Hello world, welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report, probably brought to you by Croc
Cepdick for this August 20th, 2025, have your host James here, and we're
joined right now by our good friend Wisconsin Rapids Mayor Matt Zacharyz with us
Matt. Good to see you. You too morning, thanks for having me as always. I appreciate
the time and we appreciate our friends over at Wisconsin Rapids Community Media.
Do yourself a favor, go to YouTube, type in your search bar, Wisconsin Rapids Community Media,
and subscribe to their page and keep up to date and all the cool things that they
are doing. We appreciate the gang over there. How have you been Matt? It's been a
while. Yeah, I'm doing well. I was I wasn't able to make it last month. Something
came up. I appreciate the flexibility that you guys have to certainly let us get
in here and and be able to communicate with the community as much as we can. I
think that's great. So yeah. Day job comes first. Day job comes first always. So
we get it. We get it. But we do appreciate when you can make the time and
joining us. And you know, before we get into a couple of topics that we wanted to
get into, we were talking about in our pregame. We are celebrating our parking lot
party, our open house today at WFHR and WIRI. This is kind of an extension of our
anniversary in November. We're going to be celebrating 85 years in this community,
85 years of reporting from Central Wisconsin right here from Rapids. I know
that you have been around here for a while. Do you have any memories or any thoughts
on what that is? What WFHR is and what it means of this community? Oh, I think
okay. So I've been here 20 years. We moved here. And our first son was one. He's
now 21. So it's been a while to think of it. It's crazy. And soon after I moved
here, you know, long story short, I guess a neighbor got me involved in I'm the
kind of guy I didn't necessarily know what a board was and how all these things
function. It wasn't necessarily a part of them growing up. They offered to introduce
me to the board of the Chamber of Commerce. So I did. I got asked to be on there.
It was on it for six years. It was ended up being president for chair for four of those
years. I believe three or four of those years. During that time, then that's when I started.
I met with Carl Hilke. And you know, we met here. We talked about some stuff going on in
the community, different projects that we were working on. Then I started running into him,
kind of like you and I run into each other and he was just a wealth of information. So I
was able to, you know, pick his brain and he was happy to share and kind of direct me,
you know, how I should grow into the community too. So I appreciated that in him that it wasn't,
you know, to me, and even with you, it's not really just a job. It's like, you guys are both
very passionate about what you're actually doing here, which is helping grow a community and
communication and all those things. So it's always been great, a great source of information,
but also support for everybody that's trying to help in the community.
Well said. Yeah. And any chance to talk about Carl, I'll take it any chance I get,
appreciate the reference there. And interesting too. I think that's a really similar story to a lot
of us when coming to this area. And one of our first impressions of the area is this radio station
turning on the radio. It's something that even that is days people are still doing a lot of and
have. And it shows not only, I think the power of radio and the relevance of radio, but also how
how we connect as a community. You know, we're losing more and more opportunities for strangers,
sitting next to strangers and enjoying something. You know, theater,
movie sporting events, all these things. We still do it for those, but we're getting out less
and less and we're doing less and less of those things. I feel like it's not the same thing,
but I feel like radio is still a bit of that of of, hey, did you hear this or the word of mouth
or some of those things that happens with radio? And it's the relevance of radio is always
impressive to me. Yeah, it's cool. I mean, it leads into a whole full conversation I had yesterday
with somebody who's very prevalent and important in the community and they're saying, we don't know
what's going on with the mill. And it just kind of took a breath back. And I was like, man,
I really do my best to talk on the radio, talk on TV, talk on podcast, get it out on social media.
Like everything's wide over as long as I'm not under a NDA, which I am a lot for certain things.
And I don't step on the toes of the people that are asking us to be to keep this stuff in confidence.
I'm willing to share whatever I can and hopefully I do it well enough that people hear it and
understand it. So, but what it does tell me is that even though we're on, we're doing all these
things, we're still not. And I'm not quite sure how to do it because you still, from there,
you got word of mouth. They say Wisconsin Rapids is a pretty good rumor mill town. I don't agree
with that. I think that most towns most likely are everybody's talking like you said when you get
together and see a bunch of people sitting at quick trip and subways and you know, getting together
in the morning, having coffee and talking. I mean, that's a big part of our way of communicating.
