National Night Out

you

Welcome to our morning show at WRC radio today.

We're here to talk about national night out and the canine 5k run walk and that's only a week away now.

The sixth annual national night out is here and Richland County Sheriff Clay Porter is here.

Richland Center Police Chief Billy Jones is here.

We feel really secure that our fans aren't going to break in Billy and you know during the show we've got law enforcement here today.

So

hey we're always here to protect

protect and serve.

Clay, it doesn't seem possible this national night out.

It was only a week away, doesn't

it?

Yeah, it seems like just last year we were planning and preparing for last years.

And here we are again.

And I'm excited for it.

I can't wait.

It's been kind of a highlight thing for me for the last few years.

So looking forward to another event.

What's your favorite part of national night out?

I think, you know, just getting together with the community, you know, there's not a lot of

We don't have a lot of these opportunities where we can just bring in kids and families and all sorts of people from the community and have that kind of low stress, fun atmosphere that we can engage with the community in.

kind of my highlight of just, you know, there's no like particular event of national night out.

It's just getting in, getting together with the community and spending a lot of quality time, fun time with the people from our community.

I know this is a national thing, obviously by its title, but not every county does this, do they?

Nope.

Nope.

Nope.

Not every county, not every community does this.

This is something we started.

Um, I'm trying to think, are we on our sixth year now?

I believe it's six.

Yep.

And, uh,

And I'm sure I'm glad it's something we did, because like I said, it has been a highlight of my year for the last few years.

And yeah, I look forward to it all the time.

Billy, what's your favorite part of the whole thing?

I would have to echo with Clay.

Just getting the community together, keeping it light.

talking a little shop with the community, talking about our vehicles and what specialties that we see, but really just connecting with people.

Just seeing faces we haven't seen for a while, remembering names we haven't spoke a while, we haven't talked to people, and just seeing everybody have a good time.

It's a great family event, isn't it?

Absolutely.

I know a lot of my family comes.

A lot of my nieces and nephews come out.

They love seeing the dogs.

They love seeing the cop cars and the SRT trucks and the fire trucks and the ambulances.

MedFlight is going to be there this year.

Weather pending and everything else.

I mean, obviously things happen, but we're hoping to get them to land right at the fairgrounds.

People will be able to walk around and take a real close look at MedFlight.

come out and enjoy some food, some music, some good fellowship, and meet your first responders.

Talk to them a little bit and see what it's all about.

The extended forecast sounds

pretty

favorable, at least better than it's been this week.

Yeah, I think Sunny in 86 is the last time I looked out now.

I mean, it can change.

We do live in Wisconsin pretty fast.

But right now, yeah, Sunny in 86.

So there's going to be food vendors.

Bring some water if you want.

There'll be stuff to purchase on the grounds.

But yeah, just come out and enjoy the sun and the good times.

And we also have a lot of vendors there, kind of talking about health and community.

you know, services in our community that offer out, offer out good, good, good, healthy services.

Um, and they always hand out good, good little toys and trinkets and they play little games at their booth.

So, so it, it should be a really good time.

It concerns me though, Clay.

It's going to be kind of sticky.

If you get hit in the face with a pie, that's going to be kind of a mess, isn't it?

Yeah.

Um, yeah.

That's another thing too.

We're adding in this year is you'll have your opportunity to pick who gets a pie in the face.

So it'll be myself.

Chief Jones here.

Chief Scott Gald from the fire department.

And did we get Barb?

Did we get Barb Scott roped into this?

I think we did.

Okay.

So Barb Scott from Richland EMS.

And yeah, we're

We'll see who raises the most amount of money to get a pie in the face.

Is that how I, so explain how that's going to work.

Yeah.

So, so it's kind of new this year, but we're going to have, we're going to have four, five gallon pails out, out on the law enforcement booth is where it's going to be set up at or near the law enforcement booth.

And, and we'll have faces.

our own pictures on each bucket.

Mug shots.

Yep,

mug shots.

We'll have our mug shots up there on each bucket and you just come on up and put a little donation in each bucket and at the end of the night or close to the end of the night, we'll go through and we'll tally up how much money was raised and keep it divided, of course, out of each bucket and the bucket with the highest number of donation in it.

