Welcome, everybody, to Midday Magazine for this Wednesday, February 26, 2025.
Have your host, James J. Mailoff here.
In part two, today at 430, we're going to talk to our great friends from the ODC.
We got Sammy joining us.
We'll see who else tags along.
We're going to start right now, though.
Why not shout out Lance Plymmel?
Usually Lance is with us at this time.
He's not able to be with us right now, but because his staff and him are so good at this,
they set up somebody for us to talk to him.
We get to hang out with Chad Skully from the Wood County Parks and Forestry Department.
I was just telling Pam the other day, Chad, we don't get to talk nearly enough with you.
It's great to have you in, man.
How you been?
I've been very good.
Thanks for the invite.
I always like coming in and giving updates.
We're going to update people on a number of different things today.
I can't wait to do that.
I do want to shout out our great friends over at Wisconsin Rabbits Community Media.
Do yourself a favor if you haven't done so already.
Go to YouTube.
Type in your search bar.
Wisconsin Rabbits Community Media and subscribe to their page.
Keep up the date and all the great work that they are doing.
Appreciate you guys over there doing some great stuff.
Chad, you guys are busy and doing some great stuff with the Parks and Forestry Department,
especially with the changing of the seasons happening here.
I imagine you guys are doing a lot behind the scenes.
I want to get an update with you on some of our local areas.
And we'll start with the trails and get an update on that.
How are the trails looking?
What can you tell us about that?
Sure.
So as everybody's aware, we had a very brief winter season.
Blinked.
Yeah.
Very frustrating for those that like winter snow activities.
Not so bad for those on the ice.
We've had some pretty decent ice for ice fisher fishermen.
This winter, as opposed to last year, I mean,
people couldn't even really get on the ice, at least with their vehicles.
So short and sweet of it, trails are closed.
Snow-billed trails are closed currently.
Two of the clubs actually never even opened up this season.
The remainder did have a short stint between a week.
Maybe two weeks for some of them.
So it was a pretty short run season, which is too bad.
Because those clubs, they put in a lot of time and effort,
getting them ready in the off season, getting them signed,
mowed, brushed back, and all that good stuff.
So a lot of work for just a very little payoff.
I feel for them.
I feel for our friends up north and so many people
that are affected by this.
And while it's interesting to think of compared to last year,
we're thankful for what we had this year.
And hopefully we have a better winter next year for them in that.
There is, I will say, there is innovation.
It comes from the strangest and most interesting of places
and struggles.
And I am very impressed with and admire
a lot of what we're seeing up north
and with a lot of these businesses.
And a lot of these clubs just finding, OK, well,
how do we keep this relevant?
How do we keep this around and what do we do to it?
I do want to take a time, even though they
didn't have a lot of time to shout out all the homes and people
that own land, that open up their land to these trails
and all these clubs for the work that they do put into this
and keeping these things alive.
We appreciate that.
It's a very popular hobby, big part of our economy.
And we need these groups and these people doing these things.
So we greatly appreciate it.
Hopefully they have more time next year.
That's all we can hope for.
I feel like that's a bit of a preview of Power's Bluff update.
But let's go ahead and get an update on that, too, too.
Sure, yeah.
So Power's Bluff, so we actually
double the days that we're open this year from last.
Unfortunately, the number is four.
Last year, we're only open two days.
So we doubled it, but it wasn't a real good season.
We are closed currently.
We're open the past two weekends.
Saturday, Sunday had excellent crowds.
So fortunately, again, all the time and effort
that our staff put into getting the hills ready
and all that good stuff.
There is a short payoff.
A lot of families were able to get out there
and enjoy the hill, so that was good.
In addition, as I've talked about over the last few times
I've been here are the trails out there, the new trail system.
Again, volunteers.
We have volunteers that have been grooming
the fat tire bike trail out there.
That, too, is currently closed, just too soft to conditions.
And I just want to remind people that do utilize
those mountain bike trails.
This time of year going in the spring,
these trails are very vulnerable, especially out
at Power's Bluff because the surfacing essentially is clay.
So when clay is dry, it's hard as a rock.
It's a great surface, but when we have these
freeze-thaw times, very vulnerable to rutting.
And once there's rutting in there, water stays in there.
A lot of work that goes into basically repairing things
that didn't have to be damaged in the first place.
So please just asking that people,
Bay the signs out there.
We also, if you want current updates,
our volunteers actually post current updates
on our website, as well as on Trailbot.
It's an app, or you can download it on your computer,
what have you.
But that's where the most up-to-date information is.
