Hello world, welcome to WFHR's rapid support, and probably brought to you by Crockett
Septick for this August 6th, 2025.
Have your host James here, trying to figure out what month it is.
We are joined by our friends from Wisconsin-Rabits Community Media, a big shout out to them.
Go ahead and go to YouTube, type in your search bar, Wisconsin-Rabits Community Media, and
subscribe to their page.
And be sure to go there to check out our interview today with our friends over the Wood County
Sheriff's Department.
We've got a good friend, Sean Becker, and with us right now, Sean.
Good to see you.
Good to see you, James.
It was a pleasure to be here.
I am just all tongue tied today.
I was late last night doing auditions, and all this, and directing a play, and I've just
been so locked into it, and I apologize to you in the audience and everybody.
I've got to get my mouth together.
I'll have you do all the talking today.
How's that sound?
I'll try my best, but I'm sure I'll go down the same path as you.
As I did today, I came in an hour early, because I had it wrong on my calendar.
I did something yesterday similar, so, hey, we're all on the same page.
We're all doing our best here.
I know that you have a number of different places you want to go.
Where do you want to start?
Hey, football season started yesterday.
Yes.
All the high school started practice and everything, and so good luck to all the, especially
local football teams, high school football teams out there that have started that official
practices.
I know some things have changed with the WIA, and it's such a commitment to kids, any sports.
It's just a huge commitment, and just obviously football is in my heart, and I just want to
throw that out there, and wishing Tony Vuelo the best of luck.
Every friend of mine gave me the opportunity to coach for him for 10 years, and then great,
good luck to the new coach.
Mike Crenz got an opportunity to meet him, and he's still giving me the opportunity to
coach on a flexible level.
We'll see where that appears for me, but Hart's always going to be with Lincoln High School
Football, and wishing them the best of luck this year with the season, so I'll be a part.
I know that the back-to-batch game is still going to be on the schedule with Marshall,
so that'll be something that'll definitely be that everybody should get the opportunity
to go to that game.
But again, just want to start with that, best of luck to Tony, and best of luck to Mike,
and the coaching staff as we move forward in the football season.
It also means the summer's over.
Yeah.
That's a quick call.
Yeah.
You know, with a lot of the sports now, you know, my nephew, Carson Herbs, he goes to
Spash, nobody got mad at me, but he plays baseball, and he does the school baseball, and then
also the club baseball, and they got the travel.
He's quite a good athlete, and he's traveled, you know, through many areas of the country,
you know, like they were just in Myrtle Beach at a tournament, and they were very competitive
on the team he's on.
But I bring that off, and he just got done with baseball Sunday, and then football starts
Tuesday.
Yeah.
There's one day of summer, and that's just, you know, for a multi-sport athlete, it's
really tough.
And if you see somebody that an athlete, no matter what level they're at, playing three
sports, that says something about that kid.
That's my nephew.
Yeah.
It's amazing, it's amazing, it's amazing, a little kid.
Yeah, and tell them, don't give up on any of them, because, you know, that's going
to end, whether it's at the end of high school, or you might get the opportunity to do something
in college, play, you know, and it's any extra curricular activity in high school is so
important, because it helps with the development of, you know, being social, becoming a leader,
and learning.
You know, bottom line.
So, yeah, I just want to start out with that, with football starting in, it's kind of exciting
for me.
You know, like I said, I'm very appreciative of Coach Crons, giving me that flexibility,
because, you know, not only with work, because things happen whenever they happen, and then
if I can't make it, I can't make it, and plus with Jordan, in my grandson, you know,
River.
You know, he is two months today.
Oh.
He's a little fat, like, or, and he's over 10 pounds, and doing really well, we'll get
to see him tomorrow.
They're coming to town.
They want to see one of the last aqua skiers shows out on the river, and, you know, with
Jordan's history being part of the team, and now she gets the opportunity to travel with
River, because he's a little bit older, so, yeah, when you were touching on sports there,
any opportunity to kind of bring it back to this, I always appreciate, you know, in the
Midwest, we take sports real serious, we love to win, and it's so vital to us and important
to us.
Whether you're talking about your pro team or your local teams or your local high school
alma mater or something, but I think most sports fans, and the majority of them, understand
that sports is so much bigger than wins and losses.
And the percentages of kids that play high school sports that go on to college, or college
on the depros, and those numbers dwindle each more time.
But the skill sets, the things that they learn in high school sports, they kick that with
them forever.
I mentioned, for all the things I've mentioned with this, I don't think I touch on this
nearly enough, there's a lot of kids out there that were like me.
