Welcome, everyone, to Midday Magazine for this February 21st, 2024.
Have your host, James J. Mailov here.
In part two, we're going to talk with our friends from Wisconsin
Rapids Community Theater, preview their winter production of the glass
menagerie. Right now in studio, we have with us, Wisconsin Rapids Mayor
Shane Blazer. Shane always good to see you.
Good to see you. Also, good afternoon. How are you doing today?
Good afternoon. Uh, doing good. How are you doing, sir?
I'm good. I'm good. Thank you.
Want to send a shout out to our friends at Wisconsin Rapids Community
Media and stuff and the gang over there. We appreciate the work that
they do so much. Do yourself a favor. Go to YouTube,
type in your search bar, Wisconsin Rapids Community Media and
subscribe to their page. Shane, thanks a lot for being in.
We got a lot to get into today, especially as we're kind of winding
down your run here as mayor. So I want to get into a little bit of
those things with you. But first, we just got done with our spring
primary yesterday. What have you heard from what I've heard in
town? Things went pretty smoothly. Yeah, you know, I was actually
surprised at how low the turnout was. You know, yeah, it was a
disappointment. Yeah, I was. Yeah, I think what maybe about 1,200
people voted or so. And yeah, it makes for a long day for
election workers. But it's really, you know, on a representative
democracy, how do you really have good representative democracy
when you don't have a lot of people participating? But it was
only a primary and, you know, leading leading candidate Mads
Zachary got 64% and then time use got 18% and the other two, I
believe, got like 9% and so, you know, it was good.
It's gone strong showing for Matt's and yeah, a lot of the
way to see now the the regular election. Let's get into that
chain. So what is for those that don't know and understand the
process? Well, what is the next step now for these candidates?
So now what I always say, this is truly where you actually start
to campaign, you know, and so the candidates will starting
probably will get more into their campaign details and hopefully
you know, try to sell themselves to the community and then in
April 2nd, that's when we'll have our general election and we'll
see how that turns out. I think that we learned something in this
process. I think as a community, I think a lot of people out
there might have I know I did. One of the things that I've had
that the honor of, I believe, sitting in this chair and doing
this show is getting to talk to a couple of our mayors, getting
to talk to board members and and representatives of our
community. And one of the things that stood out to me about the
position of mayor is have a have a game plan, like have an idea.
I'm not at all taking shots here or anything, but if you are
ever thinking of running for a public office, don't just have
one thing. Like there is a handful of and isn't just this run,
it's been other runs as well, where we have a candidate come in
and they are very passionate about this one particular thing.
And I I encourage that no matter what that thing is, whether
I agree with it or not, I love seeing passion in our community.
I love seeing people that care about our community. And that's
where a lot of that stems from caring about your community,
whatever they're pushing or their agenda is, that's another
story. But I love people being interactive and caring about
their community. But Shane, I imagine, you know, I remember
when you were first running and I can remember other people
running in town here, even ones that I didn't when I just lived
in this town. There's an agenda. There's an idea. I like, I
want to do this, this and this. I have this plan in mind. I have
these ideas, et cetera, et cetera. To, you know, candidates
out there, whether we're talking about the school board or
running for mayor, and it's not just here in rapids. I mean,
all over the country, wherever you're doing this, have have
more than just one thing. This is, this is not something to be
taken lightly. I really, I understand if you want to throw
your hat in a ring because you have this one issue and you want
to bring attention to that set issue, that's understandable.
But there are other ways to do that today, in today's day and
age, we've got a billion resources of being able to put
yourself out there in social media and all this other stuff.
I'm curious, Shane, do you feel one that it can waste our time
as voters when we have only so much time to research these
candidates and we have candidates who aren't necessarily in
mind, this just my opinion, taking this seriously.