In addition to the mountain bike trail,
we also have the multi-use trail out there,
which again was groomed for fat tire biking,
snow-shoeing, and cross-country skiing.
Parts of the trail within the woods,
there's still snow cover,
but anything that's been exposed out in the field,
anything that gets any sunlight really is, it's gone.
The base is gone.
So for that trail, the multi-use trail,
use your discretion.
It's not going to be in great condition by any means.
So yeah, that's kind of a power's bluff update at this point.
So Chad, taking in consideration the things
I was talking about earlier, and with all the empathy
in the world, I ask this next question,
because I am a big believer in silver linings.
And I think that no matter what happens in life,
you can find some silver linings.
You got to do some digging sometimes,
but you can find them with the current situation
and the way things are.
Are there, I hesitate to use the word positives
for lack of a better word,
but are there some positives we can take from this
as far as for the Parks and Forestry Department?
Are you guys able to get a head start on other things?
Save money in the budget here and move it here.
Just not without trying to dig too deep into it on you,
is there things that we can kind of take from them?
Well, and a part of that really is going to be
what we get into next.
This winner has been awesome for the purpose
of going into a park that we're taking over.
As of January 1st, we have taken over
the maintenance of Sarah Park, right?
And we're going to get into that a little bit more,
but this time has provided all of our staff
to come together, do a lot of work out there
during this winter season.
That's great.
That's definitely a silver lining.
Yeah.
And Chad has been here a while.
Look at him teasing the head.
Teasing the head.
That's a great stuff.
Very well done by you.
Chad, school with us from the Wood County Parks
and Forestry Department along with our friends
from Wisconsin Rapids Community Media.
Let's get into that, Chad.
But first, you guys have a Parks and Forestry Open
Space's survey going on right now at their website
and encourage you to bookmark it.
If you haven't done so already, wouldcountywi.gov,
wouldcountywi.gov.
What can you tell us about this survey
and what were you to expect with us?
No, I appreciate you bringing that up.
So this is a process that we go as an apartment.
We go through every five to seven years.
It's a requirement through the Wisconsin DNR.
Any basically governmental entity that
would like to apply for outdoor recreation grants
that are administered through the Wisconsin DNR
are required to have an updated up-to-date comprehensive plan.
And so that's one of the reasons.
Obviously, another reason is to get feedback,
get the public's input as far as, how are we doing?
That's very important.
We always want feedback as far as what's working,
what's not working.
But also looking ahead for budgeting purposes,
grant writing, things like that.
What are you wanting within our parks and forestry areas?
So a part of that process is putting together a public survey.
And as you mentioned, that is available on our website.
People can go through it.
Basically, it takes, depending on how quickly
a click through it, 10 to 15 minutes.
So it's a little longer, but it's very thorough.
It goes through all of our properties.
Speaking of Sarah Park, the first section of that survey
is really asking for feedback for those that have been
to the park, asking what do you like?
What would you like to see?
But it's also asking for feedback regarding
the name of the park itself, right?
So question number one is basically asking,
what do you think we should name this park?
Should we keep the name?
Should we have kind of variations of the name?
Or just give us an idea, right?
So under the comment section, you can basically
give us anything you want.
Once those are all compiled, and actually next Thursday
is when our next committee meeting is,
I'm going to bring that committee or our committee
a summary of all of those suggestions.
And hopefully, there's going to be a decision made
on the actual name of the park moving forward.
Because we want that to get done with,
because we need to update signs.
We need to update maps, all that stuff.
And we don't really want to do that twice, right?
So we want to get the name pegged down.
And certainly want to be able to open the park up.
Absolutely, as soon as we're able to and everything.
Just rewinding a beat that the survey is important
for so many reasons.
And while it may take 10, 15 minutes,
that's time you're investing.
You're investing in your community.
You're investing in the betterment of our community.
Chad, it'd be the first to tell you
that you guys are the bosses.
We want to know what the boss thinks.
We want to know what you guys think.
We want to know what you guys are expecting
and everything from our parks and forestry department,
especially with some of the changes
we've experienced in the last couple of years.
Your feedback is vital to the work
that's being done by our parks and forestry department.
So I encourage you to take the time to do that.
And when I do these kind of things,
when I fill out surveys like that or anything,
I was like to have, well, I'm going to do that
and I have ice cream afterwards.
I get myself a carrot at the end of the stick.
Carrot at the end of the stick,
because I'm a teenager, basically.
But whatever you need, go out there and do that,
fill that out and have some fun with this too,
because this isn't normal for communities,
necessarily, to be having what's going on with Sarah Park.
