You are listening to Perspective on WFHR 1320 AM 975 FM.
I'm Melissa Kay bringing you news in our community.
During this interview, I'm talking with Wisconsin Rapids Mayor Matt Zacker on Wednesday, September 16th.
Thank you for joining me, Matt, to bring the community an update from the city of Wisconsin Rapids.
You're welcome.
Thanks for having me, as always.
Well, first, I want to dive into one of the recent events that just happened.
We concluded the Downtown Grand Affair, which took place on the Grand Avenue downtown.
The bridge was shut down for the car crews.
There were over 100 vendors.
It was quite the event.
Yeah, yeah.
Everything is...
going really well in the community.
I feel like the community is starting to come back out of the COVID hangover and really starting to participate, working with each other to make these great.
Of course, the Chamber of Commerce and all the ladies there that do such great work in bringing all those folks together
and putting
it on.
A lot of kudos to everybody there and Stacy Keevey for leading the way on that.
So
it's been
great.
I really appreciated their partnering with the cool team leadership.
program that is part of multiple high schools in the area and these like we showed up as the radio station because we were live broadcasting that day we pulled up to to get you know unloaded and set up and I had like
Six young people there like how can we help it was amazing and they were so polite and helpful and they We were unloaded and I swear two minutes.
Yeah, it's great to see them You know they reached out during the 4th of July to and helped in certain ways So we hope to keep bringing those folks in and a lot of a lot of interest from the younger generation to To be a part of the community and see it as our community and refreshing
it's so refreshing to see that collaboration between
Um, the efforts that our adults and our government leaders and our civic organizations in the community and bringing those young people in, it gives them leadership opportunities and just the, the knowing that they've done something for the community has got to feel good.
Yeah.
And it feels good too.
I mean, you can tell there's a certain amount of, uh, distrust that's built up in, I don't know if it's all American society, uh, in terms of governmental and people that are just running it.
But when, when you are this close to the people,
There really shouldn't be any questions.
You should be able to go to your neighbors and ask them about what's going on at City Hall and, uh, and trust that what they're telling you is, is what's actually happening.
So I'm glad that the younger generation is really getting involved and wanting to know and meet, ask great questions and get involved so that they can see that, you know, this is just us.
It's neighbors helping neighbors.
We elect our representatives.
We trust that they're doing a good job and we're moving forward together.
Granted, we're not always going to like the decisions.
that are made all of us at the same time because it just doesn't work that way.
Well, no, Matt, you're not pizza.
You can't please everybody.
But, you know, to just understand that people are voting the way they're voting because of the way they grew up, who their parents were, friends that they have, schooling, you know, different sides of the aisle, it just is what it is.
It's not, we don't have to hate each other.
We just have to accept that other people are going to have different opinions.
And the beauty of our government, it's constantly changing, you know, as we'll talk more about with the...
TV conversation.
Yes, and there's this, I think it's a beautiful word.
I've heard others, people have different opinions, but I think compromise is a good thing, especially when we're dealing with so many different, as you said, backgrounds and upbringings and religions and everything that makes us Americans, individuals, that we need to find ways to work together and find the best possible solution.
Sometimes that means compromising.
Right.
So yes, let's dive into the ATV-UTV.
That ordinance did pass the Common Council on Tuesday's meeting.
I heard many people speak for and against the ordinance passing and both are passionate about their stances.
I heard at least one person speak at the meeting who had changed their mind about their position and were now for passing the ordinance.
There was a lot of discussion around the previous referendum that didn't pass and how this ordinance addressed many of the
issues that voters were concerned about and a majority of the businesses surveyed were four passing the ordinance.
It did pass the Common Council five to three and so that ordinance just in brief will allow ATV-UTV traffic on all roads except for State Highways 13 which is 8th Street, Highway 34, 54, 74 and any city-owned parks.
So it
Now one thing that I appreciated that was talked about and that Maddie Palm quest did right away at the end of the meeting was send a request to have it Reviewed in three months to see how things are going.
So let's let's talk about this a little bit.
Yeah, I think the big thing is in particular with that
Referral is that we want to be able to look at it granted.
We look at it every day I mean the police are going to be talking about it on a daily basis
and they have reports that come towards with the PFC
So it's not that it just goes on you know checked and talked about but at a council level to be able to bring it back to
public works, committee meetings, you know, in three months, I think that's important.
And then in six months and then nine months in a year.
And I think we should do that for as long as it takes for us to feel comfortable or make changes or take it away.
Like
we
can do anything we want.
That's what, you know, you kind of got to get people to understand if, if at one point in time.
Everybody decided that flat cameras were the right way to go because it protected our children That could be abducted it protected our older folks that could be lost, you know, there's all these other things that go into I realized we just switched from one thing
to another but
But my point in this is there's some really tough touchy subjects
and and
and what I was saying before about the council
always changing as well as the mayor seat is changing as well as the clerk and the attorney if you know we hire new people or elect new people but my point in saying that is you know when when this was talked about five years ago the atv utv and four years ago and three years ago and we put that ordinance into effect and had the referendum which was a city led it was a citizen led thing by maddie palm quiz
then
she got involved in
being an alderman, she got elected and she was very clear that she was obviously very passionate about ATVs, UTVs, other people then come on board that have different opinions than the old representatives did, alderman did, but it's not like anybody built this.
a group of people that are now for it.
It's that the people that got elected had different opinions based on their upbringing and their life.
And times have changed.
Times have changed.