If the audience can't tell, I'm terrible at meeting people and talking to people, and
I'm very, I'm not really great with it.
But when I was in recess, the first grade school I was in out here, they noticed right away
how fast I was.
I'm like, oh, we're picking him in basketball, we're picking him in football, and all of a sudden
I started making friends.
Sports gave me that, sports helped me have that.
There are so many other kids out there in no similar situations that it's not easy always
to pick up a conversation with somebody at any age.
As adults, we struggle with it in an elevator, but little kids, it's not always easy for
them.
Sports really gives an avenue for that, along with all the other important things that
it can teach, like cooperating with other people, and listening to rules and working
within them, and so many other aspects that sports gives.
Yeah, no, absolutely, it's going back in my life.
I'm getting pretty old now, but I don't forget those opportunities in high school, and
even getting the opportunity to play college football.
Those are things that, and you nailed it.
The friends that you have, they seem to, that core group seemed to last forever, high
school, and even in college, and just a couple days ago, I was in a group text message
with some of my college friends, and of course, they're still poking and teasing, and now
with social media.
It's all my friends, like the safe pictures, and then they probably get modified a little
bit with this IA stuff, and I'm like, let a rip, have fun, don't worry, I will pay
you back.
It's all part of it.
The revenge is a bit of a dish best served.
When it comes to Coach Biola as well, I did want to touch on that, and thank him for
his many years, and dedicated to this community, certainly as a coach, but as a teacher, and
even, I've mentioned before, my interactions with him, and he never coached me, but always
great to me.
I actually had him as a parenting teacher, and was fantastic, and a very difficult time
my life, too, but Tony took a real, I don't know why, but he took a like into me, and
other than trying to get me into track and field, and some other things, relentlessly,
was really, really great.
And so, way beyond the football field, his impact has been felt.
Well, look at his son Drake, his teacher, up in Rylander, and football coach, and Drake
did a really nice social media post on Facebook about something that, you know, he's going
to be a young parent soon, and recognizing, you know, his wife, the spouse, because once
football season or any season comes around as a coach, there's a lot of time yet to put
into it, and who suffers probably the most, maybe that's not the right word, but, you
know, you're going to be gone, and then you have to have that spouse, you know, pick
up the slack at home, the parenting and all that, because of that dedication, and what
a really nice thing Drake put out there, and I know Tony is very proud.
Tony and Tracer are very proud of him, and he's going to do great things up in Rylander.
It's great to hear the back-to-back game is going to stick around, too, that's really,
when a new coaching staff comes in like this, and it's local, I like to, you know, not
bug them right away with my questions, let them get settled and all that, I was really
curious, those are one of the questions I had was if that was going to stick around,
and off-air I'll be honest, I was going to ask you if you were going to still coach
or anything, so it's great to hear, it's really good.
Yeah, it's just, and I was very upfront with coach Cran, you know, he met with all the
current staff, and I just said, hey, this is where I'm at in my life, and the new thing
is being a grandparent, very, very understanding, so I appreciate that, you know, and I didn't
want him to hold back and not hire somebody on my account, I mean, you need to do what
you have to do, and I'll always be supportive of this program.
I wanted to get to this, I didn't want to come out the gate with it, though, but, you
know, Sheriff, I'll let you guys look behind the curtain a little bit, if you don't get
to see the videos at Wisconsin's Rebels Community Media, which I encourage you to check out.
Sean brings in a great list of things to talk about, you filled this hour really well,
and I appreciate that, you've done that for years, way above and beyond, I really appreciate
it.
Every once in a while, our community has a question, our community has something that
they are asking about, and in the last time, since the last time you joined us, we've
had some news come out, some different reports, and I think a lot of our community has been
interested in certain parts of it, and the ACLU has a new report on a rising number of
county sheriff's offices working with ICE in the government department ice.
It finds that sheriff's of Kwanaki, Argymi, Washington, Wapaka, Winnebago, and Wood
counties have begun participating in some of these programs.
I think that one of the jobs of every American citizen, being in this country, being a part
of this country, I believe, you are to work with the individuals of this country, whether
you agree with them or not, whether you like them or not, or anything like that.
We all got to work together, we all got to live together.
If you're going to be a part of this experiment, which it still is, it's a young country.
We are a teenager compared to Russia or Asia or any other place out there.
One of the jobs of its citizens comes right down to the same job of a parent or a guardian,
making people feel safe, making people feel okay.
Regardless if you are here illegally or not, I don't believe that it is our job to make
illegal aliens feel scared or to make anybody who feels like they might be thrown into that
group scared.
That's not law.
That law doesn't do.
That law is not supposed to put fear in people.
