Welcome everyone to Midday Magazine for this January 17th, 2024.
Have your host, James J. Mailoff, behind the mic, and we're welcoming into the studio
in part two at 330 today, Lacey Ailing, events and engagement director,
with our heart of Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce. Looking forward to that.
Looking forward to this conversation with our good friend,
Wisconsin Rapids Mayor Shane Blazer joining us. Good afternoon, do you shame?
Good afternoon, James.
Appreciate you being here. And a big thank you to our friends
over at Wisconsin Rapids Community Media. Joe and the gang, we appreciate you guys so much.
Do yourself a favor, go on to YouTube. If you haven't done this already,
type in there, Wisconsin Rapids Community Media, subscribe to their page and keep up
to date on the great work that they are doing over there. Shane, how you doing?
I'm good. I'm good. Cold, but good.
Yeah, yeah. Let's start with the cold, if you don't mind, sir.
Any snow updates? We finally got snow. Our workers out there did an amazing job over the last
couple of weeks, removing that snow, getting the roads prepared for us. I hit the road pretty early,
and the roads were amazing for me almost every morning, this past couple of weeks with the snow.
How's that been going? Yeah, our crews did a phenomenal job.
We have a bunch of new people out there. We've had staff change over over the year.
So we have new people operating, new equipment. So it was a great practice and good run for those
people. And yeah, I commented to the public work street superintendent that they've done an amazing
job this year. It's just been phenomenal. The streets have been cleared, and they've been staying
on top of it very well. How is the, how are we looking budget-wise? Budget-wise, you know, it's
pretty good. I was just talking with Pam, is that the snow-plowing budget is kind of unique in
being that we have money allocated for labor and cleanup. Well, if they're not plowing snow,
they're doing something else. So the labor, so a lot of times that money in the snow-plowing
budget will get shifted to other accounts because they're doing other work. So we still have to
pay our guys. And so it's really, it's a placeholder at the end of the day. I mean, not necessarily be
there, but you know, it's good on equipment and, you know, because it's a lot of wear and tear
on plow equipment. And so by not plowing, it kind of saves on that end of it.
And it's always interesting to hear kind of the behind the scenes of some of that stuff and how
that works. I also think that clears up any kind of nonsense you might hear out there about budget
this or budget that and everything. It really clears that up. That's interesting. I wanted them
also mention about tree removal. City Christmas tree pickup will take place from January 22nd to
the 26th. Trees will be given to the DNR to use for fish habitats and improving them and a lot of
other things. It's nice. I always love the recycling of these items and to be able to make use of
them. So just want to remind everybody about that note that city tree pickup will be January 22nd
through the 26th. Keep that in mind everybody. Shane, I want to talk a little bit about the,
now it's been announced that we have the candidates for mayor to take up the position after you here.
I want to go ahead and just for those that have not heard, the candidates are Tom Terry Muse,
Nicholas Palmquist, I believe, Preston M. Sites and Matt Zacker. These are the four candidates that
we have. We do know thanks to Joe and our friends over at the League of Women Voters that we will be
having a tentative, tentative keep that in mind February 6th debate with them and they'll take
questions in that. So a big shout out to League of Women Voters and the amazing work that they do.
We really appreciate all that they do and of course our friends at Wisconsin Ravs Community Media
getting that out there so everybody can take that in. Shane, I don't, you have endorsed a candidate
so we can cover that. Okay. Yeah, so I have endorsed Matt Zacker. You know, he's been on city council
for I think two terms now. He's been chairperson of the finance committee so he has budget knowledge.
He's a local business owner. He's a veteran. He has a master's degree from UW-Moaki and social work
and so you know, he's been a community member and a family member and he's got family and I
just think that he's probably the right person with at least amount of learning curve to coming
into this and the most knowledge about city operations and government and I think he's poised to
lead the organization, you know, financially and you know, oversight and management of the employees.
I have, I don't know these gentlemen and I have no ties to them and I have no bias towards any of
them as far as who would make a better candidate or any of those things but I did think that in
our pregame you brought up a very important note. If you don't mind repeating us or not to put
you on the spot but I thought it was a very good note and I thought it applies to this very, very well.