We're in a different place now than we were five years ago.
And the ordinance is different.
I understand that.
I personally did not feel comfortable.
This is just my opinion.
I'm one of nine, I guess, that would vote if it was a tie.
Thank goodness it wasn't.
But it would have been a situation.
where I, I believe in, you know, even at this point in time that the referendum was the referendum and it was done by the people who are for the ATVU TVs and it didn't pass.
And I think, you know, that was, I think roughly about three years ago at this point.
So, I mean, a lot of time has passed and the conversation continued on in different forms because it made sense to do that because it is.
everywhere around us.
So I think it is at this point where it's at and we'll make the best of it and we're going to monitor it, but we can always reverse things.
Like
everything is reversible.
There's nothing that is set in stone and that's kind of the problem with government that I feel like even for myself before I got involved and even now that I am involved.
We have
too many regulations, too many things, the zoning code, stuff like that, that we're trying to get rid of as much of it as we can, but still have a book in place
that says
we want guidelines.
We want our city to look the best it can look 30 years down the road.
We're
trying to take away some of that industrial concrete asphalt look on A Street and try to get more green space, trees, bushes, and all that stuff.
So there's good reasons behind it, but it's also hard because when people are trying to build a business and they
have limited money, they're going to try to find ways to be able to get up and running as cheaply as possible.
And that makes all the sense in the world from a business perspective.
It does.
But then we also have the safety perspective and following the guidelines that are necessary to have a profiting business that is good for customers and the business.
So thank you for bringing that up.
Just for a point of clarification for those because this isn't always easy to understand.
So if you do...
Bear with me.
There's two different things we're talking about when it comes to building code and then zoning code and Building code is state statutes that we can't we can go heavier, but we can't go any lighter and
for the
most part We just stick with the statutes and that means the buildings have to be built a certain way when they're when public People are going to be coming in them and using services there or buying stuff there.
So that is non-negotiable, right?
It's the zoning, I think, that was voted in in 2018 that says, you know, how your parking lots are going to look and
how your buildings going to look, setbacks, all the things
that are more.
tricky in a community that was built a certain way without any of that stuff.
And
now you're
trying to basically fit a square peg into a round hole, and that's where we get into the conflicts.
And I'm trying my best to stop those.
We want everybody to build.
We want businesses to start.
We want contractors to want to come here.
But at the same time, we also want a set of rules that we all play by to the best of our ability and to weigh around them when it doesn't fit into the round hole.
Mm-hmm and that takes a lot of of time and attention and meetings and going through these very
intricately written documents.
And that's what we have to focus on.
We've got to stop taking it out on the inspectors and the Public Works Community Development Director because I've heard a lot of that in the past.
And we wish Kyle Kernswell at a state level doing basically economic development, site plan selection and development on a state level now.
So he'll be doing what he was doing here for the entire state, which I think is their
their gain, our loss.
But at the same time, you're asking him to do a tough job, which was
be the economic development person, welcome people to the community, like have that inviting professional aura.
But at the same time, he's got to uphold all those zoning codes and say no to the people that want to cut corners and make things happen faster.
And then they get on social media and they start badmouthing him and the inspectors because they're just trying to do their job.
So it's a tough position.
And we're going to have, you know, a big role to fill.
And we've had people before Kyle will have people after Kyle, but there's not a lot.
of people that are qualified for that position.
Ultimately, I'd love somebody from the community that really kind of has the connections, but again, do they want that job because of the downsides to it?
Time will tell.
We went
through already a three-week period of accepting applications that will end Friday, so we'll be looking at those and kind of seeing where we stand and continue to move forward from there.
So as you hear this, that
position has already closed so hopefully if you were interested you got your application in.
Yes absolutely and we'll be looking at it and see where we go from there if we have to make some changes and move forward
so.
All right well let's take a brief pause here to hear from our sponsors.
I'm Melissa K talking with Mayor Matt Zacker and you're listening to Perspective on 13 20 a.m.
97 5 fm WFHR.
Welcome.
You're listening to Perspective on WFHR, 1320 AM, 97.5 FM.
I'm Melissa Kaye, bringing you news in our community.
I'm speaking with Wisconsin Rapids Mayor Matt Sacker, and where we left off, we were talking about some of the changes happening in the Common Council, the ATV-UTV ordinance did pass, with the caveat that you're going to review it every three months or so, and then the annual.
Always annual, you know yearly review that has to be done on these ordinances when they're made just to make sure that everything is going according to the way the ordinance was written that people are following the rules and And just gauging the reaction from the community.
Yeah, and I think a big part of that is just making sure as some
people brought up like the the consequences are there
and they're
enforced and we're being you know and I know it's a it's a bigger challenge for the police department but at the same time if the community's like Chief Hastings said yesterday if the council decides that this is the way we're going with the community then this is the way we're going and we're going to deal with it and and you know make sure that we're taking care of business so it is just tricky though I've always said from the beginning because I was a part of this when I was on council yet I said I just wish that we would
say when they enter the roads, they follow the exact same rules according to the DOT that everybody else has to follow.
And we're going to have the same conversations about these.
e-bikes.
I mean, if you're going 30 miles an hour, you're a vehicle now.
You're not a little
bike that you're
tooling around on, yeah.
And even those are supposed to be on the roads, and they're supposed to be following the same rules with hand signals and all that.
So it's not
anything new.
And that is another thing that the council is working on is an ordinance surrounding e-bikes and defining them and putting guidelines in place, not only for the police to follow, but for the public to follow as well.