Yeah, you know, I, I'm a little disappointed in the other two
candidates that ran that they didn't participate in the
process. We, and because they chose to run, we had to have an
election yesterday that if they would have chosen not to run,
and we wouldn't have had that election. Exactly. We've, the
city probably spent easily $10,000, $15,000 on holding an
election yesterday for two people at, for whatever reason,
decided that they didn't want to hold you office. And that's
frustrating in that sense, because as taxpayers and and a
regular voter, you know, that's to those, yeah, to those
candidates, to which we reached out and did hear from at least
one of them. And I talked to them personally on the phone
interview with them. You can find those interviews on a midday
magazine archive. It's a civic media. US. We had one candidate
who never even reached back to us, who never even got back to
us or anything like that. Now, we all understand life gets
crazy, life gets busy. We all have jobs and families and lives
and et cetera, et cetera. That is all very understandable.
Then don't throw your name in the rain. Then nobody made you
do this. Like you chose to do that. I, I worry that we had,
where we, we see more and more of this, not just with local
offices, but in the bigger scheme of things too. I, I believe
that yeah, everybody can be representative. Anybody can be a
mayor, anybody can do this job or that job or what have you. But
you do need, you know, people that are have an idea, have a
game plan going into these things. Absolutely. You need, you
need to have some communications skills and some of those
things. But yeah, you need, you need to kind of have an idea. You
need it. I think more importantly, even, even so is you need to
have an idea of what the responsibilities of that office is
and what you need to do, once you do get elected and being
aware of that before you even start in that process. And then
you need to develop maybe a game plan or some even, even as
simplest, disagreeing with the previous person in that office
and saying, I just, because I don't believe people go into an
election or want to run for office for malicious intent. I
think, I think in their mind, whether we agree with it or
not, they do have a desire to do something different or do it
better. You know, I truly fundamentally believe that. But you
need to have an idea of least what that positions requirements
are and those responsibilities are. Yeah, I think it's the, it
might be the least we could ask of a candidate. And again, this
is not a shot at other candidates. This isn't shot at those
particular candidates or anything like that. This was just an
opportunity to talk about this. I saw a window to be able to
get into this conversation. Because I think a very strong point
you just met, asked her and you, you and I've been doing this
long enough, you got to the question, but you answered before I
could get to the question, how much this cost yesterday, that
special election we had, which to your point, we did not
necessarily need to have. We had two other candidates, two out
of the four candidates that did not, if they took it
seriously, as a voter, I didn't take, I didn't think that
they did. I'm just giving my personal opinion and the opinion
I took from 90% of the community when I talked about this, when
these first, when these four names first got brought out, I did
my homework, I did my research and I asked around town, I looked
up these people individuals and all of them seemed like they
would have been great mayors. They would have been great
candidates. They seemed like it. I don't know because I didn't
get to know the two of these candidates. And I give a lot of
credit to the two candidates that did show up that did actually
take this seriously if I can put it bluntly.
Yeah, and that's the important part. And, you know, but the
other thing I'm learning now is, and I guess I, you know, just
because a candidate says something doesn't necessarily mean
it's factually true. And so it's important to, you know, take
it upon yourself, just because they're saying this, you need
to double check that or you even check with Google or check
with family and friends, because I know the information that's
out there that is factually untrue. And I don't think that's
fair to the voters. No, no, and it's something that as
citizens, we have to take the initiative and do our homework.
