Welcome, everyone, to Midday Magazine for this December 6, 2023.
Have your host, James J here.
I am joined by Sheriff Sean Becker for the entire hour.
Sean, good to see you.
Great to see you, James.
Thanks for being here.
We certainly want to say a big thank you to our friends at Wisconsin
Ravis Community Media.
Big, big thank you to them.
We have Joe here today, and Joe, a happy belated birthday to you.
I wanted to say that.
And if you guys don't mind for a second,
I would like to talk directly to Wisconsin Ravis Community Media.
I lost my, my papa, my grandfather recently.
And he was living in Florida.
And the last year or two, or I'd say,
last couple of years, really.
One of our favorite things to do together
was to sit back and talk about the videos that he would watch.
And this Midday Magazine, or at the time,
you know, Morning Magazine, that he would watch that.
And it was a way for him to keep up on the community.
And also to catch out is his guide
that for some reason was a big fan of me and everything.
But it was a chance for the last couple of years
or it would be the last couple of years of his life
for us to have these moments in bond.
We wouldn't have it if you guys didn't put those amazing videos on there.
And people like my papa could check it out in Florida, man.
And I cannot thank you guys enough for that.
It means so much to me.
So thank you.
Appreciate you.
Sean, I know that you come in
and you've got a whole gamut of things to talk about.
You have a great guest here today.
So I want to get out of the way and let you introduce this person.
Let's get into it.
Well, first of all, sorry for your loss.
So let's not, that's not easy.
But it's an awesome way that you get the opportunity to connect
with, you know, today's technology.
My dad was on the show.
He doesn't have a computer yet.
And I don't think he ever will.
So you can't, you know, when he comes up next time,
I'm going to make sure that he watched the show.
But again, very, very sorry for your loss.
Appreciate that.
I brought a local celebrity with me.
Yeah.
He's brought an item like what?
About an hour or so ago.
I'm like, hey, what are you doing this morning?
You know, like my predecessor would do to us.
I'm like, well, I want to do it to somebody out in a community,
a good friend of mine, Gary Plott.
Gary and I go back, you know, way several years.
I met him over at the ridges, swinging in his cancer.
Cancer survivor.
And he's also my favorite bartender at my favorite watering hall at the tip of, you know.
So we've, we've met and become close throughout the years.
And I wanted to bring him on the show today.
We've got a very special game coming up for Gary.
It's not about the Packers.
It's about, it's about Gary's going to be attending his 500th game
as a season ticket holder at the Packer game coming up on the 17th of this month.
Man, congratulations, sir.
Wow, that is awesome.
That is impressive.
Yeah, that is impressive.
So we're going to, a lot of us are going to go with and
celebrate with him.
But it's a great friend of mine and I wanted to give him the opportunity to come in
you know just talk and hang out with me for an hour.
Gary, I couldn't imagine the stories that you have being in that position for this.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Spanish.
Yeah, yeah, I imagine, I imagine.
I imagine.
Can I say one thing first?
Please.
We're so lucky to have this man as our sheriff.
Okay?
I know him personally, and it's got no to it,
but he's the kind of people you need the law enforcement.
You know how good he is?
Nobody ran against someone last time.
That says something.
Yes.
I've lived here 50 years or whatever,
and it also doesn't.
So that shows all respect to he is.
And he's a regular guy, you know what I mean?
But when I see him, he's Sean.
He's not the sheriff.
He just, he's got to have some free time and fun time too.
But we're really lucky to have him.
Agreed.
Well said, sir.
Well said.
I, you know, how much do I owe you?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I appreciate you saying that, Gary,
but you know, you're a great person.
What you've done for our community is something I respect,
you know, from you.
And you're the type of individual that makes people
feel comfortable to be around.
I don't know if this was the intention of that, Sean,
but as a third person kind of watching this
and everything, it's seeing you guys interact,
pre-game and in the show here and everything.
It speaks to how great when we can have it,
the relationship between our law enforcement and our bars,
we like to drink at Wisconsin.
It's something we do.
We've all seen the recent numbers of
drunk driving and some of these things and everything.
I can't, I can only imagine that that, you know,
regardless, it's certainly your favorite watering hole
and there's that, but there's also that layer to it of,
hey, it's, there's never a bad thing of our law enforcement
and our bars being more hand in hand,
being more on the same page.
They usually are, they pretty much are.
Yeah.
But it's just more and more compounds that.
Yeah, no, we have a close worker relationship
with our tavern lake.
You know, when issues do come off,
it's best to communicate about them.
And you trust each other and you work together.
You know, people make their own decisions.
And sometimes they make the wrong decisions.
You know, that's not on, you know,
I don't look it as a tavern.
You know, it's, it's on the individual
when they decide to do something that is illegal.
But it doesn't mean that we still can't work together
with, you know, our local taverns.
And the tavern lake, it really, you know,
that kind of relationship is really important to me
that, you know, we're working together.
Gary, I've said for a very long time
that I think that a good bartender
deserves like credits in psychology
because you guys got to be part-time psychologists
along with knowing what drinks to make.
As long as you've been doing this, sir, you'd have a PhD.
You've been doing this a while.
I mean, it's really cool.
And appreciate what you put into our community.
Well, you know, the, I, my work history is
I, I graced from college in Iowa.
What we're gonna see there a while with them.
I moved here in 76 and I started working in McDonald's.
I worked there for 25 years.
When I first started there, we'd have a drive-through,
no breakfast, that kind of stuff.
And then I, I mean, another guy bought a bar downtown.