And the opportunity for you to have input on this
and really be able to dig your hands
and be like, oh, what would I like the name to be?
What would I like to see changes happen?
Your feedback is not only important,
it's darn near necessary to be able to make these decisions
and for Chad and this team to be able to do the work here.
As far as Sierra Park goes, Chad,
and we'll give people the email again
for where they can fill out that survey before we wrap up.
But when it comes to Sierra Park,
I want to get into this with you a little bit
because I feel like this is almost an under-reported story
right now.
And maybe in part because to me,
I think of this as a big story
and maybe it just is to me and some others or what have you.
And I don't want to say that as like,
we have some amazing reporting going on
for a rural community, for a small community here.
Caitlin and the work she does
at the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune
and our friends at the Wisconsin Rapids City Times,
our friends at Rapids Community Media,
and my favorite reporter, Melissa Kay,
might be a little biased on that one,
but I'm not wrong.
We got great reporters going on in here.
And with all that said,
this is a story that is still developing
and still very interesting to me.
How did this begin?
How did this conversation even start
with taking over that park?
Right, so, and I think this is a piece
that really is under-reported
kind of some of that background history.
Yeah, yeah.
So essentially, I forget which month,
mid-year last year, right, mid-2024.
I was contacted by representatives from Quipco,
which is Consolidated Water Power Company.
And they're actually the owners of the property itself.
So since the early 1970s,
that property was essentially leased
by the employee group at that time,
consolidated papers.
Employee group, you know, they had a board of directors.
They essentially spent, you know,
a lot of time, I'm sure, tears and sweat,
essentially developing that park, right?
It was developed for employees and family members
of employees of the mill.
And so it was very, and it still is very personal
to a lot of, you know, people that still live around this area
that had years of employment through Consolidated
or those companies that essentially, you know,
purchased over the years.
A lot of memories at that park.
A lot of memories, you know,
they had a pretty active softball league out there.
They had a top-notch swimming pool facility tennis courts.
I mean, it was, it was a really, you know,
it was an awesome park, you know,
full functional park, yes, in its heyday.
Fast forward to today, you know,
obviously those mills have either closed down
or they've downsized or what have you, you know,
the participation of the upkeep, the funds, you know.
Another thing that a lot of people don't know,
a lot of the funds that went towards development
and maintaining that was actually directly from proceeds
from all the vending machines in Wisconsin Rapids
mill and different mills that were owned.
The volume of people that worked there at one time, right?
So all those funds went into a kitty
and that was used for developing and maintaining that park.
That's not there anymore, right?
So the funds have kind of somewhat dried up
as far as, you know, upkeep and things like that.
I don't know how many years ago,
but essentially at some point,
they went from kind of a private park for employees
and their family members to opening it up
to the general public.
Even with that, you know, the revenue
that they were bringing in just wasn't,
wasn't kind of making the cut as far as being able
to keep up with maintenance and things like that.
So the owners, representatives from Quipco decided
that the lease was coming up at the end of 24.
They kind of wanted to change direction.
There are some restrictions and regulation
that they have to follow because of their license
through FERC, the federal energy regulation
corporation, or I'm not sure what that is for,
but that's a good question.
Anyways, it has to be maintained
as a public access point along the river.
And so it's not like they could have just sold it
to a developer or something like that.
And so according to them, we were the obvious choice,
you know, being in that field,
parks and recreation, forestry, all that good stuff.
And so they approached us.
I brought it before our committee
and there's been nothing but support
as far as basically adding this park
to our already outstanding fleet of parks, right?
So yeah.
Really extends that stretch a little bit more.
And while there is some work and maintenance to be done
and certainly as regarding the survey,
information taken from the community
about what to expect or what you want from this park,
you are getting something that is,
there's a blueprint already for.
It's functional, yeah, it needs a little updates,
but you know, it's got a functioning campground, right?
There's 59 electric sites, six non-electric sites.
It's got a large shelter building,
a smaller shelter building, basketball courts,
playgrounds, again, kind of outdated.
We're gonna have to be doing some replacement
of those features, but yeah, I mean,
it's a location right on the Wisconsin River,
beautiful, right across the river from Anchor Bay
and some other activities on the beer and flowage,
very popular location.
So yeah, it's a great spot.
And long time listeners know that I can't help myself
of connecting dots and all that.
And we started a lot of this conversation talking about
some of the hits our economy has taken,
the hits that some of our local businesses or clubs
have taken with the lack of snow.