While the process of voting should never be difficult to
actually physically go out and vote that should never be a
difficult thing, voting itself and making a decision shouldn't
be easy. It shouldn't be, well, I'm this party. So I'm, of
course, going to vote for this person. Oh, you should have to
do your homework, whatever the position is. A lot of people
do the party thing. You know, I'm just fine. That
teacher, it's your vote. Yeah, I'm just I'm just not going to
blindly just check the box and say it. Because I'll tell you
what, even within both parties, there's a swing from from
mild to. Yeah, yeah, extreme. You got your hot sauce and then
you got your mouth. Yeah, yeah, so totally agree. And so you
have that range in there. And just because you subscribe to
one party may not be subscribing to every candidate within
that party. We in talking with the mayoral candidates, one of
the main themes from most of the candidates was part, well,
asking them, why did they want to run from mayor, the ATV
decision kind of came up in the conversation about that. And I
know that we had a decision made on that yesterday with a
boarding, can we talk about that? Absolutely. Oh, actually, if
you don't mind, for those that may not know what the what
we're talking about here with the ATV law and then that was
proposed. Yeah, so their proposal was to allow UTVs and ATVs
to traverse through our city. I think a bulk of it is users
within the community wanted to drive to get to trails. And then
also the other issue is going from the east side to the west
side of the river, you know, we're bound by bridges and the
only bridge in the area that they can cross is Nukusa bridge. And
so part of the issue was being able to use Jackson Street and
Grand Avenue bridge as a crossover to get from trails and
the traverse through the different communities. And so it went
to council several months ago, and it was voted down at that
point to not allow it. The city had a different ordinance. The
two spearhead people are the two organizers, I'd say, you
know, they brought forth a different ordinance. And they got
about 1200 signatures to get this brought back to council
called direct legislation. And so that came before last
night, and they added some things in there. And I think there's
some council people that were concerned, I initially was very
concerned to that 12 to 15 year old could operate an ATV while
in the presence of or being accompanied by a parent who's could
be on a different machine. So they would be operating the it
themselves. And that concerned me. I brought up and I've
spilt. Well, the organizers and last night I brought up, you
know, I think about my son who just got his driver's license
and all everything you had to do, all the classroom, all the
driving, all the driving with my wife and I, and to drive
on our city streets. And now we're going to allow a 12 year old
to operate a machine on our city streets have to follow same
rules of the road with a certificate. But then you started
thinking, well, you know, you allow eight year olds and with
guns in the woods under mentorship, but you know, a parent
could physically grab the gun if they needed to or I say, well,
really, how many 12 year olds are going to be out on the TV
with their parents and you know, usually by then because it's
all out on trails and those type of things already. So they're
a little more experienced. And so ultimately, it was voted
down last night again, same, same boat, same two people are in
favor and the other six were against. And now they'll go to
referendum in November. And so I would think and hope that
the organizers will now spend more time educating the public
maybe get on here and kind of talk to people. But yeah, I take
an opportunity to correct some untrue or not factual
information. The American time use was putting out there this
morning that, you know, I had the ability to veto what the
council did last night. And that is absolutely incorrect. And
that's the important part. And I'm just going to spend time
now. From the next month, you know, trying to correct it
misinformation because that is actually untrue, you know, if
the council would have voted in favor of it, I could have
vetoed it. So, but just because a council votes something
down doesn't mean you can only vote, you can only veto positive
things. And then if I vetoed something, then the council by a
three force majority or a city council, let's say they'd need
six votes to overturn my veto. So you can only veto things
that are in the positive and the affirmation. Yeah, I don't
know how you can veto something. So I'm vetoing, I'd be
vetoing something that wasn't allowed already. So that makes
no sense. Just want to double that, you know, just get tired
of the misinformation out there because it is just factually
untrue. And it's really disappointing that that, you know,
candidates are putting information that's untrue out there
and it's frustrating. You know, it's usually, it usually, so
one of the things I've learned in this job, I don't have to
ask the, the Chris Matthews, hardball questions. I don't have
to try to get you got your journalism. I ask very basic
questions and they give the answers and the answers are the
whatever there is is right there in the answer. Like, people
will tell you where they stand or how they are about things,
especially politicians, especially in politics. I don't think
this really applies to people like yourself, she and work
for your politicians or aren't really into this that to be
blunt, didn't necessarily want to even be into this. That
kind of thing. So, but you're, you're kind of a career
politician. They use I a lot, a lot of I a lot of that. They, they
will, when you ask them a question about their, they're where
they stand out in the issue. If they talk about their issue,
that's one thing. If they immediately projected the other guy
and talk about the other person and all that and everything
and they deflect, that's another sign. And one of the biggest
signs to me is not understanding the position or even
government or even yeah, yeah, even just basic government
is just perplexing to me. But yeah, you know, I agree with
you and it's frustrating. And so we can afford to have people in
any position, no matter what how small the town is or how big it
is or anything from Wisconsin, rabbits to the mayor of New
York, we cannot afford to have people in these positions that
one do not understand the job, all the technicalities and all
the difficulties of that job and the logistics and all of
that. And people that want this to get their 15 seconds of
fame, go join a reality show. There's a billion of them out
there. I'm sure you can find one that'll take you. And if you
have a cause that you care about going back to what I was
saying with that, there is social media. But you lose, no, even
if somebody is on the, because I'm on the, I have not enough
information and have not ATV enough and all that to really give
a opinion or anything a strong about that particular topic.
