Welcome, everybody, to Midday Magazine for this Wednesday, October 23rd, 2024.
Have your host, James J. Mailoff here.
At 4.30 today, we're going to speak with our friend, Lisa, from the ODC.
Talk a little bit with them about some of the great events they have coming up.
Right now, we want to welcome in to the studio our great friends, of course, from Wisconsin's
Ravits Community and Media.
Big shout out to them.
Do yourself a favor.
Go to your search bar on YouTube, type in Wisconsin's Ravits Community and Media, and subscribe
to the group work that they are doing.
And our good friend Lance Plummel, Wood County Board Chairman, joins us right now with an
update on Wood County.
Lance, always good to have you in studio.
Thanks for being here.
And James, just like you said, it's always good to be here as well.
Appreciate the opportunity.
Want to dive right into it.
We got a lot to talk about today, Lance.
Certainly jiving into the big one out there voting.
And as they reminded everybody, we're so close.
We're right.
We're rounding third.
We're almost a home base.
We're almost done with the ads and all the jargon and all of this.
And I make a joke about this to kind of segue into it.
I personally believe that voting is a responsibility and something that we all should do.
And putting that on anybody, just my opinion, just my thoughts.
I feel like freedom isn't free.
I feel like we live in the greatest country in the world.
And that comes with things that are asked of us to live in this country.
And one of them is to keep democracy alive and to keep it healthy.
One of the things that we try to do here at WFHR, that WFHR has done for over 80 years,
finally be bipartisan and be down the line, but also keep our audience informed.
And I just want to remind everybody out there, myvote.wi.gov, you can go to civicmedia.us
and get links to where you can go to find out more information.
Lance, you are behind the scenes with a lot of this.
How is everything building towards the big day, the Super Bowl, November 5th?
I had somebody say the other day, the most important day of the year is coming up.
And I said election day, they said, no, the last day, all these commercials are on.
I would get back to normal, but you know, I can do space your language, but it really is
a responsibility.
And I always tell you, you know, if you don't vote, and I have people tell me that, they've
said, I've never voted.
And my exact words aren't don't complain, but that's what they are.
That's what it means.
You know, you have to get out there and you really do a disservice to yourself, your community
and or your country.
If you don't research those issues, now I'm not telling anybody which way to vote.
I'm telling you, you know, to go out there, really do the research and then get to the
polls.
Because you make a difference.
You know, what amazes me the most, James, and oftentimes we just alluded to some opportunities
I get occasionally with candidates, or I just know the people, because we deal with them.
Whether they're in comments, we deal with them in Washington, or whether we're talking
to them as candidates, there's differences.
But the one thing I'd always amazes me during this, I'll call commercial season is these
commercials that come out and say, candidate A said, and I'll go, no, they didn't, I've
met with them a hundred times.
No candidate D did, and I go, they didn't do that either.
So you really need to sometimes take a little deeper dive into that, than I watched TV.
Like listen to James on the radio, get the real, get the real facts, but no, you really
got to get out there.
And you know, it isn't just the national elections.
I mean, there's local issues.
And you know, all politics is local.
It starts at home.
I, you know, I don't care.
It's not happening right now.
It's not on the belt.
But I don't care if it's school board races or town boards, county boards.
You really need to get out there and make your voice heard.
You know, and you touched on something I really wanted to make sure to hit on.
I think that most of a lot of people out there are certainly going to know candidates that
are running for certain positions and everything.
And as Lance touched on, be informed, be understand these people inside and out when you're
going into that booth.
But I've heard from a number of listeners that one of the panicking almost of, well, wait
a minute, what about what about referendums and things like that that are on the ballot?
You can find out all that information.
You can do your homework and be prepared for this beforehand.
And when it comes to what Lance is talking about, I just want to hit home that part of
it.
These referendums are vital and important to our communities.
And researching those are just as important as researching these candidates.
Yeah.
You know, we got a really big one coming up as far as referendums go.
It was constant rapids right now.
And that's the ATVU TV world.
And I'm not telling anybody how to vote, but I can tell you, you know, we researched
this as a county for years and we were way behind in getting on board and using that
as an economic development tool and a tourism tool.
