I'm closing in the morning.
W R G and say hello to the owner of Racine County.
I our new service.
We use all the time here at W R G and Denise Lockwood.
Good morning. Good morning.
And you brought along Larry Davis.
Now, who is this handsome gentleman you brought along?
My wonderful husband. Hello, I heard a lot about you.
I heard a lie.
You better live up to the publicity.
I'm down. Yeah.
As he would say, as advertised.
Oh, radio, but we love that word advertise.
Yeah, so people say to me something too many commercials on television.
Don't ever say anything bad about commercials.
I love. Right.
I love commercials.
I love ads.
That's my lifeblood.
Don't ever say anything bad about it.
Before we get started with what's in the news and everything.
How do you like your new digs and tell everybody where they are?
I love my new digs.
So the new home for Racine County.
I is at 1926 Albert Street in the old or like melted milk factory.
It is called Bell City Square now, but it's the old machine shop.
And the building we're in is right next to the inclusive bean.
A wonderful coffee shop.
So I kind of hang out there quite a bit too.
But it's a really great space.
It's almost 1900 square feet.
Half of it is going to be is our newsroom.
The other half is an event space where we're going to hold a whole bunch of round tables.
And hopefully we'll partner maybe with WRJ.
And I think that's on the table if I remember correctly.
Tell us about how are you operating out of there yet?
Oh, absolutely.
Okay, because I see the pictures on Facebook.
It looks really looks nice.
Thank you.
At the floors are beautiful.
Absolutely.
Do you like?
No, no, that's pretty solid that way.
I'll do it because my house is over a hundred years old.
And we had all new flooring put in the entire house, but occasionally.
What's underneath is still 110 years old.
And so you're still here.
It occasionally before we get to what you're working on, right?
The open house is that going to be at your place?
Yeah, it's actually the ribbon cutting is this afternoon.
It's like I bought a purple ribbon, got some plume, small type raiders.
You know, it's all good.
It's all good.
So after the ribbon cutting, everybody gets steak and lobster.
Oh, no, no, this is a news.
If you weigh more advertising, if that was going to be true, we're getting
peeps, marshmallows and some leftover Halloween candy.
We're getting lovely.
Sebastian's is catering.
Oh, yes.
And I'm so grateful for Corey.
Corey, I love you, right?
So they're going to be, they're going to be on site and handle all of the things
that Denise really does not need to do.
That doesn't want to do.
I'm so grateful for what we got right.
I, any case, lovely, too.
Do you know what he was doing last night?
Him and his guys from guys games in beer.
Actually, he has a podcast called guys games in beer.
So some of the guys came over.
We got this big hunk in table, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a tree.
It's literally a tree.
And so the top of the table, we had to get many burly men to bring it upstairs.
And they finally, the top was not connected to the bottom.
So they hoisted it up and, well, there was, it wouldn't have been any way to get
it upstairs in one piece.
So it was broken apart.
And even in pieces, it was, there were dollop dowels involved.
Yeah.
So then, so then, well, you got to reattach the tip, tip top.
So that's what we were doing.
So reattaching the top.
So that's why you married him.
He's a lovely human being and he's strong.
So that helps.
Yes.
Okay.
So let's talk about some of the, before we get to the list of things here,
some of the news stories you're working on is the, now for the city budget and the
county budget, there's two separate things.
Very.
Do you know if they're done yet or no, neither.
So the, the actual presentation of the budget for the city was last night.
Then what they do is they go through committee hearings and they basically talk
about what the state of those particular departments are, actually shouldn't say
committees, the department heads.
So you'll have somebody from like the public health department and roads and the library.
And they'll talk about some of the challenges they face, some of the initiatives they want
to implement and how are they going to pay for it and staffing levels and, you know,
trends that they need to deal with and all of the nuts and bolts.
It's kind of, if, to me, I nerd out on it, but do you know if the, I think we're going
on three and a half or weeks now with the government, the government shutdown?
Is that affecting local communities like Racine?
It, it is, it will pretty much hit if it continues.
It's going to be a really big problem, especially for here.