And then I ended up working at pizza for the last 10 years.
So, but all along the area, I was working bars.
My grandpa owned a bar and a lot of like years ago
and stuff like that.
So, I've been in that, but, uh, you're right.
You know, bartenders, you know, if,
might go in when they tend to bar as you come in there.
Have a better day than when you, when you started out.
And that's what, you know, I talk to people, uh,
I don't use my phone or anything.
And the other thing is that sometimes people don't want to listen.
I'll leave them alone.
But I'll tell you, if they want to listen to me, I got a line of,
line of stuff like you wouldn't believe it.
Right up, right up.
Appreciate that, Gary. Thank you for that, though.
Yeah, but just think of the history of 500, um, you know,
Packer football games, you know, I've been going,
you know, since the mid 80s when my parents relocated to, um,
Steven's point plow area, uh, my parents were big, you know,
bearers fans, you know, he said, I tradition to go to the Packer
Bear game in the 80s.
And yeah, I'm young.
And I'm like, you know, I like the winter.
And once you, the first time you go to Lambo Field,
and I've been to Soldier Field, the old one.
And, you know, going into Lambo, I was hooked.
Yeah, yeah.
Just the atmosphere.
Even in the mid 80s, the team wasn't terrible.
They had a couple, uh, uh, uh, decent years,
but it was just, just that that memory of, you know,
the quarterbacks then were, you know,
Lindickey was the big one that I remember.
And fortunately, I got to meet him at the swing.
It's can through.
He came a couple times to, to come and golf with us.
And he was awesome, you know, but, you know, I remember those,
those memories, not only his cousin with family,
but just the, uh, the games that we attended.
And, you know, I got to see Walter Patens,
you know, last game at Lambo.
And what was so respectful is, okay, you got a huge rivalry.
You know, it's a huge rivalry between the Bears and Packers,
but they recognized Walter Payton.
I think it was a halftime or before the game
that they brought him on the field.
And even the Packer fans realized, you know,
you might have somebody that is your biggest rival ever,
but you have an individual that gays so much to the game,
that the Green Bay Packer organization recognized.
And those are the memories that,
that boom, jump out right to me.
Gary's, yeah, maybe somebody can't stay, you know,
on air, but just going through how spoiled we've been with quarterbacks,
you know, and you compare other franchises,
but, you know, Red Farve, Aaron Rodgers,
we'll see what happens with Jordan Love.
Things are going the right direction,
but you go before that, you know,
I, you could probably name how many quarterbacks or,
you know, you have Bart Star, obviously,
and they're then becoming a coach.
But then there's a gap between Bart Star and the next great quarterback.
Yeah, yeah.
I, so I think it's going to go down,
because I've seen my, every one of my favorite teams win something,
the white socks, all these teams.
I've seen the black hawks have seen them all win.
I think my favorite sports moment, the older I get,
is the weekend, Walter Payton passed away.
The Bears and Packers were playing in Lambo.
And throughout the whole stadium,
you saw these signs.
Thank you, sweetness.
And guys and Packer jerseys and uniforms and stuff.
And it just speaks to,
we have the greatest rivalry in sports.
Yeah.
And that's part of the reason why.
It's not only just because the NFL was built on it,
and it was, the NFL is not where it is today
without the Bears and Packers.
But it's also the way that the people are
in these communities,
in the way that we root for our teams,
and look around, you know, and all that.
And it's not surprising to hear,
that's one of your favorite memories.
I think that's pretty cool.
I am curious, Gary, do you have a game
that stands out for you?
Do you have a game that, like,
I don't want to put you on the spot,
and say your favorite game,
but one that really stands out to you?
Well, you know,
I've been asked that question before,
and there's a lot of them,
but when Reggie White came there,
okay, we hadn't been to the playoffs in a long, long time.
And we were playing at Pittsburgh Steelers,
and I think it was Christmas Eve.
Anyway, so we were ahead,
but they weren't like the five-yard line.
They throw a lob pass to,
you can't see, I don't think it was named.
You think that?
Yeah, it's a great name, great rough words.
So I put my head down,
because I came to watch it, you know,
when we were crushed, yeah.
And there's all this cheering,
what's going on?
He dropped the ball.
Oh, right, that's right.
And then when we go,
well, Reggie's got a god on her side,
you know what I mean?
Yeah, they began from there, really.
And next year, the Steelers came there
for an exhibition game,
and you can see you got a standing ovation.
That's a great memory.
That's a good one.
That's a good one.
So that's probably, you know,
there's been some other,
you know, I went to the ice pool when I was,
when I was in college with my dad and that,
and, you know,
200,000 people went to that game,
but now I've got a program like I do.
Right on.
My mom saved that,
and that was fun.
You know, it's just like,
every game is fun for me.
You know, and when it comes to a venue like that Lambo,
I mean, yeah, every game,
it doesn't matter pre-season,
doesn't matter who you're playing
or anything like that,
the building itself is an event.
Yeah, when you pull up there,
and you see,
start with a practice field,
and then you got the thing,
and, you know,
the every Lambo thing.
And I used to have really big tailgates.
I mean, I'd have 60 sandwiches,
and a full bar,
and a lot of beer and stuff like that.
And people would walk by and on,
what do you need?
You don't know.
I never been to houses before,
and I said, well, you want a drink,
you want a sandwich,
well, what do you want?
I said, I get a donation.
All I use that for is for supplies for the next game.
And this is the first experience in Lambo.
And so they came from all over.
It was a destination for them.