Well,
even more importantly, really, for the police, it's just what kind of
How can we enforce it for
the
public?
It's like, why come through a stop sign at 20 miles an hour on your e-bike when you know everybody else has to stop to be safe?
Everybody knows that these are the rules.
But for some reason, when it comes to e-bikes, they're like, we can just do whatever we want.
And that doesn't make sense to me.
It's like adults doing it.
I'm assuming they have a license.
They know the rules.
But for some reason, they're like, oh.
Everybody else has to follow this, but we don't have to
we're just gonna
do whatever we want and that's only gonna hurt us in the long run
a stop sign is pretty self-explanatory
Yeah, it's not optional when it's outlined in white no matter what anybody says
Let's move on to talking a little bit about
data centers and what I'd like to focus on Matt is the actual process in government because we're recording this on
the 16th and the planning commission meeting will have already happened by the time people are listening to this.
And the planning commission will have voted the conditional use permit for DC Rapids LLC up or down.
So let's talk about the process of what happens next.
So now the planning commission has already voted.
What is the next step in the process?
Yeah.
So well, even for tonight, if I can go a little bit into it, there's this process to getting to this point, which was doing what we would
do for any business.
It doesn't matter if it's data center or any manufacturing, commercial, retail, we go through the same process.
And that's what this was.
The community asked us to slow it down.
So we talked to the company and we slowed it down.
And we set some safeguards in place because we knew it was going to be somewhat contentious in that sense.
So we got here four and a half months later to this date.
And the application was ended.
was finalized for submittal, and then we were able to put everything together to bring it to a public hearing, which is what we do when we bring any company to the table like this.
And that's gonna go through a certain process that we always go through, and that'll be tonight, and we have it at the...
Sorry, it's tonight for for right now, but
we'll be here in our recording day Yes,
but in the end we'll be at the Lincoln High School because we needed more space and we knew we needed to accommodate what we thought would be there and then we Also moved it to a certain time 530 so that more people could be there So it'll go the way it's supposed to go and we'll be able to hear from everybody that has you know
things to say about that.
So really then at the end of that the commission will decide as an advisory commission to the council.
Every board commission committee is all advisory to the council and so it needs to get to them for final decision as the eight or nine if it's a tie and the mayor votes and that will take place on October.
20th, so that will be the regular scheduled meeting.
We just had our of course meeting yesterday For the September council meeting so October 20th is the next one So everything will be decided then and finalized at that point as well as this planning commission that we're having on October 5th
Okay, and that that next regular planning commission meeting on October 5th.
You'll be discussing the moratorium on data centers
Yes, I'm sorry.
I said that wrong the what they'll be discussing with the planning commission will be what's happening tonight on the 16th, so but then yes also the Regular scheduled planning commission meeting on the 5th will be will be talking about multiple things because it's a regular planning mission Meeting but also the moratorium will be a part of that conversation and we'll be making an advisory motion
to pass on to the council as a whole.
So that's the next step in that process.
The moratorium process.
The moratorium process.
That staff has been working on drafting the wording for that moratorium here over the past.
Well, now it will be what, two months?
Because I believe that happened at the beginning of August, that the planning commission advised staff to begin that process.
And so now they've been working through that and it'll come back to the planning commission to go over the wording and
If it's acceptable, they vote it forward.
Okay, and then it goes to council to finalize the vote.
Okay.
And yes, so it took the two months ish that it that it Yeah, would have taken the two months one to get the
wording together properly and then two to get it posted because it's a certain kind of class one posting that needs a certain amount of time for everybody to be able to see it.
There's different classes of postings again which gets it out to the public within a certain amount of time if it's 60 days or 45 days or 30 days stuff like that.
So that's again part of the process so that everybody knows about it.
Public hearing is exactly that when we meet as the public and we're able to express our thoughts and feelings about whatever
the issue is at hand at that time.
And so with the with the data center decision by the planning commission that will happen on the 16th when the council gets together on the 20th there's a good chance there'll be discussion around this.
However it was chosen if the planning commission votes for it to be approved.
or if it votes for it to be denied, it could come up again at the council.
Yeah.
So the council, like we did with the ATV-UTV thing that was pulled out of the public works agenda, I don't remember the date off hand.
So it would be pulled out.
So the council, basically, we said, or we would say in this case, the planning commission was held on the 5th of October.
And is there any...
thing in the minutes that anybody wants to talk about.
If not, they vote it through.
you know, first in the second motion and then they vote on it.
Otherwise, one of the aldermen will pull out an item, an agenda item, and then that will be removed and then we'll vote on the remainder of the minutes and then we'll talk about that specific item.
So at that point in time, if whatever's on there from the planning commission would be pulled out and talked about at Common Council, and then they just get to discuss it further and vote on it in the end or hold it over for another, you know, they can hold it over to send it back.
planning commission things like that in order to get more information so really the council gets to decide how to direct the staff kind of like at the last planning commission meeting the conversation at the Rams theater auditorium was to ask staff to
you know, draft the verbiage for this moratorium ordinance.
And so that's what they're directed to do.
And that's what they did.
And then it comes down the line to the fifth to vote on it.
Or they
could choose to, you know, pass it on to the next month back to the planning commission again, or go from there.
So it's it's not necessarily done deal until they till the council votes on it and then it's final.
And the process.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the process is is done this way so that it does take time that people have the opportunity to voice their opinions the public that The local government has time to dig into these things to look and do their research and and talk to experts and find out What is what is best from their their perspective and what they're hearing from constituents?