That's how we're going to choose who gets the pie in the face.

So if you've always wanted to see Fire Chief Scott Gald get a pie in the face, make sure

you drop

that hundo in there and keep it rolling

nice and high.

I hope so.

That's awesome.

Clay, I hope this is going to be legal.

You know, you know, have somebody watching this, making sure that somebody's not stuffing the ballot, and for instance, to, you know, make sure that Scott Gull gets it.

I mean, is somebody going to be monitoring this or what?

Well, I imagine we'll have a few law enforcement officers in the area observing the buckets.

Oh boy.

And Scott's not here to defend himself either.

He was

invited.

He was invited.

He didn't show up.

So that's what

happens.

That's

exactly.

Oh, it's all in good fun though, Clay.

And I think this is important for the kids and adults alike is to kind of see you guys in a casual, fun atmosphere.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's just it.

And, and, you know, I had mentioned earlier community, part of that community, you know, a lot of times we don't get together with

fire departments and EMS outside of an event, right?

Outside of some sort of crisis.

So besides engaging with the community, it also gives us as first responders an opportunity to just go have some fun together as well, right?

So yeah, it's a great event, this pie in the face thing, you know, show a little bit more of our human side, right?

And then raise some money to help sustain the event.

So yeah.

Yeah.

And that goes along with our first responder challenge.

You know, we have the first responder challenge.

It's also, you know, we have a, we'll have different teams.

Teams from EMS teams from fire teams from law enforcement.

I believe last year We even pulled some people out of the crowd and did kind of a community team as well And maybe this year we might do a kids team So so be prepared if you show up you might get asked to come on out kids And and and do the little first responder challenge, you know And it's just a it's just it's just fun

competition amongst the first responders that just continues to build relationships.

We've always worked well together no matter what.

We got an extremely unbelievable fire department and EMS services in our area.

They're just like we are.

They like to come out, have a little fun, blow off a little steam, however you want to say it, and just show the community that, hey, this is what we do.

This is how we get along.

And for a lot of our units, they're volunteer units, right?

The fire volunteer, EMS volunteer.

And if anything, it's kind of a little recruiting tool as well.

We can maybe get some people interested to come in and talk to Barb Scott, talk to Chief Gald.

and take a tour, take a tour of a truck, take a tour of a rig, of an ambulance rig, and maybe it's something you'd like to come and do someday, you know, so.

Do you recall, gentlemen, what you had to do last year in the obstacle course, because it was a hoot to watch that, but actually it was kind of a physical challenge too, wasn't it?

Yeah, there was a little bit of a dummy drag, or a small dummy drag.

We actually, you know, one of our shout-outs, the Richland Center High School Wrestling,

Coaches up there they let us use they let us use bill the throwing dummy So we bring bill out and we we put him on a cot

And we are a stretcher, I guess, and we do do a little bit of carrying with him.

I think last year it was a three-legged carry, if I remember right.

That sounds right.

We actually strapped two of your legs together with your partner.

We had four team members.

We did a football throwing contest.

I think we're going to try to change it up this year.

So I'm not giving anything away.

So some of these team members can't cheat and won't practice first.

So we want to spring it on them.

Um, and then, uh, and then if I remember right, we did a, we did, we did a, uh, I can't even remember it now.

Um, but there were, there were just some, it was all involving a team.

So you gotta have, you kind of had to work together, you know, which again is kind of what we're all about, right?

We're, we're just a big team.

We work together all the time.

And the more, the more.

Time you can take to work together and talk to each other and build those relationships We kind of intertwine that into these into these challenges that we get to do

right and in real life clay You know let's say there's a traffic accident that probably involves all of the different

entities does yeah, it does it does it's We really have you know a team of first responders a team of agencies and and whether it's you know

you know, whether we're working with Lone Rock Fire Department or CAS Fire Department.

I mean, we have to have these relationships built with all these area fire departments.

You know, Billy doesn't work with those other agencies as much, but there's nothing saying that Lone Rock Fire, CAS Fire, Viola doesn't end up in Richland Center supporting.

So kind of building those relationships and getting to know who your other responders are in the area is so important.