And then this last couple of years,
when I don't have big tailgates,
some of these people come up to me
and go,
do you remember me?
No, well, our first experience at Lambo
was you and my friend Kathy.
You know, and we just,
you treat us so well,
and welcome to stuff like this.
You know, and I said, well,
that's nice.
And that's what I was wanting to do with it.
Lambo's, you know,
I forget how special it is,
because I go to all the games.
Yeah, yeah.
But if I take some,
it's never been before,
people like that.
And I got to mention one thing about things,
this is not a tough year for me,
because I got a little physical stuff going on,
and my leg's pretty sore sometimes.
I get a lot of help
in and out of the stands,
and people are good to me.
But for 15 years,
my best friend, Kathy Sack,
I went to all the games with me.
And she's got a,
she's a best friend.
She had a husband,
so we go up together,
we walk her on a lake all the time.
She went to all the games,
and in April,
she got cancer and she died in June.
So it's really hard on me at that part of it.
And then people come up to the tailgate
and they go,
where's Kathy,
you know, stuff like this one?
And I just wish that
she's wrong for the fight,
but they're keeping me.
Yeah, yeah.
I am so sorry for that care.
That's okay.
And I appreciate you sharing that with us.
No, I had,
I had cancer for
going on 18 years,
no one came or another,
and she went to all my appointments and stuff like this.
And she said,
jeepers, Gary,
never thought I'd be the one dying.
Yeah, really special person,
special lady.
It's fortunate I got the opportunity to meet her
and hang around with her too.
She said to me,
when she got
after chemo and it didn't work and stuff like that,
so I went over her house every day and she says,
you know what, Gary?
I'm so sorry and I go,
what are you sorry about?
It's going to be so hard on you when I die.
That's the kind of person she was.
Yeah, that's kind of a huge hard.
Gary,
I first, you know,
feel for you.
Appreciate you.
I appreciate you for her family.
I appreciate you sharing that with us.
And it's a big deal to me.
Yeah, but I didn't know her.
So now I know her.
Now I get to know her.
Thanks to you sharing her
and her legacy continues.
Her memory continues and it's one more person.
Thank you for doing that.
She never,
she won't ever be happy.
She never had a bad boat in her body.
Thanks for helping us remember her.
Thank you for that.
Thanks for letting me share that.
Yeah.
Sean, I know that we cover quite a few things with you.
And I know that you've got some notes you want to get to.
Do you, where do you want to start?
Again, just, you know, thank you, Gary, for coming.
Yeah, really appreciate you, Gary.
We'll bring up some more memories.
It's gonna be, uh, we talk.
Yeah, you're not done working, sir.
Yeah, well, we're going to make it work.
Sparse.
No, and again, sorry.
I just forgot.
I hope you won't hold it against me for any reason.
But, uh,
keep the sheriff mandate.
I will give the man to me off and ask the team, uh,
Julie might tell you different, but, you know, I hide it well.
No, but anyway,
no, things are going good at the department.
You know, I, I've been given a lot of JL tours
and, uh, it's, we're under a year now.
Yeah.
And it's just, uh, I did one yesterday and just, uh,
just to think about, again, how probably I'm the part of that team
and just to see it come together and, um, gotta, you know,
always shut out to our county board to guess who we're at
and the community, uh, the Wisconsin Rapids City Council,
you know, it's just when you walk through it,
you can't help but not think about all the people that, um,
came together as a team to make it happen and,
and putting, you know, Wood County in a position where they'll never have to,
you know, house inmates out of county, um,
you know, the safety of the staff, the safety of their mates and, you know,
all the things that we've talked about, um, for me, it's just,
it's quite humbling to walk through and,
and see things come together and, um, um,
so we're under a year now.
Um, so the project will be done, um,
hopefully sometime next October and then
we'll occupy, um, the goals as I've been saying every month, um,
hopefully a year from January will be in there, um,
but no, the project's going well.
Uh, I got a, a huge shout out to Ruben Bantassel, um,
hey, I pulled a fast one on him, uh, a couple of weeks ago.
Channel 9 wanted to do, uh, an update the story, um,
they saw one of the articles come out recently and,
and just wanted to come in and, and take a look at it and get some comments,
and, um, I'm like, hey, Ruben, um,
would you like to talk to the media?
Uh, he did everything he could, uh,
try to have a lot of the media called Lance Plymouth and say,
you know, should I be doing this?
Lance says, do it.
Mm-hmm.
Somebody did a great job and, um,
but he's, um, been doing, he's been our representative of the project,
you know, for Wick County, you know,
working with all of the contractors,
you know, the San Mills group out of also that,
is a project man that they've been doing a phenomenal job,
but Ruben, you've been just doing, um,
uh, just, uh, a fantastic job and the county's lucky to have you.
So, you know, that, that product is going well and we talk about it.
Um, but, you know, let's get it on the calendar some time for you guys to come and on.
Absolutely.
We've got to, uh, we, we got to do it before it opens.
I, uh, I did also notice in the, what I had seen in notes about it,
everything schedule wise, uh,
construction wise has been on time and that's been incredible to see too.
Yeah, been very, very minimal, um, hiccups, you know,
with materials, you know, me one or two things came up, uh,
but again, when you have, um, the right people in the right positions that stand
top of that, um, you work through those challenges and,
and we've been, been very lucky, uh, again, I'm very proud of,
to be part of a team, um, with a project that has been so needed for,
for ever, you know, since I've been, been here,
and then we're going back to, uh, uh,
this is what 1997, it was being talked about and,
and here we are. I'm some very, uh, very proud of, uh,
not, not me and about the team being part of, uh, getting, getting more, uh,
looking forward to that tour, uh, looking forward to talking more and more about
this as it develops and, uh, the, the process continues with the construction
and everything and, uh, getting this thing open soon in the next, uh,
within the next year, calendar year, that's gonna happen.