It's not at least to me, my interpretation of it.
I'm not at all trying to say I have the Webster's Dictionary definition in front of me here,
but the way I've always interpreted it, somebody who believes in the law, believes in these
things.
I watch a lot of Westerns, I don't want to live in one.
Laws are important.
People like you, Sean, they're keeping that line.
But this topic has freaked out a lot of people.
To the point, I have, I think a third generation, a third generation, come from a third generation
immigration family.
I've got relatives that were in this country and going back, back and back, and even
they were a little afraid when they got into situations where they were getting asked
questions about this just because they had a little bit of a darker skin.
This is in Chicago.
This is not here.
This is in another state and everything, just to be fair and to be upfront about that.
But the concern, if I'm hearing it, I can't imagine that you haven't heard it.
Absolutely.
Just to start off with ICE and there's a division of law enforcement at the federal
level, obviously.
The partnership that we have now hasn't changed in my whole career.
ICE change is the enforcement level on the federal side of things.
It didn't matter who was president.
We've met with ICE people.
We've had ICE holds on people who have committed crimes in Wood County.
And then what happens is really there's been no change for us even with these partnerships
and the other counties that have agreed to work with ICE.
There's been, to me, that was no change.
There was no change with our department throughout the years.
Our protocol is the same.
If somebody gets arrested in Wood County for committing a crime in Wood County and they
are an illegal alien, all we do is notify ICE.
Then it's up to them if they want to put a hold on them.
And it's still pretty rare.
Right now, the person that I can think of right now that has a hold on them in our jail
committed a homicide in Marshall.
All right, and I'm not willing to, once that person I'm confident that will be convicted
of the homicide, I still don't want them going into the other country that they're from.
I mean, to spend the rest of their life in our prisons, all right.
And that's for, I guess, the key thing that people should understand, especially in our
community is, is somebody commits a crime and they get arrested, you know, they're going
to get due process like anybody else, whether the illegal or not, all right, the only part
of what we do, and we've always done this, is we notify ICE at this person potentially
or is illegal.
And then ICE decides whether or not they want to put a hold on them.
Some things that I've learned throughout the process because there's a lot of attention
to this is, you know, with the partnership with ICE liability-wise, if you hold somebody
for any time frame, after they have been through the process with, you know, the legal process
here locally, it could be a liability issue if you do not have that partnership.
And say, I say, hey, we want to put the hold on that person and you have this time frame
of 48 hours to come and get them, even if you don't have that partnership and you hold
them, you could get sued.
So I looked at it as, okay, there's somewhat of a liability aspect for the county or we
release them.
And I'm going to tell you what, ICE is another law enforcement agency that we've worked
with for many, many years.
And if they put a hold on them, all right, we will hold them for 48 hours, come and get
them and go from there.
The key is, the key element is that the person committed a crime here in what county, all right,
and then we're going to notify the other law enforcement, it's just like a warrant from
Portage County, hey, once that person is done with what's going on here, they put a hold
on them, they come and get them.
That's the way I look at this, all right.
But people should understand and I don't want to create any fear in anybody.
It's really if that individual commits a crime here and gets arrested, all right, then
if you are illegal, it's our obligation to let ICE know, because you know what, I'll
be honest, if some is committing crimes here in what county, I don't want them in what
county.
Yeah, no, yeah, if they're illegal, yeah, yeah, yeah, and that's really, and that really
hasn't changed in my whole 30 year career.
It sounds like nothing is necessarily changed with this, it's just a lot of people are finding
this out.
Like the information has always been that this hasn't really changed, they just didn't
know it.
I think it's politicized at a far larger level than ours, yeah, then what we're doing right
now, and I think that unfortunately strikes a lot of fear in people, whether you're illegal
or not, you know, and I understand that.
But I want you to know that the Sheriff's Department, we aren't knocking on doors and
checking people's status, we're going to have time for it, and number, if we just arrested
people for being here that we think are illegal, yes, it is a crime, our jail would be probably
full within a day, all right, but what we're doing is the same old SOP is, if somebody
gets arrested, that's illegal, we notify ICE, it's updice if they want to put the whole
on them.
But what people are seeing or what's happening in other states, that is concerning them.
And I understand that.
Yeah.
When you promote fear-mongering, when you push this, when you try to scare people that
much, it's understandable, I think, that people freak out over almost anything.
When you already, you've already set that bar, you've already created that vibe in your
country with your constituents.
So it's understandable that there not only would be concerns and questions, but if downright
fear about things.
And I want to be really, really clear about something that I don't know if I was or anything,
because I can't think of anything in this world that gets under my skin or aggravates
me more than a child being abused.