Yeah
does take slow and that's that's tough for a person like me because we come from the private.
you know, sector where you can make decisions pretty quick and get stuff done pretty quick and everybody's on board and, you know, you try to find consensus.
If you can't, you make a decision and you move forward.
Whereas with the council or with the government, you know, my job is to manage what the council.
So really in the end, the council is my boss.
So I have
eight bosses that I want to bring to them information from the department heads, from what I've learned, from everything, you know, the attorneys, the finance and say, this is what we're
Moving towards and we need your advisory, you know, like it we want we need your final decision But we also need your counsel So that's what they are there the council
and
the council asses to what they think is best for the future and then they make the final decision on that and then my job is to make sure that we take that information back to the staff and and Whatever department needs to be involved in it.
We move forward on that and people have to keep in mind too like you have a
police, we have fire, we have AMS, we have streets, we have a library, you know, and then we have some smaller ones that take care of the administration, finance, attorney, mayor, that kind of stuff.
I think the big one that's in the middle there that is always going to come back is the community development department, the economic, you know, slash economic development department.
It's all, it's a little bit trickier to put your finger on.
you know, when it comes to economic development side and the ordinances, which is, you know, what gets us in trouble that we just talked about, not in trouble, but like causes conflict
between,
you know, what the government has to, the standards it has to uphold and then the people who, you know, want to do that and how
they want to
do it.
So it's tricky, but understand we have very specific roles.
We're not just doing whatever we want to do and everything that we do has to go through the council in order to make that happen and move forward.
So it's not just like, again, that's what I've always tried to tell everybody with my chat with the mayor meetings was we're following a process.
This isn't me deciding that I get to decide what comes in to our community.
people that come, especially when it's private land, and they buy it from another private seller.
And as long as it's zoned properly, our main goal is to make sure if they're building a building that the building is safe.
And if they're going to demolish a building that they get everything in line so they can demolish the building safely.
typically you know what we have in place right now with conditional use permits and talking about the data center like that was something that wasn't in place because it was all zoned industrial and it was private to private so if we didn't
put a conditional use permit in place with an ordinance, they would have been able to buy the land and just start building.
And so the council and the planning commission did an enormous task and a great job bringing together that ordinance in about a three month period and being able to safeguard the city for future development with data centers because they're controversial.
If it was a different development that was doing roughly the same thing, it wouldn't be, you know, it wouldn't be controversial if it's cold storage or if it's a big.
that needs cooling units, stuff like that.
It's just really come down to data centers and the controversies that are online with, you know, ones that have been built and the problems that have come from them.
So I get it, I understand it.
There's no way we want a...
bad data center to come into this community and cause havoc in the community, and that's what we're working our tail off to make sure it doesn't happen.
And the beauty of the way government works is that now you do have that ordinance in place.
You're working on a moratorium to give you time to review that ordinance and decide if you want to make changes.
And the moratorium, if it is...
written and voted on and put in place would stop any more applications coming in for data centers specifically and give local government time to look at the ordinance and decide if they want to change it.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, and it's it's it's it's a temporary thing the moratorium can be lifted at any time I think it's up to 12 months and that sounds like you can get an extension for reasons though like if you're not really doing anything unit you can't just have a moratorium
because
again that are
Our economy, our governments are geared towards business in terms of we want
economic
development.
We
want these things to happen.
We just need to make sure that they follow our rules and
that we
enforce those rules and along those lines.
So yeah, in the meantime, the moratorium would be there and it would be kind of up to us to figure out what we want.
If we're bolstering, like we didn't.
What we have as an ordinance right now is very good for anywhere that.
you know, hasn't been in the ring, you know, in the midst of data centers already.
So we did do a good job.
And I again, commend everybody.
I also commend everybody on the no data center side of the aisle.
That's, that's, you know, being a part of the conversation, holding us accountable so that we can show them what we're doing and why we're doing it and how we're doing it and who we're talking to.
Like it's all open records.
So it's not that we can do anything that's
Nefarious, I mean you got to try really hard to do that and I've always lived by the philosophy that you know Once you start lying you got to cover up all your lies And it just doesn't work out very well because eventually you're gonna get caught so so it's easier to just be as transparent as possible I feel like that in this position most people are telling me I'm too transparent and that gets me in trouble, but I'd rather you know
Be on that side of the aisle and have issues that way then try to go the other direction because it just doesn't make sense I'm here for the community.
I've always been here for the community So I thank them for doing a tough job and in the work that they're putting in and the hard work that they're doing
I guess if I would say anything, it's just a matter of we are still neighbors and we all still are humans.
We have families.
We have friends to tear apart your neighbors for personal gain or benefit.
I don't think that that's helpful to the community at all because eventually this conversation will die down and go away and we're still going to be here.
answering questions to the next thing that's on the list.
And I think we all still need to trust each other and communicate well and get things done as a community together because it's not just government.
It's the people that run the city.
They're the ones that develop business and the economy.
It's our job to just make sure we're all doing it according to the same rules and safely.
All right.
Well, we've run out of time, Matt.
We'll have to end it here.
I'm Melissa Kay speaking with Wisconsin Rapids Mayor Matt Sacker.
Thank you for taking the time to talk with me today, Matt.
Thanks, Melissa.
Thanks for all your work.
And thank you to listeners joining us for news in our community.
On perspective, 1320 AM, 97.5 FM WFHR.