Yeah, it's gonna be awesome. It's gonna be awesome.
What else you want to talk about? Where else want to go?
The floor plan just coming again.
Yeah, yeah, I was hoping that come up.
I was hoping that would come up.
Do you train for that at all? Do you prep yourself for that all?
You mentally do?
There's nothing to train for.
Yeah, it's, it's cool.
Yeah, it's, it's like, what I train for is to swim past and get out of the
water because possible.
You know, that's, that's what, uh, that's a good part.
Yeah, February, uh, third, um, out of Anchor Bay,
uh, in the Wisconsin River, they'll become up again.
It's a great venue that, you know, move from two back to Anchor Bay,
the, the folks, uh, the owners there, do a phenomenal job of,
put down the van, and then I'll, again, you know,
I always talk a lot about teamwork, but you've got the people at special
Olympics that have obviously a big part.
The athletes are there and then the community support is huge.
You know, you've got not only the law enforcement connection, but, you know,
so many, uh, people in the community, you know,
Lincoln High School has a huge team of, of people that,
a lot of students that come out and do it.
So students, like, okay, anyway, they're, uh,
they're coming out for a great cause and, and raising a lot of money.
And, uh, you know, we've been, we, the Sheriff's Department has had a team
for probably 20 plus years that we've been doing it.
And I've been proud to see it change over the years.
I think some people just get a little smarter and they've
waited for other people to step up and do it.
Right, right.
You know, last year we had a great group of our corrections officers that
did it.
So we're going to be in the process of putting together another team.
So if I worry third, um, that Saturday will, uh,
we'll be out plungeing again.
So hopefully, um, you know, the way the weather goes,
you just never know, you know, we, there's ice now,
but it's supposed to get up in the 40s the next couple of days.
So, um, but I think we'll probably find, you know, early February.
So the event will happen.
Um, looking forward to it.
Uh, it should be a great event.
And I want to encourage people to go to polarplungewi.org.
Polarplungewi.org had to make sure I got that web address right.
Uh, you can find out locations.
How you can be a part of the event.
How you can support the event.
Uh, it's one of the best, uh, events we have in this state, uh,
every year, uh, working with special Olympics over in California.
Some of the best people have ever worked with, uh,
there's amazing people buying the scenes there working out.
It's really hard on that.
I'm, yeah, not only for their, their clientele,
but really for all of us and, and bringing awareness to all of,
all these subjects.
Yeah.
Yeah, you bet.
That's going to be a fun one.
And, uh, looking forward to, uh, to, uh, to, to, to, to, to, to,
the video that goes along with all of this as well too.
That's, I wasn't going to be fun.
Yeah, no, it's, uh, like I said, uh,
a great venue where it's located at.
And, um, yeah, looking forward to being part of it again.
Sure.
Are there different things, uh, this month that stand out more than others
when it comes to, uh, the, the things that are on your plate and law enforcement?
Uh, you know, what comes to mind for me is, uh, the team,
and, you know, making sure that they have the opportunity to spend,
you know, with the family, you know, that's why I always,
you know, I always think of, um, you know,
what are ways that we can make sure that, um,
that, that our team can have the opportunity,
especially, uh, you know, Christmas Eve and Christmas Dave,
the, the, the deputies get the opportunity to go home and spend time with their
family, um, but our corrections staff do not.
Our dispatch staff does not.
So, um, you know, I really think about them a lot, um, during that time frame,
you know, and then, you know, we talked a little bit about, you know, um,
you know, what would be ice, you know, and, um,
you know, this month of people do celebrate a lot.
And, um, it's always a good reminder to, you know,
think about it, you know, and make sure you have, um,
arrangements made, um, if you do go to a, a Christmas party or,
or if you're just, you know, out enjoying yourself, um,
think about, um, that next step about getting home.
And, uh, that's always important.
Pump pilots is out there or, or pre-plant, you know,
and even work with, uh, your bartenders, if it gets to a point where,
you know, yeah, I'm not feeling, you know, like I should drive, you know,
communicate that and help, you know, have something to help you out.
Um, unfortunately, throughout my career, I've been through too many tragedies,
and, um, it's dealing with not only the situation,
but then the aftermath of, uh, you know, letting a family know that they,
they've lost a loved one. Um, it's hard, it's hard to us.
Garen, I had an opportunity to talk on, on the way over about,
not only a physical well-being as a law enforcement officer, but, um,
our wellness and our mental health, which, which we have talked quite a bit about on the show.
Um, but, um, he's right, he recognizes that by, you know,
you know, what you see, you know, and how does that absorb within that,
that person as a first responder or a law enforcement officer, and
it's always, uh, very important to, you know, take care of our wellness as well.
Um, and, and we're lucky. We put ourselves in pretty good position with our chaplain program.
You know, our peer support program, you know, we've got a lot of things in place with
our officer wellness where, you know, if somebody is, you know, struggling through a situation,
whether, whatever that might be, you know, we've got options there to help,
you know, the challenges though, that individual has to seek it out, you know, and that's tough
sometimes as the macho, you know, male or female image of a law enforcement officer.