And yes, I was a child of abuse, I admit that, so I'm a little biased on this topic.
And I, there are a few things in this world I have more empathy for than that.
Unless that child grows up and hurts somebody else, I lose all empathy.
You don't get to hurt other people.
You don't get to do that.
You shouldn't know better, all of those things.
I want any person that wants to be a natural citizen of this country.
I want them to feel welcome and I want them to feel like they have an opportunity, unless
of course they commit a crime and doing those things.
I am not in favor of anything like that.
And it's ridiculous to me that we got to clarify that stuff in this day days, but you
do.
You do.
You got to cover that.
You got to cover all bases nowadays.
I am not in favor of that.
I am a child of immigrants.
I am never going to be against immigration or anything like that.
And I don't believe that most people are.
I think that a lot of this gets caught up in a lot of things.
And again, going back to the fear, I think a big problem for a lot of this, with this
topic is not enough people are informed, not enough people know how this goes.
Right.
I'm not speaking about the whole state, but I'll talk about Wood County.
This is not the, not a county that is run on fear.
This is not a county that its leaders go about and try to scare its community.
So I feel like that, you know, that's part of the reason why we are also able to have
these kind of conversations too and be very transparent about the whole thing.
I do, before we wrap up today, though, Sheriff Becker will always, as he does always give
out information, how to reach out to him and that.
Yeah.
You have other questions.
And we've answered, you know, the questions have come up and I've been, you know, forward
with everybody.
This is the biggest thing is, for me, there hasn't been a change through all my career
and how we've handled this, this topic, you know, it's just unfortunate that at a different
level in other states that you're seeing, you know, showing that, that is, is making
people afraid and that's unfortunate, you know, but, oh no, feel free to contact me anytime,
you know, you can call them at the Sheriff's Department, so in 5, 4, 2, 1, 8, 7, 1, 5, and
we'll, we can chat some more about it if you wanted to.
We are excited for National Night Out going on tonight over at Winter Field, the final
home game of the season for our rafters.
We appreciate all these players and coaches coming to town and entertaining us and bringing
us some great baseball all season long and you're going to be down there tonight.
Absolutely.
Right up.
We're at 3 o'clock and we're going to bring our MRAP some other, you know, some of
our specially vehicles.
It's just a great partnership with the rafters organization and, you know, owners, Joe and
Vince Jr. Fonte, who I know, I've known for a long time.
My first job as a 16-year-old, their father, you know, God rest his soul, gave me an opportunity
to work for him at furniture and plants, so I worked there several years going through
high school in college and have, you know, a strong place in my heart for the Fonte family.
And so it's really, really neat that they're, they own the rafters now and then they jumped
on board having National Night Out there in conjunction with, you know, the last home
game.
Just what a great way to, you know, get people to come and see great baseball and get the
opportunity to see all your first responders locally here.
So yeah, great event.
Please come out tonight and hang out with us and then enjoy some baseball.
The other day we had Wisconsin's Rapids Police Department member, Matthew McCue, joining
us and Matt was great.
We talked a little bit about this and encourage you to check out that interview, everybody.
One of the things we talked about is, is kind of going back to a conversation one of
the earliest ones you and I have had of taking on the opportunities to build that bridge
between community and officer to any opportunities to show that the human being behind the batch.
And something that Melissa talked about a little bit earlier today and she was at last
years National Night Out and everything was the opportunity for you guys to just not
that you necessarily can take the time off or anything like that, but that you can be
a bit of a citizen.
That you can be a bit of just another person just walking around getting ready to enjoy
a baseball game.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
It's a great weather.
Yeah, yeah.
We got lucky there.
Thank you to Raffer's organization, the Fonte family for sticking with this and making
this an annual event, which I know is just a great thing for our community and one of
the things to bring up about the Raffer's organization, they've got a concert coming
up this Saturday and Joe Fonte reached out and said, hey, can you at least throw that
out?
And I'm like, absolutely.
I mean, it's a great thing coming up with the glam band back in the 80s music, man.
Oh, yeah.
They got my stuff.
They got the teased hair.
They got everything.
I watched the video from there.
They really are.
They got it now too.
They're talented.
Yeah.
So that sounds like a great time.
It's coming Saturday.
Just to continue those community events.
And then, donating back to, you know, I didn't know a ton about the, you know, the, they're
donating to really good cause.
Yeah.
I have it over here, I think.
Oh, Fultz of Honor.
There we go.
You know, for, I'm going to be kicking myself all day long.
I mean, I knew it.
I had it right in front of me.
I knew it.
It just didn't see me.