You are listening to Perspective on WFHR 1320 AM 975 FM.
I'm Melissa Kay bringing you news in our community.
During this interview, I'm talking with Wisconsin Rapids Mayor Matt Zacker on Wednesday, September 16th.
Thank you for joining me, Matt, to bring the community an update from the city of Wisconsin Rapids.
You're welcome.
Thanks for having me, as always.
Well, first, I want to dive into one of the recent events that just happened.
We concluded the Downtown Grand Affair, which took place on the Grand Avenue downtown.
The bridge was shut down for the car crews.
There were over 100 vendors.
It was quite the event.
Yeah, yeah.
Everything is...
going really well in the community.
I feel like the community is starting to come back out of the COVID hangover and really starting to participate, working with each other to make these great.
Of course, the Chamber of Commerce and all the ladies there that do such great work in bringing all those folks together
and putting
it on.
A lot of kudos to everybody there and Stacy Keevey for leading the way on that.
So
it's been
great.
I really appreciated their partnering with the cool team leadership.
program that is part of multiple high schools in the area and these like we showed up as the radio station because we were live broadcasting that day we pulled up to to get you know unloaded and set up and I had like
Six young people there like how can we help it was amazing and they were so polite and helpful and they We were unloaded and I swear two minutes.
Yeah, it's great to see them You know they reached out during the 4th of July to and helped in certain ways So we hope to keep bringing those folks in and a lot of a lot of interest from the younger generation to To be a part of the community and see it as our community and refreshing
it's so refreshing to see that collaboration between
Um, the efforts that our adults and our government leaders and our civic organizations in the community and bringing those young people in, it gives them leadership opportunities and just the, the knowing that they've done something for the community has got to feel good.
Yeah.
And it feels good too.
I mean, you can tell there's a certain amount of, uh, distrust that's built up in, I don't know if it's all American society, uh, in terms of governmental and people that are just running it.
But when, when you are this close to the people,
There really shouldn't be any questions.
You should be able to go to your neighbors and ask them about what's going on at City Hall and, uh, and trust that what they're telling you is, is what's actually happening.
So I'm glad that the younger generation is really getting involved and wanting to know and meet, ask great questions and get involved so that they can see that, you know, this is just us.
It's neighbors helping neighbors.
We elect our representatives.
We trust that they're doing a good job and we're moving forward together.
Granted, we're not always going to like the decisions.
that are made all of us at the same time because it just doesn't work that way.
Well, no, Matt, you're not pizza.
You can't please everybody.
But, you know, to just understand that people are voting the way they're voting because of the way they grew up, who their parents were, friends that they have, schooling, you know, different sides of the aisle, it just is what it is.
It's not, we don't have to hate each other.
We just have to accept that other people are going to have different opinions.
And the beauty of our government, it's constantly changing, you know, as we'll talk more about with the...
TV conversation.
Yes, and there's this, I think it's a beautiful word.
I've heard others, people have different opinions, but I think compromise is a good thing, especially when we're dealing with so many different, as you said, backgrounds and upbringings and religions and everything that makes us Americans, individuals, that we need to find ways to work together and find the best possible solution.
Sometimes that means compromising.
Right.
So yes, let's dive into the ATV-UTV.
That ordinance did pass the Common Council on Tuesday's meeting.
I heard many people speak for and against the ordinance passing and both are passionate about their stances.
I heard at least one person speak at the meeting who had changed their mind about their position and were now for passing the ordinance.
There was a lot of discussion around the previous referendum that didn't pass and how this ordinance addressed many of the
issues that voters were concerned about and a majority of the businesses surveyed were four passing the ordinance.
It did pass the Common Council five to three and so that ordinance just in brief will allow ATV-UTV traffic on all roads except for State Highways 13 which is 8th Street, Highway 34, 54, 74 and any city-owned parks.
So it
Now one thing that I appreciated that was talked about and that Maddie Palm quest did right away at the end of the meeting was send a request to have it Reviewed in three months to see how things are going.
So let's let's talk about this a little bit.
Yeah, I think the big thing is in particular with that
Referral is that we want to be able to look at it granted.
We look at it every day I mean the police are going to be talking about it on a daily basis
and they have reports that come towards with the PFC
So it's not that it just goes on you know checked and talked about but at a council level to be able to bring it back to
public works, committee meetings, you know, in three months, I think that's important.
And then in six months and then nine months in a year.
And I think we should do that for as long as it takes for us to feel comfortable or make changes or take it away.
Like
we
can do anything we want.
That's what, you know, you kind of got to get people to understand if, if at one point in time.
Everybody decided that flat cameras were the right way to go because it protected our children That could be abducted it protected our older folks that could be lost, you know, there's all these other things that go into I realized we just switched from one thing
to another but
But my point in this is there's some really tough touchy subjects
and and
and what I was saying before about the council
always changing as well as the mayor seat is changing as well as the clerk and the attorney if you know we hire new people or elect new people but my point in saying that is you know when when this was talked about five years ago the atv utv and four years ago and three years ago and we put that ordinance into effect and had the referendum which was a city led it was a citizen led thing by maddie palm quiz
then
she got involved in
being an alderman, she got elected and she was very clear that she was obviously very passionate about ATVs, UTVs, other people then come on board that have different opinions than the old representatives did, alderman did, but it's not like anybody built this.
a group of people that are now for it.
It's that the people that got elected had different opinions based on their upbringing and their life.
And times have changed.
Times have changed.
