Well, welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this Wednesday July 17th, 2024.
We have with us in part two today at 430, Mike Hittner and Luke Conkel with historic
point bosses who done it looking forward to talking with those gentlemen about that.
Right now we have in studio, our good friend Wisconsin Rapids Mayor Matt Zacker.
Matt, good to see you.
Thanks for being here.
Thanks for being here.
Thanks for being here.
I appreciate it.
We want to send a big thank you to our friends at Wisconsin Rapids Community Media as well.
Take the work they're doing, support the work they are doing, go to YouTube, type in
your search bar, Wisconsin Rapids Community Media, and subscribe to their page.
Appreciate the gang over there.
Matt, I got a couple of questions for you, but my first one, just to start things off,
how are you doing?
How are things going?
You've been in the job for a little while now and everything.
How are you adjusting?
How is your schedule?
How are you?
Yeah.
I'm doing really well.
Three months in.
The meat and greets are slowing down, just being able to reach out and touch base with
everybody in the community inside the organization.
It's been great, but at the same time, there's a job to be done, so it's good to kind of be
getting into the nuts and bolts of the organization itself, tapping into the, getting the budget
process started so that we can start talking about, you know, what's going on inside
each of the departments and touching base on that, because it's going to be a big part
of the conversation, you know, for the time that I'm in there, and it's an important
part.
I don't really well, though, and I appreciate everybody welcoming me to the degree that
they have.
It's been awesome.
Good to hear.
And you know, I think it's too detailed on this, but have you been kind of learning on
the job a bit as well as far as there are things I'm sure that you prepped and planned
for, that you knew the job would have, but things come up, they're like, oh, I didn't
know we were in charge of this, or I didn't know we did this, learning some of that as
well.
Absolutely.
One of my strengths, I think, is for lack of better term, just going with the flow
and being able to feel comfortable enough to shift gears when need be, I've never had
a schedule packed quite as full as it gets, and it goes out quite a ways.
So I certainly keep my eyes on that every day, every morning, you know, and every night
just to make sure I'm staying on track that way.
But outside of that, there's always these other things that are happening.
So the time in between gets filled with other things.
I would say the biggest thing that I've learned so far, I was thinking about this yesterday
is the, I mean, it's like a good thing, but I see the negative side to it from inside
the organization, which is when a mayor and the leadership that's being elected, and
this isn't something I've ever experienced before, because even as an alderman, you don't
see it to the same degree, I'm seeing it now.
There's a lot, it creates a lot of unsureity or insecurity in terms of inside the organization
as to who's coming, what are they going to bring, how are they going to shake things
up, you know, and how are they going to do it?
What's their personality like, because you can either, you know, you can come in many
different ways.
I think it's important for me, for myself, to start to understand that better, from not
just from my perspective, and what I want to get done in two years, or whatever, however
long I'm going to be here, but ultimately seeing that from the perspective of the community
yes, but even more so, the people that are in the organization, and building the communication.
This is all, in my mind, at least for the first two years, if not more, it's all about
communication, and bridging those gaps.
I set it all out in my campaign, I'm saying it now even more internally, and once we get
the internal on track where we need to be, so that we can be the best for the external
communication with the community.
It is orange cone season, we know we have got a lot of construction going on in town, a
lot of projects that are bigger projects, maybe, how is that going, any updates on that
everything going as planned, going pretty too schedule?
Yeah, everything is going really well.
There's a lot of things that are happening all at one time, I took a ride around with
Paul Wallert, the super public work superintendent, just to get a bird's eye as to what's going
on, meet some more of the people that are out there doing the work, again, great appreciation
for what everybody in the streets does.
Again, organization-wide and government-wide, but right now it's a big push to get the
streets done.
I know I understand better, it's easy to complain about the things that you do see on a day-to-day
basis, but if you ever want to stop by and kind of see what it takes in order to keep
150 miles of road working, if you're replacing everything, the surface, the infrastructure,
the water, the gas, everything underneath it.
We're talking about $2 million a mile, we've got 150 miles worth of road, so you've got
to keep the other roads up to speed as much as you can, and a lot of that comes with the
chip seal, which is the pebble entire kind of stuff and everybody hates that.
I get it, I don't like it anymore than anybody else does, but that does give the road longevity
for another five years or better in order for us to be able to have a system in place
to be able to tackle the roads methodically versus just haphazardly, so they do do a great
job, and we are lucky to have the roads in the shape that they're in, always striving
to do better, but we should appreciate the fact that we have the roads that we have.