As far as, you know, you may think you understand what this job entails but it entails a lot more than
you might realize as far as being in charge of so much. Yeah, you know what, I came in with a lot of
city experience and city council but actually sitting in the mayor's chair. There's only
all four other people alive that really understand what it's like and what it comes with that and,
you know, I think, you know, listening to these other, listening to the candidates, you know,
there's people out there that really don't understand what the role and responsibilities are
which is, you know, I would think running for office that you would want to find that out, you know,
but, you know, I've known Preston a long time. He's a great guy. He's a nice guy.
You know, I don't know his platform or anything like that or, you know, kind of some of that experience
but he's a super guy also. But I just think Matt is poised right now to be the best person to make
that transition and, you know, you really only have two years to try to do something and then you
start all over again. And I think with Matt, he's got the shortest amount of time he's going to have
a learning curve. Even though there's a learning curve, it was a learning curve for me too, even with
all my experience. But I think that's noteworthy. Yeah, it is. And I think everybody, you know,
people watch national politics and, you know, from the president to the governor and, you know,
this is not that role, but it's a similar type of organizational structure. And, you know,
you get a preconceived idea of what that is. And I still go back and I always say that the power
within government lies with like at a local level is our elected council people. The power of the
ADA, we say, and it's the power of the eight that control the money. And the mayor doesn't get
to control the money. And the mayor, he only can, he or she can only operate within the
guidelines set by the council. I have a approval rate to spend up to $10,000, which is a lot of money.
But when you're talking government, it isn't a lot of money. When you're talking about equipment,
a couple hundred thousand dollars and things like that. So really it's the power of the eight that
determine, you know, they they're the only ones that pass in control ordinances. They're the one
that pass in control policies and they're the one that pass and control the budget. And that's
really where the power lies within the council. Not individually. Individually, they are powerless,
but collectively they have the authority to be able to make those decisions. And so yeah, I think
a lot of people think there's a, this mayor's role has all this power and gets to do all these
things. You know, some of the candidates talk about day one and we do this change. All day one,
you don't do any change unless the council allows you to do the change. And there's, it's an
eye-opening experience. You're trying to be mayor of Wisconsin rapids, not king of Wisconsin rapids.
It's a little different, a little different. We deal with this at the station from time to time.
Every couple of months I have a listener or somebody come to me and say, hey, I saw that you guys
are looking for a sports commentator looking somebody to call games. I can do that. I've always
wanted to do that. And they're like, okay, well, here, talk to Randy. This is what Randy does. He
does this, this, this, and this. Like, oh, wait a minute. No, I just wanted to show up and talk.
I just wanted to put the headphones on and just talk about the game. Like, no, it takes a lot
more than that. Randy talks about this coach and this person. Yes. And I do think, and I hope, and
maybe it's the last bit of hope that's in me. I really hope that the last couple of years or so
on years have taught us a lot as a society and as voters that experience does matter, experience
means something. We kind of got away from this for some reason. All of a sudden, it didn't matter
that you had a medical degree and you went to school for all these years and stuff. All of a sudden,
I'd rather listen to Uncle Joe here and see what he said on Facebook. Like, getting a, we seem
to be getting, hopefully, a little bit more away from that and getting a little bit more to,
you know what, this person having experience, that's a good thing. It isn't bad, that's for sure.