So, yeah.

Yeah, I also marvel at the fire department because if you have an accident, they're out helping direct traffic and doing all kinds of things.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Exactly.

So it's, you know, we, we are, we're always working together and, and it, you know, on a, on a, on a variety of calls, um, but we're always working together with these other, you know, the, this first responder team, I would say we have in the community.

Will other departments you mentioned a violence something will they all be a part of national night out?

I don't know if Iola will be down.

We usually have some representation from Kaz loan rocks been there Blue

River has

showed up one year.

Yep.

Yeah

Yeah.

So, so we, we, we definitely invite, invite, um, all of the surrounding smaller departments to come in and participate.

Um, you know, it's all about availability and, and summer plans and things like that.

And we totally get it.

Um, but, but they're, they're all

welcome.

They're all welcome.

I know it's a benefit for the, the canines and, and Clay talk about, uh, the importance of having that ability to have that canine in use.

Yeah.

So, I mean, we have, we have the two canines at.

at Richland County and we wouldn't have them without community support.

They're such an important vital tool that we use not only for you know the obviously thing everybody thinks of as the drug enforcement but for search and rescue.

It also is a great community engagement tool just in general for

my office to have those dogs and be able to go do school programs and, you know, go see the Boy Scouts or whoever may want to have a demo done.

It's such an awesome community engagement tool, but we wouldn't have that tool without the support of the community.

And this is just another way that the community can support it.

So we're having the K95K starting at 530 the night of national night out.

We've done it last few years.

And all of those proceeds then get split between the sheriff's office

in the police department to support our canine programs.

Takes a little bit to

feed the dog and keep them healthy too, don't

they?

It does.

It does.

And really, it's just about sustainability.

We do a lot of things for National Night Out, but one of the big things is just the sustainability of our canine units.

Our canine units, eight to 10 years is probably a lifespan of a working dog.

They're pretty high.

high drive, high adrenaline.

So we got to kind of keep an eye on it.

But we want to just make sure that when one of the dogs is ready to retire, that we can replace that dog with another really, really good asset to our communities.

So that's why we do this kind of thing.

And we just appreciate the community's willingness to donate and to keep help and support a really, really good tool in our toolbox.

I know there was a pre-registration time, but people still can register, can't

they?

Yep, you can still register.

It's $35 up till the day of the fourth, up to August fourth, $35.

And then on the day, it jumps up to 40 bucks.

So you still have a little time to save five bucks.

So jump on there and run signup.com and get your registration done and make sure you get registered in time and you'll get a t-shirt and some other little goodies.

And then we also

out awards at the at the end for for some of the top finishers and we're just yeah looking looking for a great night and even if you're not a runner you can come out and walk it as well come out on walk and just enjoy the enjoy the time enjoy the night it should should be a really nice one

So many from either one of your staffs be involved in that particular walk run?

I have a couple that have talked about it.

I don't know.

I

don't have any confirmation if there'll be any officers running or not.

But I have had a few talk about it.

So we'll see.

OK.

Then I've had.

Uh, staff that have run it in the past.

I don't know for sure that I have anybody running it this year.

Um, but yeah, we have, we have had staff run in the past and I imagine that I'll have staff and we'll have people that are out be out on the run course itself.

Um, supporting the runners.

So.

Yeah.

Maybe they're saving themselves for the obstacle course, right?

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Speaking of which though, I'm reminded of both of you guys, uh, your departments were represented at the walk with grace.

Um, when they had the walk run or the race for grace,

uh,

that was a great event.

Wasn't

it?

Oh, it was unbelievable.

The race for grace, Alan puts on a great, great event.

Um, yeah, we had, we had some pretty really good representation.

Um, I thought from both departments, um, at, at the

Grace for Grace, the one mile challenge.

And we just had a ton of community support again with the first responders with Fire Department.

Salk County ERT brought a small team over and supported us and supported our community and that as well.

So it was really cool to see.

Yeah, they come from far and wide.

The one that always amazes me is that fire, a group from Hickston,

you know,

not even where that was last year.

We're driving to a ball game somewhere and it's, you know, about two hours away.