And frankly, you are not going to have any more super large industrial, you know, employers
that hire 3,000, 4,000 people.
It doesn't exist anymore.
And you say, what are the greatest attributes we have in wood county?
And one of those is tourism.
And what is, you know, spurred tourism the last several years, you know, it is ATVU TV
usage.
And I hear people say, I'll call it the non-fact.
Well, they'll run up and down the street and cause problems.
And I say, you know, a lot of the UTVs today cost $50,000.
You know, they have all the attributes that Carr does.
And more importantly, they're less, you know, you hear they're inherently unsafe.
Well, not compared to a motorcycle or a moped or maybe a horse and buggy.
And so, you know, we took the perspective in the county is, you know, we're going to open
our roads up and we'll deal with the problem if it occurs.
And we didn't invent that wheel.
You know, we looked at what was successful in communities all across the state.
I can give examples like Lafayette County where they built hotels and resorts and other
things.
The Readsburg area where there's a dealership that had 1,400 units on the floor of the
other day because they're selling so many, some of those are lawnmowers by the way.
But, I mean, there's a lot of, a lot of sales going on there which spurred sales tax
and other development.
So, we're going to track people to this area because of those recreational attributes
we have.
So, I'm not telling you, do one or the other, I can tell you from a county's perspective,
we looked at this.
Is it inherently unsafe in the answer, or is it not?
I was hoping we'd have an informational meeting yesterday.
The city that did not occur.
And it would have given people the opportunity to ask those questions.
You know, do you need to be licensed?
Don't you?
Do you need insurance?
Yeah, all of those kind of things.
So, do your research, but that's, as James alluded to, that's an important issue that's
out there on this ballot.
There's a number of people out there too that are actually asking me this before I had
Mayor, Mayor, Mayor Zach in earlier, or a while ago, Pierce, we were talking about this
issue and there were people like, I see these signs, I don't know what this is for.
And they live like two blocks away from my parents.
There's a lot of people in the community that understand that this is going to be on
the ballot, but what it is and what it's saying.
And I talked about this in depth with Sheriff Becker, the last time he was on this bill.
And I was very honest with him on air, off air, and with the audience.
I came into this with a perspective of, nope, not right away.
Because I, wholeheartedly admit, I come from a background, I've been through a number
of, I've been into a lot of car accidents in my life when I was a kid.
And it had a real, did a real number on me.
I had a, I lost an uncle to a drunk driver.
I, I'm very sensitive to this issue, so I wholeheartedly admit that.
And one of my concerns was that, and I asked Sheriff Becker point blank, is this something
you think we have earned?
And without blinking an eye, yes, is this safe?
Something without blinking an eye?
Yes, he believes this is.
And I take his word.
We researched this.
This isn't something we just said, hey, this would just sound fun.
So we don't, we don't have enough of this in society.
I'm owning this that I, I could be, I could have been wrong on this issue that I certainly
needed to do my homework on it, talk to people that understand this issue better than
I do.
And I feel more informed on it, and I feel much better going in to vote for it.
And you know, research the issue, whether it's that one, you know, we had some references
on the last ballot, sometimes they're worded in a way that's so goofy, it makes it extremely
hard to understand.
And that's when you maybe need to call somebody who might be able to, not tell you which
way to vote, but at least tell you, a yes vote means this, a no vote means the other.
Because they do occasionally get confused.
But you know, this political season's coming to an end.
I met with our county clerk, and we have one of the best in the state, Trent Miner,
who's actually the president of their clerks association, state level.
He works with local clerks to train them.
And, you know, I can tell you locally in Wood County, I feel very comfortable that our
elections are safe.
They're secure that the clerks do a great job that Trent and his staff have done a wonderful
job of working with those communities to make sure that everybody's, you know, in line,
ready to go.
And I heard early voting yesterday when it started was fairly robust in a number of
locations.
So that takes a little bit of pressure off at the polling place that day.
Although I can honestly say, I don't think I've ever waited, you know, an upper vote.
I mean, wait five minutes.
Well, pretty much.
Yeah.
