Transcript
Downtown Renaissance and Real Estate Realities (Hour 2)
Maino and the Mayor · Wed Jun 4, 2025
Coming to Northeast Wisconsin live from the Civic Media Studios, this is Mino and the Mayor.
And here are your hosts, John Mino and Jim Schmidt.
All right, good morning, everybody.
Mino's not back yet, but again, we have Connie Fulman in the house.
Thanks for being here again.
Hey, it's Connie and the Mayor again.
We're able to be here, Jim.
Thank you so much.
Oh, this was
awesome.
I
actually, I have to tell you, I got a text from, I texted John.
Are you feeling better?
You're going to be back Thursday.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So he's like, I really wanted to go out now.
We know he had a little skin cancer on his face, right?
Right.
And he had 10 stitches in it.
And, um, and he said, well, I want to go out and take a walk, but I want to put on the sunglasses and the hoodie and all that kind of stuff.
He goes, but I look like the unibom.
So then he shot, he sent me a picture and I'll, I'll bring it later for you guys.
And it's him and then a picture of the Unabomber.
And I'm going to tell you right now.
They're close.
They're really close, Jim.
Really close.
OK, we'll have
to work on that.
Well, that's good.
I'm glad he's doing fine.
I'll be back tomorrow.
But I really, Connie, this is great that you're here.
We got quite a lineup today.
And we had one little change.
We'll have to talk about a little bit later.
And I'm fine with the change.
But today, though, just weather-wise, right?
We can just start with a high.
Well, a high today is going to be 77.
Yeah.
58 now, Green Bay.
59 in Appleton, 58 in Oshkosh.
Some morning texts already.
Happy hump day.
Vicki, thanks for that.
Luanne, good morning.
Good morning, Luanne.
Good morning, Luanne.
Hey, Vicki.
Oh, I see Michael's out in New York City.
Good morning to everyone from New York City.
Yeah, that's...
I wonder if they have that wildfire smoke out there.
It's kind of... Ear levels are pretty dangerous out there today.
Really?
They don't
want you outside,
yeah.
I was... I talked to my daughter, but not about the weather.
She's in the middle of something else, which is great for her.
But I talked to a girl, a lady I worked with, a lady I worked with at New Community Shelter.
Her and her boyfriend, fiance, whatever, they're looking at going on a trip.
And she goes, really debating in Costa Rica or New York City.
I'm like,
those are two different places.
You know, it's like, you
know, they just won't.
Anyway.
New York's great.
I love it.
I would pick that over a lot of stuff.
Not close to Rika's pretty sweet though.
It is.
But
you're right.
Two completely different
appeals.
I'm like, how could you come up with those?
It's not like New York or San Francisco.
That'd be more of a comparison.
But anyway, they're going to close to Rika, which I think is great.
So yes, today.
Today, let's go through some of the Cheese Day.
Cheese Day.
Great for Wisconsin.
Yay.
Love that.
Hug your cat.
Do you have cats?
I do not right now.
I have a dog, but I'm not a cat or dog person.
I love them both.
And
Tiara Bar has
friends, has cats, and they're my babies.
Oh, she's saying
she's not choosing one or
the
other, right?
I'm not choosing.
Oh, I see.
Many dog people are anti-cat.
And I'm pro
both.
Pro both.
Yeah, you know, that's probably true.
Yeah, that's probably true that some dog people are anti-cat.
Yeah.
What about you?
Um, you've got a dog.
I'm a dog person for sure.
I love dogs.
I couldn't imagine you with cats.
I know, right?
Yeah, I don't.
I was going to say that when I was single, I had a cat.
Butch.
But you know what?
And I was, I was, it was, because they're nice to have in house.
The care isn't as much as a dog.
We dogs are crazy.
That's like a kid.
Yeah.
So, but he ate part of the Christmas tree, pine tree.
I had a live tree in my
home.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And.
Then he wasn't eating, I took him into the doctor and I was like, take out a little bit of intestines, like $200, $200, a little over that.
And then the guy's like, we gotta keep him away from the Christmas tree.
So I tried, but they jumped.
But anyway, he ate some more and I took him back and like, I don't know, the doctor says this is it.
He lost like a pound,
which is a lot
for like
a little
cat.
So anyway, that was very sad.
Have you seen those upside down?
Wait a minute,
so the cat died?
Yeah, the cat died because I had one surgery, he ate again and then the doctor said, look,
We just did surgery on his cat.
We took out, I don't know, an inch of his, whatever, testing, and he said, no, we're not gonna do this again.
So those, for those of you keeping score at home, this is the second Christmas story that involves a death of his pet.
Oh, oh.
That is not my pet.
That was my, the first one was my sister's pet.
You're right, Todd,
I never thought of that.
Christmas at the Schmitz house.
So his sister was a teacher and had a pet hamster.
Brought it home for the holidays, right?
Brought it home for the holidays.
She can't leave it in the classroom.
And she kept it in like a shoe box or something, right?
There's a bigger box in there.
But yeah, it was a box.
And they did all the wrapping and all that and the paper and the extra boxes and stuff.
And so his dad said, listen, you guys got to clear this out.
So they took everything and threw it in the fireplace to burn it.
And then later it's like, you know.
Sacrifice
to the
gods.
I know.
It was awful because I'll tell you what was really weird.
So my dad goes, you guys, the boys clean this up and these rooms clean up and we have breakfast.
So we clean everything up.
And then we're sitting around the table and we had 10 brothers and sisters, right?
So we're sitting around talking all Christmas and all Santa this.
Where's Benji?
It's like, oh, I don't know.
Looking around at my dad, looking at my brother, Billy goes, you go find that.
It was a guinea pig.
Oh, no,
that's even worse.
I know.
That was weird, that was weird Christmas.
Come to think of it, that's a flashback.
And people, and thinking people were listening, we love every listener, but I was out and some people made a comment about that.
I'm like, look, I didn't do it on purpose, so.
You know, my
dad's best Christmas story with unwrapping paper.
We were just diving in, throwing it back
in a
pile and it was, and all of a sudden he's like, come on kids, now clean up all that paper and we turn around, there's this mound of wrapping paper and we start to, and underneath it was a little kitty cat.
Aw.
Not
a kitty cat
cat.
Little snowmobile
a little if
you remember the the articat little
kitty cats.
Yep.
Yeah.
No, I don't
Oh, it's a little kids
snowmobile.
Oh, that's cool.
That's cool.
That's an awesome Christmas.
Yeah And nobody died yeah, that's the beauty of your Christmas your Christmas are different than ours Yeah, we sacrifice things Anyway, so hug your cat day.
Yeah, let me do that global running day.
That's cool
Gorgie or Gorgie?
It's Gorgie Day.
Gorgie, the dog.
Gorgie, the
dog.
Gorgie, the Queen Elizabeth always said Gorgies.
They got their own day.
Yeah, Gorgie
Butt.
I wonder if Bernaduils have their own day.
Don't have to look that up.
And America, the beautiful week.
That should be every week, right?
Yes, absolutely.
Love that.
All right, let's just... A few birthdays.
Do I know any of these people?
You know
Angelina Jolie.
She was married to that guy?
Yeah, that guy.
See?
Yeah.
And
are they on again off again?
No, they're way off again
off again.
Yeah.
Okay.
She's 50.
She's 50.
Huh.
And I don't know.
I can't picture her, but I just know the name because that's way too much ink.
Okay.
Also 50 is
Russell Brand.
Comedian actor.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Kind of a weird guy, right?
Yeah.
Not
as familiar with him.
Yep.
All right.
Noah Wiley, 54.
He
was in ER, right?
Nothing from Jim's
names.
No, I just you know, I there's other people like who oh my my When I got married I had my four brothers in the wedding and my best friend.
This is wedding today
Nobody listening knows who he is.
I bet more people know know a wily Yeah, this
guy is but I okay
If you look at the paper, it's not always the same names.
And I'm just wondering who, you know, who picks because I would be,
let's say you're up.
I do work on the show, so I pick the names.
And it's all based on pop sports culture.
Yes.
Okay.
All right.
I've only been here two years and a half.
Grab your paper.
I want to know who's in the paper that you would
know.
Well, I can't, you don't let me read the paper on the show.
So I'll do it during the break, during
the
break.
Very good.
Okay.
Horatio Sands, who is Saturday Night Live alum.
is 56.
Okay.
L. DeBarge, come on.
You gotta know who L. DeBarge is.
To the beat of the rhythm of the night.
The band DeBarge from the 80s.
Okay.
64.
Wow.
And I can't believe Michelle Phillips is 81.
She was in the mamas and the papas.
Oh, that's cool.
And of course, she was also an actress for a while.
She was on Knotts Landing back in the day.
She's 81.
I saw that last
minute that that swimmers that old, but that's
Michael Phelps, right?
Oh
my god.
I thought
that I said Taipo.
You know
what?
But you're right.
It was Michelle.
Sorry.
I read it all.
Did you know Wilson?
Wilson Phillips.
Is it me?
Sorry.
No.
No.
Never mind.
Let's move on.
Let's
move on.
Yeah, that's, uh, okay.
Who's close?
Flip Wilson
and Wilson Phillips.
Right.
See?
Fewer people would probably know who Flip Wilson is.
Um, I remember Flip Wilson.
I did too.
Okay, Gerald V. What's his birthday?
What's his birthday?
We haven't had him on the list.
Pick him next time, Todd.
I don't know if he's still around though.
Yeah, I don't think he is.
Okay.
All right.
Then we can't do that.
All right.
Tonight.
No, today.
I was, I love these afternoon games, but this is in Cincinnati.
Um, 1105.
First pitch, Brewers and the Reds, Cincinnati Reds.
Nice.
Did you see that?
They honored Pete Rose last night?
I didn't see that.
It was crazy.
Wow.
Yeah, that was pretty cool.
Oh, mine was cringing right now with it.
She doesn't, she didn't see that.
I can
just see him.
Oh, I didn't see it either.
I just read it.
All right.
Hey, so today our lineup is pretty good.
We're having Jeff Murkerson here.
He hasn't been here for a while.
Yesterday we talked a lot about the on Broadway District and their events and
Something new that they have, plus, of course, they're bringing back a lot of their things that are very successful.
Kind of the west side of the river, right?
And then today, Jeff Merkis is coming on, and he's downtown Green Bay, more the east side of the river.
They have activities too.
Yeah.
Try to combine those two into one, but they, that's like trying to combine two east and west to peer high school.
It
just wasn't there.
The
flavor just wasn't there.
We had meetings.
We actually brought a consultant in.
I'm not kidding you.
And it just, they justified in their own minds.
And I think, I don't know if they're right or not, keep them separate.
And I don't know.
The east and the
west side of
the
river?
The
events, the events.
So we got a, we got on Broadway.
Downtown Green Bay, yeah.
Right, downtown Green Bay on the east side.
And then you look at like Appleton.
I mean, they just got downtown Appleton, but they,
do the whole college.
They do so many events down there.
Well, they don't
have a river going through their city.
Right.
And in Oshkosh, I think it's more centralized.
I'm not sure.
But the way we do things here, they both have activities and they both work.
And that's what's really important.
A lot of fun stuff going on.
Anyway, he's going to
come in and talk about that.
And of course, then we got the Melchors in to talk about the movie with the Melchors.
And that's real estate.
And I was telling Todd, you know, yesterday or two days ago in the paper, they
front page, real estate,
sales
down, cost up.
And even today, it was Study Names Green Bay among the best for first-time home buyers.
That's exciting for us
to recruit
talent.
So I
want to get their comments on that.
And of course, John's coming in, John Kramer from Headlines with the Press Times and Jessica Norwood, NWTC.
It'd be fun to talk to them about
what's going on.
And then Linda Gusty, I don't think I know her.
Director of Education at the Botanical Gardens.
Has she been here before?
I know that she has.
Okay, we have people from the Botanical Gardens.
Have you been to their shows out there?
Yeah.
Yeah.
They're amazing.
Did you see Tina Turner?
It wasn't her.
I mean, obviously it was.
No, no, I didn't see that one.
Really good.
There's
Bee Gees now.
Wow.
Is that that?
That's what's going to be out there now.
All right.
Cool.
It'd be fun talking about that.
So and we had scheduled, I just want to tell our listeners, a Brown County board supervisor who's a friend of mine.
And I said,
because they knew they were voting on the coal piles last night.
And I said, look, come on here, 6.30 on Wednesday morning, and just give us the rundown.
What took so damn long?
And finally we got this deal done.
And what was the hang up?
And what is it going forward?
Well, he texted me last night.
He goes, hey, look, can't come on because we can't disclose this until final vote Thursday.
So he's going to come on Friday.
There was some deal made.
They can't reveal the details
yet.
Right.
So anyway, that's fine.
At least there's a
deal.
It's a big, big deal for
The city.
Why would it be so secretive?
I mean, why can't the public know what's going on?
My guess,
and I don't know this, is they just want it legally written and then signed by both parties before they make the announcement.
I think they agreed last night, but...
And then you agree and that's like, then you reduce it to writing and it's like, no, no, no.
Are you sure it was, you know, three years and not seven?
And I don't know.
I think I'm okay with them waiting because
you know, I've never been a politician.
So I can't
even imagine in a
workings, but are they going to be gone at some point?
Do you think?
No, the coal.
Yeah.
No.
Still the cheapest.
I mean, I just saw.
No, I mean, from our, from our
riverfront.
No, we're going to need coal.
I know, but they can convert.
Did you see where is that?
Is it in Illinois, the nuclear that they're putting in now to help this all this AI stuff?
Nuclear is 19% of our energy, and they're building more of that now.
Because it's
clean, it's good for the environment,
it
helps the global warming.
No, I'm not kidding you.
Anyway, so yes, there's going to be coal here.
Plants need coal, and they don't want to convert over to natural gas.
And we've got to respect that.
It's still the cheapest form of energy right now.
Right, it just
needs to go away from the waterfront.
You've got
ships that bring
it
in.
In my opinion.
Yeah.
Good idea.
Hey, we'll talk a little bit about that the break.
Ladies and gentlemen, the very first
time
Jim got a little, uh,
with
Connie in the studio.