Well, there it is.

I've no where

it was,

you know, and they find their way to original center every year.

So

that's, it's pretty cool.

That's, that's, that's a great event.

And I've had a lot of fun doing it now.

I think that was my, that was my second year doing the first responder challenge for the race for grace.

And, and that's a, that's a great event.

That's a lot of fun.

But the whole, the event and itself, the whole race for grace is, is great.

But yeah, I've had a lot of fun doing the, doing the first responder one.

Awesome.

We'll take 10 on and come back and talk a little bit more about national night out.

It's a week away and we'll have more on the morning show in just a moment.

Great to have you along for our morning show today on a Tuesday.

We're a week away from National Night Out, the sixth annual National Night Out.

You can find more at their Facebook page, but here in the studio to talk about it, we have Chief Billy Jones, we have Sheriff Clay Porter, and gentlemen, looking forward to it.

Billy, maybe you could go over a little bit of the order of events for next Tuesday night.

Absolutely, absolutely.

So anytime after five o'clock, you know, come on out, bring your family out, we'll have food.

on the grounds, so maybe plan supper that night out at the Richmond County Fairgrounds.

So really 430 is the pre-registration.

We'll start for the 5K.

So if you don't sign up on runsignup.com and get pre-registered and you're just holding off for that day because you're just not quite sure what your plans are.

430, you can come on out, start getting registered.

The run starts at 530.

The grounds open at 5 o'clock.

Right at 5 o'clock, it's my understanding that Richland EMS will be demoing the Lucas machine.

So it's a CPR machine.

It does compressions.

It's a machine that does compressions on patients.

So you'll be able to kind of come out and see how that goes.

They'll have a spot set up for that.

Um, like, and like I said, the five K will, will, will start off at five 30.

Um, just previous to the five K starting, um, we will have a national anthem sung, um, our own, uh, officer Elizabeth Dytelhoff, um, with Richland center police department.

She'll be singing the national anthem for us there that night.

They didn't ask you.

Oh, they

do

not.

No.

And, and, and Richland center, you're welcome.

So then 545 so the 5k will be will be will be out and running people will be out getting all sweaty and Huffin on a puffin But then 530 there'll be a fire truck demo So and I believe Scott Gald is gonna maybe bring out a couple different trucks He did talk about maybe a drone demo as well.

We're not a hundred percent sure on that one yet

but they talked about bringing their drone out and kind of doing a demo and showing off some of that equipment, which is really kind of cool.

615, we're going to try, or right around there, we're going to try to do a couple canine demonstrations, maybe a hide and seek type of a thing, hide and find, and then we're also going to do a bite demonstration.

believe is the plan.

Where's Henry?

We'll see

if we

can.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Mr. Bray.

Mr. Bray.

You're wanted on the demo lot.

Oh my

goodness.

Yeah and then 645-ish is what we'll start the 5k or the first responder challenge type and of course we'll run those in kind of serieses so each group will we'll get brought together and again they're team of fours first responder group CMS fire and law enforcement will be there and we'll get we'll get those run out we'll get the best times up and then right around 730 all those donations that you throw in

Chief Gold's bucket at the law enforcement desk or booth.

We'll get counted up and then we'll get a good crowd around Hopefully yourself and Gary will be able to do a little commentating for us a play-by-play action And then and then we'll do the pie in the face to the to the big winner Maybe we'll do two never know might throw a surprise in there and and then we'll kind of wrap it up with with with just a big thank you to everybody and And then we'll get into cleanup mode.

So it'll it'll be a really good night to just

come on out and enjoy the evening with, with, uh, with all the local first responders.

What kind of pie will it be?

Billy?

Do

you know?

Um, well, we're really pushing for banana cream, but I think it's going to end up being like a whip cream.

Okay.

Banana cream.

But I'm not a, I'm not going to be in the next year.

Next year.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You can have the community at large, maybe doing it as well.

Oh my goodness.

So there's going to be vehicles on display, uh, Sharport

or some

things that are pretty cool for us to see firsthand.

Yeah, we'll have, uh, we'll have a few of our squads out there.

Um, as Billy said, we'll have the SRT vehicle, the armored vehicle, um, fire trucks, ambulances.

