Hello world, welcome to WFHR's rapid support, probably brought to you by Cracket Sceptic
for this August 27th, 2025.
Have your host James here, we're joined by our great friends from Wisconsin Rapids Community
Media.
Want to see a good shout out to them?
Be sure to do yourself a favor, go to YouTube, subscribe to their page and keep up the
date and all the great work that they're doing over there.
And our guest today, Wood County Board Chairman Lance Plymouth Lance.
Good to see you.
Thanks for being here.
Well, first of all, James, thanks for having me, but second of all, thanks for doing
what you do in the community.
Bring that local news for, you know, I ran into you the other day out at the bridge of
bridge, run walk, you're out in the community with the station and you guys do a tremendous
job.
Lance, thank you and I appreciate you reading exactly what I wrote for you to say about
me.
Thank you so much for being here.
Well, we worked on it together.
You did a great job.
No, I appreciate it.
No, it is true.
I mean, so much of what we see as national news, state news, which has obviously relevance,
but we don't hear the local stuff and that's probably most important to the people who
live in the community and you and staff here do that.
So thank you.
I appreciate that, Lance.
When it comes to that area, this area in that, you've lived here your whole life, haven't
you?
No, but if I was only 43 years I have, the problem is it's a lot of our years in there.
I lived here 43 years.
If you were an actor, you'd always be 43, you know that.
But to that point of this area and what we do here and everything, you've known what WFHR
does for a long time.
It's why you continue to come back, you work with us so well, you share information with
us.
Lance is so cool that even if he can't be here, he sets up guests for us and everything.
So we don't have a dead spot or something like that.
It's really appreciated.
And it's a team.
It's a group.
The three of us, Joe, everybody over at WFHR, you know, Wisconsin Revs Community Media,
it's our job.
We love our job and we love what we do.
But it's an important thing to do in this day and age.
I think when all of us started, regardless of when we did, we took this seriously.
We understood that this is, we, there's a responsibility that comes with this job.
In 2025, it's never been more dire and more important for us to be able to cover these
topics and be able to just talk to people free up and say we had some breaking news this
morning.
We, we'd be able to talk about it right now, something along those lines.
So that's an important note, I think, and to all of our credit, a way.
Yeah.
I mean, the station's been a presence of community forever.
I mean, I hate to date myself, but I was working with Jack Generall, you know, way back
when, you know, both through a business standpoint and then eventually government, but, you
guys have been a presence here and greatly appreciated for a long, long time.
We're here because of the people like Jack and so many of those long time people out there.
I mean, the best of listeners in radio as well.
That don't hurt.
That helps.
I have them in your corner.
Lance, we got a couple of things we wanted to get into.
I know that we wanted to talk about the downtown area, Sarah Park, some of those things,
shutting down for the season.
I can't help myself starting kind of with the new and old jail, the new jail and how
that's pretty much come together and seeing some of the demolition going on with some
of the other stuff.
I am a construction kid.
I grew up in that industry and I love architecture and things.
So I'm drawn to that.
Any, it looks like everything's progressing pretty well from our end.
Yeah.
You say in your construct, they wouldn't let me play with the equipment.
I wanted to write that into that.
See that ain't right.
I wanted it in the contract where I could run a bulldozer or something.
I mean, just once.
They would not allow that.
A lot of perks with me.
It would be nice.
Yeah.
I love playing with SF2.
But, you know, if you're downtown, obviously, the most visible thing was the construction
of the jail, which was 150,000 square feet and allows us to house those people who are
guests of the county right here.
And then right now, we're in the demolition phase of that, the old jail, which will basically
become green space there.
And then you're going to see demolition across the street from the courthouse of some of
the buildings that were there, as well as the abandonment of Market Street.
And parking that is more beneficial to the courthouse itself.
And, you know, the one thing I really want to stress is this was a hand in glove with
the city, their cooperation, because it's not only, I know it's their goal.
It's certainly our goal to enhance the opportunities down there economically for business development.
So it looks better, you know, and all of the above.
And I can just say that the city staff, working with our county people, worked remarkably
well to bring this to fruition.
And you're going to see those buildings coming down here in the very near future.
And then you'll see parking that's more conducive to getting people into the courthouse.