Oh, man.
She's tough.
She's tough.
All right.
Hey, we're going to be right back.
This is Kyle Thelman, Jim Schmidt, mine on the
mare.
Does this Russell Brand?
No.
No.
No,
this was somebody whose birthday was yesterday and I forgot her name already.
No.
This is El Debar.
This is Debar.
Get out of here.
Oh my
gosh.
See, Connie.
It
ties into the day.
He's not a yesterday
tomorrow.
Wow.
This guy lives in the moment.
I'm just, I...
I mean,
you know
how I feel about you.
I
love
you.
I was thinking,
let's hear it for
the boys.
Doesn't it sound like let's hear it for the boys?
There's a similarity.
Yes.
All
right.
Little bit.
lawsuit.
Okay.
Hey, a couple of things.
We got a nice text here today from Sherry at Kayak, Wisconsin.
Do you, Kayak?
Oh, I do.
Okay.
So the kayaks are in Bellevue on the East River now.
Oh, nice.
They have those launches.
You know, they have one at Lily Lake and a couple of other ones are on time.
They have four or five launches.
And you just go online.
Um, and they give you the code you go in there.
You can rent kayaks.
Oh, how cool.
It's very good because it's
do you kayak?
I have not here.
Okay.
I know you don't canoe.
I almost spit my coffee out when you asked him if he kayaked.
Do
you kayak?
I did a spit take.
Okay, I got it.
All right.
Anyway, they're in Bellevue.
The water's low, but if you guys want to schedule time to use the kayaks, let me know.
Isn't that nice?
That is.
So Sherri was on here before and she's big.
Cool.
Thanks,
Sherri.
Hey, we must
be doing all right here.
Okay.
Only because when I came in this morning, there's Starbucks coffee.
So thank you whoever did that, because we've been drinking
this.
For who?
Water
dunk for me.
I mean, for us.
I didn't get the
Starbucks.
I didn't get the Starbucks.
Yeah.
There's Starbucks in the back too.
Oh.
That's a treat.
You have an ice
cream.
Yeah.
Anyway, thanks, Todd, for whoever bought that.
Yeah.
Sage bought it.
Let me just say
that.
Sage?
Right, we love Sage.
Talking about him yesterday,
he's doing great.
All right, so how are you doing here?
I love here.
I really do.
You're a TV person though, right?
Yes.
And you're anchor here, anchor there.
Yeah.
And we talked a little bit yesterday and in our next half hour, at least for the part of it, we'll talk a little bit more about TV.
We're not going there unless Sage wants to buy TV stations, but right now we're radio people.
But you have some information on...
Well, I thought it would be interesting.
There's, you know, like the top five things you never knew about your local newscaster.
because I used to get comments from people I would meet, you know, all the time about, wow, you're, you're short.
Or, you know, do
you, you know, do people come in and who does your hair and makeup?
And a lot of stuff that
I
think is fun that you wouldn't necessarily know.
A little bit with politicians are a lot more with newspapers because you're on every day, but we're on once in a while.
And people would say to me, I mean, all what I first was elected that meant I thought you'd be taller.
And I would say to them, so did I.
Part of the reason is when you're on camera, the camera shoots and people view it at eye level.
So they think you're the same eye level as them,
because
that's how they're seeing you on TV.
And I'm much more below eye level for many people.
Okay,
that's two of us.
So I've got a great picture of her
And who's who's the gentleman?
It's Jordan Lamerts.
He does the weather on the morning show, you know at filling in
I didn't realize he was that tall.
Yeah And we'll show that after 6 30 on our stream was
sitting at the desk.
We were you
know,
yeah
Right you look the same or even yeah, right.
Yeah, he is quite a bit taller.
I Was there was an article on some of the changes in the media now
There was when we first started in radio.
Oh my god It was like remember every week somebody's leaving somebody's doing this in the radio and I haven't heard a lot lately But on TV, you know with Jarts, of course retired
and
Chris, you know moving up a chair But we lost to like good weather people the bigger markets.
Yeah, I don't watch the weather
but anyway,
that's
They just said changes in the industry.
It's like a big two other people somebody else left her came to but anyway It's cool that Green Bay a little bit of a stepping stone, right?
Yeah, people kind of come here.
It's like this is great.
I'm gonna move on Yeah,
it used to be it was kind of the breaking off point where people would decide okay, you know that go to was on Rhinelander and then
Green Bay was usually at least their second job and the time to decide am I gonna put up with this?
Do I really want it?
Because it's a lot a lot harder than a lot of people know and they would either continue on and TV from here and move up markets Or this would be the breaking point where they said no, it's not for me
or they might stick around right?
They might be like long-term people in this if you're
like a Connie Felman for example,
yeah
Who's local who's from Shawna
would love
Northeast, Wisconsin?
I stuck around and
tried to move up within the industry.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And Bill Jarch from Clintonville,
you know,
there's a lot of us.
And
we've, we've had some great people that have moved on.
Yeah.
I mean, and that's kind of cool that they like to go back to their like home area, not necessarily the same hometown, but you know, that state or that region.
And that makes sense.
I would, I did that too.
So here we are.
All right.
So we're going to talk about you and your media stuff.
Are you still in touch with all your media friends or do you guys kind of like split up?
Oh, no.
No, it's a really small industry.
There's only four stations in Green Bay.
And many of us who have been around long enough have worked at most of them.
And it's a really small, tight-knit group.
So how does one get into that, though?
Were you like a cheerleader and on stage?
Was it that that drew it to you?
Or was it more like, I love writing, I love reading?
I love writing.
That was my passion.
And I was a cheerleader, and I was on stage.
But it was more journalism.
You
know, it's
because if your goal
is
like,
okay, I those are two different I'm not laughing at you.
I'm laughing with you really you're
yeah,
really you're I said you Like what was the question?
I'm not saying it was Eagle, but you're on stage.
You're a cheerleader, right?
You're out in front.
You're in the spotlight.
Yeah,
and then there's journalism which is
Totally different.
You know, you're kind
of in these... Well, yes,
it's
different than being on stage.
And knowing your personality, how outgoing you are, you said, I did it because of journalism.
I just smiled.
I didn't laugh.
I smiled.
Well, here's my thing.
If you enter...
Okay, get me out of this,
Todd.
But I am a dinosaur.
You know, broadcast journalism.
If you enter TV to be on camera, you're not gonna last long because it's journalism.
And the reason it's there is to...
you know, is news to tell people stories.
The actual being on TV part of it is very, very minimal to what you do.
So there's a lot
of- So you're telling me, I don't know if I buy that, you're telling me that the people who are on TV-
Oh,
it's already started.
A week into the
honeymoon.
The people who are on TV are there because of journalism, not because they want to be on TV.
I got a couple people I want to ask you about at
the break.
Journalism, you're talking to a journalist.
I know, I know that.
And a cheerleader and someone who has lead role in the high school plays.
We gotta get, we gotta get Terry Barr.
We gotta get Terry Barr in here.
She knows
it.
All right, we're gonna
be right back.
Connie the mayor.
All
right, don't forget coming up after seven o'clock this morning.
It's a Scotty summer and the Texas win statewide contest is going on this morning.
Connie and Jim will have this morning's keyword for you.
Be listening in for that for a chance to pair a pair of Milwaukee Brewers club level tickets or $100 cash in those great Wisconsin vacations in the Wisconsin Dells area or Dork County vacation.
Again, that's coming up after seven o'clock this morning with Connie Feldman and Jim Schmidt, Mino and the
mayor.
When we need a lot of texts today, we're going to put the arm on this
thing today.
Yeah, come on.
We need to hear from you.
We made more texts.
You were
quiet yesterday,
so today's the day.
It's 100 bucks.
100 bucks.
Yeah.
Or those clubs
of seats are
good seats.
And it's a more fun one to hear from people.
Yes, absolutely.
So all right, so we're talking a little bit about.
How great it's been to have you here.
But you're a TV person, so we talked a little bit last night.
You have some things that we didn't know about.
Is it about you specifically?
Well, I'm going to speak to them from a personal perspective, because I don't want to speak for any other anchor.
But it's just kind of common things in the industry that you wouldn't know.
You see people on TV, and you think kind of what they do and who they are.
But then when you meet them in person, it's often a different story.
They either look different than you thought or...
I hope they're...
Nice.
They are.
Would I be
anything but not you?
I just because it's sad.
I don't like like I did entertaining, right?
I did lighting at the Carlton West
for
years.
And some of these people weren't very nice.
Well, you're going to
find that in every
probably
media,
though.
But probably some of these.
Yeah.
Listen, there's politicians who are jerks.
There are TV people, radio people.
Some are wonderful.
Some not so much.
Yeah.
I mean, it's everywhere.
Yeah.
It is.
My point was that how they come across as super nice, and then you meet them and they're like super rude.
You know what I mean?
I think there's some politicians that are rude, but they're kind of jerks, you know, even on the floor.
I don't know, maybe
not.
Well, they're actors, and you know, an actor is not the same thing as a...
Broadcast journalism you want to be who you are on the air,
right?
But there's also expectations,
right?
So like
people will say to me all your radio voice I don't like do this radio thing, but I don't go on and go All right, it's seven o'clock
right
got a chance to win right
you got
to go hey at seven o'clock You've got a chance to win right
well and like I get to come in radio and a ball cap and yeah, you
do you chill
that's my radio It's I love it.
All right, so tell me something we didn't know about we don't
You guys don't know about
each other.
All right, here's what you might not know.
All right, the top five things you may not know about your local news anchor.
They're likely a lot shorter or taller in some cases than you think.
So you're sitting at the desk, right?
We saw that picture of Michael Chen and I last week.
I was sitting on the Milwaukee phone book to bring me up to about how high he is.
And there's a picture of Jordan.
There's Jordan Lamers and I.
We were on the more I was filling in on the morning show.
And when we sat at the desk, we were about the same height.
You know, his chair was all the way down.
Mine was all the way up.
But then when we stood up and Jordan shares my birthday, by the way.
Oh, cool.
Yeah.
Great guy.
So it's interesting.
Look
at how short she is compared to him.
I guess.
I mean, you come up to, like
I say, his nipple
areas where your eyes
are.
He is very tall.
I'm, you know.
But that happens with.
A lot of people, not just news people, because, remember, Tom Cruise is not that tall.
No,
yes.
But they put people around him that make him look like he's a little
bit taller.
I
mean, when you cast people, they
wouldn't do that.
And like I said, when you see people through a TV lens, you assume you're seeing them at eye level.
Because they're shooting different.
OK, so
by and large, I would think people, news people, are shorter than we think they are.
I don't think they're taller.
Well, but Tom Zulaski, I think, might be taller than you would think he is.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
So also I always got asked so people think you do your hair and you have people come in and do your hair and makeup and of course you don't.
You don't have a little makeup room?
Yes.
There's nobody in
there?
Well you do it yourself.
Really?
You kind of learn as you go what you know what works what doesn't and believe me you will hear from the viewers if something doesn't.
There are consultants who will tell you you need to you know have
straight hair.
So
we're a mid-sized market.
When do you get the makeup people?
Like maybe network.
Network, yeah.
Those guys do.
Anchoring network,
yeah.
New York, top four maybe.
Do you think
they have them in Chicago?
Probably.
Yeah, in Chicago, yep.
New York, LA, Chicago, Philly.
The bigger cities had it right, but we never got to that.
That might
be a cool thing to do to attract talent.
Say, look, you work here?
Great studios, we got the best equipment and we have a makeup artist that comes in
every day.
Would
that make a difference for you if you were going, let's say five had it and 11 didn't?
It may, but that's just not, not in the local budget.
Is that because it
feels egomaniacs?
No, it's not in the local budget.
It won't, that's, yeah.
All right.
And I wasn't gonna go there, but yeah, it's not a tremendously lucrative career until you get way to the top, then it may be.
Oh yeah.
But yeah.
The other thing that's interesting is the dudes, the guys you see on TV wear makeup also.
And that's, they have to figure it out.
I was always taking the young male reporters under my wings and saying, here's what you do.
And it's just, it's mainly because if you go on with, you just look pasty white under the lights.
So you have to have some color on you.
So if you see- When
John goes on and fills in on Local
Five
Live, he wears makeup.
Yeah.
So you see him in person, you're like, ooh, dude's got makeup.
But don't they do that?
I mean, when I had longer interviews, longer interviews, 20
minutes, when they want to sit
down with you, they always put, they had come
up with that little brush.
They used to.
They used to.
They really don't
have that anymore.
Well, I don't know.
I
wouldn't know what to bring.
So when you went on with Zulaski, with Mino, right, when the show kicked off, you went on his weekend show.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Did he, did anybody do your makeup?
No.
Okay, there you go.
I was one of those people who did makeup.
at 26 back in the day in commercial production.
But they've gotten away with that.
You know, gotten away from that now.
They don't, some stations don't do it.
Usually the guy or the lady walks over with just that little brush.
We got a little glitter here.
And they
just put it on your forehead and then they
walk away with it.
Yeah, cause you're shiny.
It's
not
like makeup, it's
not like they put eyebrows.
Look back on that tape, Jim.
You guys were shiny.
Probably were.
They do thing.
All right, so.
This is for you.
Everybody thinks you're tall, you're not.
Everybody thinks you've got a makeup artist before you go on and that's, it's all you.
Yeah,
yeah.
You say that you get criticized from the viewers once in a while.
Does somebody okay your makeup?
Like say, all right, honey, that's good.
Do you have like a supervisor
or something?
Occasionally, there will be a consultant.
Or the producer might say something, right?
Like, hey, the rouge or anything like that.
It's a little too
red.
Yeah, somebody should.
The director, the producer.
Gotcha.
They should.
And they should also say, you know, your shirt's wrinkled, but some.
TV is not the way it used to be.
So this is my personal experience.
Remember, I'm a dinosaur.
At your young age.
Listen, I can
tell
you as a producer, when I tell these guys anything like, don't lean back in your chair, your stomach's sticking, they don't listen.
They don't listen.
I'm working on it.
This is for you, Jim.