So, it's interesting. As somebody, and you know, I've noted this many times how much I love this
community, how much I look at this second act of my life. One of my main goals is to support this
area, support local, this community, the city that gave me so much. My kids were all born here,
my brother was born here, so many different things. I graduated high school in this town.
It's given me my second act and all that. I say all this, I say all that with love and
appreciate the effort and what you were saying there as far as getting the information out there
and continuing to be restless about that and work it for other ways to do it and everything.
However, I will counter with we are grown adults and some of the onus is on us as adults to seek out
this information. It is, you know, to just sit there on your couch or wherever and expect the
information to fall on your lap. That's not how the world works. That's not how we learn or we
get smarter. Information should be hunted. Information should be sought out. It takes work.
Imagine, remember when you were in school and you went through the, you know,
the Dewey decimal system or whatever we did when we were kids, it doesn't exist anymore.
But, you know, you hunted down information to fill out that book report or whatever and it felt
good to do that. It felt cool and to learn it. It's no different than working out your muscles.
It feels good to do that. It's a good burn kind of thing. Learning is the same way. I appreciate
what you're saying and I think that it is a big part of your job in your staff's job to get
that information out there and to find new ways to do that, to adapt to the times. It's also on us as
citizens to seek out that information and not just expect it to fall on our lap. I have a hard
time believing that somebody that didn't know anything about the mill, that they didn't try to find
something out about the mill. If you try, if you just throw it in your Googler, you're going to
hear something. You're going to find some information. If you're not finding it, that's, I'm sorry,
some of that does fall on you. We have to take some personal responsibility here.
That's a big part of where we're going forward in the information age. There's a lot of info out
there. To read just one new source, even a trusted new source, I don't recommend. We got some
amazing reporters at this company. I tell people all the time, go ahead and read their articles
and then read other articles. Make sure to get as much info as you can so you can decipher this
and figure out fact from fiction. It's no different locally. In fact, I think on a local level,
I hate to say easier, but it is almost a little bit easier. You've got so many, and Matt's all
about town. You're always bopping around at everything. Even being able to ask of this information.
I want to get a shirt that says a lot of people don't necessarily know my face, although
usually I run into somebody that does, but a t-shirt or a shirt that says, yes, I'm the mayor
and on the back say, go ahead and ask. Just because I want people to be able to ask questions,
yeah, and just know what's going on. I will throw this in there. We, within the last couple of weeks,
launched our new website and we're going to continue for the next couple of years to promote
the website because it's very communicative. We have all these tools that are put in place so people
can reach out to us to seek more information if it's not just in the services, but in the news
that is going on. I love reaching out to people when need be. Certainly willing to hear the issues
that are out there, try to keep them as positive as possible. Emily Kent is doing a great job
communicating with people when they're asking for information and she does a great job. If they
can do it in a snarky way, I just say just keep it to information and then you give the information
and a lot of times they'll write back and say, I apologize for being a little, you know, the way
I presented there. Thank you for the information. So I think it's important to let the comments come in
if they're really bad. Just let them go. If they're just looking for information, even if they're
saying it in a snarky way, just go ahead and answer the questions and let's start talking to
the community and making sure they get the answers that they need. So looking, I'm very happy for
the website. Emily did a great job kind of leading the way. We kind of said we wanted one voice with
it. Joe and Taylor helped out in the back to make sure that all the eyes and teeth were crossed and
make sure that that all played out. And then we had our IT department, you know, helping out with
certain projects. We are not doing sea-clicked fix, but we are doing something where it's similar,
but it's within our own, you know, confines as to how we want to handle that so people can let us
know when there's potholes, when there's lights out, when, you know, stuff with this city, not
necessarily telling on your neighbor. Like we got to get away from that as much as possible, you know,
but let us know what we need to do as a city and what we're responsible for. So happy that happened,
took a long time, a lot of hard work went into it. We're very excited with the product and
and it's going to evolve over time and we're very excited for the future of it. I liked the old site.