But nonetheless, you never know what weather's going to bring or, you know, God forbid a family
emergency or you're just sick that day.
So that opportunity exists as well.
And I encourage you to not only get in you, especially if you're, you have your, you know,
your set on your decision, go ahead and get your vote in as early as you can.
Now that you're able to.
And when you're, whether you're doing that now or on November 5th, treat our poll workers
well, treat each other with grace, treat your fellow citizens with grace.
Let's act like adults.
Let's make sure that the kids that are seeing us act this way, they act that way when
they get the chance to get into that booth.
You know, this is really interesting topic because I had this conversation with somebody
the other day.
And they were convinced that elections were not secure.
And I said, so what have you done about it?
And they said, well, I complain about it.
I said, yeah, well, a lot of people do I said, have you looked at being a poll worker?
Have you thought about being a volunteer?
Have you participated in any way in the answer was no.
And I said, it goes back to what we said, if you don't vote, don't complain about the
outcome.
And if you're concerned about some of those other things, maybe it's time to step up.
Yeah.
You get what you put into life.
There anything we're talking about in life, you get what you put in.
We put a lot into the new jail and we've had some new, some news come up about that
recently, Lance.
Yeah.
It really is, I mean, jails are, if you want to call it unnecessity, I don't want to say
an evil necessity, but it's a necessity.
There's other things we would much rather spend money on in the community at, in fact,
develops economic expansion.
That being said, though, we've had different boards.
We've had sheriffs from all over the state.
People visit our facility because it really is state of the art.
It's a fantastic facility I toured it about a week ago again.
And yesterday, they announced that we are looking at ribbon cutting, kind of an open house
on December 17th, and that is the third Tuesday of December would be, I think, immediately
after the county board meeting is when they'd first open that up, and that way you'd have
sheriff's department people there to answer questions.
County board people might answer, they'll answer some of the other questions that, you know,
in regard to the financial obligations and how some of that work.
But to see these different departments from around the state come over here and go, this
would really help if we had something like this.
And then I kind of laugh when I hear some now, because the cost is huge.
But I've had others come in and say, geez, they're talking double, I wish we would have
bought it one.
I always laugh when it was a deal.
No, never a deal.
But at the end of the day, it happened to occur at the right time.
The bond rates when we started this project were under 3%.
And in today's world, as we look at it, it's pretty cheap money.
And the cost to do this over 30 years was less than the cost of operating our current jail.
So we're getting there.
It's looking good.
You know, and all that is really, really good information.
And like we've talked about a lot with this new jail, too, you can't put a price on the
safety and the safety for our officers, for the people, the clients in there, all the above.
It is about keeping our, not only our community safer, but those in working in that jail,
and in that jail, a lot safer, too.
You know, you're right.
People always looked at the bad actor who's in jail, and they deserve to be there.
And it probably, most times rightly so.
But we also have to look at protecting them, because there's a person who's occasionally
incarcerated prior to being convicted, prior to trial, and you need to assure their
safety as well, as well as the officers working within the jail.
And then, you know, some of the, the build out of that new facility allows for us to work
on the education aspect with the people who are incarcerated.
So when they come out of that jail, and keep in mind, those people that are in jail are
there, you know, a year or less.
Yeah.
These are not, you know, 30-year state prisoners or federal prisoners.
You're hoping that after that amount of time, with some training, financial, educational,
and some of the other stuff that they come out with a little different attitude, and
some tools that help them function in today's society.
That is the point of the judicial system that they come out and not go back.
One of the first conversations I have with Sheriff Becker was about stopping the revolving
door.
This is how we stop the revolving door.
This is one of the ways, one of the key ways we do it, is not only having a facility
that's safer, having a community that also understands that you, people mess up in life,
unless, of course, anybody out there that is perfect.
If you're listening and you're perfect, then I, then may you know not you.
And by that, I mean my mom.
But everybody else, everybody else, you know, of course, we are a society that is built
on second chances.
We are a society, we are a country, men, as much as we love baseball and apple pie, we
love a comeback, boy do we love a comeback, and it's not just on a big celebrity level,
it's on a local level too, because these people are able to be taxpayers and contributors
and add to our economy when they get out if they do, you know, act right.