We're in a different place now than we were five years ago.
And the ordinance is different.
I understand that.
I personally did not feel comfortable.
This is just my opinion.
I'm one of nine, I guess, that would vote if it was a tie.
Thank goodness it wasn't.
But it would have been a situation.
where I, I believe in, you know, even at this point in time that the referendum was the referendum and it was done by the people who are for the ATVU TVs and it didn't pass.
And I think, you know, that was, I think roughly about three years ago at this point.
So, I mean, a lot of time has passed and the conversation continued on in different forms because it made sense to do that because it is.
everywhere around us.
So I think it is at this point where it's at and we'll make the best of it and we're going to monitor it, but we can always reverse things.
Like
everything is reversible.
There's nothing that is set in stone and that's kind of the problem with government that I feel like even for myself before I got involved and even now that I am involved.
We have
too many regulations, too many things, the zoning code, stuff like that, that we're trying to get rid of as much of it as we can, but still have a book in place
that says
we want guidelines.
We want our city to look the best it can look 30 years down the road.
We're
trying to take away some of that industrial concrete asphalt look on A Street and try to get more green space, trees, bushes, and all that stuff.
So there's good reasons behind it, but it's also hard because when people are trying to build a business and they
have limited money, they're going to try to find ways to be able to get up and running as cheaply as possible.
And that makes all the sense in the world from a business perspective.
It does.
But then we also have the safety perspective and following the guidelines that are necessary to have a profiting business that is good for customers and the business.
So thank you for bringing that up.
Just for a point of clarification for those because this isn't always easy to understand.
So if you do...
Bear with me.
There's two different things we're talking about when it comes to building code and then zoning code and Building code is state statutes that we can't we can go heavier, but we can't go any lighter and
for the
most part We just stick with the statutes and that means the buildings have to be built a certain way when they're when public People are going to be coming in them and using services there or buying stuff there.
So that is non-negotiable, right?
It's the zoning, I think, that was voted in in 2018 that says, you know, how your parking lots are going to look and
how your buildings going to look, setbacks, all the things
that are more.
tricky in a community that was built a certain way without any of that stuff.
And
now you're
trying to basically fit a square peg into a round hole, and that's where we get into the conflicts.
And I'm trying my best to stop those.
We want everybody to build.
We want businesses to start.
We want contractors to want to come here.
But at the same time, we also want a set of rules that we all play by to the best of our ability and to weigh around them when it doesn't fit into the round hole.
Mm-hmm and that takes a lot of of time and attention and meetings and going through these very
intricately written documents.
And that's what we have to focus on.
We've got to stop taking it out on the inspectors and the Public Works Community Development Director because I've heard a lot of that in the past.
And we wish Kyle Kernswell at a state level doing basically economic development, site plan selection and development on a state level now.
So he'll be doing what he was doing here for the entire state, which I think is their
their gain, our loss.
But at the same time, you're asking him to do a tough job, which was
be the economic development person, welcome people to the community, like have that inviting professional aura.
But at the same time, he's got to uphold all those zoning codes and say no to the people that want to cut corners and make things happen faster.
And then they get on social media and they start badmouthing him and the inspectors because they're just trying to do their job.
So it's a tough position.
And we're going to have, you know, a big role to fill.
And we've had people before Kyle will have people after Kyle, but there's not a lot.
of people that are qualified for that position.
Ultimately, I'd love somebody from the community that really kind of has the connections, but again, do they want that job because of the downsides to it?
Time will tell.
We went
through already a three-week period of accepting applications that will end Friday, so we'll be looking at those and kind of seeing where we stand and continue to move forward from there.
So as you hear this, that
position has already closed so hopefully if you were interested you got your application in.
Yes absolutely and we'll be looking at it and see where we go from there if we have to make some changes and move forward
so.
All right well let's take a brief pause here to hear from our sponsors.
I'm Melissa K talking with Mayor Matt Zacker and you're listening to Perspective on 13 20 a.m.
97 5 fm WFHR.
Welcome.
You're listening to Perspective on WFHR, 1320 AM, 97.5 FM.
I'm Melissa Kaye, bringing you news in our community.
I'm speaking with Wisconsin Rapids Mayor Matt Sacker, and where we left off, we were talking about some of the changes happening in the Common Council, the ATV-UTV ordinance did pass, with the caveat that you're going to review it every three months or so, and then the annual.
Always annual, you know yearly review that has to be done on these ordinances when they're made just to make sure that everything is going according to the way the ordinance was written that people are following the rules and And just gauging the reaction from the community.
Yeah, and I think a big part of that is just making sure as some
people brought up like the the consequences are there
and they're
enforced and we're being you know and I know it's a it's a bigger challenge for the police department but at the same time if the community's like Chief Hastings said yesterday if the council decides that this is the way we're going with the community then this is the way we're going and we're going to deal with it and and you know make sure that we're taking care of business so it is just tricky though I've always said from the beginning because I was a part of this when I was on council yet I said I just wish that we would
say when they enter the roads, they follow the exact same rules according to the DOT that everybody else has to follow.
And we're going to have the same conversations about these.
e-bikes.
I mean, if you're going 30 miles an hour, you're a vehicle now.
You're not a little
bike that you're
tooling around on, yeah.
And even those are supposed to be on the roads, and they're supposed to be following the same rules with hand signals and all that.
So it's not
anything new.
And that is another thing that the council is working on is an ordinance surrounding e-bikes and defining them and putting guidelines in place, not only for the police to follow, but for the public to follow as well.
