UW-Extension Wood County – Community Development – October ‘25

Hello world, welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report, probably brought to you by Crockett Sceptic

for this Thursday, October 2nd, 2025.

Have your host James here, just realizing it's October, Kayla, I'm just, I know it's

wild.

It's wild.

Yeah, it really cracked up on you.

And it's not just October 1st, it's October 2nd, so we missed today.

Kaila Rumbalski joining us right now from UW-Madison Extension Wood County, always

good hanging out with you, Kayla.

Thanks a lot for being here.

I tease about that, I joke about it, I know you are too.

But to that point, we are getting towards the end of the year here.

Yes.

A big part of your job, as you were saying in our pre-game and everything, is planning

for 2026, is planning ahead.

Right, it seems like as soon as October hits, we are on this downward slope, at least

in my life, particularly, you know, you've got Thanksgiving, Christmas, Halloween, let's

not forget Halloween.

See, I'm already back in myself up here.

And then my two-year children have birthdays, and then I'm in the middle of January, and

I don't know what happened in the last two months.

Cannot agree with you more.

In my 20-some years in radio, I learned really quick, this is the go time.

This is really, we get busy around this time.

It's a little bit in October, but especially in November, from November to the probably

first week of January, it is incredibly busy in this industry.

Just wild.

Yes.

And a lot of people, I think, can relate to that.

It's busy.

Even if you are retired, you tend this time, tends to be a bit busier time of the year.

And everything.

So, as we're doing a little bit of housekeeping and such, and looking ahead to 2026, what are

you planning for?

What are you working on?

We'll get into some of that.

If you don't mind, I think starting with the housing summit is a good place for you.

Absolutely.

Yes.

So, we are planning on behalf of the regional team of Center G. So Center G serves a five

county region.

That's our regional economic development organization.

It's led by our friend, Angel Leibhler.

Angel.

So, we worked for the Wisconsin Rapids Chamber.

And Angel serves through Center G. Lincoln, Marathon, Portage, Wood, and Adams County.

So this housing summit that we're planning is for Central Wisconsin, and it's for those

five counties that I just mentioned.

It will be on April 15th, 2026, tax day.

You can come celebrate it with us at the housing summit.

And we specifically will have a focus on reinvigorating existing housing stock.

So James, you and I have had this conversation before.

We talk about housing, and I know that you talk about it with our legislators as well,

like just the shortage of housing.

And so we talk about that problem a lot, and we say, like, well, we just need more housing.

We need more housing.

We need more people to build.

And that's part of it.

But also, we have a lot of housing stock that's dated, that maybe could use some updates.

And so we're going to talk in this housing summit specifically about how to reinvigorate

that existing housing stock.

How can we make those updates?

How can you put your home to work for you?

Is there something that you could do with some creative solutions like accessory dwelling

units or other ways to really turn your home into an investment?

DIYing is one of the bigger things that has come up in the last 20 years, 15 years,

whatever it's been in everything.

And so a lot of that stems around people wanting to do things around the home and make

their house nicer or something.

A lot of that time is to sell the home or something.

Maybe that might be the case, but there's no reason not to do this just for you and yours

as well.

Absolutely.

That's just as good of a reason as any.

And just as much incentive, I would think.

Now to be able to do it on a affordable budget, to be able to do it for, and if I could

be blunt, and it's nothing against YouTube, you know, or anything like that, but when

you're able to do it face to face, when you're able to do it with people who are from your

area or like area of yours, there's just a relate ability that they're going to get and

they're going to understand it's something like this housing summit that you wouldn't

get if you were to, you know, going to Vermont for this or something.

Absolutely.

And one of the things that we're going to talk about, you know, talking about YouTube

and just the trades industry, one of the things that we're going to talk about at this

summit is the fact that there are fewer people than ever before going into those industries,

right?

You try to find a builder.

You try to find a electrician or a plumber.

Unfortunately, those professions are becoming fewer and fewer because fewer people are entering

into those, those trades.

And so that will be part of the focus of this housing summit.

We'll have a session on building the workforce with our partners at Mid-State and local colleges

and programs to talk about how we can continue to kind of keep the pipeline flowing, so to

speak, of talent and of the people that are in that industry.

I know from talking to Melissa and some others, it's similar for women, but to all my fellow

men out there, go ahead and try to find somebody to tailor your suit.

Right.

It doesn't exist.

Yeah.

I tried for over a year to find somebody locally to do that.

And I finally found one person and she told me, I'll look at it.

She said that she'd look at it.

She didn't even say she would do it.

She said she would look at it, but she wouldn't look at the shoulders because if you mess

up the shoulders, if you mess up the whole suit, and she didn't even want to touch it, so

we never even met.

Right.

We never even got together.

And that was one person.

And granted, I was looking in central Wisconsin, but I mean central Wisconsin.