So WIC, which is the women's infants and children's program, the nutrition program.
You also have SNAP, which is, is basically food stamps.
A lot of that shutdown hasn't been fully impacting us completely yet
because there's been money put into the pot to offset that.
But that is only what our sources are telling us is a month out.
So, and we're almost to the end of the month.
So they need to resolve that, go back to work or we're going to have some pretty,
pretty interesting times.
And there's definitely discussions I've been having with like the, the food banks and the
county and how do we, how are we confronting some of this potential cliff of need
that you have?
So just to kind of frame out the data points, the, in, in Racine County,
you've got about 30,000, 38,000 people that are on Medicaid.
Half of those are children of that remaining half Denise's math challenge.
Just so you know, so I'm going to caveat that right now.
So that remaining half a third of that are people who are older adults.
Then you've got people who are disabled and then there's the, what we would
probably call the people who are working and not financially stable.
And so there, that's, that's who is going to be impacted.
But just so you know, so you're not worrying all your congressman and senators
are getting full pay.
I didn't want anybody worrying about them.
How they going to feed their families.
This doesn't affect their pay at all.
I asked, uh, uh, Jens Jorkinson was in here, the older from the fifth,
the fifth district, the thing, and I asked him about that.
You know, why are they getting paid?
Yeah, that's an interesting question.
And I noticed on the news this morning, a new $250 million ballroom is being
built in the White House.
We live in interesting times.
That's nothing stopping that.
Yes.
I just don't know how a congressman or a senator can stand up and talk about
people not getting paid and meanwhile their checks are coming in.
I don't know how that even happens.
Well, budgets are a reflection of the community's collective value.
Uh, their value system is demonstrated by what they spend money on and, and who
they serve, right?
So if you have, uh, quite a few opportunities for people to work, you might
invest more in workforce development.
You might invest in, in healthcare, things along that line.
So there's definitely a reflection of your community in these budgets.
And then we haven't even talked about the county budget as well.
Well, let's talk about it.
Well, the county budgets in an interesting place as well.
So about two thirds of your RISC County budget is actually spent on public
safety, which includes the jail, it includes the law enforcement.
Then you also have a third of the budget that is spent on, uh,
health and human services, right?
Foster care programs, child abuse, uh, case management, uh,
elder abuse investigations, things along that line.
So they literally, uh, are, are responding to the needs of the community.
And so the, there's been a lot of pressure on a lot of different points.
There's ARPA money that's running out, the American rescue plan, uh, money
that we got from COVID, the COVID dollars, that's running out.
And that's creating a massive kind of fiscal cliff that you're seeing.
Uh, the health insurance costs, uh, those are going up eight to nine percent
in the RISC County, kind of county budget, uh, and pretty much collectively
everywhere is the insurance costs are extremely high.
And you have about 80% of your budget going to wages and benefits.
And so that has a net impact.
Now you also have mandate, state mandates.
And this is like watching paint dry.
So I apologize.
I just not really fun stuff to talk about.
But at the end of the day, it's going to result in about 5.7% more spending
on the RISC County budget.
Now, now we got your attention.
Yes.
Okay.
So the, the, the, I got an email from, uh,
a several Republican state legislators, which was really kind of an interesting
choice that kept saying that the, uh, it was going up 7.5%, which it is not.
It's actually 5.7.
Um, there's a lot of capital budgets.
It's a lot.
It's a lot.
Um, the, um, what I was just saying now, you said something in there and I said,
don't forget to ask, oh, so when is the county budget going to be presented?
Do we know?
Well, the county budget's already been presented.
So they kind of go through that process as well of guy, they go through it.
And there's this kind of almost, uh, kind of a reconciliation.
There's, uh, is does this, does this budget as presented?
Does this fit what the, the board wants to happen?
And so what they'll do also is here, here, out the department heads and, and
the justification for spending or not spending, um, creative ways to solve
problems and they might change things.
And so then there's a, a process that goes through that, no.
Talking to Denise Lockwood, this half hour, she's owner of Racine County,
I and Larry Davis is here.
And, uh, let's talk about the games, games giving.
