you
Our morning show get together today.
We have Mayor Todd Copper and all mayor of the city of Richland Center for a little while yet in the studio with us for his final show as mayor.
So good morning, Mayor Todd.
Phil, how are you doing?
I'm doing really well.
Great to be back.
I can't believe it's the last one.
I know we talked about it a long time ago when you announced that you wouldn't be running again and we had kind of counted him down and here we are in the last show.
Yeah, I mean, among other things, I can't believe six years have gone by this fast.
as mayor, it's crazy to me that six years ago, I think the 7th, I think of April at that time that year, I was first elected mayor and here we are and you look back like everything else in life, you look back at it and go, how could that be six years?
And then I think about everything that's going on.
I mean, my first day in office, it was the early stages of COVID and the governor had shut a lot of things down in the state and we had a lot of very frightened business owners who couldn't open, you know, and we had a lot of very upset
parents, they're not gonna have a graduation ceremony for my high school senior this year, and no Memorial Day Parade, and all of these things that were going on in the world, and I'm the new guy.
And that was, wow, I can't imagine coming into the office of mayor under more adverse conditions than that.
And just, you know, sit up straight, do your best, because you're here, and I did.
And we got through it.
And I knew right away.
I mean, every mayor learns one way or another that you never know.
I mean, you think you know what you're going to do every day, but you don't have control of the world.
You don't have control of the people in town, right?
You never know what's going to come your way.
Well, there can't be a better example than that.
And so we started with that, working through that.
Um, and got a lot done in the first year.
We got the dialysis center done.
We got the tech calm building done.
Those two lots had been empty on Orange Street for decades.
We got the last five residential lots in Wedgewood again had been empty for decades.
We got those filled in eternal gratitude to the Grangers who actually donated those five lots to the city.
They gave them to us.
So the city actually sold the land and got five new homes.
I mean, you'll never get a better deal than that.
Thank you, Grangers, for the incredible generosity on that one.
And so we were up and running.
And then the first year of the city budget, we couldn't meet.
So we're making it up as we go along on phone calls.
There was no other way to do it.
Here's an email.
Here's a phone call.
Everybody on a conference call.
There was no choice.
And we did that.
got through that.
And then as the COVID era ended, somebody in Madison called somebody in Platteville and said, close the campus in Richland Center in my second term.
And I thought, man, are you kidding me?
So much turmoil again for our small city to go through such a huge upset and so much emotion.
that had to be vented.
I mean, that was a huge loss for the community.
And a lot of us had worked very hard to try to prevent exactly that.
And then we got it anyway.
I mean, we'd been told it wouldn't close.
I actually brought Tammy Ivanovich on this program.
She's the acting, I don't remember the title, acting or interim chancellor at UW-Plattville.
She sat in this room with me in November.
I guess it would be 23.
22, 2023, and said the campus wouldn't be closing and started to articulate, November 22, sorry, started to articulate what degree programs would be offered the following fall at this campus.
And about three weeks later, she called the county board chair at the time, Mr. Marty Brewer, and then called me and told us both that she'd been directed by
Mr. Rothman, the president of the UW system, to close the campus.
And she said this, the decision has been made and will not be reversed.
Well, I had to tell the people that I did.
And naturally you saw the effort to save the campus, the signs, the buttons, the meetings and everything.
Well, turns out they weren't kidding and they had made up their minds.
And as you see since then, no matter what anyone says,
I'll never believe this wasn't a plan for a long time.
I mean, look at how many they've closed since.
I mean, Barabu is counting it down now.
Fond du Lac's gone, Waukesha has gone, several of them.
I think they're up to six of the two years that they've closed, but our community had to absorb that.
So adversity has been there.
It's been a crazy time to be in a leadership position because then the third term,
these last two years we didn't get you know something like a campus closure or a pandemic but just look at
where the world is.
The polarization and just the angst.
So many people walking around either worried or angry.
It seems to be most people.
I don't, business owners are telling me people have been different in the last year.
People in other communities when I met with several other mayors just over a month ago, they're all going through the same experience.