Of course, have their accountability, because that is key to all of this.
And it's great to hear that about December 17th, that's an exciting date to look forward
to.
Yeah, we're looking forward to it.
You know, somebody said one time, you know, if you don't know what the county does,
you've probably lived a pretty good life, you know, because we do have the courts, the
jails, the sheriff's department, human services departments, which deal with a number of issues,
you know, from child protective services to, you know, those who have economic hardship.
So if you're only, you know, contact with the courthouse is, you know, you walked in
and paid your taxes or something, it's probably a pretty good life, but there's a lot of services
there.
You know, I'm just a shout out to, you know, the sheriff's department has worked extremely
hard on this project, obviously.
And I'm amazed as I wear my other hat and I travel around the country for, for the
counties association, I can't believe how many people who sit in a similar seat to
mind say, you talked to your sheriff.
You guys converse.
It's an idea to say, I go, I'm sorry.
Our sheriff and, you know, Sean Becker, you mentioned him several times today.
If there's a big decision, you know, oftentimes, we'll have these conversations like, what
do you think?
Prior to making those types of, you know, decisions, now that's not a decision to arrest
somebody, but, you know, the more the operational stuff, and at the end of the day, he can
tell me I'm nuts, but the point is, those conversations take place.
And they take place, not only with the sheriff, but we just had the regional legislative
breakfast at Midstate a week ago.
The thing I'm most proud of is, besides seeing you talk to your sheriff, they go, you've
talked to your state legislators, I go, yeah, probably one of them every day.
You talk to the governor's office, uh-huh.
Communication is key to everything that we do, you know, Mayor Zacker, you know, and it
gets confused, I laugh, because, you know, you had Zach Vrewink, and Matt Zacker, right?
Sometimes it gets a little confusing, but the mayor's we've had, whether it be down
here, and Wisconsin Rapids up in Marshfield or everywhere in between.
We have these conversations, I don't want to say daily, but I never issue.
It's never, I'm not talking to you.
Listen to the radio shows just around us, you're going to find out that is not always
the case.
So, uh, thank you to all of those out there who work with us.
Speaking with Lance Plymouth, Wood County Board Chairman, Lance, we had some news about
Powers Bluff area as well when to get to.
Yeah, that's, um, tremendous, uh, facility out there.
I mean, it's always been our winter sports area, great place to go view, you know, nature
and, uh, there's a stark perspective up there with some of the Native American burial
grounds.
But over the last several years, we've been working on a world class mountain biking
system, basically, uh, and it goes from the, I can go take my bike and my kids out there
and I can ride to some extremely difficult, you know, kind of single track stuff that
the best off-road kind of bike people in the world would want to use.
Uh, and then with one time ARPA money, and you've heard about that, you know, nationally,
we're different government levels of government, we're given dollars to do things.
One of the things we were very cognizant of in Wood County is we were not going to spend
this operationally.
We wanted to have something that's going to be a legacy.
That when you're all done, 30 years from now, when nobody knows who was on the board
or what happened to go, oh, they didn't waste that money.
Yeah.
Here's what it is.
So, we had tremendous build out there and it's in the plans to have a shelter out there,
a building, uh, where we can move some of that activity that was off the top of the hill
or more of the Native American concerns were to the bottom, uh, it'll be something that
can be used year-round.
So, uh, that along with the parking lots, the roads, the access, tremendous facility, um,
while that was getting done, one of the concerns we always have in campgrounds is summer storms.
And we just finished a safe house at Lake Waziccia, uh, just adjacent to the campgrounds there
where in the event of a, a terrible storm coming, it doesn't have to be just a camper.
Yeah.
There's a safe house there.
That houses, I, I, I'd be lying if I said no to the exact pay, probably around 250 people
sure, uh, can get in where you can avoid some of the carnage that may occur if you're out
and, and that was another one of these things that was funded to a large extent with those
kind of dollars.
So, at the end of the day, we want to be else something you could point at and go, that's
what we did.
Um, we have a federally qualified, uh, health facility going in.
Um, that's a, roughly, round numbers, a $20 million project that the county has participated
in that will provide medical care, uh, within the community.