I do see the reason for this and I do see the the advancement. I see some of the positives of the
new site and everything. It's wonderful. It really moves very well. It's very, the speed of it is
really nice too. I love the layout of it and everything. And for those that, you know, had bookmarked
the old website, it takes it right to, you know, this one, if you go to the old one, it takes it
right to the new one, which is always a nice feature and always awesome to have. And I want to
encourage people to check it out for themselves. You know, you don't have to take me in the Mayor's
Word for it. You go check it out yourself. It's really cool. One of the things while you're there,
though, check out the community development resident annual bike survey. Encourage more and more people
to take that survey and get more data on that one. It's a really cool thing that we're able to do
in summer around here and having our bike programs and everything. It's important for them to collect
this data to know how many bikes to have or if we should keep doing this or anything like that.
I know that I've seen in recent years, you know, usually, you know, it's no surprise to see a young
person on a bike. I've seen a number of older people using these and I know from talking to one of
them, at least, that they were using it to get to work, you know, and stuff. So these bikes are for
recreation, but they're also being used for other purposes and everything. And it's all the more
reason why we encourage you to fill out that survey, help them with the data of this.
Yeah. You mentioned the mill before. I kind of call them back to that a little bit,
as far as any update with the mill and how that's going. Yeah, update, but also I'll do it as
quickly as I can. Just so everybody understands and I know these are some terms that people don't
always follow, but I'll try to educate as much as I can. So the base mill was the original mill.
And when you go right across the Jackson Street Bridge, that's the base mill that you see first.
That was purchased by Sonoco, who used to be Carenzel. Sonoco bought Carenzel out.
And they bought, they purchased that whole building. So they're making their brown paper in
there. They're bringing in new machines or bringing in new like renters that are renting other
spaces in there. They've come to some agreements with CRG who owns the mill capital recovery group.
They own the land. So it's kind of a land contract in that sense. Put on some new riffs. I mean,
you got to understand these are hundred and you know, some of the original buildings are
probably over a hundred years old with it. And that building itself is probably like 20 different
building or additions that are added on. If you look at GIS and look at the roof, it's pretty
interesting. So they're there. They have about 150 employees and they're growing as we go. So
there is paper that's happening in there. And then the next big building back along the river is
the converting mill. And that was purchased by bill of route or kept by bill of route and
purchased from CRG. However, they work that out. And they're bringing in other paper rolls from
Escanaba, Michigan and their other mill up there to bring down instead of building a new
facility up there. And they're going to keep doing this. It's way more cost effective. Everything's
in place and they have about 150 employees and they're also. We are working hard on the 16 building,
which is the other big building that's in the mix. The machine was bought. The 16 machine was
bought and is being moved to India. And that building will be cleaned out. There's multiple
different companies that are involved in this. This is where he gets sticky. You don't want to let
stuff out early. And I don't want to get people's hopes up either. Like there's a long way to go
before some company is going to move into that monstrous building that was built specifically for
a machine. So it's not like you just have this big warehouse and you're able to rent it out.
But there's good things that are happening and we're still working towards that. And there's
another warehouse in the back. Try City bought one of the buildings and moved into there.
Other buildings, the outlying buildings have been bought up by community businesses so they can
grow. So then the big question is the craft mill. And the craft mill was the boiler system providing
heat and energy steam power. That was never going to be fired up again. As soon as it was shot
down, it couldn't be fired up according to the EPA. And then the outside of that. And then outside
of that is the pulp, the pulping machine that nobody is going to be making pulp here anymore.
So that it had to come down. And it's a happy sad. It's sad because of all the ingenuity and hard
work, blood, sweat and tears of the people in the community that put their life into that.
But if we don't take it down and it just sits there, it's going to be sadder and sadder over
the years just watching it deteriorate. So it's better to get it out of the way so that we can use
that land, which is about all in all, about 220 acres, plus all the power from
Quipco consolidated water and power to be able to bring in new industry. So now we're looking at
new industries coming in. A lot of manufacturing is interested in the area, but also a lot of these
AI database companies. We went through something where a company called DPO came in. What they
wanted to do is lock up some power. So they locked up between five and 20 megawatts of power. When you
say megawatts, it takes 30 megawatts from WWLC to power our entire city. So that's all of the other
industry that we have and all the houses. So that's kind of the size we're looking at.