Yes, games giving.
Okay.
Yeah.
So, um, yeah, that's why I'm here for the more fun parts.
So, um, I'm part of a podcast called guys, games and beer and we've,
we do, we go to conventions around the country and set up, uh, unique
video game displays.
Well, we are all from Racine and we love Racine.
So we decided we wanted to do a convention here in Racine.
And I thought, because I used to work in retail and then one of the funnest days
of the year was Black Friday that maybe we could do something around, uh,
the holidays and Black Friday.
And the idea is kind of, uh, I think it was said this weekend, like, uh,
a nerdy geeky, uh, farmers market, you know, so bring in some vendors, uh,
like video game vendors, board game vendors, maybe vendors that do crafty
stuff that's related to like video games or board games and, uh, and then also
we'll set up like artist play and that and we came up with this games giving
expo for our convention, um, that's over Black Friday and, uh, the local by
local Saturday.
So my daughter is a gamer, her and her husband, they went so far as they have
special lighting on the floor in the room, blue lighting, red lighting on the
ceiling, looks like a police, you know, crime scene in that house.
And they have these big tall chairs, like gaming chairs, chair, and they sit
there. And when they both get down to work, they play until they go to sleep.
And it's every night all weekend and they play with people all over the world.
I don't know what game they play because I wouldn't understand it anyway.
I'm still, you know, trying to understand how pong works.
And that's, that's part of the idea of this.
That is part of the idea.
So we have kind of two parts.
There'll be the game, the games that we're actually going to set up and that
and then you would have to get, you have to get a ticket for that part, right?
But the vendor part is going to be free to the public.
And the idea is to, for people who maybe are thinking about buying games for
somebody they know that really loves games or buying an accessory or by getting
some kind of gift for Christmas, right?
They can go and see a bunch of vendors and the vendors are very knowledgeable.
So you can ask them questions and they can kind of give you some ideas of what
your daughter might like, you know, to add to that glorious room, but I play
Scrabble on my, on my lap, not my lap, that my phone, no, not my phone.
It's the tablet tablet.
I play Scrabble on there because it works my brain a little bit.
And I'm going to get my brain active and you have to have a little bit of
command of the English language to play Scrabble to not a lot, just a little bit.
If you want to get some points on the board, you got to know what to do.
And I found that the QI is a word that involves the Q, Z A is a word.
It's a colloquialism for pizza, Z A. So I always get my Zs and my Q.
I want my favorite letters because they, you know, pay a lot.
And so you learned this when you play Scrabble.
So that's my game of choice.
And I had the original pong game.
It was that little console.
Yeah, the two knobs on it, you played tennis.
Well, it's interesting.
You say that because the game gaming project or the gaming things that you bring,
you, you have a lot of retro games, right?
Yeah.
I mean, we bring a lot of retro games and things you, you will not see.
We have, um, there was a video game system that came out in the early
eighties, a home system called the Vex Rex track, right?
Now we created a stand up version of that.
And it's like one of a kind.
There's, uh, it is the only one in the world like it.
Um, one of our other unique displays is, uh, in Sears, there used to be these,
um, Atari selected games.
If I had four, like, demoing, uh, in their stores and they, they had them all
all over their stores, you know, like, um, you know, a couple thousand of them.
Well, there's eight that are in existence that we know of.
And we have one of them and we'll bring, we bring those out.
So there's a lot of unique things that will, will bring out for the gaming side of
things.
I had a magnum ox game system early on.
And then if you know, remember that magnum, I was called, um, something they had a fancy
name, but it was magnum odyssey odyssey.
That's it.
Magnum ox odyssey.
And one of the games we had was Casey Munchkin.
You heard it?
Yep.
It was a rip off of Pac-Man.
So much a rip off.
They sued and they couldn't produce them anywhere, but I had one.
Casey Munchkin and mine's in the original boxes.
I still have all this to actually my ex wife has all the stuff in the original boxes.
And she still has them.
You know, I said, take him out of one of them.
And she's got my original pond game, our original pond game we got.
So it's all there sealed up in boxes in storage, wherever she's got it.