School officials, police officers, everybody just talking about this, the state of the world.
Right now and how on edge so many people seem to be so there hasn't been a Lot of smooth sailing, but that's okay That's when you sign up and you win an election you accept the responsibility with the authority that it brings and you better live up to it and That's what I've done to my the best of my ability for six years.
I'll always be proud of it and
I will, I'm eternally grateful to the voters of Richland Center who gave me the opportunity three times.
And I will remind everyone as a way to say thank you.
This will be the first thank you of the show and I promise not to turn it into the Academy Awards.
But Mr. Darlo Wenz gets a huge thank you for me, a three term mayor himself.
from 86 to 92, and in my opinion, the best mayor our city has had in my lifetime.
And a true mentor to me, Asmere, some of the other past mayors have been too, but none more so than Darlo.
And I met with Darlo when in October of 19, I had told a few people I intended to run for mayor in the spring of 20.
And then I went around, I was telling more people and I went to meet with him.
We didn't know each other.
We just knew who each other were.
And we had our first one-on-one conversation in his office at the time at the campus.
And he asked me all about myself, and I answered his questions.
And he said, I think you'd make an excellent mayor, Todd, because you'd always try to do the right thing as I did.
He said, but you need to know what comes along with that.
And he said, every person you know will be mad at you at least once.
And he said, it just depends on what you're working on at the time.
He said, the people that loved you a year ago might hate you today.
And the people that wouldn't talk to you six months ago might ask you to dinner.
And it really is true.
Nothing anyone told me about what it is to be mayor has been any more accurate than that.
The worst tongue lashing I took in the last six years was from my mother.
who mistakenly thought that the mayor had a hand in raising her electric rate and she got her bill and was so upset it took me two or three minutes to get her to stop long enough for me to explain and that says it all my mom let me have it pretty good on the phone on a Saturday because she just needed somewhere to vent and thought it was me that's a perfect example but on the other hand
people come back around on the next topic or in a year when something comes up that they do like and you have to understand you can't control public opinion and you certainly can't control other people's feelings and honestly one of the great things about our country is the freedom of speech the ability we all have the right we all have to say what's on our mind especially to your government your elected officials so I just accepted it as part of the job which I think is the right move and
and just did my best.
What else could you expect from anybody?
And I have done my best and tried to not only bring results, tangible results, you know, bring this thing to the city or help that process get better at city hall, those things, but also to educate our people because I learned early on.
I don't know what the cause is, but a lot of our people didn't and frankly still don't fully understand how local government works.
And they'll say to me, who's my representative on the city council?
Not understanding that they have two of them.
And they'll say, when is the election?
When it's been in April every time for as long as I can remember.
And they'll say, what ward do I live in?
And you realize how disconnected from the political process so many people truly are.
and they don't engage until something comes up that hits them in the feelings when they get emotions.
And then they come and whatever it is, they're for it, they're against it, whatever it is.
But when you get into the conversation with them, you realize so many people just didn't know that they didn't know the mayor doesn't have a vote unless the council votes in a tie.
They just think the mayor tells the council what we're going to do.
It's not like that at all.
And things like that that I've tried to help with and just try to get as much done as you can.
And you win some and you lose some and we did.
We got some big wins.
We had some near misses that will always aggravate me.
But the effort was always consistent and sincere.
I told people two years ago when I was running that there were some businesses in the area looking at the area that wanted to come to town that were nationally recognized names.
That was the truth.
Two of them that we very nearly got and didn't through no fault of the city.
And those were their direct words from both companies.
Both of them told us the city was great to work with and did everything we were asked to do.
But I thought we were getting oldies two years ago.
I really did.
We came real close.
Phil, you may recall, I drove down here and told you to be ready.
Then I might come down here and we might break into the programming and say it.
That's how close we came.
And it just didn't happen.
It was nothing the city could control.
I will tell the people, all these has interest in the community, but they are not pursuing small towns at this point and haven't for two years now.
They tell me every time I talked to them, and the last time I did was in January, that we're on the short list for small towns when they do it again.
