Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this Wednesday, December 4th, 2024.
Have your host James J. Mailov here.
And we're spending the entire hour with our good friends from the Wood County Sheriff's Department.
We have Sheriff Sean Becker in with us. Good to see you, Sean.
Good to see you as always.
Want to say a big thank you to our friends at Wisconsin Rapids Community Media.
Big shout out to Angelica and the gang.
Over there, we appreciate them being here.
Be sure to do yourself a favor.
Go to YouTube, type into your search bar.
Wisconsin Rapids Community Media and subscribe to all the great work they are doing.
Sean, we got plenty to talk about today, but you brought in a friend I want to introduce.
Absolutely. Well, you made that request last month.
Yes, yes, we were talking about Tim Bassett and getting the Jefferson awards.
So I gave him a call. I gave him about a few weeks notice and he is available.
And so I brought him here today just to talk about the Jefferson award and talk about him and his
volunteerism. And it really doesn't start or end with Reggie who he's been helping out for
quite some time now, but even going back many years ago, he's part of our rescue unit.
What kind of rescue? And I think Tim just, you know, you talk about people that volunteer for
their community and Tim's it. And I'm really fortunate to have him as a friend as well.
Tim, thank you very much for being here. Tim Bassett, a recent winner of Jefferson Award.
And as we were talking about David and our pregame, Tim, I had a bit of an honor to go along with
this. It's an honor to receive this award as I imagine, but also receiving the award from Melissa
Langben and being her last one, it's a turns out. Yes. Yes. It was, it was an honored meter and
the interview up there at Reggie went real well. Tim, I want to, I want to first off, I saw
that interview. I've seen bits of your work and throughout on social media and some of that.
And I just first off, I want to thank you, not only for being here, but for the work that you
put into our communities, the good that you have done, the good energy that you've put in there,
not only with this program, but with other things that Sean was saying. But as I was telling Sean,
on air off air, I was fascinated hearing about what you do and what this involves. And I think it's
a topic that is a gray area. We don't get, hear a lot about, we don't get to touch on very often.
So right out the gate, I want to ask how you got interested in doing something like this,
how it started when it came to helping injured animals. Well, friend of mine, John Malsky,
when I first, he worked up at Burian Mill, just like I did. And everybody up there called him
the Birdman because he always had a, he had a book of all the birds that he was taking to Reggie.
So I started riding along with him. And we took a eagle up there one day and
brought the eagle into the clinic so Marge can, could see him. And Marge took my right hand.
She says, give me your hand. I says, why? She says, just give me your hand. And I put my hand on
the eagle's chest to feel the heartbeat. I was hooked from that on. And I've been doing it for
over six years now. Did you, did you grow up loving animals? Did you, did you grow up with a
passion for animals? No, it, that came later. That came later. As a kid, I was just a normal kid,
football, baseball, that kind of thing. But the bird thing came into my adult years.
I, I, I kind of, I kind of felt that a little bit. I'm in a similar boat. I didn't grow up with
animals. I grew up in the city. I didn't have dogs or cats growing up or anything. But as an
adult, I started working at shelters. And the, the moment I saw a, the first dog I ever saw,
I've been in love ever since. And, and we've put a lot of my energy and volunteerism into those
things. I don't think you're, we're alone in that regard. We almost come into this late,
but almost making up for that time of loving animals. And it's one thing to, to want to work at
a shelter, to want to do some of these things. The, the work that you're doing, Tim, and Reggie is
doing is, is, it's a little more difficult, a little more tense than that than, than, and,
and it's hard for me to say that because I know how hard it is working in shelters and that. But,
but you're, you're going immediately to an injured animal. And, and immediately it is the, the
clock is ticking. Yep. Yep. When it comes to, so if you could walk us through kind of an
average version of this, if you will, generic version of this, you, there, when, how do you guys
first hear about these injured animals? Well, Reggie gets a call from somebody out there that spotted
either an eagle, maybe a hawk or an owl, that's on their property and it won't fly away.
So they get on the phone and not a whole lot of people realize it's Reggie that you call, not
like the Sheriff's Department or the DNR, because Reggie is, when they get the phone call from
this individual, no matter where it is, they get a hold of one of us transporters. You know, we're
totally, it's totally volunteer and they get a hold of one of us and if I'm available, I'll go.