The newscast, the part you see on TV, the half hour news, that is actually the smallest fraction of their time that they do every day.
So for example, you know anchors who present the news are writing the show they're producing the show when I was At Channel 5 on the weekends.
I was there producing and writing my own show and then anchoring it at night and sometimes going out in between and catching video of whatever was happening
Wow,
so
they do more.
They just don't read a teleprompter You're saying they do more than that.
They actually write what's
on the teleprompter.
Yeah
because you have a producer, but you have to have people help you write the show.
And those are usually the people who've been around the longest.
A lot of time for me.
I love to mentor young journalists.
And I was a self-proclaimed dinosaur, but said, this is AP style.
This is why we write this way.
And that was my passion.
I had
that.
So what time did your show come on?
I did a 6.30 and a 10.
In the morning or at night?
At night.
So what was your prep time like?
Did you get in 330?
Is it two hours, three hours prep?
Oh, no, I was in at 130.
Really?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
I don't think you worked that hard either.
I won't.
It's a lot of
work.
And then so the broadcast ends at 1030, right?
Yeah.
What time do you actually walk out the door?
I was pretty close to 11.
Yeah.
You know, there's not promos to shoot after.
But you know, in sports guys too, sports guys are covering sports.
All day in a hot summer day and you know, they come in not uncommon see men suit coat and shorts and then sports guys after the show they have to shoot sports extra or whatever almost they have so they're So long hours and hard work
All right, that makes sense what you're saying like I want to look at all that behind an anchor I thought that's kind of a chill job You know that you just kind of got there and teleprompter, but it's more work
Teleprompters go out too.
I was also, nowadays, back in my day, I had to have a paper script on my desk.
They have tablets now, but tablets fail also.
And when you're standing there staring at a live TV camera, you gotta know the teleprompter's gonna go out at some point, and you need to know exactly where you are, and you don't wanna be caught like a deer in the headlights, but if you're really good, you'll never know the teleprompter's gone out.
And that anchor is just reading off their scripts.
Okay, so you
read the teleprompter and you've got it on your tablet.
Yeah.
Who's scrolling it?
You are.
Oh, man.
They don't even have that anymore, Jim.
A lot of places don't even have camera people.
It's
all
electronic.
Yep.
And you're also operating nowadays your own teleprompter with your foot.
So when I was producing, I was trying to scroll my scripts on the iPad, time the show with my other hand on a laptop on the desk and scroll my teleprompter with my foot.
Yeah
Okay, but this is right right right little off base it I wonder what they're doing that for cost containment.
Yeah, I don't
add people It just seems like they're they've added and I know it seems like they have added more commercial time I mean it's you can Google and see what it is what they add on that's business Mm-hmm, but
you would think you love money.
I mean I
do
you know digital is is a huge push.
That's where news is going people want their news
where they want it, how they can get it, when they want it, they don't sit around and wait anymore for the evening newscast to come on.
So you also, reporters and anchors, you know, once you're done with your story and you've gone out, you've had one day to find somebody, talk to them, write it, edit it, get out, present it, and then you put it on the web, you put on web copy.
Like I look at X, right, every morning, I read that for half hour, just go through the stories if I want and I'm gonna click it on.
That doesn't bode well for TV anchors.
Well, not necessarily, but it's a great vehicle to get communications.
I love it.
Are you kidding?
The other
thing, too,
is they're still selling a brand on there.
So
whether it's the reporter's brand or the network's brand or the news organization's brand is still braining it.
So whether it's web or it's social, it's all the same.
I will just tell you, Lisa Hale, one person does 71 different stories a week,
Jim.
71.
Well, and the thing about, don't get me on a platform here, but you can't necessarily
I always trust what you read on the internet.
So there's, to me, an even greater need for local journalists now because anybody can say anything they want put it on the internet and call it news.
And that's scary for me.
All right, let me give you my one last top five things you never knew.
Camera ads, well, they used to say it added 10 pounds.
I came back to news after 15 years of being out, now it adds
20.
Are you just saying that
because?
Maybe it's me.
Maybe I added a few
myself.
Too many cameras.
Even when you see somebody on TV who's not overweight or anything, and you meet them in person, they always look skinnier
and
more frail.
Yes.
More frail.
They
do look like.
It does.
It does add some dimension.
So it is true.
So that's, yeah.
I mean, look at yourselves in the camera gym right now.
That's at least 10.
Perfect.
Yeah.
Really, in person, I'm only, you know, 120.
So it's Chip.
We're talking, I don't know, a couple weeks ago, I had my wedding anniversary.
And we're talking about,
yeah, thanks, it was 35 years.
But we're talking
about the difference in, because everybody knows how much they waited when they got married, I think.
I mean, I don't know, we did.
And it's, she's put up with a lot, a lot, but I'm gonna... I'm gonna get
back to her.
I
can only imagine.
St.
Donna.
Yeah, that's
right.
Oh, Donna.
She's up for
Sainthood,
yeah.
Heads
off to you.
Yes, all right.
So, do you have a preference on TV or radio?
I guess it's...
Tough to ask you when you're sitting here on the radio.
What's cool, and the other thing cool is the way radio is now, there's still video,
there's still pictures and all that on the
web, so you still have a piece of that, right?
You can
do it all right here.
I love the hair and makeup, much better for radio.
Yeah, it's true.
Alright, WGBW, Connie and Jim Schmidt, we'll be right
back.
everybody this is Connie the mayor just heading up on hour two and we have Jeff Merkis going to be joining us at the top of the
hour and um
it's it's going to be great to hear I just I think events are so important to a community
it's just
you can have the infrastructure but if you don't you don't program it it just it kind of sits there
well we've got a lot to do yeah and it's you know like like we were saying yesterday you just got to know about this stuff so that's that's why we're here
yeah and then this Linda at
It's gusty, right?
Am I got that right?
For the director of education at the Green Bay Botanical Gardens.
Are you a... I know she's gonna talk about the Bee Gees and the entertainment they have there and they have great entertainment, but are you a big gardener?
I'm out there all the time because I love it.
I have not, I do not have the green thumb.
There's rarely been a plant I can't kill.
Okay, we'll move on.
What do you do outside
of...
Broadcasting like what's your thing?
Do you do horseback ride or something?
Well, I do horseback ride.
I grew up with horses.
Yeah.
Um, Oh
God,
there's something you guys
have
in common.
We
do.
You do.
And I really wanted to get like into it into it, you know, there was a stable on the East side of Green Bay like in Bellevue.
Uh-huh.
I took my kids there.
I wish he would have got in but they were so
intimidated by the size of the horse.
They just couldn't understand that they were in charge even though the horse was bigger.
They just, yeah.
And that grass, they didn't come there, they were young, maybe they took them there too young.
Well, I'm guessing you and I did, did you do English writing?
No.
Okay.
The western saddle, no?
Yeah, because I was out, you know, I was running barrels doing pole races and.
Oh, you did all that?
Oh, yeah.
So the county fair is coming up and we're gonna have somebody come on to talk about that.
That is really cool.
Those girls, they're young.
I think so are the guys, but
the girls are pretty
young and boy do they handle a horse.
I'm gonna get to that.
I love that.
Yeah, and it's more maybe like journalists, but it's a lot more than looking party and being up holding their flag and riding a horse.
They do roping and riding.
So are you
still in it or did you get out of it?
Well, I grew up on a farm and that was mainly we raised horses.
But I haven't ridden in probably a couple of years.
My big thing right now I love is the outdoors.
I love going up north.
I love fishing, you know that, boating, hiking.
That's,
I think we have to sell that more here in Green Bay.
Cause I think I told you, I've been doing that recruiting tape for Aurora about, you know, we're a lot more than football.
20 minutes you can be fishing.
You can be in the ER, 20 minutes later you can be fishing.
That's pretty cool.
You can't do that in New York.
No, or Texas or California.
There's a
lot of places.
And I think that that, I don't know, I haven't really studied these younger.
30 year olds, but they also want to be in a community that is concerned about the environment.
And I think we're good at that.
I really do.
I don't think
we talk enough about it.
You look at somebody like Georgia Pacific, but they do to be green and to support outdoor sports.
That's an awesome company.
We're so lucky to have them.
I don't think we would ever take someone like that for granted.
what they do for the environment's unbelievable.
It's just a great, great company.
And I think we need to sell more of that because to say, look, you can be here.
And like I said, the front page of the paper, study names, Green Bay among the best for first time home buyers.
It's like, well, don't come here because it's cheap.
I mean, come here because of the amenities.
Well, look at all the water that surrounds us.
But the younger generation you're talking about recruiting and young professionals, they are much more concerned.
then we were even, in my day, about the environment.
It's a really, you know, really concerned about protecting and keeping it around for the next seven, yeah.
Hands down.
And I said before on this show that even when they seek jobs and they're looking for jobs, it was really, really important to them, you know, what they do for the environment, what they do for charitable
things, what they do
for time
off
to donate.
I can't say that was my top priority when I went out looking for a job.
Well, I was in the 80s, you know, we were like, how much money can you make?
Exactly.
And it was.
I'll be honest.
Yeah.
And I think here's the other thing, though, I don't know that a lot of jobs pay what maybe some of these positions should require.
And so I think people are like, well, if I'm not going to make what I'm worth, then there's got to be some other things for me to join this company.
There's a lot more work from home also ever since COVID.
But you're probably right.
But there's some pretty competitive wages out there, and it still comes down to what do you do?
I think a company that gives to African kids,
that's a
big deal for one of my daughters.
And I just think that I just wish we would have been more brought up like that, because we weren't.
I mean, we're just like, get a good job, get an education, and we'll make some money.
And I think I'd like to take a little bit of credit for, because we did a lot of charitable work, but that's because I was, you know, the mayor.
But they grew up doing that.
They still do it in their communities.
They're involved and stuff.
And I think that's awesome.
And they love it.
Yeah, you look at how awareness has changed and times have changed.
You know, it just wasn't as we weren't as knowledgeable then as we
are now.
Listen, you used to be able to watch TV and the Flintstones would tell you to smoke a Winston.
You know what?
Jim, we just got a text.
I just got a message from somebody.
And I want to know why we didn't know about this.
But you are featured in the latest, frankly, Green Bay episode.
with Frank Hermans.
Really?
What'd he do?
Oh boy, that, I remember.
He interviewed me.
A while ago.
What was it then?
I didn't even know what that was.
What was it then?
Frankly Green Bay, the TV show he does, and you're on it.
Do I speak well of you, Todd, in the
civic media?
I don't remember that interview, but okay, I'm sure I did.
Did they put makeup on him?
They
did.
He
does not look that
red.
True that it was in summer.
And this is a while back because you have a little bit more weight in this.
So I don't know how long ago this was, but it is out
now.
Do you notice how Todd and I, we're both together, I bet you we're over 40 pounds we've lost.
Two of us
together, I mean.
Good job.
I know, right?
We are.
Well, I never knew either of you before to be overweight.
Let me pull out some pictures.
It's a TV camera.
It puts it on radio.
It's the camera, remember?
It puts on 20 nowadays.
It
does.
But no, we've talked about it a lot, but I think the last few months, Todd and I kind of leaned into it a little bit more.
Good for you.
Which is good.
Yeah.
You want to do that now, because then your knees are better, and we're going to have to worry about all this stuff.
So anyway, all right.
So run down to you guys, stick around because this isn't going to be good.
Jeff Merkis is going to be giving us the up-down on downtown Green Bay and he's going to talk a little bit about Apple and Oshka.
She works with these other downtown directors and how more we can do together.
Ben and Deanna Melchor course, moving with the Melchors.
Let's talk about this is the place for first-time home buyers.
That's, I think that's awesome.
That's
exciting.
It is.
And John Kramer, of course, with headlines, with the press times.
Great.
We've got Jessica from NWTC coming in, and then of course Linda, the director of education for the Botanical Gardens.
They're going to talk about the Bee Gees Now, which is
a
great concert that's coming out there.
Sticker all will be all right back.
This is Connie in the mirror.
And don't forget your shot to win with Scotty's summer text to win contest coming up after seven o'clock.
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Coming to Northeast Wisconsin, live from the Civic Media Studios, this is Mino and the Mayor.
And here are your hosts,
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Shields.
Hi, good morning everybody.
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We were brought up in that era where it's winter dies.
So that's what we do.
Hey, we talk about communities, right?
Oshkosh, they've still got it going on there.
Appleton always has something new.
And here in Green Bay, we do as well.
It doesn't just happen.
That's not happenstance.
That's leadership that makes that happen.
And we have Jeff Merkis in the house.
And those of you who don't know him, I don't know where you've been.
26 years, 25,
what?
25 years as a
director of downtown Green Bay.
there's always something new coming on.
And I was going over some of your shows or shows, I should say events.
And I really think you'd need to bring events because people all build some condos.
People move down there.
They want events.
People want events to come down and shop to eat.
They want events.
That's what gets them.
That's the front door right there.
Absolutely.
Good morning, Jim.
Good to be with you.
You know, you hit it right on activation, bringing people, people want to be where other people are.
And
we could not do it at this organization without a dedicated team, eight professionals who are involved with all aspects of downtown improvements.
But the activation, the events that take place, I could not be more proud of the fun things that are lined up for the summer.
Oh, and they are
fun.
They are a lot of fun to be a part
of.
And some are not, I wanna say no more fun.
They're different.
That's what I was looking for.
But you start off with just the staple and that's the farmers market.
Right.
Try it in true, Saturday Farmers Market.
And I think,
that's a good point tried and true because there's other people that call themselves the farmer's market and that's fine but it's food trucks it's it's entertainment it's alcohol
This thing on Saturday morning that you, it's been a hundred years though, you
haven't done all of them.
Yeah, we've had a few years to figure it
out.
Right, isn't it close to a hundred years,
90 years?
A hundred and nine years.
Oh, it's a hundred and nine.
Yes, a hundred and nine years.
Oh, I didn't know that.
So, a hundred and nine years.
Wow.
Having it on Washington Street right by the Meyer Theater is just outstanding.
That was a good move.