And I think it's, you know, you just understand things better in bail. Okay, this is how the process
works and kind of having that idea. And that's why I always think being on City Council is a great,
good transition to the mayor's chair because even just how to run a meeting. I was sitting there,
it's common council last night thinking about, you know, there's people out there that have,
haven't, you know, they may have watched it in one of the ways you can watch it. But even the basic
rules of running a meeting, you know, there is ropers rules of order and there is a, you know,
procedure to running a meeting that it's accepted practice. And you just don't come in and say,
I'm going to do it this way because that's the way I feel like doing it today. I know there is a
practice to running a meeting and this simply is that. And coming from City Council, you,
you already have that experience and knowledge. And those are one of the many things that a new
person needs to learn. I think you brought up a really strong point too. You get two years. You
know, you got to hit the ground running. You know, that if you're spending some of that ground
running learning and trying to get the job done, which everybody is going to, of course, no matter
what the experience they have. So any bit of extra experience you have going into that means
it may be you're a step or two ahead. Maybe you can get on the ground and truly hit the round
running. Right. Because, you know, people complain about, well, it's only two, you know, maybe
it should be four or should be something else. But, you know, the benefit of two is if you're
doing a good job, you'll get another one. If you're not doing a good job, it's easy to get you
out. You know, you've got two years worth of damage versus four years worth of damage. But,
yeah, it's as people are going to find out now that they can, now that we have a primary,
you have to run two campaigns. You've got, you've got to run a primary campaign to make it to
the general election. But you don't want to show all your cards necessarily. You know, so you've
got to run and give enough information to bail and get through the primary. And then you start
a full on campaign again at the general election where you kind of maybe drill down more on what
your platform and ideas are and those kind of things and maybe the primary is more on your own
history and your own resume and going forward from there. But, yeah, it's a lot of work with
two campaigns and given the weather, you know, yeah, you know, trying to put out yard signs out
in early February. You know, it's not an easy task. I didn't even think about that. Oh, that's
got to be rough. To see our candidates all out there and just they get to one yard. That's about
it. They like, okay, I'll beat like this is a lot harder though. So they've got to expensive yard
signs and just to share work. And then it's, you know, especially in a winter time, you have to have
people that are willing to help you and maintain the signs because, you know, you have knocked over
signs or tipped signs. You know, it doesn't look good. You know, I make sure they're upright and
unletchable. Oh, yeah. I like the idea. What, why did you fold your candidacy? That does those
signs, man. I get them in the ground. I couldn't do it. I was like, I'm done. I'm not even
driving for this. You don't want to drill. Yeah. So many. It's just February's not a good time. No,
no. We're speaking with Wisconsin Rapids. Mayor Shane Blazer along with our friends from Wisconsin
Rapids community media. As far as the transitioning from the office to, to, you know, being a citizen
again, and just being in the day to day world and all that. For one, I got to tell you, and I'm
almost positive. Joe notices too. You look great, man. Like since you, since you made this announcement,
I feel like that I've seen more life in your face. Like you've just seemed like you got a little
bit more of your, your, your personality back. The Shane I first met and stuff. Like it seems like
this is a, you're adapting well to this. Yeah, you know, I, I, people that know me that
see me regularly, I go to the YMCA almost every day. And so I, I spend my lunch hour there and
talk to people. But then I actually met, I kind of decided that I spent a lot of time at the YMCA.
And I didn't make the progress I was hoping I'd make. So I started seeing a dietitian at the,
at the hospital and phenomenal. And so I've changed my eating habits, lost 35 pounds.
I only drink water. I gave up soda and juice and milk. And, and so that's a lot to do with how I,
I feel just night and day difference. And, you know, just making some dietary changes and,
and good on you. Totally changed my, did this have anything to do with the decision?
It was all kind of coordinated. It just kind of happened at the same time. I've always kind of
tried to be healthier. And honestly, I put on over 40 pounds, you know, sitting in a marriage chair.
I'm used to always being out in the public and doing outside work or with my hands and those kind
of things. And, you know, office jobs are never really good for me or at least, you know, kind of
a sedatory job haven't always been very good. So I decided that I needed to shed those extra pounds.
Good on you. Yeah. So I feel good. And, and also, you know, it, it is stressful being, you know,
in the marriage chair. And, you know, I, I, I generally, and I've always cared about employees and
the citizens and Wisconsin Rapids. I'm from here. I grew up here. And, and you know, like I always say,
you know, all of us go into whether it be an elected position, not to do damage. You know, we all
think we want to do the right thing and hopefully make things better than we left it. And that's
always a hope. And, you know, history will tell whether or not my, my four years here was worthwhile
or not, you know, you just don't know. And so, um, but yeah, so it's, it's been a good ride, but
it's tiring. It's exhausting. Yeah. Yeah. I think that, you know, what, I started out, and that was
a police officer for many years. And so you kind of get thick skinned. But, you know, after years,
after a number of years, it starts to eat at your soul a little bit. And then you start kind of,
kind of not deflecting anymore. And he starts kind of like taking it as like, yeah,
okay, these handful of people have kind of gotten to me, maybe a little bit. And then,
then you're just like, I don't need to do this anymore. Yeah. Yeah. Like I was good with it.