The question is, when will the board decide to do that again?
So they just opened and won a key.
I believe they did whitewater.
They went to towns that size for a while.
They decide what their next 12 months will look like, typically in June.
It's possible.
Nobody should count on this because no one in town has control over this.
But it's possible that at their board meeting, you know, late spring or early summer this year, maybe they'll decide small towns again.
If they do, maybe Richland Center gets another shot at this.
But I want people to know that their interest in the community was sincere and that the effort from the city was sincere.
And just a corporate decision to target larger towns at the time is what happened to that.
The other one is TJ Maxx.
Again, was very sincere.
But they were very specific.
They do not build new in a small town.
Their math says that won't pay off.
They want to rent.
And the one space in town that fit their needs and their opinion was in the Richland Square where JC Penney was.
And they tried to work a deal with the ownership there to get a lease.
And I had several conversations with the ownership of the square and with the land broker that represents TJ Maxx.
And again, the numbers just did not work out on a lease down there.
And again, that's not something the city can control.
But we did everything, I mean, we did plenty trying to get it.
And that didn't happen.
Their interest was very real.
And I was told more than once that had they located a new store in Richland Center in the old JCPenney location that there was a shoe store.
that had interest in joining them and going where Hibbet Sports was, that would only come if TJ Maxx was there to bring more traffic into the location.
So, you know, with just a little bit of different circumstance, things that the city doesn't have direct control over, but with just a little bit of good fortune, all these TJ Maxx and a shoe store, and we didn't miss by much.
And the reason I'm telling people that is I want you to know that
Richland Center absolutely is viable and is seen as an opportunity, but only in limited spaces in large corporations.
So like a privately owned business, like if Phil and Todd said,
Let's do an IGA.
Let's do a Piggly Wiggly.
That's not going to fit well in Richland Center because of the pricing power of Walmart.
They're just so afraid to go up head to head with them.
That's why you see that when all these did build in Verrocco, you notice Quillen's IGA closed.
Because Quillen's can't, they also closed in Reedsburg.
The effect of the Lake Dalton and Baraboo Walmart and the Festival Foods and Baraboo.
It's just harder and harder for the conventional grocery stores we all knew when we were growing up to survive in a community that has a monster competitor like that.
While all these is an international corporation, they do not fear Walmart.
Another grocery store while I'm on the topic, if they ever come to Wisconsin, they just haven't yet.
Way back in 2020, I met with a representative from high V stores
And they introduced a grocery called Dollar Fresh, which is a small town grocery store owned by Hivee, but branded as Dollar Fresh.
They simply have not brought them to Wisconsin yet.
I met with them almost six years ago when they were as a new concept.
They started in Iowa.
I want to say you can Google it.
I think they went to Nebraska, maybe.
I might have started Minnesota.
They haven't crossed the Mississippi in our direction yet.
That could be a viable alternative.
And then I'm going to invite listeners from around the area, if you've never done it, to head over to Plain, Wisconsin and take a look at the DG market over there.
That's actually a dollar general market and what it is, if you will, envision a dollar general as you know them, but make it a bigger building and put a small town grocery in it.
So you'll have a produce section, a meat section, dairy case, you'll have canned goods, all of that with the rest of what you think a Dollar General is.
And they put one in Plain and I want to say they put one in Lyndon Station and those are the first two in Wisconsin.
I don't know if they would commit to Richland Center.
I do know that the corporation Dollar General is interested in Richland Center and just
for a dollar general.
Would they make it and commit to making it a market?
They have not.
I have not spoken directly to anyone in the corporation.
They work through a land broker.
I've had multiple conversations with them.
They want to build here.
They do not rent.
They want to build a store here.
They want to be in the downtown area.
They want to be dollar general wants to be downtown.
on either highway 14 or highway 80.
So main street or orange street between seminary and sixth.
So envision for yourself.
Essentially cross-cup park to quick trip on either orange street highway 14 or main street highway 80.
If they could find a location and they need a big enough space, it's essentially a city block is what they want to build what they build.