Say, oh, hey, I'll be fine. I'll be fine. And the biggest thing, you know, that I've,
I've seen over the, you know, last several years, it's, it's okay to ask for help.
In fact, it's better that you do. Yeah. You know, because if you let it go down a path that,
you don't take care of it and you, you know, you end your career sooner than you should have,
you know, that's partially on that individual as well. Yeah. But I feel as an administrator that
you've got to have every opportunity, every, everything in place for that person to help them
through a situation if they want to, but they have to ask and, yeah. And make it an environment
or at least creating the environment like it's okay. Yeah. I'll be the first to say a lot of the
things that I mentioned, you know, I've utilized. I wouldn't be in the position that I am right now
if I didn't. We have four men in this room and all of us from different groups, different ages
and generations and where we grew up and everything. Yet there's a common theme there. You tough it up,
tough it up, put some, put some dirt on that. You'll be fine. I grew up where my dad says men don't cry.
Right, right. I'm really thankful in my family. My dad was a former boxer, a hockey player,
couldn't be tougher. One of the definitions of toughness to me was very important to him that I
understood that hey, it's okay to cry. Don't cry over everything. Don't be a cry, but you know,
it's okay to cry that it was okay to be a, you know, have emotions. It was also really lucky because
we're Italian and we are emotions are all over the place and we can't hold them back. So it was
also very fortunate for that. But as we go on in society with this, we have to normalize this.
It's on us as men to do this for other men. It's one of those things where we have to do it for
each other. It'd be there. They'd walk that line again and we'll come back to that balance of
things of yeah, there's a job to do. Yeah, we have to handle ourselves a certain way in life and
society blah, blah, blah. That's true. Sure. But it also doesn't mean that for these younger
generations growing up that they can grow up in a society where hey, it's all right. If you break
your leg to cry, it's okay to, you know, certain things. There are moments you lose a loved one. It's
okay to have you emotional. It's okay to just have a bad day just because you're just having a bad
day. It doesn't have to be for any rhyme or reason or anything. And the strongest people in life,
the strongest people we look at, especially in human history. Most of them were like this.
I think a lot of us will look at John Wayne. John Wayne, one of the definitions of machismo and a
manhood and everything. John Wayne hadn't no problem telling people how he felt. John Wayne never
held anything back. Like I, whether for good or worse, John Wayne didn't hold back. He was who he
was. I think that a lot of us can embrace that and just being yourself and sharing those things.
As always, to piggyback on something Gary was talking about earlier, sir, we got the right person
in the job here that gets that that sees that that sees not only society's going in this direction,
but law enforcement is going in this direction. And in order to bring in, you know, it's getting
harder and harder to get people to put that badge on. If we want people to do it and represent
our communities and everything, it's important to give them that kind of that knowing that they're
going into a job. Like you're going to want to do a job more if you have those things going for.
If it departments that don't have that, not going to have as many people wanting to be a part of
that department. When you agree right now that the hardest job in America is being a police officer,
no doubt in my mind. Yeah, it's just to go back on the career and I wouldn't disagree with
with Gary, but I think things are trending better in the transition to one of our part-time deputies
we're sponsoring at the law enforcement academy at Mistake Technical College is graduating
next week and he got hired full-time at the Greenland County Sheriff's Department and Sheriff
Mark Pedall gave me a call last week. He said, hey, I'm going to come up and surprise Carson
Juneman who goes back a little bit personally with me because he played football at Lincoln High
School and he had a, I don't know if you want to call it a dream or interest in law enforcement
and I really applaud his efforts to pick my brain. I'm thinking about this career, I'm like really
and Gary's right, it's like not everybody wants to do that and to see him not only fall through
but get to his dream and get hired full-time at the Greenland County Sheriff's Department and
on Monday Sheriff Pedall came up and surprised him in front of his classmates in front of the whole
academy and Swarmett and he and Sheriff Pedall asked me to be part of it and he was extremely humbling
to me because of the background and connection I have with Carson and not just from football but
for him like I said following through we hired him part-time and he had been doing really well
and now to see the career come together, hey he's going to have a full-time job right when he's
done with the academy so and then I got to have the opportunity to talk to the whole academy along
with Sheriff Pedall and Kurt Hoyer and other mentor of mine and the class was full. We haven't seen
that for quite a while. I was going to ask, okay. The class was completely full with almost 30
students and a good handful of Māori, head full-time jobs so that tells me that you know we're
trending back the way we should be going. I'm not going to go into what my personal feelings or
thoughts are that why we kind of went back into where people didn't want to be getting to this
profession because it's an awesome profession. It is something that I have absolutely zero regrets
not just because of the position I have but the career that I've had has just been something that
I could talk about for hours but it wouldn't be about me and be around the people that I've worked
with throughout that time frame but no Gary's right you know it's not a easy profession to be in
but I think we're we're trending in the right way and it was quite a humbly moment to see
Carson gets sworn in. Great moment to be a part of I imagine. We'll take a quick commercial break.
We'll come back with more with Sheriff Sean Becker and I would kind of share his department along
with Wisconsin Rapids Community Media and Gary here at Midday Magazine on WFHR. Welcome back to
Midday Magazine for this December 6, 2023. Have your host James here. We're joined with Sheriff Sean Becker
and Sean I know that you have a lot to talk about today but I did have something important that I
didn't want to ask you about. It's been happening to our society for quite some time now and I think
it's an important subject but I don't hear people talking about it. I don't hear it being addressed
and it's something that here at WFHR we're not going to shy away from and it's these animals
breaking into buildings man. I've got two reports this morning when I'm looking at the news
police wrangle loose llama near British Columbia roads and then there was another one here.
