game.

That's on a Monday night, so the Packer camp won't begin until Monday, July 28. Normally, camp opens on a weekend.