But a really great organization.
Yeah.
You know, helping families that lost love one that protected and served our country.
You know, so, you know, what a, what a great thing to continue to, you know, you go through
the whole season and then you, hey, it's not done yet.
Let's, let's take an opportunity here at the stadium to do a fundraiser for something
that, you know, we tend to, unfortunately, forget about our veterans too much and hear
something that they are bringing forward that, you know, the families that need it.
I talk with the, Jake, all season assistant GM over there and Ken and some of the others
over there.
We've been very honest, all of each other in the whole community.
This season hasn't gone the way we wanted to wins and losses wise.
But going back to this again, we all also understand it's bigger than wins and losses.
What the raptors mean to this community on economic, economic level alone, we could spend
time talking about, but even beyond that, giving us a chance to have events like this, hosting
things like this, putting into the community the way that they do.
It means something to have this team here, means something to that and not everybody's
got a Northwoods league team in their town.
We're very fortunate with that and all the more fortunate because a really unique thing
about them, they are the only Northwoods league team that owns their stadium.
And so they can do things like this, they can open it up to the community much more and
everything.
Now, they don't have to do that.
I don't think it would affect their attendance if they didn't do that kind of stuff or,
you know, be involved with the community, but they do.
They go above and beyond.
It reminds me very much of Culver's and some other businesses out there that don't necessarily
have to advertise as much as they do, but they do to put back into communities.
That's the definition of buying local, supporting local and really keeping up with that.
We're going to have a fun time tonight at the park, get there one more time for the summer.
Absolutely.
And, you know, turn around the team and then shout out to Culver's, rap is forward for
insurance compliance, of course, the rafters to make that concert happen this week to
put up the money for a community event for all of us to enjoy and then give back to a
strong cause.
Shout out to rafterbaseball.com to get those tickets for the Glan Band coming up real quickly
here.
You want to get those tickets and I think I've got the P tickets available for it as well.
And of course, as we wrap up the season here at WFHR, every rafter hit, pitch and win
right where it belongs at WFHR where it's always been, join us as we got games coming up
for you.
I don't know when people are listening to this podcast, so I don't want to start giving
times and everything.
He said, wait a minute.
I'll miss the game.
We're not live anymore.
Yeah.
That's good because we can edit.
Yes.
Absolutely.
Did you guys have all you people?
This interview is a lot worse than you might think actually.
I edit.
I work all this things and magic.
Sean, I know you had some other things.
Yeah.
Oh, I want to do a shout out to my friend, Mike Tronto, who's in the hospital recovering
from surgery.
He's had a tough couple of years.
You know, start off, you know, a couple of years ago getting leukemia.
He's in a remission through that, had some stomach issues, went through that, but you
know, things are looking really good for him.
We should be out of the hospital either today or tomorrow or some time relatively soon,
but just a good friend going back to sports, you know, and that's how, you know, you
have the friendships of the teammates, but look at the parents that get to know each other
and that's how Julian, I got to know Mike and Allison because their daughter is step daughter,
played soccer with Caitlin, and then just traveling around the summer together, you just
become, you meet new people.
And, you know, we've known them now for like over 20 years, but yeah, he's had a tough
couple of years, but things are looking really good for him and looking forward to him
to getting out of the hospital.
So Mike, thinking about you, always been praying about you, love you, and I know you'll
be out soon and we'll be hanging out really shortly.
Well, if one brings that up, yeah, wishing him well.
Yeah, a thing to bring up that I know that's been somewhat of a topic locally is the
SafeAven baby box.
We had a tragedy and I don't like talking about it, but I think I need to in 2019 where
a homicide happened up in Millador where an infant was basically murdered and that was
a situation that we investigated and it had a big effect on our department, it had effect
on medical staff in Marshfield and even me personally and it brought up the SafeAven
law that's been in existence I think since 2011.
Somewhere around there don't quote me exactly, but it basically says that if you have a child
that you give birth to and you do not want that child for whatever reason, you can go
up to a police officer, a firefighter, or to the hospital and basically turn the child
over and no questions asked.
As long as the child hasn't been abused or healthier, you know, going along that path.
And then what evolved from that is the SafeAven baby box where it's basically, and you
can say it's a box that is secured at a public facility that has staff 24-7.
And so that I think started in like 2021 before the tragedy that we had, but I know there
has been, you know, discussion about it now to have this box that maybe one of the local
fire departments here in Wisconsin Rapids and that's been discussed a lot, but people
should be aware that we've got a lot of people that have passion for it to see it through
just to have that one extra staff part of the requirements to have, you know, the SafeAven
box is, you know, the facility that it's located, I can't have cameras on it because, you
know, it has to be some degree of anonymity, I can say that word, right?