Now that I'm retired, I go a lot, but it's typically I, I go out to the location where the bird is,
I get it from whoever, whoever has it, whether it's, I got to put it in a box or if it's already in a
box, transported up to Reggie and then they, the technician's up there, they take it out of the box,
they handle it, I don't, because they're the, they're the medical part of it. So some of these
injuries could be severe and some of them not so bad. Yeah. When it comes to, I can't imagine
the empathy and what goes into every one of those animals, what it must feel like when they're
released, what it must feel like when they're, they're healed and they're all better. Yeah, we had
incident in, back in, it was in Steve's point at, um, furniture and appliance warehouse one day,
I got a call up there for a downed bird. Didn't know what it was. Got there and the guy had it in a
box and when I went to pick it up out of the box, I had gloves on because I got to protect my own,
my own self. So I picked it up and I thought, what's all over this bird? Here's somehow this red
tailhawk that looked like a crow because it was so black, got into some grease and oil and it took
I think I said this in the interview with Melissa that it took over a year for that bird to get
cleaned and for its feathers to be reprained again while whatever the word that word is. And then I
was able to go up and sometime I think it was in December and November and I was able to release
him back into the wild. It was, it was, it was cool. Yeah. Yeah. Just, I mean, I'm just hearing you
talking about it and the energy and your voice with it and everything. The feeling is you can't,
you can't describe that. I mean, I would have never thought that I would have fell in love with
something so easy and there's not a whole lot of transporters here in Central Wisconsin. So
I'll go most places where I'll go down to out of friendship. I'll go to Nassita. I'll go just
about anywhere within, you know, reason. I mean, I won't, I've gone as far as I see you'll,
nails bill to pick them up. So, but it gets you old heart pumping. It's like it does for deer hunters
when they kill a deer. Right. My heart's, it's, it's, it's gratifying to help these birds.
Yeah. And it's, it's random interview, you know, interview 101. My next question is supposed to be
looking you in the eyes and hearing you talk about this. I don't have to ask why. I think we
get it. Well, the biggest, you do this. The biggest reason is I love, I love helping people and
there's a love of helping these birds. I have credit with, you know, with John Malsky and
Mark Oshasky. Both of them were into it well before me and riding with them is just, like I said,
I've fallen in love with it and I love helping people. Well, obviously Ann Birds.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's something that I think that both Sean and I can relate to in our
own ways with the things that we are passionate about and many out there can. It's not a matter of
why we do this. We don't have a choice. Like, you mentioned it right away. The moment you felt
that heartbeat of that bird, you were doing this. Like, whether, whatever, you were not going,
this is, you were pulled to this, you were called to this. Yeah. I guess that you could call it that
way. It's, it was just a feeling of feeling this bird's heartbeat and to get that close to a wild
bird. Yeah. Beautiful. None of these birds to me are ugly. They might seem to be, but such a beautiful
feathers and great horned owls, all of them. They're just awesome to handle. But I, like I said,
I don't get to handle them very often. Others are picking them up and getting them put in a box.
That's about as far as I'll go. Tim, what is a Reggie Stanford? We've referenced it a couple of
times. Rapture education group incorporated. And how, as far as the organization, how big is it?
How many individuals are a part of it? Is it a big organization? Well, there's, well, there's
the sponsors. I'm not sure how, how many there are those. But as far as the staff up there,
there's probably five, six, you know, that full-time staff. And then they get the interns in the
summer, spring and summer. And they help Marge a lot. And Tim, how many birds are in Wisconsin? No,
I'm kidding. But just to give an example of like the numbers that you guys have in the numbers
of birds or injured birds, it speaks to how great the work you're doing isn't how important it
is, how neat it is. Yeah, their, their count up there is probably close to a thousand birds
every year. Yeah, yeah. And I'm only a quarter of that. You know, I've, I've picked up
maybe, maybe 25, 30 birds myself. But they come from all over. Is there, is there a story that
you've mentioned a little bit of this? But is there a story? Is there one that stands out to you
that you haven't gotten mentioned or are any, you know, people that you'd like to mention?
When it comes to Reggie or even the birds that you've saved or any of those? Yeah. Well, like I said,
without John, I'd taken me up there and showing me and breaking me in. I don't know if I'd be
doing this. But there was another time that we picked up a sandhill crane. We had a call. Well,
John, I actually, Mark O'Sheazky got it. But he calls me up and he says, Tim, can you help me out
with something? This is what he need. He says, well, I got a sandhill crane in the Kusa with a broken
wing. And we need to go get it. And I need your help. That sandhill crane, I don't think anybody
realizes just how fast they run. But we got it into a baseball diamond up there and got him trapped
into one of the dugouts. And Mark, after we get him in there, I says, well, not what? Because I
never done this before. So Mark reaches out with his right arm, puts it around that sandhill crane
to contain his wings and his beak. And we had to put him in the back seat of his sedan. So that
was an adventure. That was one you don't forget. You know, so much of this, I can only imagine there
is not really a playbook for. There's, you know, hey, I have an injured sandhill crane. This is
how you handle it. Like, so that's an interesting angle on this and I wouldn't have thought of, huh?