Right.

If you think I'm talking about this city, I probably called that city.

It's just an example, but it's also another note of one of these industries.

We don't want that to happen with this.

We can't let this happen with this.

Right.

Tailoring is important, but it ain't as important as building homes.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And as somebody who comes from that life a little bit, growing up a construction and working

on so many homes in my life and everything, talking from basements to home improvement

jobs, to just building the structure, the skeleton of a home or something.

There is such a rewardingness to that job.

I think a lot of people, you know, we've touched on this, especially during the pandemic.

They go from, I don't want a job anymore.

I want a career.

Right.

And what they're saying there is, is not just they want a career as in, I want a good paycheck

and I want something that I can maybe get a 401k and a retirement with.

I heard a lot of that.

I want something that's rewarding.

My bonuses aren't just, oh, vacation days.

I want to feel good.

I want to get done with my day and yes, I'm tired.

But boy, I feel good about the work I just did.

There are very few industries that offer that like construction does.

My father has been retired for over 20 years.

Like two weekends ago, cheering to cheer him up a little bit.

I took him, we were driving around town, looking at buildings he worked on.

Sure.

Looking at, you know, seeing that lasting impact of the work that you've done.

Yeah.

It really does have that kind of impact working on these things.

I know an uncle of mine who, when he was with us, would drive around Chicago at the

different houses he helped build and just taking a little pride in it.

Just, you know, a smile that, oh, look what they did to the front there.

How they changed it up a little bit and stuff.

Right.

A rewardingness to construction as well as a good paycheck that can come from it.

Absolutely.

Yeah, especially, I mean, if you look at the specialized industries of construction,

yes, but, you know, your, your welders, your, your, your,

plumbers, plumbers, there are, there are some pretty great benefits and pay that come

with those roles.

So definitely something to, to think about as we, we think about this housing shortage

that we have and, and all of the different perspectives that play a role in it.

Like so many things, it's never, oh, just point to this and that's the problem.

Right.

There's a lot of layers to this and you can, and not only find out more about that on

a real, a real chance to know middleman, just straight up at the person, people talking,

getting this information, but also I think learn more about these industries and to people

that want to be a part of these industries.

This is a great opportunity.

Absolutely.

What are the dates again for them?

So the housing summit will be April 15th, 2026.

That is a Tuesday at UW Stevens Point and, and Stevens Point at their point campus in

the Drefist University Center.

Very cool.

Yeah.

And Caleb, a couple of things we wanted to touch on with you coming up in the next year

and of course, clean sleep, clean sweep, one of the bigger things that we talk about together.

So a good segue from housing, you know, we talk about housing.

Maybe you did do a DIY project on your house.

Maybe you put on a deck and you have a bunch of stain left over from putting on that deck.

What are you going to do with all that extra stain?

You can bring it to clean sweep.

Let me tell you, James.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Let me tell you, the clean sweep numbers that we saw this year in 2025 were totally unprecedented.

We served more, about 386 off the top of my head, residents in our two events.

That is more than double what we served last year.

I think it's actually more than triple what we served last year.

And so there's definitely a need out there and the word is getting out and we're so glad

to hear that.

And thank you to partners like WFHR who are helping us to spread that word.

But clean sweep is coming up.

It will moving forward be twice annually.

It will be the Saturday after Memorial Day and the Saturday after Labor Day.

So if you're using those weekends to do your spring cleanup and your fall cleanup,

this is a great time to think about what do you have laying around the house that you

can bring to clean sweep.

So those dates are May 30th, 2026.

That will be in Marsh Field and September 12th, 2026 in Wisconsin Rapids.

So definitely save the date for those.

There are of course ways to safely dispose of hazardous wastes in between those events.

But sometimes those have different fees associated with them or you have to drive out of

county.

And so these two events are a great way to dispose of those items that may have been sitting

in your garage for 30 years.

But now you want them out, save it for clean sweep and bring it by.

Two, just side notes about this one, a big credit to the organizers of this event.

Really listening to their community, seeing in their community a need and addressing that

not only once but twice a year giving that option to locals in those areas.

It's a really a huge benefit and it's really encouraging to see that.

We don't get a ton of that always in society and it's really nice to be heard and to see

that even with people not necessarily saying it out loud, seeing that they're saying it

with their actions and the need of this and to the point of you make of those numbers

being higher every year, it shows the community needs it.

Right.

But also shout out to the community and the people that are recycling these things the

right way.

Absolutely.

Not to say that you necessarily deserve a pat on the back for doing the right thing.

But in this day and age, I think you do give it to you, give it to you, a big thank you

to all 300 of those people at everything that are getting rid of these products the right

way, which not only benefits our earth so much better but is just smarter on economic level

and so many other things.

Never forget everybody.

The damage we do is going to get cleaned up eventually and the check's going to come

eventually.