People can go to yoga at eight o'clock, yoga at eight o'clock and there's entertainment that starts at nine and, you know, start your day with yoga and wrap it up with a wood-fired pizza.
Yeah.
And that's vendors are outstanding.
I
was just gonna say that and there's a waiting list to get in there and rightfully so but the vendors are great and just
When the season really kicks in it just it smells so good there with just all those fresh veggies
It's really all about the fresh produce and we have quality vendors once a month We have a family day.
So on Saturday June 14th is a family day with special family activities bringing out the kids We want children to know that as part of their tradition mom and dad took them to the downtown and they went to an awesome market And when they grow up and have their own families, they do the same thing.
Yeah, it's a great family activity, too
No more praying windows work.
We did the farmers market.
That's cool.
What?
So there's just more activities for the kids on the 14th?
So there are planned activities.
So yes, bring the kids.
There will be something fun for them to do.
Activity tables.
The next day is Father's Day, 15th.
And you can take your kids to
the
baseball game because that's where that money goes to feed my starving children.
That's right.
Family weekend.
That's a good weekend.
Family weekend.
And actually, it is such a huge weekend and we're here to talk about a lot of downtown events that downtown Green Bay coordinates.
We coordinate about 55 events a year.
When I took this job, we coordinate about 16 a year.
Now we're up to 55.
Wow.
However, that same weekend over at the automobile gallery is the Red Lewis Memorial car show.
Oh, good.
And so that's another one to have on your radar.
That is on, you know, Saturday, June 14th from eight to two.
If you love cars, that's an outstanding car show.
Come to the market and then head over to the car show.
And
if you've never
They have amazing things.
I was just blown away the first time I stepped in those doors Wow,
that's great.
It's all walking.
It's just yeah, I love it.
I love it.
So hey, and then my favorite I shouldn't say my favorite one of my favorites I gotta be careful with although now I can say my favorite, right?
I'm not I'm not an office anymore Friday's
on the Fox.
I know one
time I We had was it a band some band came and played down here in the city deck high school band, right?
And I just said this one
I said, this is my favorite band.
I think it was Preble's band.
And they were good.
It wasn't Notre Dame.
And some lady came up, man, she really leaned into me on that.
She goes, man,
how dare you pick
one school?
And I said, well, I didn't really mean it like that.
I just wanted to compliment the kids.
Anyway, so, but now the hell with her.
I can say whatever I want.
So here we are.
But hey, you kick this thing off.
This is not just.
I mean, the heck, okay,
sorry,
Jeff, sorry, sorry, sorry.
Jeff, but this, what I'd like about Friday's on the Fox, I mean, that was quite an investment the city made, well, the city, the community made down there, you know, what, 11, 12 million dollars.
And it's...
It's not just regular music.
This is you really upgrade this stuff and this is stuff You'd pay to go see and yet you offer for free and I just I mean, I know everybody on
here,
right?
Yeah, you want to rattle off something.
Yeah, we kick off on the 13th with the Cougars people love that band Yeah, it's a great place to spend a Friday evening.
We have an awesome Hospitality partner Hagemeister, you know catch a brew and a burger at Hagemeister come and enjoy the concert But it's a
view too.
That's that's the cool
party looking at water and you just there's just something
about
seen boats and it's
a great place to watch the sunset.
You see yachts double parked out here and pontoon boats, people having fun.
Yeah.
It's just a really nice
vibe.
They have a kayak launch there.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Right.
All right.
And then we've had these guys on a couple of times and doing pianos.
That is, that is fun.
I mean, that's just a, and that's talk about a family event.
I mean, man, they're
clean.
They're funny and they know everything, like everything.
So, um, I would say to stump them one time and
They just, we didn't.
And
it wasn't just me, it was
a group of people, people that know a lot more about music, but yeah, there are a lot of
folks.
Any other favorites on that list?
I decided to bring in a poster for the two of you, just so you can see.
Well, Breast Differential.
Breast Differential, they're great.
Man, there,
I played with the Trombone player set in with a jazz band.
I was in one time.
Really?
Oh, man,
just amazing.
That's a fabulous concert lineup.
And you can hear these bands a lot of places, but you cannot hear them on the city deck on a Friday evening.
It's really a fun location for a concert.
Johnny Wadd.
Love them.
And Nashville Pipeline.
Have I seen them?
Have they been here?
Yes, we've booked them.
They've played downtown before.
I know I played park and
elsewhere.
You had the Britons one time.
That was fun.
Yeah, that was the night before the Paul McCartney concert.
Oh, that's right.
There were 5,000 people out on the city deck to listen to a Beatles tribute.
That was, yeah, you were there
at
the time.
We changed the street name to Abbey Road.
Oh, nice.
We
drove around in a 79 Volkswagen bus, thanks to the automobile gallery.
Right.
But that's gonna be great.
All right, so Fridays on the Fox, that's always good.
And then...
Talk about the theater in the park.
So this is a great event for Whitney Park.
Wonderful stage nice neighborhood and theater in the park.
We have a June concert, which is Shakespeare's Hamlet and then in August is a children's musical so we partner local theater groups and they it's a really fun Event if you like Shakespeare and bring the kids out for a unique experience
an outdoor stage.
Yeah,
so that's authentic Shakespeare right there
and
bring
your lawn chairs and it that's that's a good afternoon.
Yeah,
check that out.
That's a good one now.
This is
All right, again, I can't have favorites, but if I did this
jazz and
Jackson that I'm glad you're doing that.
That's a great park and you are bringing
One of the best entertainers
there.
One of the best is right.
Everyone loves Kevin Vaness and Talk of the Town.
Now this is right across from the YWCA.
So we really expect some of the YW families to come out and enjoy that concert.
It's a Thursday lunchtime concert.
So we hope
to have food
trucks out there.
But it's kind of reminiscent of back in the day when we had a concert series there and which no longer exists because other things have taken its place.
But I think people will love Jazz and Jackson.
And this is the first time Kevin who is out.
outstanding, very popular, great following.
He
became a
superhero during the NFL Draft because he was all over the place and he leads the Packer Band.
So come on out and join us for Jazz and Jackson.
And that's June 26th, a Thursday afternoon.
I
played with Kevin once also and it was just, I was in awe.
That guy is super talented.
I'm glad he stayed here because
he
knew Pete Fulton, he's led the
Mardi
Gras Parade and he's
You know, he could hang it up, too.
I mean, he's done well.
He's got plenty.
But he loves to play.
He's an entertainer,
man.
Talk about the greatest
show.
Yeah.
I worked in downtown Green Bay when they had those concerts in the park.
What a wonderful lunchtime to be able to just wander down, listen to some music, grab some food.
Exactly.
What I like about that, Jackson, I know we used to do that.
And then it kind of moved on.
I'm glad it's going to be there.
You talk about the city deck, looking at the water.
Jackson's kind of cool, because that's like a city park, right?
You got Monroe right there.
It's just a downtown.
It's very walkable.
You just walk from your
office.
Absolutely.
So that's a good one.
All right.
I'm glad you're doing that.
And that's June 26.
We're going to go to that.
All right.
And then, of course, Art Fest.
I'll be kind about it, but tell me about Art Fest.
That's kind of was here and then it gone or what happened with that?
Now it's
back.
So for many years there was an art related event in the downtown.
They decided to move to another municipality and wanted to take it into a park.
I don't know, but that was here for a long time though, wasn't it?
40 years, or about four years.
So our businesses and the team, the organization that I work for, we really are responsible to the downtown businesses.
We're here to generate activity and build tax base and build vibrancy, build a vibrant downtown.
The businesses, when they responded that Art Street left downtown and we respect their decision, they said, we.
have the infrastructure here.
We have the parking.
Our businesses contributed to why this
event is so
successful.
And so we kicked off Art Fest Green Bay.
We're heading into our third season.
It is not a fundraiser for our organization.
We donate.
We contribute all the proceeds of that at that event to downtown beautification.
So
we
highlight a community art piece every year.
The beautiful Nitschke.
the mural under the Nitschke Bridge that was funded by Art Best Green Bay.
There's
a beautiful clay mural on the cherry ramp.
And so
we will be
choosing another
public art project this summer.
But yeah, that is on the 19th and 20th of July, three entertainment stages, over 150 art vendors from around the Midwest.
And we're just really excited about another great summer weekend of Art Fest Green Bay.
And I love the idea of bringing the arts, bringing arts into downtown.
And there are, there's a lot of talent in our area.
Okay, maybe you don't want to talk about it, but is the other one still in process?
Because I read something where
They took a year off you remember because what happened was they voted I mean had nothing to do with you They voted to move for better.
I don't know for better something and they move it was two or three years Are they still in business?
I believe I also read that they are taking a year off.
Okay, so that I don't believe it's going to take place this year,
okay?
Well, you know, I mean I want to talk to you in the second I want you to stick around but there's a lot more of these venues I want to talk to you a little bit
Do you guys work together as a competitor?
We'll get to that because you know, Howard's got it going on
now and
there's a lot, but we'll, I want to finish what you're doing here.
So
we
got Art Fest and then we're jumping right down to the children's theater.
Yes.
That's another theater in the park.
And we
love Evergreen.
Wonderful.
Yes.
And they are putting on a children's musical.
So that is going to be on August 19th.
There's a two o'clock and a six o'clock show.
Well, I can't wait to see that.
Are there
a lot of kids in there because that's what usually gets the audience, right?
Absolutely, yes.
You've got to get their house.
Bradford's got a lot of school.
Why do
you
think 40,000 people come to the
Christmas
parade?
Exactly.
Because there's 10,000 kids in there now.
That's a great event too, but we're talking about this summer.
Jeff Merkis, who's really making downtown Green Bay happen, we're going to be right back, Kindie the
Mayor.
Yeah, I'm going to Jackson.
Look out, Jackson Town.
Well, go on down to Jackson.
Go ahead and wreck your health.
Go play your hand, you big dog.
And then make the big fool of yourself.
Yeah, go to Jackson.
Go comb your hair.
I'm going to snowball.
Jackson.
All
right, don't forget, Scotty summer text to win statewide contest is on right now before eight o'clock.
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Welcome back.
So we're here with Jeff Merkislu is the executive director of downtown Green Bay and we're talking about just a really the plethora of events you have.
What do you say you have throughout the year?
So
we coordinate over 50 events Broadway, even probably more than that, the on Broadway group.
So the downtown organizations coordinate over a hundred events and those bring a quarter million to 500,000 people to the downtown districts every year.
And you must know Pat Tracey and Oshka.
She's the Jeff Merckstone there and he bet he's got it going on.
He is.
And I think that's right.
What's my last
name?
Merckus.
He said I
called him Merckus for 10 years.
He called me Feldman earlier.
I did.
Okay.
Well, I love you.
I love you both.
So we'll take it a little
start
there.
The events work.
I mean, just as a broad brush, events work, there's more events just in Greater Green Bay in our community.
And you look at some of the things that they're stepping up at.
I mean, St.
Norbert dove into the nights on the Fox.
Pretty good music there.
And of course, Howard, how is that good?
Is it
threatening?
We think it's very good because it's a sign of a growing population base.
We want to be in a growing thriving.
We couldn't have the amount of quality real estate development taking place downtown right now if we wouldn't be in a growing population base.
So that's good.
Now, specifically in terms of those communities are coming up with venues and activities.
outstanding.
We love that.
It challenges us, but we have an opportunity to be creative, make unique things happen.
But as we talked about earlier, that events have a life cycle.
Sometimes events will last forever, like a market.
And other concert series might change.
And a few of ours did too.
Some of it was because of the availability of concerts out in the suburbs.
But
Our perspective is that we know that a lot of the growth in our community is going to be in the suburbs.
But downtown, but everyone needs an awesome downtown.
And we are everyone's downtown.
And I remember we were talking earlier.
I don't even mind dating myself here.
But I remember when downtown Green Bay was nothing.
like it is now with all these events and this was right about when you came along but you know it used to be a lot of bars um but there weren't events there weren't family events for sure um and to see what it has become now is really really encouraging
and I would agree that you know you look at the municipalities that are in in the county and you know Green Bay is way way by far the largest and we are everyone's downtown I think that's that's fair to say now some people say they're going to build the downtown it's like okay
but it just did some of the bigger events.
And I think what, and this was just by kind of, not really by design, but when the Packers won the Super Bowl, where did everybody go?
They came down here, which was cool.
Very cool.
Let's do that again soon.
Well, we are lined up.
We are lined up to do it this year.
I know Eric
really wants it, because they do cheat the mayor pretty well, but 16 years, and I only went to one Super Bowl, and we should have won.
Probably three maybe four a
little bummed out about that.
I think Jordan and Matthew they will contribute to that.
I agree.
Okay, we're good.
So I
remember that when they spotted the Vince downtown it remember they had those the pepper alleys It
was awesome, you know when we talk about things happening out in the outer ridges Outer boundaries of our community that that's awesome, but I would really encourage people
at the website downtowngreenbay.com.
When you go to our website and on our calendar events, well today we're just talking about the events that Team Downtown Green Bay coordinates.
And you had Mary from on Broadway on yesterday and talking about Broadway events.
But as you scroll our event calendar, we have all the, it really represents.
There are so many fun runs.
There are so
many activities.
Alzheimer walks.
And if
you take a
look at the schedule at the Meyer Theater, Steely Dane plays this Saturday night.
So anyone, they have some outstanding tribute bands playing at the Meyer Theater.
So I encourage people to just scroll down our event calendar and there's something for everyone.
You make a good point with the awareness events that we have, you know, but I'm speaking at the suicide event and that is unbelievable how that's grown and Alzheimer's has grown and I think that's cool.
They like the bridges the right color to honor them and then
some talks at K.I.
or on the city deck and then a nice walk.
I love seeing the weekend of the Bellens women's half.
That whole city deck is covered with tents and activities and vendors and athletes all over the place.
And even when the Bellen run takes place, I know that's one of our biggest Saturday markets is the Bellens in town.
It's just a super
fun weekend.
People want to come downtown because there are so many fun hospitality locations.
The best restaurants in Green Bay are located in the heart of our downtown.
So events contributes a lot to business development.