And I've seen some, you know, young mothers, I don't want to say struggle, but it's more
difficult with young children coming from those parking lots a little more remote or some
of those people that have some physical challenges.
So it's going to be a win-win all the way around.
And then as the city continues to develop their plan as they go forward, really beneficial
to the downtown area.
And let's slide into that.
We'll segue right into the downtown area and some of the, some of the work being done
there and some of the imagination being brought to it too, because I know from me and my
family when we first moved here, that was one of the things that stood out about this
area was that downtown area having, you know, city hall right there and the jail, I mean,
the jail right there and some of those things, the connection of that.
It looks like there's more in the works over there.
Well, you know, I always laugh, having a river down there, you know, a long time resident
here one time said to me, I can't believe the inconvenience, I got to drive from, you know,
from one bridge all the way over to the other bridge to get around the river and yet when
I have guests in town or when we have visitors, they always talk about the beauty of having
a large river, you know, those kinds of river run right through the middle of town and
the development, obviously, a jail is built for, you know, hospitality or other reasons
like that, but the enhancements that are occurring around that, you know, reconfiguration
of streets, repaving those parking areas, creating more green space with opportunity to host
large events downtown is going to be beneficial for everybody and it enhances the quality
of life.
And you know, when people are looking for areas to relocate to quality life, tap the
list right now.
Yeah.
When it comes to what you're talking about there and revitalizing that area in some ways
and in some of that, we know how well that can work when you, you know, work with people,
when you also have an opportunity to do that, I think what's happening, what happened,
I should say, with San Valley and so much of that area and the way that blew up, you
can look at the plover area and see where that was 20 years ago and look at where it is
now.
We know that this can happen, we know that we can see these things with our communities.
It's also very interesting to me too because I don't look at our community as a desperate
community.
I don't look at our community and specifically talking about Wisconsin Rapids as an area
that is in dire need of this or we, you know, we're going to have to put a, you know,
for sale sign on the welcome to Wisconsin Rapids or something like that.
Like we're not in that position, but that's all the more reason of, well, you want to
stay there.
You want to, you want to do better.
So we're seeing a lot of the imagination again and some of the ideas going into the downtown
area along with other areas, you know, planning so important, but really interesting.
This last about a week ago, we had a bond rating call with Moody's and that those are always
anxiety-filled events.
But one of the things that they touched on is that we have a very stable community and
that being, you know, somewhat exempt from some of the natural disasters.
Obviously, we have the occasional bad storm.
You could have a tornado, but, you know, no earthquakes, no hurricanes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
None of those, not generally not a major flooding event, although the river can go up
a little bit.
So they consider it a very stable community, despite the downsizing of the paper industry.
They said you've diversified and you've come through this and it looks really great.
The other part of that is planning, you know, and oftentimes government entities get criticized
for doing planning.
They go, you spent X number of dollars on a plan.
And, but you have to have a plan before you can do anything.
Yeah.
I'll segue for you real quick.
You know, we, power's bluff.
We did a plan there 20, 25 years ago as to what we envisioned that being and then eventually
through, you know, different funding mechanism, some of that grant money, others that came
about through our point, some of those, you know, we're doing a multi-million dollar expansion
up there that's going to really benefit that area.
If we wouldn't have had the plan, we couldn't have done that.
The city with their downtown plan in the vision and some of the, you know, the renderings
and the drives to see what it could be, spectacular opportunities.
So the planning parts, just as important, is that doing it part.
Right.
And you're in a, you know, while there are major cities that are trying to bring in an
Amazon or some of these kind of things, when you're a more rural community, you have to
work with around, you know, other things.
I think that you see a lot of little things going on here and there and stuff.
We've talked about the lights on the bridge and some other things that are also, maybe
they aren't money makers per se, but they are eye catchers.
They are things that make people want to come to your area.
We talked a lot about being dog friendly and how important that is in today's, if you
want your community to grow, the stats speak for themselves.
We've got to be a little dog friendly.
So we got a dog park.
We get, you know, we, we are doing these things that you're seeing our community being
done.
Maybe you're not seeing some giant, you know, Nike incoming here to build a, a, a bill,
you know, a facility or something, but we are doing a lot of these other things that
are adding up.
Yeah, that enhanced quality of life.