So they can't just knock down a house and build on a lot.
It's not like that.
But I want people to know that.
They have sincere interest right now.
I don't see any reason not to tell folks.
They haven't told me I couldn't.
So these things come around.
And the biggest challenge Richland Centers had in recent years anyway, and I would say throughout its history, is the lack of available spaces to put these things.
You can't build on floodplain about one third of our city acreages classified as floodplain by FEMA.
corporate businesses which are the ones willing to compete with Walmart, they want highway frontage.
So if you said put them on Central Avenue, they don't want to talk about it.
They want to be on mostly Highway 14 and this time Dollar General was willing to do Highway 80.
I didn't even prompt it.
They said it.
Okay, so what might help?
Well, for one thing, what I consider to be a positive development
the folks that own the Richland Square Shopping Center have notified me that they intend to sell the property.
I don't have a timeline, I don't know that they've established that, but I'm talking about near term, I don't mean five years from now, my expectation and it's, I don't have hard data on this, do not write it down and swear by it, but my expectation is probably within a year or not much longer than that anyway.
They are working with a group on that.
to perhaps begin marketing the property and find a new owner of the Richland Square.
I've talked to the guys that own it several times.
I wish I'm nothing but the best.
They've just reached a point in life where it's the right decision for their family, they believe, to move on from that property and I expect it will be
Probably within a year, but don't swear by that.
Once we get there, what sort of changes to the property might the new owner make?
Well, I don't know, because we don't even know who will own it, but I do see that as a positive, as a potential positive for the community to have some spaces for some retail to come in that we don't have right now.
And that has been a problem.
talking about properties and what might and might not happen, the campus property.
In the last, this term, I don't think I've been asked about anything as much as I've been asked about what's going to happen with the campus.
And the answer there is, I don't know.
And the reason there's multiple reasons, the biggest reason I don't know is because the city does not own that property, the county does.
However, it exists, its entirety is within the city, which makes it the greatest opportunity I can think of.
For the county in the city to prove that they can collaborate for the best interest in the best interest of all of us People that live in the city and people that live in the county because that is in excess of a hundred acres guys.
This is not You know a little corner lot.
This is a big time property on the highway.
We don't get many of these Understand the significance.
It's not just that it's there.
The highway is there
that gets attention.
The turning lanes are there.
That's a six-figure expense.
I mean, the utility infrastructure is there.
Yes, it's going to have to be updated because what's buried out there, so water pipes, sewer pipes, and so on, was put there specifically to support the campus as it was in the mid-60s.
So it's dated equipment that was there to support a campus.
If you put more, let's say a housing development or something commercial on that property and it needs more water, more sewer capacity, more electric capacity than the campus used, you're going to need new infrastructure buried in the ground.
But the point is we don't have to come from all the way on the other side of the river and find millions of dollars to do this.
So it's a great opportunity
but the county owns it and then the city would have to, through the plan commission and so on, would have to approve zoning, does it match the county land use city, land use map, does it match city comprehensive plan, all of these things, all of this can be worked through, all of this must be worked through and to whoever wins the mayoral election and to whoever is the county board chair in the next year, I absolutely challenge you.
to prove that you can and will work together for the best interest in the best interest of everybody who lives in Richland Center and Richland County.
I absolutely challenge the City Council and the County Board in the next year to remember at all times that anyone who lives in the City of Richland Center in fact does live in Richland County.
Therefore, anyone on the County Board and anyone on the City Council should understand the imperative need to work
together.
We have one city in our small county.
They're not making new ones for us, guys.
We're an hour from Madison, an hour from La Crosse, an hour from the interstate.
Deny that if you want.
It is fiscally impossible to ignore it.
They're not going to come out here and hand us Platteville.
They're not going to say, how'd you like to have won a key?
We got to do it right here.
And it has to be Richland Center because we're the only city Richland County has.
And to have the campus property with all of its possibilities, its size, its geographic location on the highway, its existing infrastructure in place, we do not get opportunities like this hardly ever.