And I've said it before, the people of Northeast Wisconsin, if there's something going on like a suicide awareness run, you know, they will come out and support it.
And we've got great people in this community to support things like that.
So I'm assuming the city planner, the mayor comes and talks to you.
What do you think?
the downtown needs.
I mean, it was the backs of the bars and the dumpsters.
I mean, that was pretty obvious when I got elected.
I'm like, we gotta turn this thing around.
And it happened.
It took a long time to see council and some finances, but it got done.
Do you have something that, God, if we had this, like, I'm sure you travel, right?
And there's some great downtowns in this community.
Think about what we need.
They made a huge mistake by not tearing down the Boston store.
That was supposed to be a park.
It's been approved.
I know you tried to fight for that.
I sure as hell did.
And that was a huge mistake.
But it is what it is.
So do you talk about what we need down here to
elevate it?
Absolutely.
residential growth is important of all economic scale.
It's beautiful to know that 268 units are under construction at the Nova Green Bay site.
And so getting more people living downtown is really big.
The events contribute to that.
Now, I think that...
The number one needed item in our downtown for many, many years is a grocery store.
So
that's something that.
But we want to continue to build our employee base as well.
This is the place.
If you have the right vibe, this is where millennials want to work.
So businesses that want to attract employees, move your business downtown.
We're playing your song.
All right, we got to get you back here.
So much knowledge and so much going on.
Thanks for what you're doing, Jeff.
You're making the community better.
Thank
you.
Good to
be with you.
You bet.
The
music of the traffic in the city.
Linger on the sidewalk where the neon
signs are pretty.
How can you lose the light so much brighter there?
You can't forget all your troubles.
Forget all your cares.
So go down.
Summer, summer, summer.
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Thank you, Todd.
Good morning.
All
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So just another reminder, text that in because
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Yes, within the company, yeah.
You know us, we live on
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We've done a lot of that, so we're working on it.
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Not
anymore.
Ben and Deanna Malkor, moving with the Malkors is what we call this segment and just a local couple that is focused on real estate.
And that's all you do, which is great because you know the industry, you know the market.
And I was talking earlier.
Besides all my news coming from civic media, of course, I do read the paper.
Him
always makes me nervous when you come with news.
I get all mine from TikTok.
Oh no, it's being thrown
out.
Case in point.
I always ask my students where you get the news, you know?
Sure.
Some of them.
To get news, that's not news, right?
But we had one lady in there and it was like, I don't know, four days after the queen died and I said, yeah, like, like, where'd you guys learn the queen died?
She's like, the queen died?
Right here.
But she knew
what Kim Kardashian
was doing.
Absolutely.
But they talked about a sales down, but costs are still up.
It's not like when sales are down, many times if sales are down, they reduce the price to sell more.
Yep.
And that's simple economics, but that's not happening here.
The problem is, is that the sales aren't, or I shouldn't say the problem is, but the sales are going down because the inventory is down.
So, you know, that's creating that demand.
So prices are going up and we still have the buyers.
We just don't have the inventory to sell them.
But that's going to be tough.
But you know, conversely too, we also have the sellers who are looking at the previous two years and going, oh my God, I'm going to get top dollar.
My house is worth X number of dollars.
when in all reality, no, it's not.
But you work for them.
It's one of those things that I think over the course of, I mean, especially since COVID.
And I think that's the line for so many things.
Buyers have gotten, they're so smart.
They've had to work so hard to get a home.
So they know what a $300,000 home looks like.
They know what a $400,000 home looks like.
And they are holding sellers to that a little bit.
So when something comes on the market, don't you think?
When it comes on the market and it's overpriced, it is gonna set.
and buyers are gonna say, you're gonna lower your price before I come see it.
And it wasn't the case at all, but you just go like you said.
No, yeah.
So it has balanced out a little bit, but we're short inventory.
We need more homes to sell.
It's
now a good time to put your house on the market.
Oh my gosh.
It is.
It is.
You know, as long as you listen to your realtor when it comes to pricing.
Yeah,
I
know.
It's sometimes that's that's shot to the heart a little bit because everybody's so emotionally attached to their home.
And I get it.
We sold ours.
I totally get it.
That hits.
We've been on both ends of it now, and it's tough.
But they can look at the numbers without any emotion in
it at all.
Right.
Tiana, you're talking about the buyers maybe holding their ground a little bit more.
Say, look, come on, I know houses.
This is 300.
This is not 350.
Is that because they're more knowledgeable?
Or remember, we were here like four months ago, we talked about buyer agency.
Is that?
Part of it?
No.
It's just the buyers are just smarter.
Yeah, you know what for and I hopefully you agree with this, but I think
I
agree.
I'm impressed that she asked.
You know, I think in the state of Wisconsin, at least in our area, we were already doing that.
So for us, there wasn't this huge impact with the whole, you know, ruling that came down
this
summer and then was kind of refined a little bit.
And I think it's still being refined.
But it didn't have as big of an impact as we
thought it would, because we've got such a great Realtors Association in Wisconsin.
We've had the documentation forever for us laid out that keeps us safe, keeps the sellers safe, keeps the buyers safe.
It keeps everybody in the transaction safe.
I don't see a lot of lawsuits that sort of end up between Realtors and things.
It just seems like we work it.
You guys have worked well together
with...
And the state who writes the rules on that seems like they work well with the Realtor Association.
They
do.
They do.
You know, it is interesting to talk to other people, or if, you know, if you've moved to another state and you've seen the contracts, but, you know, I can say, for example, like Florida, I think their contract is...
two and a half pages tops?
I mean ours is 11 pages long and so much of that is pre-printed language which is designed to protect everyone.
But I will say very easy to read.
I know when I
was trying to kind of learn the process after Ben and I'd ask him a question he'd be like look at the contract and it's right there for you.
It's a very easy, it's long so it's a little bit intimidating but it's got everything you need to know right in those 11 pages or whatever it
is.
It's a bunch
of
legal mumbo-jumbo that
you
cannot do.
It is understandable.
I mean, come on, mine will pass the test.
They gave you a bell?
I did.
That's just temporarily, I think.
Until God
takes it away.
Can I come with my own next
time?
You know how we, we just had Jeff Merkison here talking about events and I think everyone who lives here wants to see the city do better.
I mean everyone, whether they live in Ashwaben or Howard or whatever, you just want to see our community.
And today, I was reading that they had a study
Names Green Bay among the best for first time home buyers.
Yeah, sure.
That's pretty cool because That will help these businesses attract some talent that are 28 29 30 years old and to buy a home
So that's good news.
It's super good.
And if you think about it, it makes sense.
We've got such great industry around here and businesses.
And I think people don't realize what is headquartered here.
Yes.
We're great for families.
I mean, it's such a wonderful area.
No matter really where you are, whether you're in Green Bay or one of the surrounding communities, it is a really great family location.
You can't find that everywhere.
No,
right.
Well, we were out, we were just out in Portland visiting our son Alex.
And I was, you know, I always pull up the realtor.
and just see what's out there because we try to encourage them to buy a house instead
of renting.
But you're looking at, for entry level homes, $700,000 out
in Portland.
And it's
like here, you could, inevitably you could get an entry level home for around 200, 250 if you really wanted to.
It would be a little bit harder to find.
A little
bit harder, probably have some
work.
What's the advantage of working with a realtor?
I don't see it as often nowadays.
Used to see for sale by owner signs around.
And I don't know, maybe that's just my perception that I don't see as many, but I know that when we worked with a realtor, I could never have done that
myself.
I know.
You know, there's so many people that we talk to after we get to the end of the transaction, kind of right at closing that they're like, yeah.
I'm so glad I didn't have to do this.
You
know,
and it's one of those things that, you know, first of all, Wisconsin is a hard place to be.
to be a for sale by owner, because you don't have a lot of outlets to advertise your home, because Zillow now is also, they got the broker's license.
So because our Realtors Association is so strong, they can't advertise for sale by owners just like we can't advertise for sale by owners.
So you really have to get creative, but there's so much legality to
it, and there's
also so many points of contact.
So if you're not doing it every day and not having those resources in front of you,
because there's a lot, when you've got to get some inspection items done before close, you got to know some people who are willing to drop what they're doing because you're always sending business to them.
You don't know what you don't know.
Well, you don't know what you don't know.
I mean, it's taken, I mean, roughly 10 years for me to hone in on my inspector that I think does an exceptional job.
Yeah, and they've
been here.
We love them.
But there's a ton of inspectors out there, but, you
know.
Yeah, that counts.
They
want to say about a realtor is that there's no who did the study, probably the real estate agency, but the realtor will get more than the first one.
They will.
Because they have more points than she said, the points of contact.
they'll get a higher price.
I did it by myself and I sold it for, what, $2.75, it's like, dude, had you gone to a realtor, it probably closer to $3.10.
You technically
will always get more even after you pay the realtor their fees than you would on the market by yourself.
And one of the big reasons is unless you're listed with a realtor and on the MLS, you technically aren't on the market.
And as we all know from our like one-to-one business classes, prices are driven up by competition.
You're not getting the competition that it is be working with the realtor and having access to all of their assets all of their buyers all of their company's buyers all the other agencies buyers because they're working with a realtor and They they want to work with you know something that's on the market
versus working
with a for sale by owner who might might not be so great And
they really quite honestly probably don't know what they're doing
do this but I wouldn't buy a guy's house and it wasn't even the real estate size sign it was smaller was like that something you put on and it just for sale by owner I'm like dude you know I mean you you should knock on the door and say look yeah I see what you're doing but
That exposure, if you're not driving down that street, you're not going to know.
And that's just it.
And everything's online now.
So those little yard signs are not doing a whole lot
for you.
But yeah, it's one of those things that is kind of, I think, dying out in our area a little bit.
I agree with you.
How about, I talked to Todd this morning, I got in here knowing you were coming in, but how's the industry in terms of realtors?
I mean, it's got to be thinning out a little bit.
I mean, less inventory and no COVID.
made some people redirect their careers.
But is it still stronger?
A lot of people get into the industry.
Do you track that at all?
Do you hear things?
You know, we don't track it, or at least I don't.
I don't know, do
you?
No.
I feel like it's pretty stable.
I don't know that.
There was a while there after COVID, COVID was after we hit COVID.
So 2021, 2022 is really easy to sell.
And so we did see this
huge
influx of agents come in.
It's not so easy anymore.
And
so I think some of those have kind of left, but in the wake, you've got all these great realtors that were there before and will be, and
still here now.
And have experience under the belt.
And
have experience through so many different markets.
And that's really what you need.
And that's where you come in.
You want that experience because, you know, my brother-in-law type stuff, I don't, today you'd need somebody more solid.
And if
you weren't there, you know, before COVID to know what it was like in more of a buyer's market
where the
home sat for a while, it can be a little unnerving right now because it is kind of balancing
a
little bit because of the inventory.
All right, Ben and Deanna Melkor, you have, obviously you've got your website, you've got, how was your inventory?
How, we got something that... Yeah.
You pick up new listings all the time, you come in here, which I think is awesome.
Yeah,
we have one coming up that we're not ready to talk about yet.
So I think it's going to be a hot number.
That's a tease.
I know, right?
But we went to go see Alex in Portland, as we just mentioned, of course, that's when business hit.
So for realtors, we always chuckle that if your business is slow, just go on vacation.
So a lot of our, we actually, we walked, four of our sellers got offers, accepted offers
while
we were gone, which was really nice.
really nice.
We've got two great lots over in Hunter's Run for sale.
Yeah.
So, and it's actually, they're two lots, but they're actually three.
So they combined one of the lots.
So yeah, in total, it's just under an acre and a half of somebody's looking.
So we've got those great buildable lots over there.
And it's nice because they're on municipal sewer.
And then you can have your private well.
Where's Hunter's Run?
Over in Swamco, right by Barkhousen.
Got it, got it.
I think I think
I want to build a house, but they say that really tests your marriage.
So I'm not sure.
I'm sure
Donna
will
make all
the decisions.
You're just waiting for an opening.
All right.
Stick around.
We'll be right back with Ben and Deanna Melchor.
Moving with
Melchor's.
Summer, summer, summer.
All right, welcome back, everybody.
We're here with the Mel Chorus, moving with the Mel Chorus.
But first, we got to move this statewide, Scotty Summer.
So here we go.
It's our Scotty Summer Text-to-Win Statewide Contest.
Your daily chance to win a pair of Milwaukee Brewer Club level seats.
Those are good seats or $100 cash.
Which
is good too.
Plus, every entry puts you into our... Oh, you look like this, you guys, as realtors.
Every entry puts you into our grand prize drawing.
It's a Wisconsin Dells area vacation or a Door County area
vacation.
Oh,
there we go.
I know, you guys love
that.
Yeah, and this hour's keyword is grill.
G-R-I-L-L Grill.
Get out.
They send us a text.
Download the Sevilla Media app in the Apple or Google Play stores and choose W-I-S-S or W-G-B-W.
Use the text button and send that keyword, Grill, for your chance to win.
All right.
And you got till eight o'clock to do that.
So what have we got?
Man,
here's
seven minutes.
Seven
minutes.
So do it now.
The word again is Grill, your next chance to play after 11 o'clock this morning.
Do it.
All right.
Yeah.
Ben at the NFL court.
How are your new digs working out?
We love it.
Yep.
Love
it.
We're on Main Street.
You know, it's just that beautiful old brick building.
Oh my gosh, we love being there.
And you know what?
We're getting in shape with the stairs.
Yeah,
talking about stairs.
I know I'm sitting on my best attribute
right now.
I'll show you later.
Plug yesterday we had HME in here home medical quick.
Oh, sure
and
they they have a whole crew that comes in and analyzes your home And then
yeah,
we'll make it fit for
you.
Oh nice
the guys like you and I told much a little bit 43 steps in our house guys look I can I can help you with that I said I am not going up on those chairs and wait
yeah
But they do that it's a crazy all the stuff that they could do to keep you in your home.
Yeah, which I think is cool to it.
Yeah, you're not crazy about that Yeah, there are ways to do that.
Hey, so what do you have going on?
I mean you got a successful
company.