Well,
even more importantly, really, for the police, it's just what kind of
How can we enforce it for
the
public?
It's like, why come through a stop sign at 20 miles an hour on your e-bike when you know everybody else has to stop to be safe?
Everybody knows that these are the rules.
But for some reason, when it comes to e-bikes, they're like, we can just do whatever we want.
And that doesn't make sense to me.
It's like adults doing it.
I'm assuming they have a license.
They know the rules.
But for some reason, they're like, oh.
Everybody else has to follow this, but we don't have to
we're just gonna
do whatever we want and that's only gonna hurt us in the long run
a stop sign is pretty self-explanatory
Yeah, it's not optional when it's outlined in white no matter what anybody says
Let's move on to talking a little bit about
data centers and what I'd like to focus on Matt is the actual process in government because we're recording this on
the 16th and the planning commission meeting will have already happened by the time people are listening to this.
And the planning commission will have voted the conditional use permit for DC Rapids LLC up or down.
So let's talk about the process of what happens next.
So now the planning commission has already voted.
What is the next step in the process?
Yeah.
So well, even for tonight, if I can go a little bit into it, there's this process to getting to this point, which was doing what we would
do for any business.
It doesn't matter if it's data center or any manufacturing, commercial, retail, we go through the same process.
And that's what this was.
The community asked us to slow it down.
So we talked to the company and we slowed it down.
And we set some safeguards in place because we knew it was going to be somewhat contentious in that sense.
So we got here four and a half months later to this date.
And the application was ended.
was finalized for submittal, and then we were able to put everything together to bring it to a public hearing, which is what we do when we bring any company to the table like this.
And that's gonna go through a certain process that we always go through, and that'll be tonight, and we have it at the...
Sorry, it's tonight for for right now, but
we'll be here in our recording day Yes,
but in the end we'll be at the Lincoln High School because we needed more space and we knew we needed to accommodate what we thought would be there and then we Also moved it to a certain time 530 so that more people could be there So it'll go the way it's supposed to go and we'll be able to hear from everybody that has you know
things to say about that.
So really then at the end of that the commission will decide as an advisory commission to the council.
Every board commission committee is all advisory to the council and so it needs to get to them for final decision as the eight or nine if it's a tie and the mayor votes and that will take place on October.
20th, so that will be the regular scheduled meeting.
We just had our of course meeting yesterday For the September council meeting so October 20th is the next one So everything will be decided then and finalized at that point as well as this planning commission that we're having on October 5th
Okay, and that that next regular planning commission meeting on October 5th.
You'll be discussing the moratorium on data centers
Yes, I'm sorry.
I said that wrong the what they'll be discussing with the planning commission will be what's happening tonight on the 16th, so but then yes also the Regular scheduled planning commission meeting on the 5th will be will be talking about multiple things because it's a regular planning mission Meeting but also the moratorium will be a part of that conversation and we'll be making an advisory motion
to pass on to the council as a whole.
So that's the next step in that process.
The moratorium process.
The moratorium process.
That staff has been working on drafting the wording for that moratorium here over the past.
Well, now it will be what, two months?
Because I believe that happened at the beginning of August, that the planning commission advised staff to begin that process.
And so now they've been working through that and it'll come back to the planning commission to go over the wording and
If it's acceptable, they vote it forward.
Okay, and then it goes to council to finalize the vote.
Okay.
And yes, so it took the two months ish that it that it Yeah, would have taken the two months one to get the
wording together properly and then two to get it posted because it's a certain kind of class one posting that needs a certain amount of time for everybody to be able to see it.
There's different classes of postings again which gets it out to the public within a certain amount of time if it's 60 days or 45 days or 30 days stuff like that.
So that's again part of the process so that everybody knows about it.
Public hearing is exactly that when we meet as the public and we're able to express our thoughts and feelings about whatever
the issue is at hand at that time.
And so with the with the data center decision by the planning commission that will happen on the 16th when the council gets together on the 20th there's a good chance there'll be discussion around this.
However it was chosen if the planning commission votes for it to be approved.
or if it votes for it to be denied, it could come up again at the council.
Yeah.
So the council, like we did with the ATV-UTV thing that was pulled out of the public works agenda, I don't remember the date off hand.
So it would be pulled out.
So the council, basically, we said, or we would say in this case, the planning commission was held on the 5th of October.
And is there any...
thing in the minutes that anybody wants to talk about.
If not, they vote it through.
you know, first in the second motion and then they vote on it.
Otherwise, one of the aldermen will pull out an item, an agenda item, and then that will be removed and then we'll vote on the remainder of the minutes and then we'll talk about that specific item.
So at that point in time, if whatever's on there from the planning commission would be pulled out and talked about at Common Council, and then they just get to discuss it further and vote on it in the end or hold it over for another, you know, they can hold it over to send it back.
planning commission things like that in order to get more information so really the council gets to decide how to direct the staff kind of like at the last planning commission meeting the conversation at the Rams theater auditorium was to ask staff to
you know, draft the verbiage for this moratorium ordinance.
And so that's what they're directed to do.
And that's what they did.
And then it comes down the line to the fifth to vote on it.
Or they
could choose to, you know, pass it on to the next month back to the planning commission again, or go from there.
So it's it's not necessarily done deal until they till the council votes on it and then it's final.
And the process.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the process is is done this way so that it does take time that people have the opportunity to voice their opinions the public that The local government has time to dig into these things to look and do their research and and talk to experts and find out What is what is best from their their perspective and what they're hearing from constituents?