So they're looking to lock up about 20 megawatts. Outside of that, there's about 60 more megawatts
that are available because of all the machines that were shut down from all the mills that were
running over the years. At one point in time, they were at about 250 megawatts. Right now,
they're probably more at that 40 megawatt level. The dams provide about 30 megawatts of power
that goes under the open market and it's a longer story. But so Quipco is there. They're a power
house company and they're small, but they're big for what they do and what they did, which was
provide all the power for the mills, which is amazing in and of itself. Anyways, they are there.
The power is there. We have wet fresh water there. Nine dragons who bought the ND papers who
bought out the beer and mill also bought out the wastewater treatment center. That's on the
west side of 34 going up north. So everything's in place as these new companies are coming in to
be able to plug into the power to the fresh water supply and to the wastewater treatment centers.
So it's everything's in place and everything's looking great. Again, I can't promise anything,
but everybody, Kyle Kerns, from the from the community development department,
Angel Leila from Synergy, Melinda from the WEDC, all working together to market our community.
These areas and they're doing a great job bringing in people from all around the world to be
able to look at this as a specialized site. And it's great. And again, can't promise anything,
nothing's going to happen overnight to make this stuff happen, but it is all in play. And the
future is very bright for what's going to come there. When I think back on the jobs that I've done,
I don't think there's, I'm pretty confident there's not a job that prepared me for life more than
working construction. I appreciate the time that I had working with my hands, working with my dad
and many of the great people I worked with in that industry. But the thing that I had to learn
really quick in construction was being patient and looking at the big picture. We're building a
basement and it's taken forever. And this is going wrong and that's going wrong and everything.
But you keep imagining that house and how cool that thing is going to look, somebody's going to
live in that thing and all of that. And it gives you like forces you to try and take a third
perspective, a bigger picture of the whole thing. When it comes to what you're talking about,
and what we're talking about when the future of this city and not just our city, but rural cities
like ours, this is the game. You've got to take a big picture perspective. You cannot expect anything
to be happening overnight or too quickly. In fact, you shouldn't want it to. Nothing rushed
usually is a good thing. Some company that's going to rush in here and want to employ 50 to 100
people or whatever, I have a little, I have some questions that I want answered before you come
into town here and everything. The idea of just bringing any old business in here is childish to
me. You have to take into consideration certain things. Now, I also hear both sides of arguments
of these things and when it comes to this topic, but it's on the onus of us as a community to take
the big picture perspective of this and hey, is $5 right now worth it? Or do we have to think of
the big picture on this? And when we do that, I think you allow your community to bring in good
companies and companies that are going to benefit and add to the community and not just take from it.
Yeah, this DPO is the name I just brought up before and again, they're a good company. I'm not
trying to say anything bad about it. What we are looking at is a new industry that right now we're
being told is going to double and probably triple our power usage needs. Well, we got to build
that infrastructure. I've learned a lot about electricity in the last year and a half and how
this all works and how it plays out. And in order to do that, it's going to take an astronomical
amount of cooperation and ingenuity and know how. So DPO and all these other companies come in,
they want to lock up the power and then they try to market it out to another community.