Nicely done.
That was close.
It's close enough.
But, you know, at a location like I said that's, you know, that has to be a man 24-7.
So, you know, the location is something that I strongly support, but it's looking, you
know, working through the logistics of where that should be.
So I'm pretty confident that somewhere in Wisconsin Rapids, you know, we might see that
happen in the future, and I think that it's a good thing, you know, because, you know,
when you have a harsh, terrible example to speak of, and, you know, you want to react
unfortunately to the level that to be most proactive, you know, I'm very happy with the
people, you know, Jeff and Penskelver from County Board, and he's on City Council, you
know, really having the passion to see this through and seeing the City Council yesterday
talking about it, you know, how can we work this out, you know, maybe it will be with
the fire department, but to see something come through for it means a lot to me personally
just because of what our community and our department went through in 2019, it's something
that I'll never forget in my career.
You know, I'm not going to talk details, but it's just something that, you know, you
have those positive and negative highlights through a career, and that's one of those
really tough ones, but the positive is seeing, you know, community members moving forward
to push this through, you know, where can we get this, just so it's, you know, all
there, do they get used very often? No, but if it gets used once, it's paid for itself.
Yeah, yeah, bottom line. When it comes to, we, you know, we cannot stop past tragedies,
we cannot prevent, you know, they, they have happened already. So I think a big part
of life is figuring out silver linings, figuring out what can we learn from this, how can
they keep not happening again? That's the definition of what we're talking about right
here, and it's not a comfortable topic, but that's all the more reason why I appreciate
you willing to bring it up, get into it, and the passion behind it. I feel for you and
that staff and other people in the individuals involved in that one, from the medical side
and everything, all the more, again, reason why to, you guys talking about this and bringing
you know, awareness to this is important for the rest of us. That's absolutely. Yeah,
I'm going to look out for that, and here's hoping that it never gets used, of course,
like you said, but that's insurance. You know, I'm not trying to be cold about this or
be flippant to anything, but that is the definition of insurance. So it's what we're talking
about here. Absolutely. Thank you, Sean. Yeah. A couple of things. Hey,
the TV show cops is going to be coming in. I don't know if it brought up last month or
not, but we're going to be doing episodes here in Wood County, primarily in the jail.
So we were, you know, I went to train with somebody out in Georgia a couple of years ago,
and just maintain that relationship, and he reached out saying, Hey, cops is looking
for, you know, more of a correction side of thing. I'm like, whoa, we got a perfect
opportunity here with the brand new facility that we've been operational now for several
months. Things are going really well. We're getting more and more efficient. I'm like,
yeah, I think we can do this. Oh, interesting. Yeah. So it'll start in September,
and I didn't realize that they're going to be here for a couple of months. You know,
I thought it was like, okay, a week or whatever, but they, um, oh, I imagine, yeah,
to be able to give them the material and footage. It's worth it. What's new? And I told
me, Hey, the jail years to go around and, you know, videotape along with going around the road as
well. You know, if they want to break a little bit. So I thought that was something really cool
because, you know, I like to reminisce about when I was in college, and I'm not going to say when,
because people figured out our old animal, when the TV show cops came out, I was like, Hey,
my Friday night seven o'clock. All right. I'm watching. Yeah. I had an influence on, you know,
you know, what I was seeing that's something that I wanted to do in a profession. And I was
talking to the producer about that and how cool it was that they wanted to choose us to do this.
So it's a little bit, you know, personal, but I think it's a big picture wise. It's a great
opportunity to highlight, you know, what our county did with our new facility. So that'll be
happening coming up in September, and they'll be here for probably about six weeks. It sounds
like yeah. And then, yeah, we'll get some footage in there that not only will county will see,
but the country well. So, you know, one of the things we've talked about this with Lansing
a number of times and some other individuals discover Wisconsin, you know, other ways for your
state to get out there and promote that state and towns to promote themselves and everything.
I, you know, seeing something like that, that's another thing that does it. Or, you know,
intrigues people about a community like ours or town like ours and want to learn more.
And the opportunity for more and more for everyday citizens to understand what it is like a day
in the life, you know, and the more we create that more information we have of that, the more empathy
that is created, the more that is understanding is good. Not just with citizens and law enforcement,
but hopefully with law enforcement and citizens invite, you know, it goes both ways that people are
working together as communities. We only get by together. Nobody's getting through this game
without working with each other. Everybody needs a hand up sometimes. Everybody needs somebody
looking out for them. That's what I'm talking about here. A show like that too, when Sean brought
that up, I want everybody to be honest with themselves immediately that theme song popped in your hat.