Yeah
does take slow and that's that's tough for a person like me because we come from the private.
you know, sector where you can make decisions pretty quick and get stuff done pretty quick and everybody's on board and, you know, you try to find consensus.
If you can't, you make a decision and you move forward.
Whereas with the council or with the government, you know, my job is to manage what the council.
So really in the end, the council is my boss.
So I have
eight bosses that I want to bring to them information from the department heads, from what I've learned, from everything, you know, the attorneys, the finance and say, this is what we're
Moving towards and we need your advisory, you know, like it we want we need your final decision But we also need your counsel So that's what they are there the council
and
the council asses to what they think is best for the future and then they make the final decision on that and then my job is to make sure that we take that information back to the staff and and Whatever department needs to be involved in it.
We move forward on that and people have to keep in mind too like you have a
police, we have fire, we have AMS, we have streets, we have a library, you know, and then we have some smaller ones that take care of the administration, finance, attorney, mayor, that kind of stuff.
I think the big one that's in the middle there that is always going to come back is the community development department, the economic, you know, slash economic development department.
It's all, it's a little bit trickier to put your finger on.
you know, when it comes to economic development side and the ordinances, which is, you know, what gets us in trouble that we just talked about, not in trouble, but like causes conflict
between,
you know, what the government has to, the standards it has to uphold and then the people who, you know, want to do that and how
they want to
do it.
So it's tricky, but understand we have very specific roles.
We're not just doing whatever we want to do and everything that we do has to go through the council in order to make that happen and move forward.
So it's not just like, again, that's what I've always tried to tell everybody with my chat with the mayor meetings was we're following a process.
This isn't me deciding that I get to decide what comes in to our community.
people that come, especially when it's private land, and they buy it from another private seller.
And as long as it's zoned properly, our main goal is to make sure if they're building a building that the building is safe.
And if they're going to demolish a building that they get everything in line so they can demolish the building safely.
typically you know what we have in place right now with conditional use permits and talking about the data center like that was something that wasn't in place because it was all zoned industrial and it was private to private so if we didn't
put a conditional use permit in place with an ordinance, they would have been able to buy the land and just start building.
And so the council and the planning commission did an enormous task and a great job bringing together that ordinance in about a three month period and being able to safeguard the city for future development with data centers because they're controversial.
If it was a different development that was doing roughly the same thing, it wouldn't be, you know, it wouldn't be controversial if it's cold storage or if it's a big.
that needs cooling units, stuff like that.
It's just really come down to data centers and the controversies that are online with, you know, ones that have been built and the problems that have come from them.
So I get it, I understand it.
There's no way we want a...
bad data center to come into this community and cause havoc in the community, and that's what we're working our tail off to make sure it doesn't happen.
And the beauty of the way government works is that now you do have that ordinance in place.
You're working on a moratorium to give you time to review that ordinance and decide if you want to make changes.
And the moratorium, if it is...
written and voted on and put in place would stop any more applications coming in for data centers specifically and give local government time to look at the ordinance and decide if they want to change it.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, and it's it's it's it's a temporary thing the moratorium can be lifted at any time I think it's up to 12 months and that sounds like you can get an extension for reasons though like if you're not really doing anything unit you can't just have a moratorium
because
again that are
Our economy, our governments are geared towards business in terms of we want
economic
development.
We
want these things to happen.
We just need to make sure that they follow our rules and
that we
enforce those rules and along those lines.
So yeah, in the meantime, the moratorium would be there and it would be kind of up to us to figure out what we want.
If we're bolstering, like we didn't.
What we have as an ordinance right now is very good for anywhere that.
you know, hasn't been in the ring, you know, in the midst of data centers already.
So we did do a good job.
And I again, commend everybody.
I also commend everybody on the no data center side of the aisle.
That's, that's, you know, being a part of the conversation, holding us accountable so that we can show them what we're doing and why we're doing it and how we're doing it and who we're talking to.
Like it's all open records.
So it's not that we can do anything that's
Nefarious, I mean you got to try really hard to do that and I've always lived by the philosophy that you know Once you start lying you got to cover up all your lies And it just doesn't work out very well because eventually you're gonna get caught so so it's easier to just be as transparent as possible I feel like that in this position most people are telling me I'm too transparent and that gets me in trouble, but I'd rather you know
Be on that side of the aisle and have issues that way then try to go the other direction because it just doesn't make sense I'm here for the community.
I've always been here for the community So I thank them for doing a tough job and in the work that they're putting in and the hard work that they're doing
I guess if I would say anything, it's just a matter of we are still neighbors and we all still are humans.
We have families.
We have friends to tear apart your neighbors for personal gain or benefit.
I don't think that that's helpful to the community at all because eventually this conversation will die down and go away and we're still going to be here.
answering questions to the next thing that's on the list.
And I think we all still need to trust each other and communicate well and get things done as a community together because it's not just government.
It's the people that run the city.
They're the ones that develop business and the economy.
It's our job to just make sure we're all doing it according to the same rules and safely.
All right.
Well, we've run out of time, Matt.
We'll have to end it here.
I'm Melissa Kay speaking with Wisconsin Rapids Mayor Matt Sacker.
Thank you for taking the time to talk with me today, Matt.
Thanks, Melissa.
Thanks for all your work.
And thank you to listeners joining us for news in our community.
On perspective, 1320 AM, 97.5 FM WFHR.