City government, county government, everyone who lives in Richland County is counting on you to get together, sort it out, get it done.
We currently have a non-productive encumbered property filled with empty buildings that are obsolete and would take tens of millions to bring up to date.
Makes no sense to attempt to do so.
Please, please work together on this.
Get a solution.
Get it quickly.
And let's get something built out there that helps our taxpayers.
And maybe whether it's new homes or new businesses or some of each, bring some stuff to town that we all know we need.
Let's cross the road a little bit.
Anything new on Panorama Estates?
Absolutely.
Dwayne Kleinstasser, who is the principal on the development team, signed a new agreement with the city just a few weeks ago.
The full expectation, the absolute and only expectation is that he will be pulling the building permit within April here and begin construction of Building 2.
You know, he and his attorney worked with myself, the city administrator and the city attorney to amend the agreement.
It was simply just to allow the financing that he lined up with a bank.
That's all it was.
It
doesn't change what he's building or any of that.
It just language that made it easier for the lender, which is a bank, to fund the building.
And just so people know that we required
a document from the lender telling us that they intended to fund that building.
So it's not just that somebody said so.
We did get that documentation from the lender that they will fund it.
And Dwayne came down and signed the agreement.
That's done, notarized.
I haven't talked to him in about 10 days.
I'll call him before I'm out of office and get an update.
But the building inspector, Tracy Johnson is expecting Mr. Klein Sausser to get his building permit.
And then you should see construction on building two, which Dwayne told us he expects to be renting in there probably in January of next year.
That's what he told us.
So that's the most current information we have.
The election day is tomorrow, but you still will be mayor after.
tomorrow for a few days.
Thank you, Phil.
A lot of people don't understand that the election is tomorrow.
And then my term is through the 14th.
My term ends on the 15th, which I guess would be Wednesday of next week.
That will be the first day.
The new mayor is the mayor has to come down be sworn in.
Of course, I'll spend some time answering any questions a new mayor has.
And then on the 14th,
I'll turn in my keys.
Uh, you know, at the end of the day, I'll turn in my keys.
I'll turn in the cell phone.
The city provides for me.
So anybody that's been contacting me on the city cell number, I only use it for business city business.
So that will still be the phone number for the mayor, but on the 15th, that will not be me.
So if you call that and you hear either Karen template or Elijah Kramer,
or Elijah Kramer or Karen Tepley.
So as I don't appear partisan, that's because they will be the mayor on the 15th and the voicemail will have their voice on it.
And any message you leave will go to them.
Mayor Todd Copperhill, our guest, we'll come back with more in a moment on a Monday morning show.
Mayor Todd Copper and all our guests on WRCO's morning show talking about some things That we're looking forward to in the in the future and I think some other areas of business Jefferson elementary.
I think you mentioned that
Interesting possibility.
Yeah a couple of years ago Carrie Norman bought that property and You know Kind of thought about it a few different things should he put apartments in there should he put businesses in there and you know, he's talked about recently
um, maybe selling that.
Um, you know, I don't know if he's made a firm decision either way.
I'll call him and ask him before I'm done here.
But, um, he's been kind of leaning that direction and there's another property.
I mean, that's a city block guys.
So yeah, the head starts in there and that's great.
I'm glad they have a place.
That's great.
And then the Republican party is there.
So there's two tenants in there, but
Again, in a community that struggles for buildable spaces and, again, a place that's already got the street in and all the utility hookups and all that in place, a city block that needs to be developed to be more than it currently is, I'll say it that way, one way or the other.
And I think the possibilities exist.
Mr. Norman's actually been pretty good to work with.
He's been very good to me and very responsive and has kind of looked for
possibilities for that property to maybe benefit the community more than it currently is.
So we'll see where that leads but I did think it was worth a mention to say that because there has been some effort there on my part and Mr. Norm is part and we'll see what what comes next but I'm hopeful that that city block on Main Street
becomes more productive for the community than it currently is.
That's not a knock.
I'm glad Head Starts in it.
That's great.
It's private property.
The Republican Party's in there too.
That's Mr. Normans decision and that's fine.