Might as well start cutting out of now and you can do that by doing these kind of things.

That's great.

We'll be talking much more about as we get closer to it of course and look, we'll have

you back on and we'll talk about it a little bit more in detail.

And the science, one of our favorite events science by the river right around the corner.

It is.

Yes.

So we talked about 2026.

Now we're going to hammer in on just a couple of days from today, Saturday, October

18th.

My colleagues, Jen and Anna in the extension office have been hard at work planning for

science by the river.

This is one of my favorite events each year.

I've got two young children as James and I have talked about in the past and they love

this event.

So it goes from Manhattan Park all the way up to Veterans Memorial Park along the beautiful

Wisconsin River.

There are tons of interactive science stations that that kiddos and adults alike can enjoy.

One of the coolest stories I think that came from this event last year is that the Central

Wisconsin ham radio operators were there.

And I think the middle schooler was able to, so they were trying out ham radio and they

were actually able to talk to someone on the international space station just because

of the time of day it was and the way that it, you know, it picked up like, how crazy

is that?

At Science by the River and Wisconsin Rapids, they got to talk to someone in space, in

space.

It's wild.

Yeah, so that's that's my testament to the cool things that happen at Science by the

River.

But it's going to be, yeah, it's going to be super fun and I highly encourage everyone

to come out.

This is such a wonderful event on many different levels and one of the things that's

cool about it certainly is it's a free event for families.

And it's one of those ones where you can take the course if you'd like, but you can also

just stop by stations if you want, oh, this one's interesting to me, this one maybe not

as much.

So you stop at one and not the other maybe.

The weather looks nice.

It looks like it's going to be a really good day for it so far fingers crossed everybody

knock on wood.

And, you know, I'm going to slip mother nature of 20 and see if that helps a little bit.

Right.

That's a good idea.

It's a great event not only for kids to learn and kids to learn in the fun way, but

hey, adults, you know, you learn some stuff too here.

It's a really fun one and as it's getting colder out as we know, we get more and more

stuck indoors.

Get outside.

Right.

Enjoy the out nature.

Especially this fall has been so unseasonably warm.

So definitely let's make the best of it while we can.

And this is another great way to do that.

One of the other things that I saw recently, so science by the river is actually part

of the Wisconsin Science Festival.

So there are, there are science activities happening all across the state that week.

Really cool that Wisconsin Rapids and Wood County right here are a part of it.

And I also was just reading the Food and Farm Exploration Center in Pulver, their newsletter.

My children are big fans of Food and Farm and Food and Farm is going to be there.

They're going to have an interactive exhibit for kids to enjoy.

So definitely a reason to stop out and do the activities.

As soon as you said that, like, of course, they're there.

Yeah, they're nice.

Perfect.

Yeah.

They would be there.

Good on them for being there.

Really good people over the great work being done over there.

That's so cool.

We'll talk more certainly about this next week's science by the river and get people

really excited for getting ready for it and everything.

But if people were curious about maybe the layout or learning more about it,

is there a way somewhere we can send them something and learn that?

Yeah, so they can go to extensions website.

It's also, it has a, the event has a strong social media presence.

So that's probably the best way is if you're on Facebook,

if you're connected to social media, go out to Facebook and search for

science by the river, Wisconsin Rapids.

It'll pull up the event.

There's also been some coverage of it with the state science festival,

as I just mentioned.

So you can find it on their website.

If you Google it, it'll come up.

Yeah.

That's, that's the best thing to do.

That website that the UW website is another great one, a great resource.

I was just looking through their events page and there's all that there for you

and so many other things because we really scratch the surface when you guys join us.

We get into a lot of great information, but there's always so much more out there.

Absolutely.

extension.wisk.edu extension.wisk.edu.

And if you just throw into your search or engine UW extension,

it'll pretty much pop up right away.

You'll be able to find it.

And we'll talk more about it certainly on our shows.

Kayla, if people have fought questions specifically for you,

want to get in touch with you, how can they do that?

Well, good question.

They could send me a carrier pigeon.

Someone, I've said this for months.

Someone has to take me up on it.

Please, please, somebody do it.

And Melissa's got pigeons.

Maybe she's maybe wants to receive that.

We'll look into that and look into it.

Yes, please, absolutely.

More realistically, they could probably send me an email or give me a call.

So I've got this crazy Polish last name, but email is K Rumbalski.

I assure you, it's not as crazy as it sounds.

You can spell it out, guys.

R-O-M-B-A-L-S-K-I-A-Wisk.edu.

Appreciate you, Kayla, so much.

Looking forward to hanging out again real soon.

Say hi to the UW extension staff for us, OK?

Absolutely.

Thank you so much, James.

Big thank you to you, all you listeners out there

for joining us.

And of course, crack it's septic for another edition of WFHR's Rapids

Report.

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