I spend a lot of time in a lot of our neighboring towns and cities and not call anybody out,
but we've got it a lot better than some, and need to appreciate that sometimes, and
always like to use this as a reminder to slow down, keep an eye out for construction workers,
they're just trying to do their job, let them do, they're just trying to keep our roads
safe, you know, keep an eye out for them.
And now that family's to go home to, so appreciate the work that they do and keep them safe.
The city recently asked residents for their input and involvement as part of the downtown
master plan, we talked about this the last time we were together and everything.
Any updates on that, have you received feedback, whether it's good or bad or what the details
of that are.
Certainly, we'll get to that at another time, but have you been getting some feedback from
that?
Absolutely, and the company you hire to do the planning of the whole thing, and it's good
to understand, too, these are planners, and they're hired to do a job, and that's communicate
effectively, bring in all the groups that want to see things, that own property downtown,
that have a vested interest in the downtown, that want to invest in the downtown, and
that's key to the whole thing, you can plan and plan and plan all you want, but if you
don't get the people that see the vision and invest their money and resources in the downtown
to take on these projects, whether they're real or, you know, a lot of the times you have
to decide, is this a reality or is it just look really nice on paper, you know, and it
takes the people to be able to have the vision to say, I can do this and I can afford to do
this and make it happen.
And then get the buy-in from the people who are a part of that project, and everybody
in the community who wants to be a part of that downtown area, we all want to see it succeed.
One of the things that you talked about in your campaign, and I know that was important
to you, is bringing not only jobs, but businesses to town, this is a part of that, so I imagine
that we, as you said, we kind of need a good basis for them to go to, all of these things
tie together.
Yeah, there's a, you know, you have a choice in life, you can either, you know, be positive
or you can be kind of negative, you hate to say it, and I think it's, I don't know for
sure, but in my opinion, it's way easier to be positive.
It doesn't cost anything, it doesn't hurt anyone, and I do realize, like, there's a
difference between reality, like when you're talking to people face to face, way more
positive, way, you know, when you get on social media, I know we've talked about that
in the past.
I don't know what it is about social media, but, you know, I appreciate all these websites
and Facebook pages that are coming up that they all, all they want to do is talk about
the positive things.
They don't want any of the negative, because the negative can overtake things so fast,
and then it just makes everybody else get down and feel like, oh, maybe it's not worth
the effort to try to build this positivity or the vision, the future or the community.
I'm just encouraging everybody to stay as positive as you can and be a part of the conversation
for progress, not for, you know, holding everything back or the days, what it used to
be like.
We can certainly respect the heritage and everything that comes along with the history of Wisconsin
Rapids further back than the paper industries and the cranberries and everything else that
we have here, but we're also looking to move forward.
And that comes with vision and people that are willing to put their money where their
mouth is and really get things moving forward and taking those risks and building the future
of the community.
So I support that 100%.
Every dog can bark, but not every dog can sit.
Not every dog can, you know, agree to right when you walk in the door and everything.
It's very important as we go forward as a society, because the country has already spoken
on this.
We are looking to be more positive.
We are tired of the divisiveness and I think that on a local level, we've got a lot of
that going on and have been for a while, I would say, it's encouraging.
It's very encouraging.
I think it's important to note, too, with this, you can have accountability while also
being positive.
You can like, hey, I don't like what's going on here.
I'm going to mention something about it and do it like an adult, you know, and to the
social media aspect of the keyboard cowards out there, we deal with some of that, too.
I have my, since my first day in radio, I've been dealing with that.
And it's one of those things where I noticed that the more time goes on, more and more
people are becoming that person that, well, if I really want to be heard, I actually have
to be an adult.
I have to talk to this person like an adult, and we're getting more and more of that.
I'm encouraged by that.
I'm with you on this 100%.
I also have my mother in the back of my head, Jimmy, you know, it takes more muscles to
frown than smile.
So that's, of course, popping in my head as well.
So we're speaking with Mayor Matt Zacker right now, Wisconsin's Rapids Mayor Matt Zacker.
And I mentioned the city master plan, the downtown master plan that people are working
on.
You can find out more about that at the city's website and take a look at that website
while you can because it's going to be changing a little bit.
You guys are working on a new website, I see.
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
This was something that I saw almost immediately and everybody in the organization and community
are in lock stop.
Like the website has to be completely revamped, updated, started over.
And that's what we're doing, but we're taking the time to get everybody's input.
You know, we got IT and Wisconsin Rapids community media, you know, they're doing a great
job, kind of spearheading the efforts to get that on, you know, the fast track.
It's going to take time.
And so we reached out to the department heads and the departments and we're talking that
through the organization itself and now we're reaching out to the community because we want
this to be the future website for the next, you know, I say 50 years, who knows, who
knows how long, but I would say if we do it right now, and it's exciting because what
I see more than anything, I set it already this morning, communication is key.