And it's a niche company that you really take care of your sellers and buyers.
I mean, you guys are not, you guys are always there.
We do.
I mean, top top to bottom, you know,
another guy,
a gentleman that I was meeting with and it's a potential listing coming up that we can't talk about.
But, you know, he was saying, you know, what do you guys offer?
And, you know, we this in this particular case, it's an estate.
And I said, you know, we have three warehouses full of furniture to stage the home.
Um, staged, staged homes sell high for a higher dollar amount, much quicker.
We take professional pictures.
We hire a drone pilot to do drone.
We
do a Matterport 360 of the house.
We help with the cluttering.
Um, yeah.
Yeah, we got a big song
and dance card.
That's before it even hits.
And that's before it even hits the mark.
Yeah, yeah.
I need
your
help.
Yeah, you know, and so many people do.
That's a good point is, is when you live in your house, we've worked.
We had a client a couple of years back where she lived on her own.
She had a lot of stuff and she just needed help.
And we actually worked for about a month on getting her home ready to sell it.
And it was a very emotional process.
had passed away.
And we just went each week.
I went over there and Ben came over too.
We, we helped move some stuff around, kind of gave her a little bit of homework for the next week.
And then that, that room would be ready to stage.
So we'd stage it and now we'd start working on the next room.
And we kind of went through a whole house that way.
And at the end she was, it was beautiful.
She was in tears and
it was,
you know, ready to
go.
And
that is the process.
You know, my, we've been in the house a long time and during that time, both my parents have passed and
my
husband's parents.
So we have their households
in our
home.
And it
just needs to.
It
does, but there's pieces in there that sometimes, especially depending on who you are, they're very hard to let go.
And you don't have to let go of everything, so that's the good news, but you just have to be selective.
What a helpful service that you provide there.
I joined, it's an app, it's not simple living, that was a call.
Minimalist.
Oh, sure, sure.
That's my dream.
It was like
50 bucks or something, and you get the subscriptions and books.
Cause my daughter is one.
My oldest daughter.
And
they, they could get more.
I tell you that when I told you the story, I bought her a really nice vase, like the vase that you like put in front of your fireplace and
put
like, and I gave to say, dad, we don't want that.
But she just knows.
They don't, they don't.
that their house looks like a hospital.
They have, it's decorated, it's very like.
It's clutter free.
It's clutter free.
That would be a good word for it.
That would be a
good
word for
it.
I tuned in your time on a vase.
And on a mantle and stuff like that, I'm thinking, what is he talking about?
Because I'm picturing like an urn.
An
urn,
yeah.
Right?
He's tall, he's taller.
I know.
Did you put things in?
Yeah.
I still got it, Todd, if you wanted.
Maybe you shouldn't
like the color.
He's just trying
to get rid
of the urn.
But you talk about, it's a process.
It's not a weekend to declutter your hosted.
One of my newest resolutions was to put something on.
Facebook marketplace every week.
Of course you didn't
do it.
But
there's just some ways to
do that.
Yeah, eventually, you don't want to leave it to your kids.
No.
Well, they don't want it.
No, no.
By the time you are, you know, it's your time, they've got their own stuff.
They want some select pieces.
I mean, there's things that don't make any sense that I want from my parents' house, but they mean something to me.
That's all I want.
So you got anything you want to promote right now, a listing that you have, because we have a few minutes left, and I just, you know, selling
If I was still in a house, I'd go to you, no question, right?
I mean,
you guys
just, like you just talked about your stage, you kind of hold their hand a little
bit through the whole
thing, get them the best price, right?
What more can you ask for it for a realtor like you two?
Anything that you have now that we should tell our listeners?
Well, we have those condos that are going to be built.
So they're pre-sale right now, pre-contract.
pre-construction.
They're hoping to start, I think, late summer.
They're beautiful.
So if you give us a call, we will meet you at the showroom and show you they haven't started yet, but you have great packages to choose from.
They're just over the million dollar mark.
They're right on the Fox River.
They're all one
story.
They've got great storage.
They're just amazing.
So even if you're just curious, if you don't know it's for you, give us a call.
We'll meet up with you and kind of lay out the plan for you.
A million dollars is kind of a scary number, but we gotta get used to it.
Oh, we
do.
Especially in this area.
And they're beautiful.
I think for anyone who's thinking about retiring or wanting to get rid of those staircases like we're just talking about, they're a great area.
Especially if you have a water view now and
you
want to retain that as you go down in
size.
website.
920-495-7653.
And our website is super simple, just benmelcourt.com.
Great.
I can't
believe that.
Benmelcourt.com.
Thanks for being here.
Thanks
for having us.
I know
we get comments that people like learning things about it, and maybe not everybody's selling their house today, but eventually you're going to, so just keep
us on the line.
Give us a call anytime.
Thanks so much.
All right, thank you for coming in.
We'll be right back, Kinding the Mirror.
Coming to Northeast Wisconsin live from the Civic Media Studios, this is Mino and the Mayor.
And here are your hosts, John Mino and Jim Schmidt.
Alright, welcome back everybody.
I'm
here at Hour 3.
So Mino's out for a couple days
and we have...
I guess tomorrow,
he's
threatening to come back.
But
for now, it's Connie and the mayor.
So Connie Thulman is in-house.
She, of course, was the anchor on Fox 11, the anchor on
Local
5.
And now she's anchoring right here on Civic Media, WGBW.
So we have our guests.
And I sort of think Ben and Deanna, those are interesting people, aren't they?
They sure are.
They know real estate.
I wouldn't have, yeah.
They know the community.
Yeah.
smaller organization, but sometimes that's better
because when you think about someone with you,
they actually made a comment and it was true for me.
Like when I finally bought a house, you make that connection with your realtor.
Can
you imagine having them as your realtor
and having
that connection?
They've got your
back.
Right.
And you use them again and again.
So yeah, that was fun.
And then prior to that, we had Jeff Murkerson and just talking about the downtown events.
And I'm so happy for him.
things are going on, even with all the competition.
He doesn't seem to mind it.
He's like, look, we embrace it.
And
so that's pretty cool things
too.
And now we are have headlines with the press times and John Kramer, who is a regular on the show.
Welcome, John.
And Jessica Norwood.
So Jessica is a professor at NWTC, as am I, and we see each other on the evening classes.
And she does the photography and.
DMT, that
you're gonna have to explain.
Digital media technology.
Uh-huh.
Yes, yep.
And we were talking before about news, that's direction news is going, digital media.
It's true.
That's an interesting career.
Yeah.
But how is the students interested in that?
Are people starting in that?
Do they switch over to your class?
You know some classes, some of the students we have out there are second career people.
Yes, exactly.
No, in...
Our program's actually kind of encompass a whole...
section of the college called digital arts.
So it is our graphic design program, our photography and our digital media technology.
And like you said, we have a lot of students that will cross over.
I know John is kind of in the process of doing that because he just graduated from the photography program and he's starting to take some digital media classes to add in the video perspective,
audio and
things like that.
So we get a lot of crossover just with our own students, but also people coming in that maybe are marketers and
Now they're tasked with doing things with video or even just the photography end of it for press releases or articles, things like that.
So they come in for those
skills.
But I came from, bang, or my day.
But
I left television for a while when my daughter was young.
And when I came back, we were still shooting on tape back when I left.
It was barely getting into digital.
I had a lot to learn about shooting for, you know, about
digital media.
Yeah, because now you've got that technology aspect added in there.
And that's just a whole another, that's honestly, we always joke in photography, we spend 20% of our time behind the camera and 80% doing editing business side of it.
Like we spend a lot less time than people think behind the camera.
I was
saying the same thing about news.
You send a fraction of your time in front of the camera, but all the work is done.
So what's what's great about and WTC is so I my core thing was the associates degree in photography But I added a bunch of additional certificates train certificates.
So I took a certificate in One of my why am I drawing a blank?
Yeah, social media design and
digital
marketing and then
also graphic design So I had the illustrator class.
I had a Photoshop 2 class so you can you can curtail your
your program to what the industry is doing and what you want to learn about.
Because in this industry today, you can't just be one thing.
You can't just be a photographer.
You need to kind of be able to do the whole spectrum from a little bit of graphic design to the video side of it.
And
you've done really well with that.
I mean, you got a great job with the press times, but you're still going to go on to school for more, you said?
Yeah, so there's a couple
video classes, kind of higher end video classes, next level stuff that I want to take.
So I'm going to add those.
And then the goal is to go to Lakeland next for public relations.
Oh, nice.
Oh, no,
that's good.
So you could run a public
relations department.
at a big corporation.
Yeah, it's because they need all that, right?
I don't necessarily want to be in a big corporation.
Do you have the skills to?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I still have the army paying for my school and paying me one in school.
So it's insane
for me not to take advantage of it.
Oh, nice.
Oh, yes.
Absolutely.
We were talking a little bit early before we came on, Jessica.
NWTC, you've been there, what?
20 years almost.
All right, I've been there all of three.
But what a great school.
Yeah.
It just isn't.
parents, some people, I think we're getting away from, you gotta go to college.
But that is a college, right?
I teach in a business college.
I just think there's some great
degrees.
It's a four year different conversation.
Yeah.
But you offer 200 degrees.
That's, think about that,
you
guys.
So when people are like, sometimes I work at the new community shelter and we had a lady I was talking to that was an employee there and just
She's not really happy.
I'm not sure this is what I want to do type thing.
It may be in the food service.
I said, we'll go to NWC culinary.
You guys offer that.
But she says, I want to maybe look at something else.
I said, why don't you just go out there and talk to a counselor?
Because something might click, nursing or
who
knows, photography.
I don't know what exactly she wants to do.
And I did that.
I went out to your place after I was done in office.
They took that assessment to see what I wanted to do.
And I thought it was going to come out like, oh, you should be a, like something I wasn't thinking about.
You should be a train conductor.
I said, well, I want to
do that.
But it was pretty much.
That's what I do.
That's funny.
It
reinforced
it.
Yeah, exactly.
Well, I always think this is a funny story, not totally off topic.
But when I was in high school, you take the test, what do you want to be when you grow up?
I want it to be an architect, which is in fact what I went to NWTC
for
at first.
it spit out college instructor.
And I was
like, um, no, hard pass.
I was terrified of speaking in front of people.
So I thought there's no way I will ever do something like that.
And then look where I am.
Stay one week ahead of the students and
you're fine.
I'm always
reading.
The students who go, well, I don't want to compare to our colleges, but I've been in those institutions as well.
But the students at TC, I really want to learn.
I mean, because I think they want to get out and I think they want to make a living and
they ask
good questions.
And the other thing I like about TC, well, maybe some of these businesses, the students, if they get an A, they get 100% reimbursement to be 75% than a C, 50%.
And not that you need incentive to do that, but it does help.
It does help.
They still need to
learn the stuff.
So you must enjoy teaching there.
I
mean, you've been there 20 years.
Yes, I've been there for a while, started part-time, worked in an apartment at the college that actually helped instructors develop curriculum, like graphics for it, because I actually graduated from NWTC
as a
graphic design student.
So I started in architecture and I was like, I like drawing the houses.
I don't care about the load bearing walls.
So then my lovely, lovely instructor and mentor.
he walked me over to the design area and one of the instructors and I immediately knew this is where I needed to be.
So I
moved over to graphic design and then graduated a few years later with that and then went straight into industry.
And for me, that's probably why I'm where I am right now because had I done something different, I don't want to say I'd be behind where I would be now, but I think that gave me
the opportunities to get where I wanted to be faster.
Because I had that technical stuff.
I went out into industry and started working immediately.
And I, in time, went and got my bachelor's, got my master's degree.
So I did continue on, but I was working that entire time.
So I was able to move up to where I wanted to be
faster.
Working.
Oh, yes,
especially because
you see each other
in the evening.
Yeah, especially the night classes a lot of those students had worked all day It's
still a
little bit sorry for them.
They worked all day
and then they got to come
in Exactly.
Yeah,
I mean I have a coffee machine
Well, and what's great there's other opportunities to like for myself in the photography program I was hired as an academic coach for yes from and at NWTC.
Oh, thank you.
So
One of the best ways to really learn how to do something is, and you guys know this, is to teach it.
So gave me an opportunity to mentor and assist photographer students and not just the aspects of the camera, but the whole spectrum of the programs we use from Photoshop to Lightroom, all the Adobe products.
So it's a really cool opportunity to help students out and further your own knowledge.
That's incredible to hear you drop all those.
Technical terms and you've really done well with this and were you into photography before I know you were in the
service for many many years Yeah, was it always a little and thank you for your service.
Yeah
So as as in high school I was you know, won some awards in photography all black and white in dark rooms So that was always there and what we did as civil affairs soldiers is we were taking pictures of everything So, you know, we'd be do a lot of project management.
We always said if there's no picture it didn't happen.
So
I was always taking pictures throughout my life and I was always the guy, you know, with the camera at the parties and all that stuff.
So it's always been there.
Okay.
And how was it going back to college?
You were a little bit older.
Oh, no problem.
Yeah, it was easy.
It was a little bit, a little bit challenging for me as
a senior NCO in the Army and sitting in one of Jess's classes
and
seeing a kid in the back messing around, I just wanted to light them up.
I was able to hold back and not-
I feel like- That way you sat in
the front corner of the room
all the time?
I
just kept my mouth shut.
I feel like at this stage in my life, I have much more of a passion to learn.
I visit my daughter at college and I'm like, oh, I wish I could go back now.
And I don't know that the people know all that NWTC has.
to offer and it's right here in our backyard.
And the opportunities available there are really incredible.
Pick your passion and go for it.
It's exactly what I did and it's led to another job.
That's true.
I agree.
If you're not really sure to go take that assessment and maybe like you said that you were really me a college professor and there you are very successful.
Who would have thought?
I still want to be a train conductor.
For me, two years ago.
started out and yesterday I was shooting a packer practice so photography and video so
Jessica in your class so you're in photography and DMT that that's your umbrella what do people do when they
Get out of that class.
Is it what John does?
You become a freelancer?
Do you really freelance?
You work for somebody
now?
I do
both.
Yeah, definitely.