Well, I started taking birds from or calls from the Wood County Sheriff's Department from,
you know, from Sean and his deputies. And I got a late call from dispatch. What wasn't that late?
It was six, seven o'clock. It was near dark. And here was turned out to be a red tailhawk that
went through the grill of a pickup truck. So, and the bird actually broke the grill. So I looked
at this from a distance. I said, how am I going to get this, you know, the talons that they got,
the beak, how am I going to get this out of there? With the help of the driver and the passenger,
I was able to pry the grill away far enough to get my gloved hand and get him out. Nice.
I think he, I think he survived it. That's, that's awesome. That's a great story, Tim. Nothing but
great stories. I've really appreciated the time. Thank you so much for coming in today.
I, and another note that you, you brought up right away that I appreciate to Tim is something
that Sean and I have talked about before. This gray area where some, we see something in our,
in our community and our, which is a good instinct, I think, overall. It's, oh, call the police
department, call the sheriff department. But there are situations like this where that's kind of
that the people that you want to call. So it kind of is a nice reminder to our audience that,
hey, you see an injured bird called Reggie. They're going to be able to help you a lot faster and
help that bird a lot faster than, you know, people that are, that's not their, their wheelhouse.
Right. Well, like to call, I went to, to would kind of sheriff's dispatch center.
I'm not going to say that that's the place to call. That's, that's up to Sheriff Becker to,
you know, if there's, especially after hours, that's up to him. You know, we get to call from,
most of the time on average, we get to call from Reggie. And then we're told where to go.
But, but it's not something that I would turn down. I mean, if it's an injured bird,
yeah. So I've been to Adams County down there and for their dispatch too to pick up a bird.
It's okay. Yeah. It just, it's, it's, it's that gray area that we've discussed before, Sean,
about, you know, I imagine that every call you get, you want to help, but there's certain things
that are not in your guys' wheelhouse and you have to be very time sensitive with these things.
If you're on that call helping out a bird, you're not able to help out a family that is dealing
with this or some of those things. We only have so much time and only so many people.
No, it works so really well with Tim and what he's been doing throughout the years. And Tim
doesn't mind that his, you know, information is shared with dispatch. And if we have what
normally happens with, you know, situations that we respond to are an animal syndrome, especially
a bird, you know, the first thing that comes to mind is, is, is Tim. You know, can he, is he
available and we'll call him and it really boils down to, if Tim doesn't mind getting those
phone calls, we're going to call him. And, you know, very often when we call him, he's available
and, you know, come out and assess the situation. And if that bird's got the capability or,
or maybe can survive, he's, he's doing the transport, you know, and he uses his own, his own time,
obviously, he's volunteering, but his gas as well, you know, uses his own vehicle and, you know,
goes to an ego, you know, it really depends on, you know, how off that is on, you know, on,
you know, when there's a situation that, you know, that we need him. But he's been, you know,
always available or I know that there's a time that we held a bird, I forget which, what,
which kind of bird it was, but we held it at the Sheriff's Department for a few hours until
Tim was available. You know, and we'll continue to do that. You know, if there's an option or
that bird might survive and we can get the bird there to Reggie, we'll do that. And Tim's been
the contact for that for quite some time. You know, one of the other things, and I focus a lot
on this when it comes to our emergency response teams and, and the cooperation and communication
that is involved in that, and how vital that is to our communities. Again, every second
with these situations is time sensitive. And there's, there's only so many hands that we have
in our department. So for every time that Tim is taking a call, Reggie is taking a call,
that is something that you guys is off your plate. So you can focus on other things. So it's
important as just Jefferson Award is, and noteworthy for the animals that you've saved. And that's
certainly not anything we're taking lightly. I think that there is another extension of that,
of taking things off of the plates of others and, and, you know, focusing on that. It's, it's a
unique part of this and another part of it that we appreciate about, not a little Reggie,
but you Tim and, and the work that you guys are doing. It's really important. It speaks to that,
and hopefully gives us some appreciation, two of other organizations like Reggie or other
people out there. So many other individuals helping you guys do your job in the communication
factor, which we've talked about so often, Sean, is how important that is, not just with
departments in other counties, but community members and community organizations.