I hope that, that a lot of, not only the people out there, the voted for you with the people
out there, that, you know, just listening in general to that, take that to heart and start to,
you know, understand that we can, and any politician worth their salt wants to be held accountable.
If they're good at their job, if they're a good politician, that they want to be held accountable.
There's a big difference of holding somebody accountable and being a whiny baby and just barking.
There's a big gigantic difference between those two things. And we need to get more back to
being adults. And hey, I don't agree with this policy. I'm going to tell you, I don't agree with it
like the, in the tone that I'm talking in right now and being a whiny little brat that nobody
wants to listen to. And nobody's going to hear you. So your point, whatever it is, is not even
going to be heard. So, you know, what's the point of barking?
I know I saw on Facebook somebody's complaining about something. I don't know if it was
retail and town. And they're like, hey, it's time you can run from air if you want,
to our city council. And here's your opportunity, you know, I have a lot of respect for people,
especially, you know, these four, I may not all agree with them, but they're willing to step forward,
put their neck out there and put their, put their platform and their ideas and whether or not
the community buys in it or not. They at least stepped up and are willing to put their money
where their mouth is. And there's so many people out there that are willing to talk and not doing
anything about it. You know, these four are willing to do something about it. And I'll, like I said,
I may not vote for everybody and I may not, I have different opinions, but I'll respect any way
that wants to run for public office, just because it is a challenge and you're willing to put
yourself out there and you look at a lot of people are not willing to do that. And I agree.
So you got to respect that. Yeah, 100% agree with you. I think it's also a key to keep in mind,
I was looking into this just over the data that we have over the last couple of years.
And we've had a rise of people without political experience,
running for office, in some cases, because, you know, I came from this world and I feel like I can
help this world. And then there's also the person looking for their 15 seconds of fame.
And I think that it's important to keep that in mind with these candidates. They tell you who
they are right away, just by the way they answer questions. If they are not answering the question,
if they're just giving you, you know, live, you know, talking head points and things like that or
deflecting or any of this stuff or insulting, a lot of that will tell you right away. They don't
know what they're talking about. They don't know how to do this job. They just want it for the fame.
They just want it for reasons that aren't exactly right or going to help our community.
Yeah, it's amazing. I'll listen and I'll, you know, I try to file some candidate pages and watch
and read and it's, you know, you know, you feel like going out and I don't, but you feel like going
out and correcting people because what they're saying a lot of times may not be accurate and there's
unfortunately there's people that believe that and that's where you almost want to, that's where
I kind of feel like I almost want to correct people and it's like, no, that's not the case, but
you can't do that. And so it's like you just said, James, is it's important to understand what
these people are saying and take it for grain assault and fact check and verify. Call City Hall
if somebody's speaking about something in the city or, you know, saying, you know, speaking
financial numbers or this is going on in the city or, oh, this really bad thing's happening in the
city and you need to be able, don't take their word for it, call City Hall and call my office. I'd
be more than happy to tell you, you know, or confirm or deny it and that's easier than, oh, okay,
that must be true and because they said it on Facebook and now it's true and I've seen that
already in campaigning and it's unfortunate because there's misinformation already being spread
and so call City Hall. You show how much you care by doing that homework, by taking those extra
steps and not just that post that you see, but okay, well, that's interesting. That doesn't seem
right. I'm going to look into that and see how much truth there is to that. This shouldn't be easy.