And right now, there's a divide between the city organization and the community and
the residents and the businesses and we need to make that go as much as possible.
And a big part of that is going to be this website.
You know, my first, what I'm saying foremost is it's got to be able to be on the phone.
It's, you know, everybody's got the phone.
We have no idea what AM radio is going to be like in the future and what, you know,
phones are going to be like, what television will be like, what radio, newspapers, but
we do have a pretty good idea unless something drastically changes that everybody's going
to have the phone in the pocket.
And everybody knows how to tap, not all the old folks like to do the texting, but they
do like to do the tapping and be able to get there.
So my vision is to have this our website on a shortcut on everybody's homepage so they
can get up in the morning and they can tap on it and find out what's going on in the
city and short order.
They're not trying to navigate through this confusing website.
It's just right there for you.
And I think the most important part of this and my eyes is to be able to give people information
that is coming straight from the city without being, that's, you know, no way to twist
it one way or the other right?
I see it already.
Again, I'm not going to point fingers at anything, but I can see how snippets can be taken
and turned anyway you want and to make the story go the way you want it to go.
All I want to do is get out the information to people.
Heather and Joe and myself are going to be working on doing more, kind of like what we
do here to be able to just have a conversation and be able to talk about what's going
on at the fire department, what's going on with the ATV-UTV stuff.
And we're going to do that and just have a conversation and be able to put it out to
people.
We got to figure out how to, you know, do that and small snippets so that people can
get the information quick without being too bored and falling asleep.
So there's a lot, a lot to be said about the communication and what that website is going
to bring for the future of connecting us to the community.
I have a good feeling about this internet thing.
I'm with you.
I think it's going to be around a while.
So it's a great point to, and it speaks to, too, a part of the reason what I appreciate
about you in this position is the type of coach that doesn't take a great athlete and
say, here's my playbook, do what I tell you to.
I appreciate the coach that meets the player and say, you got this particular skill set.
I'm going to rework my playbook to highlight that specific skill set and everything.
I'm going to reach you.
I'm going to meet you halfway.
That's what you're looking to do with the community here is with the information or
just conversation is being able to, can't be in everybody's living room.
But if you can meet each other halfway here, we can talk.
Absolutely.
And it's working really well within the city as I get to know and build the trust with
the people that are working, doing the job that we hired them to do.
Again, it's not about me.
It's about what benefits the community most and if we get everybody working towards
the same vision, the same goal in the city, which is being the best possible services provided
for the residents and businesses, that's our job and that's customer service and that's
what we're going to attain.
Part of that communication you talk about is feedback and we value your feedback so you can
go to wirapids.org and leave feedback and leave information to how you feel about the
website or what you're looking for on the website.
Of course, on the city master plan as well.
You can go to the website wirapids.org to find out more information about that and there
is some places for you to be able to leave feedback.
Sarah, one of the also talk about the brownfield grant for the former Northern Steel Casting
site.
Pretty big news that came up recently.
Yeah, it's important.
I know there's a lot of people, especially right in that area and that's my neighborhood
that I have been a part of for 20 years.
The amazing part is that it was there for a long time.
I met a few people recently that worked there for pretty much your entire career and what
they did and how they did it and so the history again is there.
But now it's kind of just sitting there and we got to figure it out.
The downside is we have to worry about what may or may not be in the ground and we won't
know that until we take down everything and dig it all up and get the samples.
But the tricky part is we do it one of two ways.
We either do it and we pay for it all out of pocket because we're never going to get
reimbursed for it and we can't really cut corners on it because there's a certain pathway.
We have to go down through the state and federal government in order to get paid for the
process but it has to be according to their process and as we all know government moves
at its own pace and as much as we want it to move faster and I certainly am pleasantly
persistent.
I have no problem continuing to bother people and as much get it sped up as much as we
can in order to make it happen because we do know it's an eyesore and it's waiting
to be redeveloped for something else.
But in the end we have to buy our time and we got to get the money set up and do it in
the order that they're asking us to do it and so it's going to move forward, it's just
going to move forward at its own pace but at the same time we all look forward to the
end result which is getting it out of there.
Anytime I was hungry and I'm bugging my mom about food, Jimmy do you want it done faster
or do you want it done right?
My mother should have just done this interview.
One of the other things that I wanted to touch on with this and I'm kind of piggybacking
off of what you've touched on there in a little bit in the conversation here today.
I understand that what we can take from these buildings or these monuments or different
things like that but you know I would imagine that in this state there are not many structures
that are more loved or appreciated or celebrated than Lambo field.