I imagine you'd mentioned Scott will have possibly have a drone there.

Um, we'll probably have our drones there, um, from the sheriff's office.

Um,

And then just a variety of the different tools and equipment that we use, all of us, law enforcement and fire and EMS alike.

So we'll have stuff on display to show off and have people check out and maybe even try out a little.

In the past, I know we've used our RAM for breaking doors down.

We've set up a fake door for kids to

practice on their own to break the door down and stuff like that.

So just some fun things like that will have set up and around for people to try.

I

think about the equipment, even since you've been in law enforcement, Clay, but make your job easier, doesn't it?

Yes, it does.

The technology and the equipment that is coming out and constantly changing is

A lot of times it's time savers for us, you know, it saves those man hours and, and makes our job so much easier and so much more efficient.

So it's, and it's fun to showcase some of that stuff that we use.

And, and the drones.

I mean,

the

ability to find a missing child or whatever.

I mean, you,

you've

got that, that you didn't have a few years.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And again, a lot of this comes back to community support.

Um, and I think the same goes for the fire department.

Actually, I know the same goes for the fire department.

Um, our drone program,

really wouldn't exist without the community support.

Those thermal drones are eight to $10,000 and a lot of times.

There's just not room in the budget for that kind of stuff.

And so without community support, we don't have those tools and they are, they are game changers.

And when we're trying to find a missing person, um, you know, if, if to be able to see a heat signature instead of looking for somebody who, you know, maybe under a little bit of cover or, or, you know, in the, in the night sky wouldn't otherwise pop.

Except for that heat signature, it just, it's, it's.

Again, life-saving equipment that makes our job, makes us so much more efficient in searching and truly saves lives.

How many of your officers are trained in, in running the drone?

So currently I have three licensed pilots, uh, in the department and, uh, working on waiting on a fourth just to take his, his licensing exam, but he's completed the class and we're just waiting on, on that, on that official license with him.

But yeah, uh, four, um, I think Scott has similar, um, around four pilots as well.

And, uh, so it's,

Um, we previously just had one or two.

And so expanding that and trying to make it a little bit where we have a little more availability to get that drone up in the air if we ever need it.

Um, because it's one of those things where sometimes time is, is of the essence and to be able to get that up in the air as quickly as possible, um, is what makes a difference.

You

use drones

as

well

in the

city.

We do not have any, uh, any drones, um, on, on the city staff, I guess, sort of speak.

Um, but.

Clay's been just great with allowing us to call him and use his equipment, his drone pilots.

We also use them on our special response team.

So if we want to do a little surveillance of a search warrant or of a house or something that we have to do, sometimes we'll pop a drone up in the air and get a good picture of everything to make sure everything's safe.

We had a couple of investigations.

We had a lost individual a couple of years back that we borrowed Clay's

drone and without the drone, it might have taken us two hours to find the individual on the old-fashioned grid search type of type of look in a field just outside of town here.

But it took minutes.

It took minutes to locate the lost individual and they are their game changers.

They're game changers and it's an unbelievable piece of equipment.

And with the dogs because you have, you know, dogs trained for that as well, don't you?

Yes.

Yes.

Our dogs, along with the county, the county canines, they're, they're tracking trained.

Um, so they, they'll, they'll, they'll do tracks.

Um, and, and, you know,

You couple those two tools together and I mean we should have a really really good success I mean obviously everything you know anything can happen But but really really good success with with both our dog both dogs at the Richland Center Police Department and the ones at the Sheriff's Department Just great tools great.

Sure.

Yeah, what do you see as the biggest challenges moving forward?

You know in the city and in law enforcement Billy

Um, you know, I think one of the biggest things is just continue to build relationships in the community.

I think that's kind of...

Kind of what my philosophy has been as chief ever since I took over in 2020 is just building those relationships and keep festering the good amongst us.

Recruitment is always an ongoing thing.

Hiring is always a huge thing.

Encourage high school kids and others to just look at a career in law enforcement.

It's extremely rewarding.

I'm in my 26th year now.

And I've enjoyed every day of it, every single day of it.

So recruitment is a huge thing.