And those are all things you can see, uh, so hopefully all these come to fruition, all
those dollars have to be allocated, allocated by the end of this year, and they have to be
spent down by the end of 2026.
Hmm.
So, big projects.
Yeah.
And, and look forward to hearing how they progress.
Uh, next time we get together and, uh, talking about those some more, uh, one of the wrap-up
lands with the last minute or two we had here, you had, uh, uh, uh, I think a fun opportunity
recently to be a part of, uh, that, uh, not be a part of, but to be at the debate, uh,
most recent Senate debate, uh, that we had with Tammy Baldwin, and they were, uh, hubby,
uh, how did that go?
Well, first of all, it's amazing how many cameras and how many people are at those events,
you know, uh, held in TV studio in Madison, the most recent, and, and usually they are,
um, but the station itself is phenomenal.
I remember as, uh, I'll cause a kid being in college down there and looking at a building
about the size of the radio station we're sitting in right now, and I walk in the other
day and there is, you know, 10 desks, I don't know, hundreds of monitors, cameras everywhere,
all remotely run, uh, and then there's only, and they brought in a panel of people to
do the questioning, uh, the tap TV anchors from around the state, um, and there's eight
people there, uh, you know, basically three who were, uh, friends of and or related to,
uh, uh, uh, Tammy Baldwin and, uh, my wife and I, and we sat between them.
I don't know if they, that was purposefully done, probably, um, but it's a real opportunity
not only to, to listen to the answers to hear the questions, but to meet those people
before and after, you know, whether it be in green rooms or others where you really
get to know the candidate and that's why I tell people, if you have those opportunities
to meet, to actually go talk to them and candidates are usually always willing to do that,
but I can tell you this too, our, our representatives, you can send all the letters you want, but
if you make an appointment and show up in Madison to meet with somebody or DC if you're
out there, um, I haven't yet to have anybody ever turn me down, yeah, and I never start
with, um, I'm representing this organization and I'm their president, and it's good, could
we talk?
Yeah.
And nobody ever says no.
So yeah, those opportunities, you know, whether they're gubernatorial, senatorial debates,
those are always fun to go to.
It's really cool to hear.
I'm, I'm, as a political junkie myself.
I'm a little jealous.
I'm just putting junkie.
I mean, if you just looked at the, the technology in the station today, just blew me away.
I mean, there's got to be, I don't know, 50 microphones and 20 cameras and they're all, you
know, every direction, uh, yeah, it's kind of amazing.
They did a great job with that.
Everybody involved in it.
I real shut out to their moderator, Jill.
I thought she was fantastic.
She did.
And I really love the way that WBA, the rules that they have and, and I thought the candidates
did very well.
It was, it was a really good debate and it felt like an adult debate too.
That was nice.
It really was.
And, you know, and that was done by the Wisconsin broadcasters.
They bring in those people from all over the state.
Michelle Vetterkine is their executive director and I, it amazed me.
She knows every single person in broadcasting around the state and I, I, I go to introduce
myself to her at the WBA awards and everything.
She's like, hello, James.
Yeah.
How do you know who I am?
It's amazing.
Nobody.
How do you know I am?
She knows everybody.
She's good.
And they're so cordial.
After the event going, did you enjoy it?
Yeah.
Yeah, just really great people.
You broadcasters are okay.
Lance, if people have questions, I would like to know more about, so what we talked about
today.
How can they reach you?
Well, all my information is on our Wood County website because you won't remember it
if I say it, but my email, my phone, my cell phone.
It's all there.
Just check on either my name, Lance Plimmel or just look at Wood County, every county board
supervisor and every department heads, information's up there in some cases are pictures
too.
If you want to go to Wood County, WI dot gov and be sure to go to YouTube, type in your
search bar, Wisconsin Rapids Community Media, subscribe to the great work that they are
doing.
We say a big thank you to them over there.
Lance, thanks again for talking to us.
I will hang out again next month.
Thanks, James.
I always appreciate it.
Well, I'm more a midday magazine coming up for you right here at 97.5 FM 13.20 AM WFHR.
We are locally grown radio.