But when it like something like that, if you care about that
topic and you're promoting that topic, you only lose people
if you're not being factual, double check, you have to triple
check and quadruple check your information nowadays, because
the second somebody catches you in something that isn't true,
you immediately start losing people, even people on your side,
even people that want to believe in you. Yeah, it's amazing
that the organizers of the TV, you know, I'll just say Brian
and Maddie is, you know, they they provide so many statistics
and they do so much research and even going through it and
taking the signatures they got, comparing it to voter lists to
find out the percentage of those people that are voters and,
you know, and that's you got, I'm not the respect for that, you
know, because they are actually researching, providing
statistics and, you know, but it still comes down to like they
said last night, you know, no matter what the experts say,
it still comes down to people deciding what they feel
comfortable with. The experts all, you know, I respect our
department heads and I respect their knowledge, but, you know,
for me, it's usually taking in that information as
information source, so I can make a decision, but I'm not going
to make a decision just because they tell me so, you know,
you want, you need to, you need to apply many things to the
information you're getting in your own morals and your own
personal opinions with the facts. And so you just can't just
go with it because, because they're the expert.
What is next for this proposal?
So yeah, I think now it's just going to be education until
November and then obviously November is going to be a huge
turnout. So he'll be interested to see what the community decides.
I think it really be based on understanding what the
ordinance is and what it's going to mean. It's going to be
interesting. You know, I talked to the mayor from Archfield
and, you know, and I don't know if I brought it up to you
before, but because we have a chicken ordinance in town,
and we've had it for decades yet, you can have chickens and
they got to be hands and you got to go through a process.
And so Lois and I were talking because they have the ATV
ordinance and they couldn't for the life of them get a chicken
ordinance passed in Marshfield, but they have this ATV.
And I'm like, yeah, we've got a chicken ordinance forever,
but we can't get this right. It just makes no sense that,
you know, Marsha, you can ride around a Marshfield. It's okay.
But that's how you get these things passed. Say that your
rival city is doing something and immediately like all the
old high school rivalries and everything will start, well,
wait a minute. They're doing that over there. We're going to
definitely do it. But I was just thinking about chickens are
no big deal. You don't really get any complaints about it.
You got some hands. You can have your chickens and it's no big
deal. But Marshfield, it was. And yeah, we have to say an
issue with ATVs here. And I think, I think, I don't know,
you know, I think people think it's going to be a race track.
And for me, I just look at it as another mode of transportation.
You know, you can drive e-bikes. You can drive all spiders.
You can drive motorcycles and turtles. You name it. And I just
look at it as another mode of transportation. And yeah,
you can go off-road with them, but you can go off-road with
trucks and everything else. I don't know.
It would be interesting.
For a recreational central Wisconsin. And well, and that's a
key part too of the bringing people to this town and bringing
visitors to this town and to this area. And with the winter we
have had, I mean, that's rough looking for any opportunities for
people to be able to bring more that in. That seems like a
really positive for any community.
Yeah, and there was last couple of weeks go as up ice fishing
in Tomahawk. And they had, it was, they had ice everywhere, but
there was no snow. And it was, you know, it's snow and bill
capital up there. But they ended up having a UTV convention
up there. And there was just hundreds and hundreds of UTV
people. And they were in the eating establishments and all
over. And it was a good thing. You know, and I think
potentially, you know, you could have something like that
located centrally in Wisconsin and, and the businesses would
definitely benefit from that. And we'll be, we'll be
definitely paying close attention and covering that story. We're
speaking with Mayor Shane Blazer with our friends from Wisconsin
rabbits community media. Just as the last couple of minutes
change, just some real quick stuff. I know that there is the
bridge bridge lights project that you've been, it's kind of a
passion project of yours. How was that developing time? I
always go so fast with us. So yeah, a bridge light I met with
our city engineer together to get the bid documents together.