That's fine.
Both of those things are fine.
But when you consider that that's the total use or production of a full city block on a highway,
I'm hopeful that something more gets done down there.
And honestly, I believe it will.
The question is when.
But from several conversations with Kerry, again, he's been great.
Very responsive to me and supportive and looking for opportunities.
So I'm just kind of hopeful.
We couldn't get it done while I'm still here, but that's its private property and that's the city couldn't just say, do this, don't do that.
So we'll see where it goes next.
What do you consider highlights from your six years as mayor?
Well, some of them I've already touched on.
Keeping my head about me and keeping both feet on the ground during COVID.
Understand that it had been a hundred years since there was a pandemic in this country.
And it was a state of emergency.
So the mayor, the CEO, of course, we didn't even have an administrator yet.
So at that point, all the city department heads reported directly to the mayor, things like that, that don't happen now.
There was more going on for the mayor then than there is now.
And on top of that, it's a state of emergency declared.
And so what I did, you know, I was new at this and I knew that it wasn't for me to just start winging it and making big choices like that.
Without some advice, so I did what I think I should have done.
I called the city attorney the city's insurance provider I called the hospital administrator my personal physician I called the county health officer called the police chief and I called senator Howard Markline.
I talked to all those people Looking for advice on you know, well geez here.
We are we got this
this pandemic and this is the early stages.
I mean, they're telling us don't get within six feet of anybody, right?
Wear a mask, all of that stuff.
And so many things closed down and that's the way it's gotta be.
Well, that's a lot, right?
And then what's the right answer?
What are the right answers?
And everybody that I called that I just listed off said, I don't know.
That was everybody's answer.
I don't know, Todd, I never had to do this before.
medical, law enforcement, legal, everybody.
Todd, I don't know.
I never had to do this before.
It had been a hundred years.
And so what I did is I gathered as much information as I could and I made the best choices that I could.
You know, a lot of people, a lot of communities cancel their Memorial Day observance.
I absolutely refused to do it.
We couldn't have the parade, but I said, we're going to social distance.
We're going to keep people six feet away from each other, but we're doing that in our cemetery because we should.
And we did, and I'll always be glad we did.
Summer time came and it was time for the fireworks.
And again, a lot of communities canceled theirs.
And I said, well, no, we're not doing that.
Literally, at the time, Shane Stibby was running the parks.
I called Shane.
I said, get a hold of our pyrotechnician and tell him we're doing it.
And I literally said this, tell him to aim higher.
than you normally would, so you can see them from a further distance.
And we told people, you can come to the park if you want, but don't congregate.
Get in with your people, try to stay six feet from other groups, but go where you go.
Watch them from your backyard.
Park your car on a street.
Go out to the Legion parking lot.
Anywhere that you get a vantage point, we're not canceling our fireworks because a pandemic happened.
That's not right.
People had so many things taken from them in that window, and there was so much anxiety and fear.
Don't, come on, give them something.
Give them something fun and good that they look forward to in the summer.
And we did that.
We couldn't do, the school district could not do the graduation ceremony for the kids.
Terribly unfair to that senior class, their parents, their grandparents, that's their big moment.
So we put a parade together and we, a bunch of families put together, you know, pick up some flat beds and everything.
And we gave the kids a chance to put on the cap and gown.
and go through town on a beautiful sunny day, and it wasn't what everybody had always envisioned, but we gave them a moment that they deserved, and their moms and dads did, and their grandparents did, and so on, and ran them through town on a beautiful day in their cap and gown moment.
Things like that, getting dialysis done, I will remind people that the first person that was ever treated in the dialysis center in Richland Center is now living with a transplant.
That might move me more than anything else.
This is life-saving stuff that we got done.
What can you do that matters more than that?
And we, oh man, and look what we did.
That's why you run for office.
That's why you run for office.
The way this feels right now when I just said that, any criticism I ever took for anything from anyone, whether they were right or wrong, melts away when you put your brain on that.
We did that.