We're always focusing on technology, trying to give our officers the best tools to do their jobs, sometimes it costs money.

And again, we sometimes we reach out and ask the community for that, but we try to do everything we can within our budgets and just keep building on the good things.

What about you, Clay, as far as

challenges for the county?

I think, you know, I have to kind of agree with Billy on like recruitment and stuff like that.

One of our biggest challenges is finding people who want to get into this career.

And for me, I have two sides to look at.

I have patrol and I have the jail and dispatch center, which is a combined job.

you know, I think back 1920 years ago when I first was getting into law enforcement, um, how competitive it was and how many, you know, you'd have hundreds of applicants for one or two positions and now you have five applicants and, and, and, you know, seven if you're lucky and, and, and so just, you know, that recruitment thing is huge.

And if we can show, um, show these, these, you know, young adults and kids who are growing up,

that this is a fun career and it is.

It's an incredible career.

You never have two days alike and there's something new right around the corner every day.

But if we can kind of build those relationships and show people what we do, I think that's going to make what is really a big challenge right now easier in the future.

So yeah, kind of as a recruitment tool, again,

This community engagement is huge, just trying to build these community relationships.

I have a very young department and I'm sure I've said it in the studio before that I hear all the time that we always knew all the deputies and I don't know any of the new deputies and this is a great opportunity we have with National Night Out to get those faces out.

get to know the community a little bit better.

Yeah, I think that's a good point.

Maybe it's a good thing we don't know who they are, right?

That means we've met them

before.

But certainly budgets for the county, that's certainly a concern.

Yeah, budgets are always a challenge.

Like Billy pointed out earlier, the technology that we use, it gets more and more expensive and everything these days is now subscription based.

So you have maintenance contracts and subscription

fees for everything and and that that gets that strains a budget and you know some of this technology and equipment that we use is almost getting to be necessary it's not like you can go without it anymore and and so yeah budget budget time budget time is always a stressful time of year and and you know certainly can be challenging for trying to train and equip our staff you know to the best they can be.

So

how much do you work together too?

Because I know Clay, you've got challenges.

You've got some officer down by Muskaday and you get a call here.

Do you work with all

the time?

All the time.

And, and, and, you know, that's one thing that since I started here at the sheriff's office and, and has continued and is, and I hope never changes is that, um,

They we do, we work side by side together.

Um, we're always just, you know, a radio call away for help.

Um, a lot of times we're showing up even before the radio call for help has even went out that it's like, Hey, do you need a hand with this?

And, and, uh, we work really well together.

Uh, and I hope that, you know, I hope that continues well into the future.

Um, and I think it will, um, we just have a good team.

Um, whether, whether they wear blue or they wear a black uniform, they, uh,

They kind of get to be family and work really well together.

Sure.

And you just had a couple of hires, right?

Yeah.

Well, we're working on a few hires.

I've had some openings in the jail.

So we're working on a couple of hires.

So we'll have some new faces yet again.

But, um, yeah, should be, should be having some people start shortly.

So

yeah.

Billy, what about you?

How's your department?

Pretty much the same for about a year or so,

right?

Yeah, we're full staff.

Our last hire, Officer Bloom, came on back in October, so she's been doing really good.

Went through her field training very, very well without a hitch.

She came to us from Lancaster PD, so she had a couple of years under her belt already.

But full staff, working really, really good, just trying to keep

keep things under control as best we can.

As far as that goes, but yeah.

Clay's group and our group, I mean the Sheriff's Department, the PD, half the time you can't tell one apart from the other.

And it's great, it's a great thing that we co-exist so well together, we mingle, we work well, we train together, so the officers know what the other officer is gonna do when we get to a call.

There's usually not much question of who's gonna do what and what needs to get done, the jobs get done, and the community

to be safer because of it, so.

Definitely an officer jerry wilson has done a great job at the high school You know when he's when he's not doing serving the city, right?

Yes,

absolutely.

Yep.

He'll be he'll be jumping back in that role as as the community or the school resource officer Middle of august ish Towards the end of august.

He's he's already he's already making plans and and gearing up for the school year So he'll be back in the schools this this fall and and and he does he does a great job I can't I can't say enough about about the

the relationship that he has built up at the school district.