It's worth millions, Don Rosen.
Yeah, no one.
I booked this stuff.
I had my daughters save all her Christmas Barbies.
Since she was a little girl, we got her Christmas Barbie every year.
And I told you, you can play with them.
But if you want to just put them on your shelf for decoration,
they might be worth something some day for the Christmas Barbies because they're all dated.
They're one of a kind.
They came out of that Christmas and they weren't reproduced ever, ever again.
So she put them on the shelf and now she's in her mid 40s.
So we looked them up.
They worth about 50 cents more than I paid for them.
Well, they say it returned to value.
Well, you know what it is.
There were so many made.
And people held on to them because they're Christmas Barbies.
You know, Barbie collectors out onto those things.
You know what the original Barbies from where she was modeled after a woman in Wisconsin.
I forget it's on the East Coast here Wisconsin somewhere.
That's where Barbie was given her her address or original birth address in Wisconsin.
I have to look that up to find out the original town and everything.
But yeah, Barbies from Wisconsin.
There you go.
Okay.
So when is this is Black Friday?
Yep.
So it's still the day after Thanksgiving.
Black Friday.
Okay.
So that Friday and Saturday.
So there it's a two day event.
Oh, it's not a big film.
Yeah.
So it's a two day event.
And so and there's tickets available to get a single day or to, you know, attend both days.
And like I said, the gaming portion of it will have a ticket to it.
But the vendor hall will be free for the public just to come in and and so.
Right.
Exactly.
And so and my podcast guy games and beer partnered with the Racine County I and the tickets
of that are being run through their site.
Wow.
Look at you.
That's love, isn't it?
Yeah.
Part of it.
You know, they they they've already done several successful events.
So, you know, why should we were you meant to wheel that they already know how to
get you saying that out how to use your wife.
That's right.
Okay, in our rating minute, are we looking at anything you're investigating anything
right now?
You can tell us about a lot of it is Medicaid, Medicare, a snap.
We're really working on stories around the jail.
We've got a lot, a lot cooking, budgets, a budget season is a very interesting.
It's spending and also staffing and so like in the Racine County.
Jail budget, they had 13.8 million dollars in staffing costs of that 1.4 million was over time.
So the question is why like watch those prisoners.
Yeah, I can't light them a little for you.
I took a tour of the jails once the sheriff gave me a tour.
Yeah.
And there was a I guess a big holding so a big snout holding.
So, but a big cell where there was like a lot of guys in there and they put up blankets.
Yeah.
And the sheriff said, get that down.
I said, how many times a day do you have to tell them this all the time?
Dave, soon as you they put it back, what they have nothing to lose.
What are they going to lose?
Put them in jail?
They're already in jail.
So they put the blankets up so they could do stuff privately because they want to be
what you're not going to understand that you're in a communal cell with people.
I mean, I don't know if these guys go to the bathroom in a communal cell.
That's one of the reasons I'm never going to jail.
I'm going to stay on the straight and narrow.
I don't know how these guys do that.
So the line, yeah.
Hey, I went to the prison where they filmed the Shoshank Redemption in Mansfield, Ohio.
And that's an old prison.
The electricity.
I grew up, I grew up 35 minutes from Mansfield, Ohio.
Yeah.
And this is, it's a rough looking prison, it's an old prison.
And now it's just used for people to come, but they actually have a real prison on the
other side of it.
But I wouldn't want to get locked up in that jail cell for the rest of my life.
Oh, that's keeping me from robbing banks and everything.
Otherwise, I'm doing it.
Thank you very much.
Then he's nice, Lockwood from Racine County, I, a lot of the stories we use in the morning
and in the afternoon.
You can follow up for more details because on radio, you can't, you know, do hour's
worth.
You can always read about him in Racine County, I, we thank you very much for partnering
with us.
I appreciate the partnership.
Yeah.
More than you know.
And you're partnered with Larry Davis, so I'm one degree away from you two degrees away
from Larry.
I know.
There you go.
I know you, you know Larry.
Thank you guys.
The, the, the, the giving, giving, thank you, giving, yeah.