So hopefully we'll get that out per bed. And we'll see what's
the numbers come back at and see whether or where the council
feels comfortable. But it'd be using tiff money and tiff money
needs to be used or it's, and it's part of the tiff plan. And
so I think it fits right in there. But we need extra money
because we need to make sure we have money to fix the river wall
because there's issues there. And also, we're working on
cleaning up the foundry site over Optics Pressway there. We
can use some of that money for a mansion there. But it's
pretty healthy tiff. And I think it'd be a great project if
it financially makes sense. And hopefully, here's hoping it
does too. The few people that I've talked to about it and
people that have asked me about it and everything seem really
excited about the idea. It seems like a really nice thing to
add to our bridges. Yeah, it's just phenomenal. You can set
programs for different lightings, different seasons, and
you know, Green Bay, we're kind of modeling after Green Bay,
they have a couple of three bridges lit there. So we kind
of were kind of building off our bid documents kind of the
way Green Bay did. And so some different options in which
would be different costs. That's a great thing to note too, if
people out there are kind of curious and looking for an
example that there you go, there's the great example of that
and it's a local one too. And something you can find I found
online, I was able to see pictures of that and everything.
It looks really cool. The citizens in that area in the
comments I was reading in the article, they found like one
a person was talking about a fourth of July event that they
hadn't been to in years, but they came to because of the
lights and really found themselves enjoying it. It kind of
brought a new life to the event. And this is just the
stuff that we're thinking of. With projects like this, I
always love the idea of, well, there's stuff that we are
not even thinking of yet. You don't you don't think of
until they're actually up and running and stuff. So that'd be
fun. Green for St. Patrick's Day, Red and White. Just
analyst Christmas and can have a lot of fun with that.
Yeah, I think so too. Rapping up one of the touch on two on
one day and the importance of that in our community. Yeah,
you know, two on one is a very important ability or asset
or, you know, resource for resource. Thank you for people
in the community with all sorts of questions. And it's easy
to dial. And yeah, they can they can really help
answer a lot of those questions that you might have in the
community. We appreciate those proclamations and they give us
an opportunity not only I think for people to understand
two on one, especially if you don't know what it is or new to
town or something, but kind of also even those of us that
know what it is, give it like kind of, you know, I haven't
appreciated two on one in a while or I haven't called to
one one in a while or anything. I journalistically should
mention, if I don't mention this, my big sister Terry will
probably, you know, I'll put my arm behind my back or something
Terry. So she's going to be in on Friday. So I got to get this
in. I bring her up and I bring up the United Way, though,
because of the impact that they have in this community. And I
think that that's a big part of what two on one represents.
It is a resource and it is a wonderful one. But I think when
I think of two on one, I immediately think of the United
Way. And that just reminds a lot of our community of the
impact they make in this area. Yeah, Terry, you know, right,
United Way and their team over there, it's, it's an asset to
the organization or to the community and then what they do
and all the things are involved in. Shane, appreciate the
time and appreciate how you've taken these last couple of
months, the way you're approach and what you're doing with
this and the way that you're looking to handle your your
at the end of your run here and everything. It's not just me
speaking here, I know that I've talked to many people in the
community. If you're very similar, we've really appreciated your
run here. You are going to be remembered as one of the the
perfect mayor for what we have been through in the last five to
10 years.
Yeah, that's five years. Yeah, you know, you always say that
hopefully the mayor at that that time is what the what the
community needed. And you know, I guess not myself. No, I need
something else. And I think it's a good direction for the
community to take time to hand it off. Yeah, I get that. And
then we can start doing our sports show together. We can
do the old mayor show or something. Yeah, there you go. Yeah,
let's bring it up to now, you know, like that idea. Shane, if
people have follow up questions, one of them more and get a
hold of you, how can they do that? Yeah, you can go to you
can email a mayor at wirapis.org or you can call her phone at
7154218202 or go to the website. Appreciate you, sir. Thanks
for the time. Thank you, James. And thank you to Wisconsin
Rebs Community Media. Appreciate you guys as well. Be sure to
subscribe to their YouTube page. We'll be back with more
morning midday magazine right here on WF HR locally grown
radio.