We did that to the city council in 2020 and everybody else, all of the city employee, everybody that had a hand on this, to Mayor Mike Kauffman, who preceded me and started the process.
Older person, Diane Cox, whose term ended right when I became mayor, who helped him with that and started the process and everybody that came along and helped with it.
Mr. Bill McCorkle, who was passed on, who was heavily involved in that.
you know so many people look what we did guys we're saving lives right here because we did it I mean what can you what's better than that I don't know what we could have done it would move me more than that and we did it there's think about this life-saving
dialysis right on Orange Street.
You don't have to drive to Dodgeville or Verroqua or Madison or La Crosse.
You go to Orange Street now and when you do, guess what?
There's jobs there too for nurses right here and a building that's producing property tax to help everybody else pay the bills that gave a brand new home to the pharmacy that wanted a new location and they got one right in the downtown.
I mean, there've been a lot of wins since then too.
We talked about some of the homes that got built in some week.
Another one that really moves which two of them that really move me that are indirect wins for myself personally and for the city But wouldn't have happened without the help of myself in the city the first one You know Marty Brewer again another one who's passed on we've lost some really great people all I've been serving but you know Marty was county board chair and I'm mayor and we're trying to work together on everything we can and
you know the campus situation was going on and there's East Hall kind of off by itself and he thought maybe they could sell that or get move on from it and you know Steve Bord from the school district had come in as the new administrator and he said we're looking for a home for a partner school we really think we can reverse the enrollment trend at Richland Center High School if we have one and
You know, we looked at Jefferson Elementary for that.
It's not the best fit.
And Marty and I looked at each other and we said, what about East Hall?
And we arranged a walkthrough.
And I went with, with, wow.
Marty Brewer and Linda Gentes, both gone now.
came on that with Clint Langrec, who was the county administrator and Steve Board.
I can't remember.
I think Aaron on beyond the school board president might have been with us and probably Ashley Oliphant, the city administrator.
I would imagine that was the full group.
And you could see immediately Steve's face.
He knew that was a good space.
And so through a conversation that honestly started in the conference room at city hall between myself
Marty Steve Borden Aaron on beyond just spitballing throwing ideas around that came up and then we did the walkthrough eventually The school district became they bought the place from the county and they put the partner school in there and now The Richland High School enrollment trend is completely positive.
It's had a tremendous impact on the Richland Center High School and therefore the community and that was just because
Marty, Steve, myself, and Aaron just met one night.
Let's just get together.
And we didn't have a plan.
We didn't know what would come of it.
That's what came of it.
And look at that.
The other one, and most of the credit here, again, this has got to be at least two dozen people involved in this thing.
But Billy Jones, our police chief, and Steve Bord
the school district administrators started talking to each other about how to get a community resource officer, a police officer in our high school, and every other school in the athletic conference that Richland Center's in had at least a half-time officer and it had had for for many years.
I hate that those are necessary.
I went to high school when they didn't even lock the doors, you know, and now we have police, but let's be campy naive.
We look at the world, we can't be naive.
And there were constant concerns from parents, students, staff about just different things in the world today.
And having a police officer, a community resource officer on hand in the high school every day, again, just a tremendous, almost immeasurable.
positive impact on the Richland Center School District, the Richland School District.
And Officer Jared Wilson was just a great fit in the experience that he brought and just his demeanor, his personality.
And there we go.
Those benefited the school district more than anything else.
But isn't that a win for Richland Center?
Where is our high school?
And who does it serve?
It's our families.
our taxpayers and so on down the list and getting the partner school and getting the community resource officer over there two huge wins again that I'm always going to be proud of and grateful to the school board the city council and everybody else because that position is jointly funded I believe the way that ended 70% of that's paid by the school district and 30% by the city because in the summertime when schools not in session that officer becomes a police officer for the city is a city officer but goes
out and works, you know, a regular shift.
Great wins for the community that I think deserve recognition.
One of the traditions you started, and you started it with Ron Fruit, was coming down for a monthly visit, and we are pleased that you've carried that on.
And both mayor candidates, while they were in the studio, they both said, yeah, we want to keep going, you know, if elected.