And, you know, I was one of those people you mentioned earlier, you know, have I lived
your my whole life?
And the answer is no, I lived, I grew up in the Chicago area and not right downtown.
But, um, I was one of those people who, the quicker I could get out of those larger areas,
the traffic, the congestion, somewhat public safety and some of those other issues that
occur, the better.
And there are people that seek communities of this size and, um, you know, through some
of the, the build out and the capabilities that we have, uh, you know, with the systems
that have been built in here.
I mean, we have some, you know, up and down on the speeds of the internet that, that
rival some of the biggest cities in the country.
It allows for remote work.
And there are many people who would much prefer to live in a community where, you know, your
neighbor, uh, you know, you feel safe going downtown.
So, um, it's choices.
I would say, you know, 10 million people in New York can't all be wrong.
I mean, some of them must like live in there.
Um, I like to visit, but I'm not staying, uh, and I'm sure there's a lot of people with
that attitude.
We're, um, I think it's going to be interesting, not just to occur right now, but in the next
couple of years, next five years and that seeing how these things develop in town here,
and not even just us, but, uh, in other areas, Rome has been blowing up.
There's other areas around us, too, that are doing well and thriving, uh, rising tide
races, all boats, uh, you know, in our community, not, you know, we talk about Wisconsin
ramp as a grand ramp as a town of Rome, or, you know, it's all part of a community.
And, and each one of those enhances the other.
And, and frankly, people typically don't believe this, but if they're successful in Milwaukee,
we're more successful here, because like you said, the rising tide raises up.
It just, it's the way it works.
Uh, you, you know, you mentioned, uh, our old stomping grounds, I'll say, uh, in Chicago
and everything, but I've heard this my whole life about how one end of the state needs
the other, you know, the southern Illinois, northern Illinois, completely different, but
they need each other.
One doesn't make it without the other.
Um, where, we see a lot of that on a local level here with some of those things.
And, and again, looking forward to seeing how that develops, speaking with Wood County
Board Chairman, Lance Plymmel right now and Lance, uh, Sierra Park, uh, as we're getting
ready towards the end of the summer here, things wrapping up over there.
Things are starting to wind down, you know, that was a, a really good acquisition.
For the county last year, you know, they, they came to us and said, you know, we have
the consolidated employees' recreation area, uh, Sarah Park, uh, that no longer really
can be handled because there are no employees there.
It was funded through that, uh, with the county being interested in running this, you
know, because, you know, we served the public, um, and it was a great opportunity.
We, we jumped at that opportunity.
Uh, we have roughly, I, I want to say 60 might be 65 campsites out there.
Um, we've been at about 50% capacity most of the time, but it's growing every week as
people realize that it's there.
It's been improved.
It, there's plans to continue that improvement to enhance that.
At some point, you'll probably see, uh, more boat docks, you know, better facilities
in that respect because, uh, although we do have Southwood County Park at Lake Waziccia
and there are some water features at, uh, at Dexter, you know, at the lake, but I mean,
they have a really large body of water, uh, that you can really boat on.
This is an outstanding opportunity, uh, a little bit different, uh, distance driving
there because it's on that side of the river for people coming from that direction.
But if you haven't had a chance to get out there and check that out, go look at it because
the park's department is on a magnificent job of bringing that back up today.
Kind of answered my follow up.
I appreciate that.
Would you do that?
You do your good at it.
Um, but I, Carrie, it's hard to ask a question like this within not even a year into an
investment or anything, but it does seem like it's been a very strong investment.
It, it, it has and we really didn't have, uh, the go ahead to do anything there.
I get my day.
So it was probably like April, you know, and we were looking to get this operational by
Memorial Day, um, and we did that.
I mean, it was really done quickly.
It was done well.
But we did not get to all the projects we wanted to get to yet and those continue, they'll
continue throughout the winter.
And I think you'll see additional, uh, improvements, enhancements, uh, as we move forward
that way.
So like all of our other parks, you know, you can book campsites online, you know, go
to the Wood County Parks website and that's how you do it.
Yeah.
Get on over there and start poking those campsites there.
I get told by my listeners all the time you didn't remind me about camping and stuff.
I would remind you right now, they go quick on some of those, um, you know, uh, more
popular weekends, uh, holiday weekends for sure.