One of the big things that is going on right now
is how do we counter that?
How are we gonna make up for that economy?
How are we gonna make up for that time and all that?
I'm not saying that this is gonna fix all of that,
but here is an option.
Here is another revenue source.
Here is another opportunity for people
to go and do their hobbies or a place to go
and have some fun, a recreation area.
That again, is not built, but is so,
like the foundations there for you.
You got a lot to work with this.
This is such a smart investment.
This is such a smart, I'm a big fan of repurposing things.
Never thought about repurposing land.
Or a park or something like that,
but that's what we're doing here with this
is reimagining it, relooking at it
and seeing, hey, community, what do you think?
What would you like to see out of this park?
Long time people in this community too,
not only the ties and the memories they might have to it,
but for a lot of families as well,
I never got to go to that park.
My family wasn't a part of the mill.
I wanna go and check that out.
We've been going to point for how many years
driving past it and everything,
kind of wanna go check it out
and actually be inside and stuff.
There is so much opportunity with this
that seems very exciting.
Yes, it is extremely exciting.
When it comes to the survey,
we, again, we encourage you to go woodcountywi.gov,
woodcountywi.gov, you'll be able to find it right away
going there and going under the Parks and Forest
and Department tab and going to SurveyMonkey,
which is one of the better named websites,
I've ever seen, it's a great name,
but you'll be able to file it out there
and we encourage you to do that to get this data.
How long do they have to fill out the survey?
Is there a timeframe when we're gonna take it down
and collect this data?
Yeah, there is not a set date.
We're looking at, you know, as far as updating that plan,
the next step really is compiling information
over the next couple months here.
So, again, nothing, you know,
if you go on today or next week,
it's still gonna be up.
It's just at some point we're gonna be compiling
all that data.
And, you know, when you guys know,
I'm sure you'll be putting it on social media,
they hate the surveys gonna end in a week
or something like that.
So, another good reason to like and subscribe to what they're doing
on social media at the Parks and Forest
and Department to keep up the date on those things.
And I did have, and one of my questions,
what's next for Sierra Park?
Well, we kinda answered that really.
Well, there is one, yeah, one other thing I wanted to mention
is that right now it's not live on a reservation system.
You know, we do get phone calls almost on a weekly basis,
just checking out when can we start reserving.
The reason being is that we do have that project
as far as remodeling the shower building.
It's bit out, we're supposed to be receiving
those bids next week with the intent
of opening up Memorial Weekend.
And that's basically what our intention is.
Yep, that's awesome.
Which is about a month later than our other parks,
but it gives us a little extra time
to get things organized and up and going things like that.
So, beyond the lookout, we're gonna post it
when we have a firm date, but that is,
as of right now, that's our plan,
is Memorial Weekend and running through the summer here.
So, just very excited about this.
I do wanna warn you though, Chad,
with all this going on,
we're gonna have to have you back more often now.
We gotta keep people up to date on this one.
You're gonna be doing some work over the next couple of months.
And we appreciate the work that you, your team,
everybody is not only putting into this,
but our Parks and Forest Department,
all did that covers.
It's, I think for a lot of people out there,
if you haven't done the digging on this one,
take a look one time at how much our Parks and Forest
and Department covers in this area
and the work that they're doing.
I guess working hard over there, we appreciate it.
Yep, we have an awesome staff,
gonna do it without them, obviously.
So, if people have follow up questions, Chad,
wanna know more about some of what we talked about today.
How can they reach you?
You know, go on our Facebook page, we've got links there.
You can email us, give us a phone call.
We're on Facebook, so you can message us.
Currently, our Monica from our office
is doing kind of a trivia.
Time it in with our 90th anniversary this year,
which again, just makes Sarah Park that much more exciting
than tying it into that 90 year and looking forward.
And a congratulations about that
to the Parks and Forest Department.
And yes, go check out their Facebook page.
I throw it in your search bar, it'll pop up right away.
I tested it yesterday morning and it worked really good.
And you can have fun with it as well,
cause you guys do a real good job with that.
And it's a great way to keep up the date
on different things like the survey and other stuff.
You can also find out more at woodcountywi.gov.
Woodcountywi.gov.
Chad, thanks again for the time.
Appreciate it, thank you.
And a big appreciation to our friends
over at Wisconsin Revis Community Media.
Like and subscribe to the work that they are doing
on social media as well and share it on your pages.
You just never know who might see it otherwise.
We will be back with more Midday Magazine right here
at 97.5 FM 13.20 AM WFHR, we are locally grown radio.