For DPO, they kind of put out the press release that they're coming in and it's going to be a $200
million investment in Wisconsin Rapids. They did that without any of us knowing about it. That was
completely on their own and what it was was kind of a marketing ploy to get the attention of people
to say, hey, we want part of that deal and have that storage. They had a year to make that happen
and a day before that year was up. They came back and said, we don't have a customer, so we're
not going to sign that contract. And that's so then we hear, oh, they left. Well, in the end,
I'm just trying to lay out the map as to how it happened so that people aren't thinking
of something necessarily really went wrong. It was them kind of pulling all the
changes in order to make it happen. And again, the downside to all this AI stuff is
it's good for tax base, you know, in terms of making some money that way. It'll be good during
the construction of it and bringing it in. But ultimately, most of it is offsite, you know, people
are promoting in to take care of it. So maybe you got a couple of people watching over the
building and the inside and all that. So it's not going to be like a manufacturing situation where
you could have, you know, a hundred or two hundred jobs is up like that. And you do want to mix
that. So we got to figure out how this is all going to play out because if it's all data base,
AI, whatever, we're not going to have a whole lot of jobs off of that. So yeah, we're speaking
with the Wisconsin Rapids Mayor Matt Zacker along with our friends from Wisconsin Rapids Community
Media, Matt, just a couple of more questions I wanted to get to. And one of the topics that we
were talking about again in our pregame that we wanted to get into was the Safe Haven Baby Box
and talking about this subject that has been, you know, brought up a lot in town, I imagine. I
know that I've heard a little bit about it from people. Let's dive into this. And for those that
don't know what this is, if you could explain it. Yeah, so this came kind of out of the blue
probably two months ago. And we've just been talking about it internally.
Ultimately, Safe Haven baby laws is set up everywhere already to say you, without any ramifications
or charges, you can turn over your baby within 72 hours to anybody at a police department,
sheriff's department, fire department or a hospital. I believe are kind of the four locations
that they're looking at to keep the baby safe. And again, those are, you know, granted it's a sad
occasion to think about if that's the case. But at the same time, we want to take care of the babies,
you know, more than anything we want to make sure the babies are safe. So this has never been a
question. I see, again, you know, social media is what it is. I see people want to turn it into
a political thing right away. I think ultimately the conversations we've had internally is,
where's where's it going to you're so what this product is is it's a mechanized box and you
have to cut it rather large, you know, a decent size hole in an existing structure and and be able
to do that, you know, safely enough, you put the box in there, the box is in, you can't have any
cameras on it because they want it to be completely completely anonymous. And then once it's on,
it turns on a camera so you can see the baby and then it sets off a 911 call. So there's been some
questions about, you know, the protocol is to what they at first they're saying they need somebody
to be staffed there 24 or seven, like some physical presence. I think yesterday we were talking a little
bit more about, okay, well, I don't think they're actually saying somebody has to be sitting there
waiting. I think they're saying, you know, within a certain amount of time, it has to be a 24, 24 hour,
24 seven operation. And then somebody can, you know, if the 911 call goes out within a certain
amount of time, somebody's there to take possession of the baby, get them to the hospital or
her to the hospital and make sure that they're safe and healthy. And then from there, take them to
child protective services at the county level. So, so again, the questions have been more about
where does the baby box go? Who's going, how are the things going to play into doing this?
Again, I knew it was as soon as I heard it, it was going to become a, you know, one of those
sticky questions is terms of how people feel because it's so emotional, understandably. So, I mean,
everything we do when it comes to our children, our babies, it is purely emotional and we should
take some time to think about it that way. So we understand that we're not dealing with necessarily
rational, logical thought. It's usually going to be more emotion-based. But at the same time, Linda
Casper is the one who's kind of did the footwork to bring this forward. Sue Smith at the county is
doing well to really kind of get everybody together talking about it, get everybody on the same
page. Jeff Pence, over one of the aldermen of Wisconsin Rapids and part of the county board,
has done a good job just kind of spreading the word and letting people know that it's there.
So, you know, in the end, I knew from the get-go, it's going to move forward most likely.
It's going to end up at the fire department because it seems to be the, you know, everybody feels
safe there. It's a little trickier to go to a police department. Not that you're not safe,
but that judgment, you know, is going to be there. So we figured it would end up there and it went
through the, you know, it's not a final decision yet, but it seems like that's going to be the
direction that the council is moving in. And so we'll figure out the details as to how to get it set
up. And, you know, the hope is it's never used. Exactly. At the same time, if something bad does
happen and, you know, a family is going through some bad strain and a baby dies, then you're going
to wish that you had it there. This is not that different than insurance. This is not that different
than break glass in case of need it. Those are loose metaphors and I understand we're talking
about human life and I take that into consideration. That said, and I need a beat on this one.