Deer breaks into an elementary school leads police on a chase. We've got these animals
breaking into buildings Sean. I don't know what I'm curious it all seriously. It's just kind of
funny and we don't get a lot of light moments around here so I'm going to try to bring one up but
I am a little curious have you ever been in the situation like this where you just you get the
call and you're kind of like wait a minute like is somebody putting me on the way a deer in a building
what anything like this happened you. Not to be person that I remember you know but a deer
would be one that it's a strong possibility because the deer population around here but you know
periodically you'll get you know wild animals get inside people's houses and yeah they
cause and it can't be challenging sometimes because then we're scratching our head and like okay
what are we supposed to do. I'm like well maybe just open up a couple doors and try to shoe them
out. Hope for the best cross-figures kind of thing. Yeah I know like I think a few years ago
llama got loose in Grand Rapids area so some of those exotic you know animals are out there
and you have to be aware of them but you know I don't nothing jumps out of me like that I dealt with
you know what movie was it were. Oh the deer. Tommy Boy. Tommy Boy the deer in the back yeah yeah
also the great outdoors I think there was a scene in the great outdoors too with the deer in the
house or something like that. I forgot about the bear. Yeah it was a bear you're right it was a bear
yeah well you know and I bring this up a little bit tongue and cheek to have some fun with it
and everything but I also I did want to touch on one part of this too and it's something that speaks
to a little bit of the previous conversation of the things that are what we will we think are
our place departments and our sheriff departments are things that we think you guys handle that are
on your plate and then there's stuff that we don't even think about that you guys cover and just
speaking to hopefully the empathy that we create with this show more of our community and our law
enforcement and understanding that like because that's something I don't think many people think
when they think of a police officer or sheriff any of these positions we don't think about hey
Alama broke into a building can he help us out here. That's the first call because we're we're
24-7 you know what what do you do you know we're we're always working so you have a situation like
that you know you look at Florida you know homeless times with an alligator in somebody's pool
you know I'm sure that they have to go through it's not bad during football season it was a
barrier you could just shoot it not true when it comes to like that kind of thing of all the
training of all the things that you do in academy and building up to the job do these kind of not
not so much animals breaking into buildings but this kind of gray area of things that you are
going to have to maybe cover on the job does that stuff come up. It does I mean you have to look
at it like you know what what Gary just said is you know kind of a joke but you have to look at
the public safety aspect of a situation and you know if if somebody or if there's a wild animal
that's creating a a safety issue for somebody for a person you know unfortunately we get put in
those positions where we might have to you know act and sometimes that's not a very popular
you know decision that we have to make but you have to bear in mind. Nice.
Well pun intended but that we have to you know look at what you know the situation is and what is
you know is is somebody at risk of being hurt or or worse and then we have the people
calling us to act upon it and again sometimes that's not a very popular decision we make but
people have to understand that it happens so fast and and people do second guess us especially
when we use force you know it's just but you know you have to turn around and put yourself in
that situation and and look at what we're trained to do and and the public safety is number one.
Gears back us by 10 years ago did and to Killamaki Bird I was in the play to Killamaki Bird and
played Sheriff Hectorate and we've got you know a couple of young kids in the play and stuff and
one of the scenes in that play in the movie and in the play is the sheriff being asked to take down
a rabid dog that's in the neighborhood and how crazy and scared the neighborhood is because of
this rabid dog running around and well me and the guy playing Atticus were able to kind of pull
the scene off we we kept struggling because the kids they would come in oh no a dog but no you
got to be panicked right now there's a right and they just couldn't get it they're like well but
nowadays if that happens we just call a police officer we just call you know our animal control
or something like that yeah yeah that kind of thing we forget how it wasn't that long ago where
there was even more put on our police department than we realized in some ways and it still is in
that way in that case it's a nice reminder of that to the rest of us and the community to a
citizens that the things that are on your plate yeah no like I said we we work 24 seven and you
know Jordan's a dispatcher and she'll she'll tell you some of the calls that they they get even
up in the north woods yeah what else you got there Sean all right what's your favorite quarterback
oh yeah sure it's okay you know not only quarterback but a gentleman you know he when they
first made him coach he probably wasn't ready to be the coach but then at the end he was doing
pretty good and they fired him so years later they're gonna remodel the stadium and they want him
to commercials and he does commercials for I mean yeah yeah I get I get a kind of a cute story
about him so when he was coach it's a Sunday game and we're not doing well so they come around and
he got these stickers to say bye bye bark I mean my dad said get away he said oh I got another one
stick with star so we bought those so they used to have Mondays off and and so I went up there
and I Tuesday to watch praxis I'm mad at the whole world and then Anakin and stuff but I get
there late for praxis oh him and Zeke because he we're jogging around back up there and he
he looks at my truck and he goes you're trucking I go duh you know yeah it's my truck he goes the
mother's stickers I heard were really flying out yesterday huh and he says you got a pen or something
to sign and they said no I really don't know nothing he says you got a business card and they go
yeah I got one from my family he sent me an autographed picture to Gary well I got that next
my other thing you know they take time to do that yeah that's amazing I gotta tell you okay
that but how the Packers are small organization you know I mean and everybody forgets that but I
got a really personal story about that so from probably 77 on we till get it all the time my mom
and dad a whole bunch of us and it was the parking lot was first come first serve you know you paid
your 10 bucks or whatever and so we did that a long time and I get to the men they don't
want to run it Mark and Wadey there are buddies so comes 10 o'clock they go out and party with us
because their job is done so my mom and dad retired Arizona and then they stayed with me for July
August September because you know when it goes to the games when my dad got a journal sent him over