Yeah, no, I mean, and there's a lot out there. There's a lot of people out there that,
you know, that they come to mind that, you know, volunteer their time for something that they
have passion for. Like, you know, we're talking with Tim here, the passion that he has for Reggie,
and what he does, you know, you look at a good friend of mine, Mike Wyberg, the passion he has
for volunteer organizational, which we'll talk about a little bit, or would kind of rescue unit.
You know, you've got people that are part of the focus, you know, the family center, you know,
Mary's place. You know, I could go on, I don't know, and it's the that the options out there that
people that can give back to their community, and it's, you like to do all of them, but, you know,
where you see a lot of the successes, like what Tim's done, you know, he's focused on one thing that
really, you know, he's interested in, and it gives back to the community. And there's a lot of
people out there that do that, and we're lucky to have them, especially, you know, around the holiday
season, you know, you know, it comes to mind toys for tots, you know, we're right now getting to
that point where we're collecting, you know, toys. And what's always really, you know, it tugs at
your heart, because you know, what, you know, who's benefiting from this? Kids, kids in need. And then
you go around the community, and you help pick up the toys, and then it goes to a place where it
gets sorted, and sorted for, you know, the kids that, you know, they're age group, you know, you know,
boy or girl, and it's just pretty humbling to see the community effort when you see a program
like that, and all the volunteers that are part of that to make it happen, you know, the food pantry,
you know, just seeing the people that are part of that make it happen, and then, you know,
you get out to the community, and you know, when we have those mobile food pantries,
and we'll have, you know, a few of our squads going, because we know some areas that people can't
get to come and get, you know, a package of food that'll last a week or two, we'll take it to them,
you know, and being part of that, and just the, you know, the reaction you get when you drop off
something, and you see how somebody is appreciating it when they're struggling. And, you know, I think
that's part of being a public servant, you know, with what we do as law enforcement officers,
there are also ways to give back to the community and help people that are struggling, so those are
two things that just jump out at me, especially during the holiday season. I really enjoy seeing,
you know, our team, you know, take part of those kind of situations. We're fortunate in a community
like this, where we have so many different people that step up, and we have so many different
organizations that step up and want to do some good. When it comes to an organization like Reggie
Tim, I imagine there are people out there listening that, you know, are intrigued by this,
and might want to be a part of Reggie or volunteer or something like that. Should we just send
to the website? Is there a phone number they can call? Yeah, there's a website, like I said,
it's Raptor Education Group Incorporated. There's a Facebook page that you can look this all up on,
and there are phone numbers that you can call. That website, Tim's referring is raptor education
group.org, raptoreducationgroup.org, and cannot encourage you enough to like the Facebook page.
It is a great way to keep up on things that they are doing over there, find out ways that maybe you
can help impact that work, but just as cool as all that is the posts. Seeing the updates on these
birds and everything is amazing. It's really cool, and I appreciate you guys also sharing so much
of that, Tim, for people like myself that may not be there. We get to live bicariously through you
guys and experience some of this stuff. We all understand in all of our individual jobs and
lives that there are grinds. There are days where you just, you know, are grind. These are the
wins that we need to take. There are wins that happen every day. You got to focus on those, focus
on those little wins. Oftentimes they could be the big win in your day. And having you in today,
seeing you win that award, Tim, felt good. It felt great to be able to see that, not only for
you before Reggie, and seeing the attention brought to this group, and what you guys do with this.
I cannot thank you enough, Sean. Thank you enough for bringing to them. Absolutely.
We really do appreciate the time. Thank you for that. Again, if you're curious and want to find out
more and be a part of things, you can go to our raptor education groups website, raptoreducationgroup.org,
that is raptoreducationgroup.org, and be sure to follow them on social media. It's a great way to
keep up the date on the things that they are doing. The phone number for them would be 715-623-415.
That is 623-4015. We will take a quick time out. We'll come back, and we're going to have some
more conversation with Wood County Sheriff's Department Sean Becker right here on Midday magazine at
WFHR, locally grown radio. Welcome everybody to Midday Magazine. Part two with our conversation was
Sheriff Sean Becker right now. One, of course, thank our friends at Wisconsin Rapids Community Media for
being here as well. Sean, and thank you Tim for being in Tim Bassett. Appreciate the conversation
for Tim and bringing some attention to Reggie and being able to focus on that. Sean, before we get
too far ahead and some of the things that you had there, I just wanted to, we don't get a lot of
light moments, and I had to share this one with you, especially because Terry was just in and I got
the green light from her. But there was a guy recently who went to, went to commit a robbery
at a Walmart in Virginia, and just happened to do this during a shop, the shop with a cop event.