A great community sponsorship.

Maybe you could talk about your sponsors at National Night Out.

Absolutely.

So we kind of,

as a National Night Out group, our non-profit group, we decided to kind of

Not ask the community for as much this year.

So we did reach out to some some specific sponsors for for the 5k donate or 5k sponsorship and an overall sponsorship.

So Cardinal glass

out of spring green.

They've been great supporter of law enforcement in our community over the years.

So Cardinal Glass is one of our top sponsors.

Partners for Prevention.

Partners for Prevention that we work with their coalition and some of the members that are with Partners for Prevention are on our national night outboard as well.

So they're a huge donor to our area.

They give a lot not only in financially, but just

for themselves and their time.

Not only

are they a supporter of this event, but certainly they were one of the big drivers that brought this event to our community.

you know a few years ago and so yeah just it's they've been great to work with for this event.

Yeah Betsy Raceler was really she was the driver behind getting the national aid out off off the ground.

She heard about it all through the other communities like we talked earlier all over the nation doing this kind of thing and and she brought the idea to to a group of us and and it just kind of snowballed from there so to speak so she actually retired and so she's not on a

our national night outboard anymore.

She's out enjoying grandkids and things that retired people should do.

So, but we, you know, can't give her enough credit for pushing this the way she pushed it and getting it rolling and getting it off the ground in the start.

So, so yeah, partners with Bruncheon is huge.

Walsh's Ace Hardware.

Pete and the group down there at Walsh's, they've done an outstanding job just being behind us, supporting us anytime we ask.

They help out where they can.

So they're a huge sponsor this year.

The Richland Hospital, they've taken over the DCF grant that Betsy used to run.

So Sam McEvac at the hospital is now the coordinator of the DCF grant.

So they're a huge, obviously in our community.

Richland Hospital is a huge supporter of just the community at general, especially when it comes to health and wellness, wanting the best, wanting the best.

So we thank them for their sponsorship.

Quicktrip.

Quicktrip is another sponsor, a sponsor for us this year.

They donated money so we could, we can buy the bananas and the water and all the, all the stuff that we need to, to, to support our 5k.

So, you know, thanks to Quicktrip family thrift shop.

Family Thrift Shop, locally business here in town.

Again, huge community supporter.

They reached out to me, asked if they could help out and where they could help out.

So I went and talked to the ladies down to the Thrift Shop.

Great group, great group.

And then, and then of course, town taxi.

Town taxi is doing all of our commercials.

You can, you can hear him on WRCO.

But Tony and Nella do an unbelievable job putting those together.

And he donates all that stuff to us.

He donates his time.

He donates, he, he donates the, the equipment that he uses.

It's great.

And then of course, WRCO.

We can't thank WRCO enough for everything that you guys do here for us as well, the support you give us, the free air time and everything else that happens throughout the community and community.

And then your time, Phil, when you come out and help us at National Night Out, we can't thank you guys enough.

So those are just, I'm sure I probably missed a few here and there, but those are the big ones.

And again, we just want to give a huge shout out and a thank you to every single supporter and sponsor that we have.

All of the sponsors you mentioned, I think are behind

Most community events it seems like

absolutely and that's and that's what what's really cool about Richland Center is that you know We have a we have a ton of a ton of businesses a ton of individuals They don't quit giving they don't quit giving and it's awesome And sometimes we feel bad asking so some of the same ones over and over and over But if we don't I think we insult them sometimes too so they they they help us They support us and we really really appreciate it.

Can you use some volunteers?

guys for that

event.

Um, you know, I think, um, and, and I hate to say no to any volunteers that, that want to come out or, or reach out to us.

But, um, I spoke to Sam Mackevic yesterday and, and she says she's got a really healthy group.

Um, oh, one sponsor I do want to mention, uh, before I forget as, as Rockwell Rockwell automation has a group, um, uh, of volunteers that are, they're actually sponsoring our water stop this year.

Um, so they'll have some, some folks from Walkwell.

manning the water stop for us handing out the drinks for the halfway mark on the 5K.

So you'll see those guys out there as well.