And, you know, the interesting part is the mix in our parks is, it's close to 50 50, uh,
from kind of local and then out of the area, um, campers, you know, a number of my wood
county portage or the area and then a number of them trail learn from a long ways away.
Mm-hmm.
Lance, uh, note that, uh, you've got a number of meetings coming up or I shouldn't say
you, but the, the county does, uh, and just look at the website woodcountywi.gov, taking
a look, we've got the central Wisconsin Library System Board of Trustees is meeting tomorrow.
Marshfield Fairgrounds Commission, Health and Human Services Commission.
That's just tomorrow.
There are plenty of other ones coming up, um, anything that we want to note to the audience
to, hey, you might want to take an interest in this.
And certainly that applies to everything that you guys do over there.
And again, going back to where I started, go to Wisconsin through our community media,
we'll go ahead and check out those videos.
You can, uh, keep up the date and all the things going on in our community.
Um, but when it comes to anything that you think is really noteworthy, what's noteworthy
is if you have a concern or you have an interest, it happens at the committee level.
You know, people often say when you get to the county board level, most of those votes
are 18, 1, 19, zero, well, they are because it's all been hashed out typically for months
at those committees and those people that might have a different view, there was probably
some compromise on how that ends up in resolution form there.
So it all happens at those meetings and almost without exception, those committee chairs
not only allow public comment, but most of them allow comment on any agenda item as it
comes before them.
So, uh, you know, obviously we've got a great library system in the area that's moving
forward.
The Health and Human Services part 40% of our whole budget runs through Health and Human
Services.
Uh, and then, you know, as a county, we're in budget time, as I said, when we came in,
I hate that time of year, do you go, let's talk about budget, let's, let's not, we're
looking in pretty good shape though.
And like I said, Moody's came back and said, um, our county is in exceptional financial
condition.
Uh, you know, we maintain those ratings and they continue, uh, to look at the stability
of the area.
In fact, I wanted to turn the camera around show, it was lunched by the river that day and
they had all the tents set up in the farmers.
I wanted to turn the camera around and show them the river because it was sparkly and
beautiful from the third floor of that river black building.
As we're, uh, wrapping up our, our time here to, uh, Lance, we're also kind of wrapping
up the summer season, as I mentioned before, we're getting ready not only for a new season,
but the school year to kick off.
We always like to take a reminder to tell everybody slow down a little bit, keep an eye
out for a little ones.
Let's have a very safe start to our school year for our little, uh, people out there.
Uh, for you and the, the board, are there things that you guys are looking at and doing
and as you get ready for a new season or even the school year, you know, it really doesn't
necessarily revolve around that schedule, but to, to your point on safety, I mean, school
safety, there's a tragedy this morning, uh, an event in, you know, in the Minneapolis
area, um, tragic beyond belief, but there are some things we can prevent.
Some of those are those accidents around just slow down school buses, um, county work
sites or any of those road construction areas.
I mean, you wouldn't believe how often somebody goes barreling through those at 65 miles
an hour with no concern, uh, for the safety of the workers or those who are out there.
And then my other, I guess, charge the communities be, you are, are eyes and ears on the ground.
If you see something suspicious, if you see something that seems out of the ordinary,
contact somebody, um, you know, that ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure kind
of stuff, uh, really makes a difference.
Uh, appreciate that, Lance, um, as, uh, we're wrapping up here, anything else you wanted
to touch on?
We cover everything.
I think we got it.
I thought we did.
I think so.
I think so.
Thank you, Lance.
Thanks so much for the transparency.
The time.
Always a great talking with you.
Thank you for the time.
Thank you.
Oh, uh, before I let you go.
Don't, I'll stay.
Yeah.
How can they get a hold of you, Lance?
I was forgotten.
Well, all my information, the easiest way is on the Wood County website.
I mean, my phone number is my email address is text me, call me, email me.
Um, I used to joke, say, you know, yell, send smoke signals.
I don't care.
Uh, you'll get a hold of me somehow.
Uh, appreciate that.
And appreciate all of our good friends over at Wisconsin's Rebs Community Media doing some
amazing work over there.
Again, go to YouTube, subscribe to that page, keep up to date, and all the great work
being done over there.
And we'll be back with another edition of the Rapid Support here at WFHR.