he so he gets a journal sent he says hey Gary is what the parking lot's not reserved when they
redid it they did this and I said really daddy goes yeah so I said okay what are you gonna do
so I called my friends and he said we can get your spot Gary we can't get this parking permit
so I called on there to the place and there's a waiting list for the parking thing
okay no yeah yeah so I mean as you know so I wrote a letter I wrote it to be Packers attention
Bob Harlan he was a president at that time so my dad's yeah right so two days later the phone rings
and it's my mom my mom answered she says Gary it's something from the Packers under so I get
on the phone I get high they said I just got a fix from Bob and I said Bob who they go there's
only one Bob here so the guy says how do I know all this stuff in your in your letters truly said
well the start was I get my packer myers got a packer and I said did you get the part about the
pickle barrel with the saw the sand and stuff and yeah what's that pipeline I said well the
parking lot used to be gravel me my dad backed over a couple of them so he had more room well I didn't
know it was gravel anyway he says what can I do for you and he says I just want to park and
permit for the the green and the gold game because I go to all of them well you know there's a
waiting list and I say wow okay he says with just in case check your mail two days later I got it
so Bob Harlan took the time to do that you know and it was it's pretty cool you know that and he's
done a couple other little favors for me so I got a I was in a bar and they had a a ten lighter
with about Harlan thing you know it's a nice nice hand drum thing so I said I want that you know
well so whoever wins it so they gave it to me so I called on there got a hold of me he said yes
didn't get any autographed for me you know so well but you know I just we're so we forget you know
that we're so lucky to have stuff like that yeah yeah I don't think Jerry Jones probably would have
would have gathered my park no no it's the smallest professional sports if smallest team in all
of professional sports all the four major sports soccer all of that and yet you look at what that
what the fan base you you have these games in in Germany and stuff and it's not even a packer
the packers aren't even playing you see people and packer jerseys and stuff like I don't know if
many teams that have a fan base that travel like the packer fan base or is located around the
world like the packer fan bases it's it all of that being said and still such a run like a mom
and pop business in many ways reaching out to the community and people and understanding that
your your core base is where you're at what made the packers very well smart run franchise for
many many years you don't have the green bay packers without the fan base the fan base made that
team so they they've always given credit to that and I give a lot of respect to that you have any
stock yeah nice nice very smart didn't buy my daughter bought her for me hey he still have stock
still got yeah that's cool that's what something I wish I would have done you know favorite quarterback
for me I've got to say right far just because of the era that I was you know and he started so
many games I remember being at the game when his tour to start the night game and then he got hurt
and that gave remember the redskins that they're playing the redskins and then I forget the the
linebacker the tackle them and kind of tweaked his knee and he went off the field and
on a cart but then he played the next week got that streak alive it's one of the most impressive
things to me on a football player to see gold that far along in their career without missing a game
yeah yeah no stage they've got hit a lot more than they do now too you know there was no
the roughing the passer and it's oh my gosh yeah look at the quarterback now I think it's a
penalty was you're so right about that was it Lynn Dickie there was a quarterback for the packers
yeah that was definitely my favorite because I'm a bear fan and I'm not gonna root for a good
packer quarterback so I'm gonna root for the bad one no he was okay he was okay it was just the
first day back I think I'm popping out of my head I actually always like I I love watching
bread far play I don't know how you couldn't if you love football didn't matter bear what
lying fan didn't matter you know two games of the year sure you didn't like the guy maybe but
I have a rather game could not wait to watch bread far he was just having fun and it was
a joy to watch a guy like that play the game like a kid you know I don't know how much we're going
to see that anymore with athletes and stuff and it's serious as they take the sport I was always
curious to see what would have happened mccowski didn't get hurt yeah just because I thought that
he had a night he had a good arm a good head on him you know mccowski said they asked him when did
you know bread far was going to be the starting quarterback the first time I saw him throw a ball
yeah yeah believe it yeah yeah and then certainly you know it's it's it was fun to watch Aaron
Rodgers play the game at at at at the same level but differently the mechanics and all of that
different leader different male player but I I think with Jordan love it's way too early to tell if
he's gonna be a hall of fame or any of that stuff but I do think you can already start to see some
of the things about him that like well at the very least you've got a guy that you can count on
for the next 10 years nine 10 years at that position even if he isn't as great as these other guys
you got it you don't have to worry about your starting quarterback like that part alone like
let me tell you about how much I wish I had something like that my life time got now I might
have them but they're not even sure so who know I think that that that alone gives you a lot as
as a fan but also if you're that team to build around to to put around a Sunday the way we came
out is as good as our offense has looked in a long time yeah yeah yeah we ran the ball we two passes
and it just it was clicking against a good defense to yeah you know I mean that that you can't
look you can't ask for much more than that did you get an opportunity to talk to Taylor Swift no
when my friends got to know Campbell the linebacker so he sits with his wife and I'm in the box so
he sent a picture to my to what oh there's Taylor and I said I went to the game not to a concert
I understand that the hype and the the celebrity that she has and everything in all respect to
that I would have been more freaked out about some on Biles I would have like I would have loved
to meet some on Biles man that had been cool like that's one of the greatest athletes in the
world right now you know it's nice that the packers organization kind of highlight that okay so
Taylor Swift was here but we have Simone yeah we're gonna look at the hero right there we gotta you know
well the shoulders first loss you know no yeah that's right in a couple of months we're definitely
gonna be talking about some on Biles quite a bit as a you west you west exactly Sean did you
have anything else on your list you wanted to get to another five six minutes left yeah one
other thing the county's been our human resources department come a graph and her team have been