I mean pretty pretty I think that that's pretty safe to say if it's not number one it's
at least number two in the state as far as structures you know they've made adjustments
to that.
Lambo field is not looks nothing like it did when it was first created.
I mean if we're we can take that if we can be accepting of that I'm pretty sure on
a local level you can accept that there is change and honestly and just speaking for
myself I'm thankful for that.
I pay attention to a lot of our surrounding communities.
I pay attention to a lot of the rural areas in this country and a lot of them are not
in that position.
A lot of them are not able to make these changes or don't have government that are trying
to make changes like that to advance your city.
If you don't move forward you are stuck in the past and that is the last thing any of
us can afford to do.
Right.
No absolutely.
We've talked about it a lot since I started this I knew coming into the campaign like
this we're on the cusp of change you know like I guess we always are but in a sense this
is a bigger big transition for me to be able to come on board and say the mill is never
coming back.
That's pretty big and I appreciate the fact that people are trusting me to bring that
news be the bearer that news and not killing the messenger per se.
But at the same time now the changes that are going to come out of that and there's a lot
of things that are happening right now.
This is one of those crossroads where I have to bite my tongue and bite my time to be able
to talk more about what's coming in the future near future but because things have to be finalized
and all that stuff until it becomes public knowledge.
But good things are coming and I think once it's all you know setting down and moving
forward people are going to appreciate you know the changes that are happening and what
it's taken to make them happen and the people that are involved with it.
We are fortunate and again hopefully it doesn't come back and bite me like I want to stay
positive.
CRG is being very open and transparent.
They have people set up to communicate effectively with us and be a part of the conversation
so that they're letting us know what's going on and what it's going to take in order
to make changes happen and get the proper permitting and putting down basically down payments
or insurance.
So if bad things do come there's some assurances there that we're not going to be stuck
with half a building up or whatever could come.
And that's the biggest thing that's all I've wanted and why I'm trying to stay as close
to it as possible as well as Kyle Kerr into doing what he can to be a part of that conversation
and making sure that it's the best end result for everybody involved including the city
of Wisconsin Rapids.
As you wrap up you know I don't know where our former mayor Shane is right now but I have
a feeling he's smiling and happy whatever he's doing.
He had a project that he was close to him that he was working on as he was wrapping up
his term about having our bridges having city lights on them having lights on it.
Any progress or any news on that?
Well it was passed right before he left office the city council did pass it so it's you
know again it comes down to I've had people talk to me about why would we do something
like that for that kind of money when we could use that money for other things.
But ultimately the way a tiff is designed and how it all plays out and I won't go into
it now but I have got my education on it so I understand better that that money is designated
for certain areas certain projects and if it's not used it goes back to the entities
that that basically agreed to give it up to keep it in a pool so that we could help make
those downtown projects happen.
My take on it personally is you know the lights aren't the end all but they're a piece
and it is the downtown it's not going to be the expressway bridge and we did agree
to do both bridges to kind of make it if we don't do them both now we do one later it's
only going to go up in cost and the fact that we're able to cut down on some of the
necessary materials to make that happen is somewhat of a cost savings but in the end
it costs a lot of money to do what we're going to do and it's going to look great and
it's going to be a part of the overall plan I think a lot of times you know usually in
my life you know I have ideas it takes money to make them happen you get it accomplished
you got a lot of people that you kind of got to drag along and because they're kind of
the naysayers but they're more cautious yeah yeah but in the end I like when they come
back and say I wish we would have done this 10 years ago you know so one of the biggest
things we're trying to do is not only keep residents but bring new residents in people
like a good looking town they like a town that looks like oh they're putting into this
area oh this is new this is something that there is it's not a hard argument to make
that this will I don't know you can you're going to make your mind and the investment
this is we will make back right I don't think that's hard stretch and I really you give
me a perfect opening here I cannot encourage voters out there listeners residents enough
learn more about your city budget and how that works yeah it is not like how you work your
budget it is incredibly different and involves I imagine that if it was just you and your
significant other going over your budget and now 50 other people are coming in with 50
other different rules and different things and then there's 50 more people over here and
then oh yeah there's the government that comes it's a lot more different a lot more complicated
than even I understand and I do my homework on this stuff so I encourage you to do so you can go
to wirapids.org or Wisconsin's Rapps Community Media's website and follow along on council meetings
it's a great way to get informed on this and know more about your community if you want to know more
or ask Mayor Zach or any questions Matt how can they reach you seven one five three two one zero seven
two seven is always my go to number appreciate you man thanks for the time thank you for your time
appreciate it and a big thank you to our friends at Wisconsin's Rapps Community Media
subscribe to their page and keep up the date on the work they are doing will have more midday
magazine coming up for you on WFHR