This criminal mastermind decided this was the good time to do this shot. This was doing some research.
We appreciate the easy wins here. I was saying before, appreciate the easy ones every once in a
while, but what do you even do? I wouldn't even know where to begin with that, man. Just shaking your,
you got to spend at least a minute shaking your head, right? You're just going to. So the squad car
isn't a parking lot, wasn't a tip that long, for sure. Yeah, right. I don't know about that one,
but I think you have more important things for us to focus on talking about. We got a new jail,
an open house. Yeah, you know, that's thanks for bringing that up. I know we talk about it every
month, but you know, with what's coming up this month on the 17th is a ribbon-cutting, you know,
open house ceremony that we're going to have following our county board meeting. So it'll probably
happen around 11, 11, 15. We'll have refreshments provided, and the San Mills group that is our
project manager is doing that, providing that, and yeah, it'll be a celebration of, and it's hard to
talk about, to be honest, since we've talked about it so much, but to see it come to the point
that it has with the above being completed, it just gives you the opportunity to reflect on what
it took to get there. And a lot of what we've talked about throughout the years, and we'll have,
you know, a short presentation before the ribbon-cutting, where some of us will get the opportunity to speak
of Laura Valestine from our county board, who was very instrumental of moving this project forward.
You know, I know we talked about it before, but when Lance Plymouth, you know, put together the
ad hoc committee that's really focused on the jail, and she let it, you know, she's the chair.
Because, you know, at the initial time frame, when we were looking at this project, you know,
she wanted to ask more questions. She wasn't sold that we county needed a new jail, and I really
applaud her for that, because she dug in, along with some other county board members, but she was
a lean force behind it, you know, asked lots of questions on, hey, why do we need this? Why do we
need to spend all this money for a jail? And then, you know, answering the questions she had, along
with other committee members, you know, we moved in this direction. Same with Lance Plymouth, you know,
he's been part of the county board for quite some time, and you know, it's a lot of money to
spend. A lot of taxpayers' money. But again, once you answered a lot of the questions on the need,
it just became, hey, we need to do this. And, you know, getting the opportunity to speak at the
event is going to be very humbling for me. You know, as I've been getting older and doing public
events, you kind of get used to them, but it's still there's a lot of nervousness there, and I'm
going to be very nervous when I get the opportunity to speak, because it's just, there's so much to this,
you know, that that came together, it was never about me, or, you know, a lot about the sheriff's
department, but it's more about the community and why we needed this. And what it took to get there,
and then, you know, I can't say so much about so many positive things about our county board,
you know, it didn't matter what side of the fence they were on, they worked together. And that's
such a positive, such an awesome thing to see because, you know, you look at the elections that
we just went through, and the further you get away from the community living, you know, it gets
just so polarized, where here you've got, you know, our county board, our public servants here,
your elected officials, you know, like I said, it didn't matter where they, what side they were on,
they worked together, and you don't see that, you know, the further you get away from local
politics, and, you know, I'm very proud of them for what they did, the work they did on this,
it wasn't just coming to a meeting here or there and talking about it, no, you know, the county board
members went out to the people they represent and talked to them about it, you know, and educated
people on, you know, this project, and that just doesn't, you know, I'm just so humbled at how being
part of that process, and seeing it come together, and I'm just very, very lucky that, you know,
the position that I have, and really getting to watch the process happen, and, you know, with the
county going forward, building that this is the building, the biggest project that that would
counties ever take a not, you know, Lance had said that, and just to be part of that is extremely
humbling. So next week, this is going to be open up to the public on the 17th, the doors will open
probably around 10, 45, 11 o'clock, we'll have, you know, like I said, a short presentation,
the groundbreaking presentation got a little long and I was cold. So we were reminiscing about that,
you know, because I was just over two years ago, and like, okay, who's going to talk, you know,
let's scale that back a little bit, and let's just give the people the opportunity to walk through
the facilities so they see what, you know, what, what this project's all about, and so I'm really
looking forward to that. And again, you know, thank you, James, for the opportunity to continue to
talk about it, and I'll probably continue to talk about it for months on, but it's just such a big
thing for the community to be part of, and I'm very, very proud myself just to have that small part
of it to see it through. One of the things that I always encourage from our listeners, and I'm so
thankful for is their feedback and hearing from them whether they have compliments or questions,
whatever it might be. And one of the things that actually came up last time we were talking with
Matt when he was in was some of the budget and some of those things, and you're always going to
have people that will say, well, we should be spending money on this and we should be spending
money on that, et cetera, et cetera. And to one of our listeners when this came up and about the
new jail, the first thing I asked was, have you ever had anybody that has had to stay incarcerated
in that jail? Have you ever had anybody in there? And this individual has not. And I asked, well,
if you were to be incarcerated in there, wouldn't you want to be know that you are safe?