Because I get, especially in this job, at news, information, politics, 24-7, it dominates my life.
It's my job. I have to learn. I have to keep up the date on all these things. And I, to the people
that it is not your job, and you don't have to do this for a living or anything. You do not have to
politicize everything. There's enough stuff that involves politics that you don't have to drag it
into every single topic as one thing. And to another, the idea of these things, in the ideas of
community, they involve helping each other, look out for each other, doing these things. They do not
involve, hey, here's my moral compass. I'm putting it on you. Hey, here's my beliefs. I'm putting
it on you. That is the exact opposite of what this country is built on. It's the exact opposite.
It's one of the most un-American things you can do. It's not on you to be able to make these
decisions. It's not on you for people in their lives and their human beings. As a father of three,
there is nothing that could seem more foreign to me than not doing something like this. But it's not
about me. It's not about my morals and my feelings and my opinion. It's about all of us living in
this, on this, this city together and everything. And if there's an individual out there that is in
that position, I would certainly much rather than have this box than whatever the alternative is.
Because to me, all of this, everything we're doing here, every single thing we're doing here is
about that baby, is about the future, is about kids. If we're not putting that kid first, which we're
doing with this box, to me, this is very clear cut. This is very easy. This is very simple. Do
you have the box? Hopefully, the thing gets dust on it and never gets used. But my God, if one time
in a hundred years, it's used, worth it. Worth it. Because it's about the baby. This isn't hard.
It's about the kid. Forget thinking about yourself. Forget thinking about your moral compass and
all of those things. And think about a human life. Because that's the difference here of the
alternative, which is a question mark, we don't know. And here, where the baby is going to,
maybe not the perfect scenario, but a much better one than whatever that alternative is. Think
about the child. I don't think that is difficult to do. And I don't think it's that hard to not put
my moral compass on somebody else. I don't think we're asking that much as a community to be like,
hey, maybe I don't know everything. Hey, maybe my moral and my approach to life isn't the perfect one.
Maybe some other people got a little different than I do. Maybe I need to have them a little more
empathy in this world and understand that I haven't experienced everything. And maybe some things
I just don't get, you know, as much as I can't understand that, I can empathize with it.
So I agree and I understand where you're coming from. And this is a little bit of my downside,
is that I, I very, maybe not always clearly, but I do do my best to see everything from both sides
or as many angles as possible. And I get, I get that. And I guess in fairness to the people who
have come to me and I haven't been very vocal with the council as to where I, you know, where that
morally would stand. And in the end, it doesn't matter because this isn't about me. But what I would say
on the other side of that is I worry about making, like, making things super easy and taking out the
emotion, the human connection when a mother or father is in a bad situation. And granted, what we're
saying is we're going to make it super easy for you to be able to give up custody of your baby.
Granted, there will be phone numbers on the box that they can call. But ultimately, I would think
that if people are in such a lonely place and whatever's happening in their life that this is
the challenge they're faced with, to be able to have that human connection, to have to look
somebody in the eye and say, I need help. I don't know. I just don't want it to be, I just don't
want it to be so easy that you forget, like, we're losing the human connection, it's like you're
talking before. And I guess the more we do that and the more we make it about technology versus human
interaction, then I don't know where that road is. I think we've heard a similar discussion when it
comes to divorce in this country and how easy that is and that maybe it's too easy and that people
don't realize, you know, sometimes you, you're going to have bad days and you've got to work through
them and that's how you get a stronger relationship and some of those things. To me, and again,
this is not going to be popular. I'm going to lose some people on this one. Not everybody's meant to be
apparent. I'm sorry. Not just because you can have children. Doesn't always mean that, and you're
telling us that by doing this, you're telling us that you're not ready for this. You're telling us
that this isn't your thing. I think again, that's, that's, I appreciate that. I can't imagine how
difficult that might be to do something like that. I literally can't wrap my mind around it. So,
for me, if you see that and we don't, all right, make sure that that kid goes to a good parent,
make sure that kid goes to a good chance to have a good life and be able to be raised by somebody
that wants it, somebody that's going to love it and everything. I 100% agree with you that a lot of
things in life are way too darn easy nowadays, I think. But at the same time, I think you're kind of
showing right there that, hey, this, not everybody can do this. I mean, we, it may not be a popular
thing to say in everything, but let's be honest. We've all met a bad parent in our life, or we've all
heard of one or something. Not everybody is meant to be a parent. Maybe in this situation, we're getting
that kid to the right set of parents, the right person, as much as I agree with what you're saying
too, though, that, hey, you know, sometimes we've all, as parents, been in those moments where we
feel like we're not going to make it through the next five seconds, right? This is not, I don't know
how people have done this for thousands of years. How have they raised these little monsters? I don't
get it. We know also on the other side of that, those beautiful moments, and why it's worth those
moments and everything to have that and everything. I hear what you're saying there. Being in the
position, I get more than ever, like, it's, it's really not about me. And in the end, we're going
to make a decision, and we're going to move forward. I'm going to support everybody 100% in
moving forward, because this is the decision that we made, and we're doing that. And in the end,
that, you know, good sides to everything, bad sides to everything, the good sides will outweigh.