Like, you didn't even finish that word and it was like a bad boy, but it was just popping your
hat. It happens. It happens. I wonder if they're going to keep the theme song. They've got to keep
the theme song. And part of it is the, you know, showcase what we've done on the mental
whole side of things. You know, because that's going to be, you know, something that I'll require,
at least, you know, interviewing some of our staff that, you know, have specialized in that,
and then, you know, the things that we've been doing that we know are very important. We've
talked about them all, but it's just, I'm looking forward to it. You know, and one other thing,
and I mean, to cut Sean or cut into you, what you're saying there, it didn't mean to do that,
but something that I think about it's, it is on a, a hill that I will die on. I'm really
tired of news the way it is being delivered these days. And it has been for a very long time,
where there are plenty of great good stories out there, but every single news broadcast,
whether it's on TV or radio or what have you, has to start out negative. It has to start out dark
and everything. And it's not to say that those stories should not be covered. Obviously,
they need to be covered, but the way that you begin a broadcast is very important. And coming out
the gate negative and dark like that, it creates an atmosphere for the whole entire show,
creates an atmosphere sometimes for people in general when it comes to it. The more good stories
we can cover, the more good stories we can get out there, it's important. Shining a light on
inside that jail, letting people see that, the idea too, that how many people in the West Coast
I ran into, that think that everything past Vegas is the boondocks. And we're living our lives
on laws from the 1800s or something. Shining a light on the fact that here in Central Wisconsin,
we are on the forefront of mental health with our officers and our community. I think that
will be very surprising to a lot of people. The things that this show could do, I think that's
really cool. That's interesting. No, it is. Funny you bring up Vegas. I was just there a couple
days. I don't know if that's a place to go and relax, but I met Julie there for a few days,
but the reason why I was out on the west side of the country is, and I won't go into all the
details, but I just want people to know the Dieter Weeks case is something that we're continuing
to work hard on. And our passion is to solve that. And we had a tip come in that brought us
to their zone area. So Lieutenant Scott Goldberg and I went out. And as we talked about,
when the tip came in, the information came in, who should go? And I volunteered myself. I didn't
say I was going. We sat down as a team and said, I do have an investigation background and
with Scott's passion for the investigation, we talked. I'm like, I'll go. Unless you feel
that Scott and either our other investigators and admission administration team thinks otherwise.
And now they came to the conclusion that I should go. So we did go out there and I saw we're not
making an arrest. I'm going to make that very clear right now, but we did have information that
we felt it was necessary to follow up on. And we went out there for a couple days to interview
some people, most likely cleared some people. But it's something that is a case that we're working
on. We have the passion to want to solve it. I can't guarantee that we will or won't. But the
people should know is we're working on it. And we will continue to work on and Scott is doing
a phenomenal job, not only just leading all of our investigators, but his investigation skills.
Fun to watch him work and then to be kind of his side kicking. It was something. But people
should know that that's something that somebody knows something. And that's kind of how this
information came forward. So that gives us hope that we might find some conclusion to that that
tragedy. We certainly can guarantee a solved case, but can guarantee that it remains open.
As long as I'm in the position, I am there will be working on it as hard as we can.
Right on. Right on. Yeah. Scott, I know we don't have that much time left. Did you have anything
else you want to touch on? A big shot at the Quinn, our chief deputy. He doesn't have the most
glamorous job being the second command in the department, but he does. He has done a phenomenal
job throughout the years being in the position he has doing our budget. That's not fun.
I can imagine. But it's extremely important not only to our department, but to the county
and our taxpayers. And every year he does a phenomenal job, very open-minded,
communicate what are the needs, what can we afford, things like that. And I just want to give
him a huge shout out. He also does a lot of our grant writing. We'll sit down and look at things
that, hey, what's available? What would be a great fit for our department that we could build upon?
You know, like the stuff that we got through the Legacy Foundation cops grants. We had a
drug investigator years ago. And there's two things that he wrote grants for that are huge.
One, I'm very confident that we'll probably get this grant if we don't. We're going to still make
something happen is getting a school resource officer up in Auburndale. People should understand
in Wood County, that's ours. That whole school district is the sheriff's department.