Wouldn't you want to know that you are, or, you know, you messed up? You're not there because you
did something good. You're there for the wrong reasons, obviously, but you still have rights,
and you'd want to know that those are safe. You want to know that that is okay. You'd want to know
that a loved one was if your child was or something like that. Now what about your, somebody with a
badge? You want them safe for sure, don't you? And this person didn't even, I didn't even finish
the question like, yes, yes, I wanted our officers to say, like, well, now, now, and then I asked,
what kind of price would you put on that? How much would you pay to guarantee that? How much would
you pay to make sure that that happens more? And they had no answer for me because that's what we're
talking about here. We're talking about first and foremost, I believe safety and safety for these
clients, safety for the officers, safety all around. I imagine for you, Sean, the emotion of this
and part of why it is so difficult is not just because of all the things you just said, which
are certainly noteworthy, but you know better than most of any of us of what I was just talking
about, the safety issues. There's certainly the one stories we've heard of. I imagine there's
plenty of things that are very close calls that we never even hear about. So many different stories
for so many decades that have happened at that jail that we can avoid now. Along with the other
things that we've talked about as far as saving these community, the city money, you know, tax
dollar wise and some of these other factors, but that safety factor has got to, as somebody that I
know carries every one of your team's hearts with you. I imagine that means quite a bit. It does.
You know, it's not about me. It's about the team. It's about the team that, where is it, you know,
form, whether it's a corrections officer or a deputy sheriff? You know, their safety is number one.
I'm going to see somebody that, you know, gets hurt. That's not me. That's the way I look at it.
And yeah, that was a big part for me as, you know, as sheriff looking at it from the outside,
looking in, yeah, it's, you know, what does the team need, you know, and what do they deserve?
And that's a part of this whole project, you know, and of course that's what the passion is for
for me to just tell you, hey, our team deserves this. I mean, especially with the working conditions
that they've been going through for a long time. And then again, our county board just did
awesome with it, not only with, you know, moving forward with a new jail that is much safer for our team
to, you know, supervise inmates, but even more so for, you know, the inmates that have to spend time
there when they make, you know, mistakes, you know, so it's, it's a win-win for me. And of course,
I'm going to say that, but not everybody supported it. And I respect their opinion, you know,
it's a lot of money, but the county needs a jail. And I applaud the efforts that were not not only
with their county board, but, you know, all the city aldermen that were part of it once they were
educated with it. The people on the community, that's where, you know, the county board members,
like I had mentioned, you know, doing their job of going out and talking to people,
do they represent their district? That was huge. That was a big part of the project. And I think
more and more people, once they were educated with this situation, understood it. And then,
and that was a big reason why we're moving forward. But no, you nailed it, you know, for me,
the passion is the, the people that, that, you know, were the uniform and represent the community.
They deserve to have a safe environment to come and work at.
When is the open house again? It is the 17th of this month. And like I said, right around 11 o'clock,
we can come a little earlier, but we'll have the front entrance of the new facility open.
Well, some dupies there for security purposes get you through. And then we'll do the ribbon cutting
up on the third floor where the new county board room is. And then from there, we'll have tours
for anybody to walk through and food and refreshments for everybody.
Going to be cutting it close, but I plan on being there. Might be wrapping up a conversation
here. I'll be right and over there as soon as I have to look forward to it. I'm honored to
have you there, James. I know you had some other things that you wanted to touch on as well.
Yeah, a couple of quick things. Lieutenant Wagner, Suzanne and Lola, for, for Lola's one-year
birthday, Suzanne S&A. Why don't we do kind of a birthday celebration at the courthouse for the
courthouse employees to meet Lola and they can get a photo with her and then just give us a
donation, whether it be food or something, materials, or cash for the South of County Humane
Society. So that was, that was Suzanne's idea. And she came up to I think around $350 and
and a bunch of materials and food that we took over to the Humane Society. So Suzanne's been doing
just an awesome job with Lola. You know, we're so fortunate to get Lola and then with what she's
been doing with the dog, not only just within the jail, but just out in the community.
Been really awesome. This was a great idea that she had. One of many of her ideas that she
comes up with to get out in the community. And I think people like Lola a lot more than us, but hey,
we're, we're cool with that. You know, to that point, I was, I was waiting to tell you this.