We do have a lot of students that will freelance or do contracted work.
So they become entrepreneurs.
And it all depends on their area of interest because one of the things we're trying to do is teach to all those areas and get exposure to it because they'll come in and they're like, I want to do this.
And as we explore different opportunities, it's like, oh.
I didn't mind shooting food photography.
I enjoyed that or
I didn't
think I'd like that.
Yeah, so trying to get that exposure so that they go out with.
kind of an idea of what they want to do, but then the capability of doing all the different things.
So when something comes their way, they can be like, yes, I really do enjoy doing that.
I can take that on.
The one thing that I learned is I didn't want to do wedding photography.
So in one of the
classes, what you do is you set up a wedding shoot and we do it over at the Botanical Garden.
And it
was a cool experience, but you know, that's not for me.
And that's a really important thing to know because it's a lot of people spreading
butter.
before we even came on the air this morning about what an opportunity to intern to know that's not what I want to do.
Because
you see the glamour side of it and then you get in there and it's like, this is it, what I thought it was going to be.
Even in politics, if you're going to
think
you're going to run for Congress or something, go spend some time with the Congressman.
You might want to do it.
I sure as hell didn't.
So I think that's cool that you did that, John.
Hey Kramer, I used to do wedding DJing, right?
But I felt the same way about it.
Hated doing them, but the money was decent.
So you and I could be two grumpy old
guys.
We should set up a package.
Here's your
DJ, here's your photographer.
That's right,
both angry, but you
get a good deal.
Don't piss
either one of
them
off.
Oh my gosh, I would pay for this.
That would be fun.
So much more going on.
That
could
be a sitcom.
All right, the script.
The
wedding videographer.
All right, John Kramer, headlines at the press time.
Of course, Jessica Norwood here with NWTC.
Stick around.
A few more questions on careers at NWTC.
All right, this is Connie the mayor will be right back.
Welcome
back everybody.
We are with one of my favorite institutions in Green Bay, NWTC.
And we're here with John Kramer, who's a student, advancing student, and just done a terrific job getting his degree.
And what's it in, John?
What would you call your degree, not your certificate, your degree?
Photography.
That's your degree is in photography.
And then you supplemented it with certificates in different areas.
And you're going to take that onto another learning institution.
Next step is to go to Lakeland for public relations.
That's great.
Yeah.
And we have the, let's say the best professor.
I can say that in that department because you're the only professor.
Call her your favorite.
She can be your
favorite.
Yeah.
So Jessica, Norwood photography and DMT programs.
It's an umbrella.
What are the different classes you teach?
There's so many different classes.
We have obviously classes that are going to teach you about the camera.
So we have digital photography.
We go further into a lighting class and what we call specialties, which is just all the different areas of photography, you know, like John's favorite wedding photography.
commercial photography, real estate photography, and just trying to touch on all those different areas in that class because it's kind of the advanced advanced class for them.
And then we do a lot of things on the back end, because as I mentioned, you know, we don't do as much behind the camera as many people think it's not just pushing the button.
There is
There's a lot of stuff in the lighting part of it.
So we have to understand that.
We also do the editing part.
So we're doing Photoshop.
And then we have a secondary Photoshop class that is very specific to photography.
Because our Photoshop class covers five different programs right now.
So they touch on a little bit of everything.
And you're speaking to my own heart here.
And now I'm a little bit of a soapbox, but from my time around in news to now.
Photojournalism is an art form.
Yes.
And I know a lot of people, you know, take video and things with their phones now, which is, it's great to have that opportunity, but giving someone an iPhone does not make them a photographer.
No.
There are aspects to good photography that you're not going to learn.
Yes.
Shooting through your phone.
People don't realize the math and science.
Yes.
It pisses me off when I see someone take an awesome picture with their phone, but
it does have its
limitations.
Yes.
Yes.
Well, it's just a lot to
learn.
Just talked about the lighting can be so and we don't think of lighting when we take pictures.
Yeah, I mean, you really don't.
But there is.
I mean, there's so much like I'm like looking at the two of you right now.
I can tell exactly where a light would need to be if I'm taking a picture, you know, because you're shaded on your right side a little more than your left because of the window light, all this stuff.
I'm guessing from behind looking at them.
That's a shot.
There's
a shot.
We're looking for the silhouette.
Those are
great.
That was.
Probably the class that was the biggest challenge for me was the lighting class and
just setting up different lights
for different scenarios, because it's a muscle memory thing.
You got to do it a lot to really get it down.
Yeah.
And Jessica, you're teaching, are you around?
Yes.
So you're...
I'll see you this summer?
Yes, exactly.
Classes start this, well, Friday, actually.
The summer, the online classes will start.
So, yeah, we start already.
And yep, it's year round.
That's awesome, you're doing that.
And we have eight-week sessions.
So you can kind of hop in at many different times if you decide in October.
And you're like, you know what?
I think I want to take a photo class.
We have classes that start in October.
And the
other thing NWC offers, I start on Tuesday when I'm teaching a morning class.
but they've got classes all day.
Some of those go run a little bit late.
Yes, we have classes that go till 9.30 at night.
So yeah, the night classes.
And
then if I'm late here, Todd yells at me, so
I don't sleep.
I'm so nervous
about getting here on time.
There's classes available online.
Well, that's all I'm just gonna say that.
Yeah, there's lots of opportunities.
I would much rather as, you know,
someone my age I would much rather teach student in my class
and
it those blended classes where I don't know four or five kids are online and you know 10 or 12 are in your classroom it took me a while to get used to that because that wasn't my thing
it does take a little bit to get used to it yeah on the teaching side and the learning side yeah but yeah it's we try and be as flexible as possible just because we know the majority of our students aren't
aren't always 18 coming out of high school.
We have a lot of returning adults.
The majority of the college is returning adults, especially in our area for sure.
And so we're trying to be flexible as far as when classes are offered so that we can hit everybody.
So I've got a rotation of this classes at night this semester and it's during the day this semester.
So
I just took a, just finished up a content marketing class that I took all online, but it's also offered in person too.
Well, you know you're working during the day yet you still have an opportunity to earn a degree at night and that's it's really
tremendous
Yeah,
exactly.
I just and dr. Raffin is though.
I remember him saying this is about 20 years ago that we're gonna deliver you know education when you want it
where you want
it
You know, that's pretty
cool.
And Dr. Annie has also held true with that, too.
Right.
We had your student of the year on here a while ago, and she was just terrific.
A story similar to yours, John, you know, just in terms of second career, it wasn't like,
like you said,
there's just not a lot of 19-year-olds in the class.
There are some, though.
Oh, yes, definitely.
It kind of ebbs and flows depending on the year.
Many of those.
are just going on to Madison or GB or something because they can save a little bit of money at TC and why not, right?
Oh, yeah, exactly.
Yeah, we have a lot of students that will take their Gen Ed classes.
In fact, my oldest is in high school now and he's got an idea of what he wants to do and he knows he wants to go to a four year with what he wants to do.
But he also likes the idea of TC.
So I'm telling him, why don't you look at your Gen Eds?
Take that throughout high school because some high school
will pay for that too, which will lower that, or at least lower the cost through the high school to take that college credit.
And you can go in and basically have, you know, good chunk of your first year done.
Didn't you have a student in one of your classes that you didn't realize was in high
school?
I did on the last day of class.
He's so quiet in the back, sweetest person in the world.
presented a video project on the last day and was talking about being a 17-year-old high schooler.
And I'm like, oh my goodness, the entire time.
Because we don't necessarily get told that information.
We just have students and we have a roster.
And it's just the quietest, sweetest person.
That's cool.
So
there's opportunities for those
high school kids to come and take classes too,
right?
Yeah, and that makes a big difference.
I have a daughter who's a freshman in college and she's already got some credits behind her.
Yep, helps a lot.
The
way to do a TC is
great.
And John, just...
You've been a good example to people returning to education.
You've served this country, and I'm glad you're happy, and I can tell you're happy.
Especially as a veteran, you know, there's a lot of veterans that, you know, have their challenges and stuff, but it's a really awesome way to get focused on something and better yourself.
Nice.
And we love your paper, The Press Times.
Jessica, thanks for coming in.
Absolutely.
We'll see you again.
All
right, we'll be right back.
Kind of the mirror.
All right, Linda starts singing.
All right.
Hey, we are here with Linda Dusty.
She's the director of education at the Green Bay Botanical Gardens.
And I, for those of you, I know pretty much everybody's been to the Botanical Gardens and looking at the Great Gardens, but you've expanded into some pretty cool things in this concert series that you're in charge of, right?
Not me, but one of my colleagues
at events.
Yeah.
Okay.
You really bring in some
You're bringing in the BGs.
I know, I can't say it.
It's a tribute.
And you brought in, like we were talking about earlier, a tribute.
Tina Turner,
he was
of soul that was last year.
Then good crowd and just that awesome
environment.
We built that beautiful amphitheater and it opened in the fall of 2017.
And so we've been, you know, we've been doing concerts at the garden for, oh my gosh, many, many
years,
especially our Thursday night concerts for our members.
They're free for them.
But then with the addition of the amphitheater, we could do bigger and better.
And I shouldn't say better, but just bigger, you know, there's a lot of great local talent.
but yeah, so this Friday night concert series, the Employment Resource Group Grand Concert Series, that's when we're bringing in a lot of those tribute bands, those bands from further around national bands.
Wow, and you're kicking it off with the Bee Gees?
We are,
yeah, this Friday.
This Friday?
This Friday, yeah, from seven to nine.
Get your tickets now.
What's your favorite Bee
Gees tune, Jim?
Is that that Broken Heart?
How do you mend a broken heart?
Okay, just I'm not I'm out of the loop on a lot of the media and movies and music, but I know the pictures right on my wall.
I mean, come on.
I did when I was 13.
So how do you are you in the promotion business?
I mean, you got some great acts there.
I think people need to know that this isn't just
You know, somebody coming from nowhere.
So let me tell you who we've got coming up.
So we've got the Bee Gees Now, a Bee Gees tribute.
That's again, this Friday, June 6th, 7 to 9.
You can get your tickets now at our website.
Then on July 11th.
Give us the website.
We'll do it again when you're done.
Oh
yeah, GBBG.org.
And then you'll.
You know, you gotta navigate a couple times.
Say that's three times.
BG's, GBBG's, GBBG's.
I think we'll put it on our website.
We'll put it on our
website.
So the BG's on the 6th.
The BG is now on the sixth.
On July 11th, the Caribbean chillers, they are a Jimmy Buffett
tribute.
So get out your
Hawaiian shirts
and be
ready to rock with them.
On August 8th, we have Alive again, our Chicago tribute.
And we had a Chicago tribute a few years ago too, and we just love those
two.
Alive again, those guys are great.
Yeah.
It's almost like hearing and seeing the actual group.
Yeah.
Wow.
Okay.
And then September 5th, that one's a little bit more of a special one.
That's our brews, bistros and bonfires.
So not only do you get to hear the slippery run, slippery, when wet, Bon Jovi tribute, but we also have local breweries out there giving samples.
We've got bonfires.
It's a
great
fall night
in September.
I love it.
Nothing better than a bonfire.
And go ahead.
Yeah.
And music.
Yeah.
That amphitheater that you built, which was a big undertaking.
Yeah.
There's not a bad seat and the sight lines there are great There's just nothing you know sometimes you go to these concerts outside and it's like oh this tree or this or that right?
It's just you really have built that
I mean, whoever built that knew what they're doing.
Thank you.
I hope so.
Acoustics are good there too, you know.
Yeah.
And we work with different local companies to help us with the lighting with the acoustics, with the booking even.
And so it's not just us.
We do work with a number of local partners.
Lighthouse does a lot of
our lighting.
Bananas Entertainment, they help us with some of those bookings as well.
And when you come to the garden for a concert, you can either choose our Kohl's Terrace seating where we provide you the chair and you're up a little.
a little bit closer to this stage, or lawn seating, which is a little bit less of a cost, and then you bring in your lawn chairs, your blankets, whatever you would like, and sit in the grass in the amphitheater.
For this Friday, we only have the lawn seating left.
Cole's Terrace is all sold
out.
So if you
want to get your, have your seat placed for you for future concerts, make sure you're purchasing those tickets
now as well.
Even out there, just throwing down a blanket, sitting on the lawn in that atmosphere, it really is appealing.
Can someone buy the whole package?
Did the Coliseum for all five?
I think they can.
I don't believe we're doing a disc.
I'm
not sure we're doing a disc.
Yeah, you
certainly
can.
All
of the tickets are online right now and available.
So your title is the director of education.
You have a lot going on out there all the time, but tell me the other things that you do.
So this summer we're especially excited in addition to all of the concerts and great performances that we have.
We have an exhibit called Washed a Shore, Art to Save the Sea.
So nine larger than life sea animal sculptures all made out of plastics reclaimed from the Pacific Ocean.
So we had this a few years ago.
That's cool.
And we're bringing it back with mostly new sculptures, but it's...
The tagline is powerful art to spark positive change.
So you go up to the sculptures and you go, oh my gosh, they're phenomenal.
They're so big.
And then you realize, oh, there's toothbrushes on there and flip flops and crocs and things that I use every day.
And
it all came out of the ocean.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Right.
It's all been thrown away.
So.
It connects to the Great Lakes.
It connects to us in our region because that plastic pollution isn't just an ocean problem.
It's an everywhere problem.
It's a water problem.
And so it impacts us too.
Really.
at the garden, of course, water is integral to everything that we
do
to all of the plants that we grow.
So we're excited to have that back here this summer to get people thinking about how they can make some simple changes in their life in the way that they use those plastics.
That's awesome.
And it's awareness.
You know, I first learned about the passion behind it from my daughter when she was in middle school,
high
school.
And so I started doing some research, and I was just absolutely shocked.
So it is awareness.
I think people want to do the right thing.
I think it's just a matter of they may not know.
I
didn't.
And now I do.
So yeah.
And then people think, well, me, what difference will I make?
Well, everybody thought like that would be in trouble.
So you do make a difference.
People've got to just get into this thing.