And again, hopefully it's, it's never used. Yeah. Just glad to us. And if not, we'll make sure that
it's there to protect the baby's lives that needed. We'll be keeping up with it with you and keeping
up on the story and everything. As we're wrapping up, I know that we are also wrapping up the summer
season. We are saying goodbye to our rafters and all the kids that came to town here and everything
to play fun season, talked with a lot of the ownership over there and everything about the season.
And certainly we make room for the River Kings. We got the River Kings season kicking off pretty
soon here is one of the fun parts of the job getting to like, I am the mayor. I should go to these
games. I probably should show up. Is that a little, is that one of the positives of the job?
Yeah, it's, I try to get, you know, you can't do everything. I gotta, you know, kind of buy my time
in that sense. But yeah, just to speak to the rafters, the Fonte family, they did a great,
they're doing a great job with the rafters and we appreciate them being in the community. They're
helping us out with the lights and doing everything to get that set up. So it benefits the longevity
of the park in the city, but also helps them with their ESPN plus, you know, movement in the
direction. I did just go out to, you know, somebody I've met in the community invited me to
calendar days, corn fast. And it was, it was set to be a lot of fun. Unfortunately, as we were
getting set to get started, there's massive storm roll in and kind of wiped out the parade.
So that was sad. But at the same time, everybody was great to work with. They all jumped in and got
drenched and, you know, tried to help each other and protect each other. So it's kind of neat,
the community wise. But yeah, the more I can be out there and just say, I'm just a part of
the community and I'm here to support as best I can answer questions. I love having conversations.
I do realize more and more. I am not super good at small talk. I'm way better at like,
ask me the deep questions and let's get into it and let me share information with you.
But ultimately, I do it. I do what I need to do to make sure that everybody's got what they
need for me. So I noticed right away, like the first time I was in an elevator with somebody that
I'm not good at small talk like that. Like we're talking about they want to just talk about the
weather. I'm like, well, yeah, but did you see that? No, I got to go, man. I got my, yeah, but
appreciate the conversation. Always appreciate the transparency. As always, Matt, we'll look
forward the next month and hanging out and talking again real soon. If people have follow-up
questions, I'd like to reach out to you. What's the best way to do that? I got a city cell phone.
I like that 715-315-2925. I finally remember just kind of a methodical number there. I like it.
Or a melody. I'll have to make a tune to it. Maybe Taylor can help me with that.
But yeah, 715-315-2925 is, you get hold of me and we can talk about whatever you guys want to
talk about. So I appreciate it and I appreciate your time, James. And again, the city's new website,
we encourage you to check out with wirapids.gov, wirapids.gov. Be sure to bookmark that and head
on over to YouTube and subscribe to Wisconsin's Rapids Community Media's page. Keep
up the date and all the cool things they are doing. Got the mayor's minute and some other
things over there that they are doing and we encourage you to check out. A big thank you to
everybody for listening. And of course, our friends over at Croc Acceptic sponsoring the past
half an hour or so on WFHR's Rapids Report.