And, you know, there's been incidents up there and the Auburndale school district has invested
in this, you know, to cover part of the salary and wages for a deputy. And we put in for a cops
grant to help cover some more of it. We should find out I would hope by then the months since the
school year is coming. And then, yeah, there'll be a commitment from the county. You know, so,
and that's something that I couldn't note that grant. And I'm confident that we got a great shot at
it. And what a great partnership. You know, it's unfortunate. It took this long to do this because
the Auburndale school district isn't that small. You know, they've got a pretty good size population
of students and staff there. And there wasn't incident with a gun there last year that really
opened a lot of people's eyes. So I think we've got a great opportunity to move in a partnership to
have an SRO there within a month or so. And then we also did a co-responder model. I know that
we've got some skin in the game with Wisconsin Straits Police Department with their,
they have a social worker. They got through a legacy grant. We've got a different grant
through the state that's a, we're going to hire a social worker under the Sheriff's Department
that the primary focus will be drug abuse and mental health because we already know that's
it's very, very connected. So we got awarded that grant that we'll cover about two and a half
years of funding. So we'll hire that person, which is exciting to me. You know, I did get
questioned why are you hiring a social worker? Is that to replace a law enforcement officer?
Like, absolutely not. It's the follow-up on what we deal with and those kind of situations then
and connect people with stakeholders while it's happening and freeing up our law enforcement
officers. Hey, if we've got a welfare check that we initially go to and it could be drug-related
or not, we make the scene safe. Our law enforcement, our deputies can leave. The social worker can come in
and work with that individual along with Alicia Bundich, who's our mental health deputy. You know,
so it's exciting to me for both of these opportunities and circling back to Quentin that has become,
he doesn't like to know it. I don't know how much he enjoys writing grants, but he's taking it on
and he's doing a phenomenal job. So a huge shout out for him doing our budget, you know,
maintaining the budget every year and then taking a look at being open-minded on these grant
opportunities that could fit our community and he's just done a phenomenal job. So I want to do a big
shout out to him. Grant writing is none to take lightly either. I've tried to do a little of it
myself and I've had to bring in experts real quick. It's so important in how those are written,
how those are done. They are the difference maker of getting that grant or not, having somebody
good doing that. Also, just to piggyback on what you're saying, he has done a great job putting up
of my questions. Quentin has been asked. Shout out to him and appreciation and shout out to
the whole department. Thank you. As we're wrapping up, I always like to find a lighter moment for us to
wrap up on a sheriff's deputies in Florida had an unusual day on the job when they were called in
to wrangle and escape EMU. This EMU was not only elusive but very fast and apparently very thirsty.
They ended up catching it because the bird needed to stop and get a drink, but that's the only
way they were able to catch it. Have you had any animal like crazy animal interactions? We got
deer, we got all kinds of things. We run in the buildings all the time around here, but have you
run in any of that? I don't know if it was an ostrich or an EMU grant rapids over not too far
from the town hall. They had one get and this is several years ago get loose so something very
similar. I didn't respond to it, but of course we all heard about it. I don't think that the people
that had those animals are in there anymore, but yeah, periodically that we'll get those
calls of a snake or a non-normal pet that might get loose and then of course we'll get the first
call and have to try to at least make the area safe. Then you scratch your head like, hey,
how are we going to do this? No, you're training maybe. No, but we have our humane officer
broker that she does a great job too and that's probably one of the first phone calls and then,
okay, what should we do and then find a place for her? Yeah, that's absolutely. With reptiles
especially and you've got to follow through, okay, if we pick up the animal, then what?
I'll never forget when I first moved the town here, I was riding around my buddy, we're riding
bikes and we go around this corner and I'm like, did I just see an ostrich in Wisconsin rapids?
Like, well, what's going on here? I'm like, oh yeah, he's like, oh yeah, it's an ostrich farm.
Like, it's nothing. Like, wait a minute. I've never seen this before. We were late for baseball because
I had to stop and see this. I did not believe that there were actually ostriches in Wisconsin rapids,
but yeah, they have those farm was there for a while. Always good hanging out with you soon. Yeah,
I don't thank you. If people have follow up questions, they'd like to reach out to how pretty good
me call. Again, 421-E715, that's the office and we can chat some more or feel free to stop by.
And of course, keep in mind you can go online and check out more information about our shares
department at woodcountywi.gov. They got a bunch of great sections there on that wonderful website,
head on over there, woodcountywi.gov. And as long as you're pulling up websites, go to YouTube,
type in your search bar, Wisconsin Rapids Community Media. It should already say that you're
subscribed. If you're not, subscribe, keep up the date and the great things that they are doing
over there. Big thank you to them. And of course, thank you to you again, Sean, say how to
the staff over there for us. We'll do, thanks, Kim. Yeah, thank you. You'd be safe out there. And
thank you, everybody, for joining us. We appreciate you, appreciate our friends at Crocket Sceptic,
for another edition of the Rapids Report.