Brian just sent in a text my wife took her students to the wash the shore display said it was awesome.
Oh
Yeah, thank you
and that's that's one of our we've had gosh over 3400 Students and their teachers and chaperones come through the garden from the 1st of April through the end of the month here or end of last month I should say
on field trips and washed ashore.
They were able to see it.
Anybody who came from the beginning of May, beyond.
And we tried to incorporate that into all of the field trips that we do.
You have a membership, you have, just to go to that one event.
I just bought a membership at Malva.
I like that place.
People gotta get there.
It was a weird membership.
It was like a grandparents grand kid membership.
Oh,
that's
awesome.
I love that.
Right?
Yeah.
Well, we have a family membership that if you are a grandparent, it allows you to bring any of your grandkids in with it.
So it's not a specific for grandparents, but our family membership, which is $85 for the year, includes two adults and any kids that you bring along with you.
All
right.
I mean, come on.
That's a great activity for your kids too.
You have so much going on.
Just even if you don't have anything going on.
The beauty of that's unbelievable
right and we build our new children's garden.
It's on its third summer here.
They've got splash pads.
There's trampolines There's tree houses.
There's just so much to enjoy while you're there So the adults can look at the flowers while the kids are splashing in the splash pad.
Yeah,
that's great.
Do you People can volunteer there.
I mean you have employees and I've met someone do you know how one
could get involved, because who doesn't want a garden?
So we love to say that anybody can volunteer at the garden, no green thumb required, because we know that's not for everybody, right?
So we do have the folks that are interested in getting to know the plants or working with their hands and working on the grounds.
Again, no green thumb required.
We'll train you on that.
You might be pulling weeds.
You might be watering.
You might be planting some new flowers.
But then if that's not quite your gig, these concerts, you want to see the concert for free?
Come and volunteer for us.
Make some popcorn.
Check people in.
Mind your
head.
I can make popcorn.
I'm not much of a green thumb, but I can make
popcorn.
Yeah.
That's funny to say that.
I just did a little bit of a segue.
I work at the new community shelter.
We have 118 people living there, and they transition out.
And I do a little, I'm not the activity director.
I do some other things there, but I take them to things.
And your garden of lights, I take them.
And they're like, I'll never see that again.
a breakfast on the farm, it's like, yeah, you will just volunteer,
you know what I mean?
Because they don't have $10,
$12, you know what I mean?
Right now.
people need to look at that.
And like you said, I mean, you don't sell it on, you can see it for free, but you can see it for free, you know, or the Weidner centers or so many things that- Well, it's
accessible to everyone.
And that's the answer.
And that's really one of our goals as the garden.
We know we have an admission fee or as an independent nonprofit,
that is
something we need.
But we also have options for folks that have those barriers financially.
So we are part of the museums for all program that's nationwide.
And with that, anybody that has WIC or SNAP benefits,
If you can just show us your card, you can get up to four people in your party into the garden for general admission, not for special events, but for just a general walk around the garden for a dollar each.
And I don't
think people
know that.
Look at that.
I mean, and what a beautiful evening to spend with a family out
there.
Yeah, it's all great there.
So your garden, you don't really need to expand.
I mean, are you kind of there?
I mean, what I thought was really cool was, you know, I like,
the lights that, was it that pond or what?
Yeah,
the
pond with the big,
right?
Like spotlights over the
top of it to music.
Yeah.
That
sounds cool.
It's unbelievable what you guys do out there.
Oh, fun.
And what are the things in education?
Do you have other programs this summer for
kids?
We do, yes.
Actually today, because it's Wednesday, kicks off our buy one, get one free Wednesdays.
That's all throughout the summer.
And we like to concentrate a few of our activities on this day especially.
So today we have our wash to shore upcycled craft.
So you can just come on in from 11 to 1130 to noon and take some of the trash that we've collected and cleaned and prepped to do some crafts and kind of
just
get creative with it.
through the inspiration of the
Washer Show
exhibit.
We've got our Discovery Cart today, so you can learn a little bit about the Great Lakes and why the Great Lakes are so important and why we need to protect them.
On Tuesdays and Fridays starting next week, we have our story time.
So if you've got some littles in your life from 10 to 1030, you can come on out and enjoy that in our children's garden while they're in between playing out there.
And then we have a variety of classes for adults as well throughout the summer.
You can check those out.
Next week, we've got Mark Walters from Brown County Resource and Recovery, who is just
teaching
about recycling to remind you what can be recycled and what can't.
And people don't know.
He's great.
I mean, he's been really wonderful.
And that's, you know, when you think about the Botanical Gardens, people think just, oh, all these beautiful plants.
But look at all the stuff that's going on
there.
What a
tremendous resource for our community.
And the other thing, just because it's Green Bay, the parking is so easy.
Right on Larson Road, you're right there.
Sometimes people are like, no, where am I gonna park?
That's not an issue.
No, no, free parking.
Just come on in and
park.
We just got a bunch of new wayfinding so you can find the visitor center
a little
bit better too.
So really just doing the best we can to help people know that we're here,
that we're
open for everybody and that we want to find a way to get you out to the garden.
Yeah.
So another text came in, can teens volunteer for the concerts in...
get on our society sheets signed.
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah, I know, right?
We do that.
Yeah, that's no problem at all.
So if you check out our website, GBBG.org slash volunteer, that'll get you to how you get signed up and connect you to our volunteer coordinator and she'll get you all set.
I still think that's kind of funny that it's GBBC and we're talking about BGs, you know, of all days over here, but Friday, we gotta get out there for that.
Yes, definitely.
That's gonna be a good thing.
And then you have the concert series online, we can look it up when we wanna go.
You can,
yep.
All right.
You can bring in your own food to the concerts, but if you would like to purchase a dinner to have ready for you there, you have to do so by today at noon from food delicious catering.
And you can do that too.
You can do that
too.
Then you don't even have to worry about your meal for that evening.
Wow.
I didn't know you had that either.
I feel kind of bad.
You're riling off all this stuff and I just, that's great.
Yeah, that's the value
of being here.
And I know you work with the VCB, but what a great place to bring visitors.
Yes.
You know what I mean?
Like everybody goes to the Lambo and that's cool.
But it just is, it's something to show off.
There's nothing like that around here.
Yeah.
No, I agree.
You're doing it right.
I'm glad we got you there too, Linda.
All right.
This is Linda Gusty.
Gusty.
Right.
Director of Education.
Green Bay Botanical Gardens.
One more time, your website.
GBBG.org.
All right,
great.
Like
Green Bay Botanical Garden.
And the Bee Gees, which we'll see Friday.
Yes.
Okay.
This
is Kind of the Mayor.
We'll be right back.
He just rolled his eyes at
me.
I did.
I did.
I like
the music.
This is
all right.
Here's what
I can't get over.
Like
Bee Gees, Fanny, right?
Huge song.
Yeah.
He rolls his eyes to this, but he likes Liberace.
Like I can't.
Wow.
I do.
I can't.
I can't reconcile
that.
Yeah.
I'm a little twisted.
I'll admit it.
Little something.
Little something.
So we're wrapping it up here.
I just, you know, you have been
It's so much fun to work with.
And we get guests on occasion, but not three days in a row.
And
I
just said, Todd, we gotta get you back here.
And just thank you for doing this.
And
one of our listeners- Thank you so much for having me.
Yeah, you bet.
One of our listeners texts into
Todd, who is our
producer, the boss, he's the guy who runs the show.
And the text reads, I sure hope you are relentlessly on Connie's case to come out of retirement and work for Civic Media.
She's delightful to listen to, would love to hear her more often.
Oh, Nancy, thank you.
Is that nice?
Thank you.
I would love that.
You know, I'm not, Mino's got some big shoes to fill.
I'm not trying to, but he'll be back tomorrow.
But just being able to be here and be part of what you guys do, it's
really
been an honor.
And I've just had a ball.
Telling the stories of Northeast Wisconsin, right?
Get back to that.
And I've got a lot of them.
That's my passion.
You know, I'm a local gal and, you know, from this area and just singing our praises and telling, you know, telling stories.
And when we were talking earlier about, you know, what, what do you want to do?
You know, kind of what I want to do.
I just know whatever I do, it's going to be here.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
But I just
have no desire to go somewhere
else.
I still gotta figure out what I want to be when I grow up.
But this has been a lot of fun.
This is good.
I mean,
so let's just take a minute to plug you.
What are you looking?
Are you looking for something?
Do you like the media?
You love the media, don't
you?
Oh, I love the media.
Yeah.
So you're
going to get back in
it.
Well, I mean, you never, here's, here's what I was.
If you could wave a
magic wand, what would you be
doing?
Here's what I always like to say.
You just never know where I'm going to pop up because I've been all over.
And, you know, I'm
I'm still determining my next steps where they're gonna be.
I've got a daughter who's in college out of state, but I'm pretty tied to this area.
And I'm on Todd's case to get me in here at Civic Media.
So you never know where I'll pop up next.
That's great.
And you're there credentialing.
I mean, you have everything, you got the experience, you got the degree.
Interesting though, talking to TC, wasn't it?
What
they can do out there?
And especially these second careers.
My neighbor lives a few houses away.
kind of dropped out of the corporate world and went back and got his horticulture license.
And
he's got the best garden in the neighborhood, but he
just,
but he's making some money too.
Not,
not
50 hours a week
type thing, just some
projects.
You know, that is the thing I will say though.
I've worked in media and then I took some time in and worked in corporate America and corporate communications, public relations.
But news is my, you know, that's my heartbeat.
That's, that's where I belong.
And, and so yeah, I'll be sticking with the media.
And the media, that's such a broad brush.
Do you like?
Getting out on the street and doing those interviews.
Are you like driving the desk?
We're like media.
What would you like to do?
I love talking I love talking to people and what I would love to do is tell people stories Throw a dart on the map of Wisconsin and let me go there and I will find a story for you wherever that dart lands and it's gonna be interesting I guarantee you
besides covering stories we could have
a segment called Connie's Dart Board.
And literally, you put a map of Northeast Wisconsin up and you do it and you do a story a week or whatever,
right?
Is HR listening to this?
They
need to listen to
it.
We have so many ideas.
Because
there's two things with that.
One is like, I wonder where the dart's going to end up.
And secondly, I wonder what the story is going to be.
I mean, you know what I mean?
Because you throw that thing up to Florence.
You think you could find a story
in Florence?
Absolutely, I could.
Absolutely.
I did a story once on the oldest barber.
He was in Bear Creek.
And somebody called the station and said, this guy is like finally retiring.
He's 90 something.
And I went out there.
You wouldn't believe the stories this guy had.
He was fascinating.
And I let him cut my hair.
He was afraid to, but I'm like, Hey, reporter involvement.
Wow.
And those in barbers, petitions, they're also part time psychologists, psychiatrists.
Absolutely.
You guys tell them
everything.
It's called therapy.
Yeah.
Therapy.
Yeah.
I go for my therapy appointment.
I like that.
Yeah.
Cause that is
so true.
It is more than.
you know, cutting hair.
Yeah.
Well, in back in the days in Bear Creek, you know, that was part of the community.
That's where people went and got their, their local talk of the town.
Little gossip, right?
Right.
Politicians and sometimes
the
barbers knew who was getting divorced before the wife did.
Oh, yes.
Still today.
Still today.
Still
today.
No, that's, you know, and if people, their hairdresser, a lot of people say, I like people and I think a lot of us do.
That is a business that you're dealing with people and not just cutting their hair, you're talking to
them.
I
think that's, yeah.
It's still, we got, you know, cosmetology school here in Green Bay and, you know, it's, that's not an inexpensive track though.
Well, no, but, and depending on what you're having done, you know, my hair appointments can be two hours long.
Yeah.
So you better like your stylist.
Right.
I'm fortunate, Rhonda, I have.
A lovely one.
She's amazing.
You gotta find the right one.
Yep.
So just had another text come in.
Yes, Connie, you did a great job filling in for John.
You could be the Joan Rivers for the show.
Fill in for the guys.
Chuck from Green Bay.
Thank you, Chuck.
I said, you guys just need a little bit of a feminine perspective and I want to add.
Here's the problem.
That's, that's, that's like calling John and Jim Johnny Carson.
And let me tell you, they ain't no Johnny Carson.
All right.
Well, I ain't no Joan Rivers, but I love what you're saying.
But we take plenty of vacations, so talk to Todd.
He's the fillin' for that.
I'll be on vacation in two weeks, you can fill in for me.
Right, he's... Well, I'm glad you guys get the vacations.
He's
missing my party, but that's all right.
Oh, no.
The big mouth.
That's gonna be here, but that's all right.
We're gonna have people that can be fun.
It's a hot
dog car.
It's nice to get together in the summer, because in the winter we don't do it as often.
Did you invite Connie?
Well, absolutely.
Yes,
he did.
Yes, he did.
And the
Melchors, just so
you
know, they're coming.
You guys have been really hospitable and gracious just to me this week when I showed up last week and I just wouldn't keep, I wouldn't go away.
I kept coming back.
I'm like, all right, I love it here.
And thank you for your, thank you for making it so easy for me, Jim.
And Todd, you know, I really, I lean on you a lot.
Thank you so much.
Well, and I'll just say, it's been a pleasure working with you after knowing of you for so many years.
And hopefully I can consider you a friend now.
Likewise.
And you're always welcome back here.
Thank you.
But call first.
Yeah, call
first,
right?
Not like yesterday.
You never know where I'll
pop up.
I think the other thing I really like about you, and I didn't know you all that well.
I mean, you interviewed me a number of times, but how committed you are to the local community.
Yes.
And sometimes we go, oh, it's Green Bay.
Well, it's Green Bay.
I mean, we're so lucky to have what we have here.
There's so many
natural resources.
And that's what civic media does, yeah.
Yeah, they do so.
Ann Appleton,
Ann Einstein.
Ask guys, watch the whole area,
right?
Yeah.
Northeast Wisconsin's awesome.
All right.
Well, thanks for listening.
Connie, thank you again for being here.
We'll see you tomorrow with Johnny.
So, might know the mayor.
We'll be back tomorrow.
Thanks.