I had my sister and brother in town for the holidays. We haven't gotten together since the pandemic.
So it was wonderful. And my nephew is around. I love my brother and sister, but I got to hang out
with my nephews. That's where my focus really was. One of my oldest nephews was they live in
Appleton and they had, they brought a canine. Their local police department brought a canine by and
he tells me, you know, we're talking on the Mason. You know, what are you thinking? What are you doing?
And he's talking about this and he says, I want to work with animals when I get older. I'm like,
oh, that's really cool and stuff. It's like, yeah, I want to be a police officer. Nice. It's like,
you know, and if that's one situation, I know that it happens more than that. But even if that's
just the one time that right there is such a great reasoning behind this. Obviously, with the canine
unit and the great work that they do on the job, if you will. But it's that PR level of it that
we've talked about many times too, that that's not the only kid thinking that man. That's something
and the opening that that has created for law enforcement and getting more good people into
law enforcement. There's so many layers to what Lola and the canine unit do. Yeah, I look at
departments. Absolutely. Absolutely. Now we're lucky to have the community support for our canine
unit and it comes from a, we have a foundation called the Kesha Foundation and, you know, the
Ruby Foundation want to, you know, donate a lot of money to us that we very, very appreciate. In
fact, the money that they donated will definitely fund our next dog when we need it when I told
them that and just going back to the community. It's really a heartfelt when you see people that
are willing to donate their harder and dollars to a law enforcement agency, especially supporting
the our canine unit. I can guarantee that the sheriff's department will have multiple canines for
as long as it's in existence. And that's really based on the community support.
Gotta get Lola in studio. We can't give her that much. No, that's I would be, you know,
and all my focus is beyond the dog. I wouldn't, you and I would barely talk. I just let your turn
your microphone on and then play with the dog the whole time. We could probably make that happen.
Where else did you want to go? A couple of things. Festival of trees is going on right now over at
the Masonic Lodge here in Wisconsin rap is a big shout out to the Shriners. We, the sheriff's
department, a big, you know, want to recognize mid-sea, our office manager, Jenna and Jess,
who work for. They put together a tree every year that's on display competing against other
people in the community that put a tree together. And truly the whole focus of it is to, you know,
donate money to, you know, local, our local food pantry. So we did it last year. It was fun.
So you can go and buy some tickets and whatever tree gets the most tickets in it is declared
the winner, but it's all about, you know, supporting, you know, the food pantry and stuff. So
that's going on right now. So please stop by. Over at the Masonic Lodge here, close, not too far
from here. The other thing too that's very humbling two things I want to end with. One, recently I
got a phone call from Lon Roberts. His mother was murdered back in the early 80s, Eleanor. And
with the recent conviction of John Saru who was responsible, there was some justice served there.
And he called me about a month ago and said, hey, I want to donate some money to the sheriff's
department. I'm like, oh, really nice. And, you know, his mother's name. And I'm like, okay. And
it's $10,000. I'm like, oh, okay. And I'm like, what do you spend that on? You know, and, you know,
he's very complimentary of not only our department, but Dave Laudian, Bob Lewandowski, who, you know,
worked this case where the backbone behind the case. And, you know, even after retirement,
we talked about it, continued to be involved with the case just out of their heart. And, you know,
how it meant so much to them. And so as we started talking about it, you know, I called Bob and
Dave. I'm like, what do you, you know, I don't know how to take this money and what do you spend it on?
You know, and, you know, we kind of talked it out and, you know, because you don't want to buy a
piece of equipment. That doesn't last forever. You know, what do you do? And we came to the idea,
and I think it was Dave's idea. You know, we thought maybe donate to our canine unit to the
foundation that brought up. And the Robert's family, we're good with that. They said, you
spend it on whatever you want. But, you know, what I struggled with is what do you spend it on? And
where do you get, you know, something that's long lasting in, you know, in, in, in Elnar's name.