doing a really nice thing the last couple of years two things they put together one is leadership
trained for all the department heads within Wood County and we just had our our second one last
week at mid-state technical college nice to see that we partnered with them and they're a workforce
development and they put together some really decent training for all the department heads to be at
and work together you know which I think is really important to have you know the team of
the entire Wood County get an opportunity to you know go through some leadership training and
then and then have you know time just to spend together you know all your leaders within the county
so you know thank you Kim and the county board for approving this because what I've found out
a best way to you know boost morale within any department is you know offers some training that
is interesting to that person and leadership training is something that I've always felt that
was important to invest in and you bring that back you bring it back to your department so
you know we did that recently they're letting the county's been doing they approved merit raises
our merit bonus is what I think it is and it's all based off the core values of what the county
established and recently you know we've got some of our people at the sheriff's department
recognized Nate Dean one of our lieutenants he works a night shift but he took it upon himself
to make sure that the sheriff's department had a presence at the at the fair up in Marshfield
and did a phenomenal job and he was recognized for his efforts there and then Scott Goldberg overseas
are investigators we had a domestic situation just outside a Rudolph that in fact I respond
to because it turned off into a kind of a standoff you know with the you know the suspect that we
want to eventually arrest him but the tough part for us to work through was there's children there
you know and these kids were waiting to get on the school bus and this situation happened
and the follow-through he did with that is the next day he went to the school where these kids were
pulled him on a class and just kind of hung out with him and he was recognized for that and when
you get these these get recognized like this through the county it's not by like me you know
writing it up and saying you should do this it's by your peers and it's just a great thing that
both Nate and Scott were recognized for you know other people have been recognized throughout the
year but another program that you know we're going to expand at the sheriff's department you know
if somebody gets recognized but they don't get you know voted for that that particular Corvall you
merit award we'll do it within our own budget to make sure that you know we take care of the
person on our team that was you know recognized at least that's very cool yeah and thank you for
sharing that show I appreciate it we've only got about two or three minutes left before we jump
into that I didn't want to tease something I want to preview something the next time we get
together because I want I want you and the audience to be able to do a little homework on this
because it it only came out like at the end of last month but there is a pilot program that would
help Wisconsin police connect people in crisis to virtual mental health experts this pilot program
is fascinated me it seems really interesting and it seems like something that could be a real asset
for you and in your team and throughout the state so I want people to be able to look into that
learn a little bit more about it and how it's going to benefit our not only our communities
but our law enforcement agencies something we'll get into maybe the next time we hang out Sean I
appreciate it I'll make no to that and yeah we should talk about it Gary I do want to thank you
for being here again but I also want to use this opportunity to get a little bit of a shout out
to your business to to where you work and everything where you've been Gary well where is that again
a Mickey's chip up on the calendar if you have been into the calendar area I gathered that you
probably know that bar you know that establishment I've been there many times myself and though
it would love the place so we want to send a shout out in the good morning to a great local
business it's been in this area for a very long time doing great work you know we're talking before
about you know people haven't too much to drink basically and they're riding up we're neighbor
like bar you know and when I ten bar I know if people are drinking more than they normally do
so we take care each other you know Bill I don't think it's a good idea well I'm you know I know
you can drive that's not the problem and we'll have somebody drive your car home and we home and
this kind of stuff and you know and most people now are smart enough that they don't that they accept it
you know I mean and and that's a that's a nice thing you know because the big thing I was
I don't have my car home or whatever you know so but we take care of the people there and
and as a bartender it's there's a fine line you give them another beer you know and stuff like
this but usually what I say is okay you can have another beer but how will we talk about a ride
home I'm not bad I said I didn't say you were bad you're fine but you know what a deer runs into
you you get a drum drive and is that what is it you know oh you're good Gary you're good you've
got all the angles you've heard it all you got a bat you go the words that smart and I really
appreciate you addressing that topic anytime would be a good of especially this time of year
the work that you and other bartenders do working with clientele and being able to get that
situation handled everybody gets home safe it's one less job for them it's one less job for
our police departments our sheriff departments and they can you know focus on other things
you know the word is also the cops like giving out drunk that's such BS yeah yeah they don't want
that they're regular people that's a worse thing they want to do you know they mean they're not
looking for this crap but when people are doing bad things you know you got to you know okay
they let it go then they run into somebody down the road you know they're in trouble so I think
that I think our police do it as a good a job as they can you know I mean they get a bad wrap on
a lot of things but there's a bartender and stuff like this it's it's it's our job to take care
of the people you know there's you know when sometimes people come in you don't know they had
a lot to drink to win some other bar so you give them a drink man as soon as you see that I just
take it where you have too much to drink yeah well what do you mean I said you had too much to drink
you know appreciate that Gary and appreciate your being here with us today thank you so much
for the time Sean thank you for bringing Gary I appreciate you Sean of people have filed questions
I want to reach out to you I talk with you how can they do that feel free to get a whole
minute to share a department so on five four two one dispatches 87 on and of course we encourage
you to go to Wisconsin rabbits community media so youtube page subscribe to that page a big shout
out to you and your team Joe thank you we'll add more midday magazine for you tomorrow right here
on WFHR locally grown radio