So, appreciate you starting that.
Well, yeah, that has really become
One of the more popular, well-liked things that happened while I was mayor is this show.
And the way that came about, I don't know the last time a mayor made regular appearances.
I know it had been a while.
They would do the occasional update kind of thing, but just a scheduled show.
I knew what Darlo did twice a month with Brian Kennedy, but Darlo left office in April of 92.
There may have been other mayors in between that did it.
I don't know that.
I just know it had been quite a while.
And so Ron actually contacted me at the time because he would have me do occasional phone updates that were COVID related, right?
People needed to know what was going on.
So that's how we did it.
And then he would get response.
People really liked that.
And so he called me and he said, why don't we make that a monthly show?
And I don't remember exactly when that was, but it's probably at least four years now that I've been down here the first Monday of every month.
And
I mean that audience, the audience for this show, for the one I do, not the morning show, for the one I do, has really grown through that time and I get more feedback all the time.
Todd, I love it when you do that.
Thanks for the things you tell us and all of that.
And so I'm going to give some thanks first, I guess, to Ron Fruit because it was his idea and then Fruit Broadcasting at the time for allowing me this time every month to
communicate with the public and then to fill me and everyone associated with civic media who allowed me to continue when this station was sold and had new ownership.
They liked it.
And Phil's been great.
It was seamless from Ron to Phil.
I mean, what a lucky mayor I was to have two personalities like that that are so skilled and had so much experience with this stuff.
I'm just following the lead over here.
So thanks, Phil.
Thanks, Ron.
Thanks, Fruit Broadcasting.
Thanks, Civic Media.
And I'm going to wrap up with my awards show closed.
Thank you, everybody.
I'll keep it short.
I could never thank everyone who has earned that thanks from me.
If you think I should say your name and I don't, I'm sure you're right and I apologize if I offend anyone.
The people that have to hear this because I just wouldn't feel right if they don't.
The very first person who encouraged me to run for mayor was Mr. John Collins, who was serving as an older person.
I thought for sure he would run for mayor and he didn't and he said the reason I'm not is because you're you're a better choice than I am Todd and it floored me when he said it but he was the first one the second one who was serving as city clerk treasurer at the time was Melinda Jones who said I think you'd make a great mayor
I
heard there's maybe some effort toward that would you sit with me and let me teach you
about city budgets a little more than what you know.
We're going to talk about this little phrase called net new construction and what that means and how it impacts budgets.
And she did a lot of work to help me learn.
Mr. Mike Kaufman, who preceded me as mayor and was very supportive of me from the start and encouraged me to run very early on.
Sharon Schmitz in my three elections as mayor, I was opposed on the ballot twice.
She helped me both times.
She's unbelievable that way and did a great job and has been a true friend to me.
I want to mention some of the people that we've lost, just they're worth it.
Mr. Marty Brewer, Mr. Bill McCorkle.
I mean, how many do you want?
This is the saddest part.
Ray Schrader,
Dottie Bailing, Jan Newman, Claire Hagg, Dick Beggs, Carl Huth.
I mean, I'm sure there's 10 more that just aren't coming to mind in the minute I'm sitting here.
But so many key contributors that had been business owners, had been elected officials, had been all these different committee members and school board and everything.
So many educators that taught here for years.
Tom Harvey,
so many good people gone in recent years and you know it's part of life you can't get away from it but thank you to all of them and their families and before I forget because this one I would never forgive myself for nobody's been is more important in anyone's life thanks
Very well said good way to finish man.
Thank you to my wife Kim Who did it all with me?
Every time somebody called me a hero she heard it and everybody that told me it was horrible and rotten she heard that too and she stayed right there Every day and encouraged me every way she could There's no me or Todd without Kim Thank you to my wife Kim and thank you forever
to the voters of Richland Center for putting me there three times.
I'll never forget it.
Mayor Todd Copernall, our program concludes here on WRCO for a Monday.
Senator Sarah Kieski will be here in the studio with us tomorrow.
Don't miss it.