So we came up with, um, we'll recognize a staff member who goes above and beyond,
treating, you know, a victim or a victim's family just, you know, going out there and helping
that person, you know, that's going through a hard situation. And, um, the Robert's family was
good with that. And, you know, with the money that, that will last for, you know, 20 plus years,
that we can, we can recognize a staff member for going above and beyond. And that seemed to
really fit. Um, so again, very humbling, you know, when you see a situation like this where
somebody tragically, you know, loses their life at the hands of another, um, and then has to go
through many, many years of, uh, knowing who did it, but it not being prosecuted. And then it,
it does. And, and somebody's convicted rightfully so. And it's sitting in prison the rest of
life, which they should be, um, but having to see a family wait and go through this. And then
to come back and circle around and donate a lot of money to our department. And for, really,
for whatever we want to use it for, uh, and the struggle for me, like I said, is what do you use
it for? And I think we came up with a really good idea that, you know, that we'll have memorialized
at the department. We'll have a trophy case. If you want to call it that or display case,
just on, um, stuff about our department throughout the years. And we'll have something on display
there. You know, memorializing Elnor and also recognizing a staff member that, um, did go above
and beyond. It's very fitting and good use for it. And that's very relatable, I think, of not knowing
what to do, but a great decision. I think that'll work out good. I'm looking forward to hearing more
above those other walls. Yeah. And where did you went? Last thing, uh, well, with County Rescue.
You know, I know Mike Wyver got to be on the radio show with Lance Pummel. He didn't want to
mix that. Uh, he's a pretty humble person, but, um, we're in the process of building a new truck.
And, um, we knew that that wasn't going to be cheap, you know, probably around $400,000.
And Mike did a really nice job of, you know, looking at what the needs are for the rescue unit.
And, you know, the truck we have now, we know it's getting close to that end of life, um,
you know, with all the maintenance that's, that's happening. So, um, a couple of things happened
with it, you know, the sheriff's department, you know, set aside $75,000, rescued it an awesome job
of getting on the community and fundraising about equal to that. And then, um, legacy, again,
came forward. Um, they got us a, uh, airboat. No, they, they put, um, a bunch of money towards it
as well, but there was still a shortfall of about $60,000. And, uh, that's where Lance Pummel comes in
the picture. Uh, we still have ARPA money left. And, um, you know, I asked, hey, how much do you
guys need? And, uh, we came up with a, with a number and, uh, I can say that that was approved.
So this project will be completely totally funded through fundraising, uh, efforts, legacy,
our sheriff's department and the colony will hopefully have that truck done, you know, some time
next year. Um, so, um, it just goes to show you, you know, you got the volunteerism that,
that Tim was part of, you know, he's a part of our rescue unit for many years and you have
Mike Wyberg that has been overseeing for quite some time. And just, um, you look at, uh, the rescue
unit was being looked at, being cut like eight years ago or, or something. And now what it's evolved to,
you know, not only responding to a certain area in the county, but throughout the entire county,
all the fire departments know that if they need rescue, um, they can call. And if you look at
the equipment that we're getting like, they're both. Yeah. You know, you never know where you might
need that. Um, and the expectation is we will respond anywhere within the county. And just that,
that changed to see and rescue, um, throughout the last several years. And the donations coming
to it just says a lot about the people that are part of it and going back to lands and their
county board again, you know, looking at this and, um, again, approving, you know, that last portion
of funding, which we were going to fundraise for it no matter what, we weren't walking away from
this project. Um, but just, you know, to step up with the ARPA funding that the county still
had available, which I'll tell you what, you know, you look at the money that that our county board
saved throughout the, the money that was given to us by the federal government on ARPA and how
they spent it, it's going to last. You know, you look at other municipalities, not, I'm not saying
new county, but other, other counties that, you know, you used the money on, on services,
and that's gone, you know, about, you have projects now that are going to last in what county for,
for many, many, many years to come. And I think that's what the money was intended on to be in
spend for it. So it just tells you again about our county board, how they looked at, you know,
how we're going to use this money and how they did was just, you know, they're awesome with it.
Whether it's citizens or, uh, government workers or people in our, our workforce, our police staff,
our, uh, educated, you know, and emergency staffs or anything, the communication and the
cooperation working together is how we thrive, how we make our communities that much stronger,
safe, or better. Um, this past hour has been a real good example of that, along with a lot of
great information. I appreciate it. It's always shown. Look forward to our conversations every month.
Is speaking of which we'll see it until next month. So, Mayor Christmas to you and yours.
Same to you, Tim and you and yours. And thank you, Tim, so much for being here and letting our
audience know a little bit more about Reggie and that organization. I appreciate that. Thank you.
Reggie, you can find out more about by going to raptoreducationgroup.org, raptoreducationgroup.org.
Be sure to follow their Facebook page as well. And as always, remind you to follow along with
our friends at Wisconsin Rapids Community Media. They got great social media, social media website,
check those out and certainly check them out on YouTube and be listening next month for another
conversation with our Wood County Sheriff's Department. A big thank you to you, Sean. Again,
be safe out there. We'll talk soon. Thank you. And we'll have more midday magazine coming up for
you right here at 975 FM 1320 AM WFHR. We are locally grown radio.