All right. Now, the actual process of voting should be, it shouldn't be hard to find a voting booth
or anything like that. That part should be very easy, but the act of voting itself, making the decision
shouldn't be easy. It should be something to wear. I don't know. You should have all good
candidates. You should have a hard decision to be able to figure out which one you like and which
one most aligns with what you want for your community or your country, if you will. But do
your homework on these candidates. You know, I'm thankful that, you know, Joe and his team and
the League of Women voters are putting on a forum again this year because we haven't had one since
Zach Patrick and I ran my first time in our primary, so it's been a long time. And I think it's
very important because those are those are an opportunity to see the candidate look at a candidate
and listen to what they have to say. You know, and I think importantly, you know, you start out with
the resume, you know, there's some candidates are talking about the resume and their history and
there's other candidates aren't. And it's like, well, why aren't you talking about your resume,
what you've done up to this point, you know, forget your platform and your ideas, but we'll kind
of quality a person, are you and contributor have you done in your life up to this point. And
and I think that's important. And that's what I look for initially on when I look at candidates and
agreed. And yeah, and so I haven't seen a lot of that from some candidates. And so, you know,
that's where that's where I start dwindling my choices down is on a resume, get a couple of
candidates and choose their platforms from there and listen to their platform or their ideas.
And I make my choice. But thankfully, for having a forum again this year,
we'll bail also see the candidates and hear them and then have have questions posed to them that,
you know, how good are they at thinking off off the cuff and they'll answer some questions and
and bail them see how they respond to them. Yeah, we are we have sent out reached out to all
the candidates and they have we have welcomed them on the air with us as we have done a WFHR for
decades. So looking forward to them joining us and getting to know them a little bit more and
talking with them. The 2024 election spring primary is February 20th. That's so weird for me.
It's my birthday. Yeah, it's so weird. It's interesting. Again, you can find out more at
wirapids.org about this wards 1 through 10. We'll vote at the Centrelius Center and wards 11 through
27. We'll vote at the former East junior high school field house. Again, wirapids.org is where
you can find out all this information. If you've got any questions, call the clerk's office.
She's very knowledgeable. I heard Jennifer and Sue will bail a system on any voting.
You know, we always hear all these things about clerks and stuff and as a former clerk,
you know, there isn't a single clerk that wants the election to be all messed up. You know,
they wanted to show up and everything goes smoothly. There's no questions. And so,
you know, at least I can only speak for Wisconsin, but you know, there's a lot of checks and
rechecks and behind the scenes that go on to make sure that I'm not voting Wisconsin rap is
and I go out to Grand Rapids and vote. It may not be caught that day, but it will be caught and
you'll be prosecuted. And so, so I can only speak for Wisconsin, but you know, our clerk's office
does a really good job and they want to have a successful election. It's important to keep that in
my and it's important to note to appreciate that. I wanted to wrap up just talking a couple
minor things with you. The planning of the river ought exhibit at the municipal zoo. I know
that's coming up and it's exciting. We're looking forward to that. Yeah. So Park and Rec has, you know,
decided that has agreed to explore, you know, pursuing as this as a possible exhibit. Still
staff right now is gathering numbers. They've got kind of a rough design. And you know, if that's
something that can come together, we've been fortunate enough. We received a very large
bequeath from a family for doing new exhibits. So there's money there to do the hopefully
this exhibit. And I know they're re-challenge some grants, but it would be a year-round exhibit,
which then so during the winter, there could be a couple of days open where people can go and see
that or swim and stuff like that. But so they're in the plan. They kind of got a plan and now they're
getting up to numbers. But if they come through, it'd be pretty phenomenal. I think it'd be great
for our zoo too. Here's open. Yeah, go along with the buried dogs there. Absolutely.
We'll be coming in and spring in the happy fun to watch. We love our zoo. And when they open
their doors again, visit the municipal zoo right here in rapids. It's just a block or two away from us
right here. I encourage you to do that and encourage you to find out more again about a number of
the things that we've talked about with the mayor today. Shane, if people have fault questions,
we want to know more. How can they reach you? Yeah, the easiest call in my office of 1-5 or
218-202 or you can email us at mayorwisconsinreface.org. And again, I encourage you to follow along with
Wisconsin Rapids Community Media, like and subscribe to their Facebook and Instagram pages, find them
on YouTube and subscribe to their page. You are not going to be disappointed. Appreciate
you, Joe. Appreciate your team over there and mayor always good to talk. Thank you. Great to see you,
James. We'll talk again next month. Definitely. And we'll be back with more midday magazine right here
at 97-5 FM 13-20 AM WFHR. We are locally grown radio.