But yeah, it sounds like we're doing really good on volunteers.

We'll have a really safe route for the 5K setup again this year with the Richland County

Highway Shop.

when we moved the route out to the fairgrounds they were such a huge help with barrels and cones and helping us mark out a course and make it safe for the runners and you know I talked to Josh and and they're going to support us again this year and that's but that was such a help last year and it'll be such a great help for us this year so.

Is the course pretty much the same Clay

that has been in the past?

The course will be the same as last year.

Yep.

So kind of running around the fairgrounds and throughout the industrial park there and back so yeah it's you know

mostly, mostly all road, road running.

So that, that support from the highway shop with barrels and cones and helping us block off traffic is, is, is, is huge.

So

essential, essential for safety.

We want to make sure the runners are safe and the walkers are safe.

Um, and we also want to make the, the, the people that still live in the area that they can still come and go and, and get where they need to to sort of, uh, impeding them too much either.

I can't think of an event that, uh, is, is so much fun.

I mean, it's just one of those, uh, go out and

We kind of carefree night, have some good food with the family, and maybe even learn something, Billy.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Education is always a big thing, and that's where kind of our vendors come in.

We'll have a lot of vendors from different organizations out there handing out free stuff, giving some educational stuff, handing out flyers, talking to people about what they do, what services they offer.

I didn't bring that list with me, and I don't want to start naming off a bunch, but please come out.

Take time with your family to grab a bite to eat, mingle around the grounds, stick around for a couple of events if you can, even if it's just for one.

If you've got things going on, we totally get it, but stop out for five minutes, stop out for two hours.

It's just a really good night to learn a little bit and then also give back to your community and then come out and meet the first responders.

You know, like Clay mentioned earlier, a lot of the times the only time you see us is are in tragic events.

You know, car crashes, house fires, medical calls, you know, crimes, you've been a victim of crime or something like that.

But tonight is, or August 4th is more about just coming out and meeting us, seeing the smiles on our face when we see your smile in face, because that's what it's about, you know, and we want that.

We really want to

to show the community that we're part of the community as well.

We look forward to it there.

Clay, anything you want

to add about National Night Out?

No, I just I'm looking forward to seeing everybody there and I think it'll be a great time and thank you for the for the time this morning on the morning show.

We really appreciate it.

No problem.

You guys are always

welcome.

Thanks for what you do too.

It's good to know both of you.

Thank you, Phil.

We'll see you at National Night Out.

And are you guys going to do the obstacle course then, either one

of you?

I'm on injured reserve this year.

So I'm out for that.

But I think I'm going to be the runner of it.

I think I'll do the coordinating.

Oh.

So

you and Micah Parsons are on the pup

list.

Yeah, we're on the pup list.

Physically unable to perform.

What about you, Clay?

Well, I'm not officially yet, but we might get a team

together, maybe get some of the administrators out at the Sheriff's office together and see what we can do.

It's always fun.

A lot of laughs.

Yeah.

Sounds good.

Good luck guys.

Thank you.

You bet.

Sheriff Clay Porter joining us and Chief Billy Jones.

And don't forget, National Night Out is next week at the Richland County Fairgrounds Tuesday night.

The run begins at 5.30.

But you can start signing up at 4.30 and the events begin at 5 on Tuesday night, August 4th.

you

Welcome to our morning show at WRC radio today.

We're here to talk about national night out and the canine 5k run walk.

And that's only a week away now.

The sixth annual national night out is here.

And Richland County Sheriff Clay Porter is here.

Richland Center Police Chief Billy Jones is here.

We feel really secure that our fans aren't going to break in Billy.

And you know, during the show, we've got law enforcement here today.

So

hey, we're always here to protect

protect and serve.

Clay, it doesn't seem possible this national night out.

It was only a week away,

doesn't it?

Yeah, it seems like just last year we were planning and preparing for last years.

And here we are again.

And I'm excited for it.

I can't wait.

It's been kind of a highlight thing for me for the last few years.

So looking forward to another event.

What's your favorite part of national night out?

I think, you know, just getting together with the community, you know, there's not a lot of

We don't have a lot of these opportunities where we can just bring in kids and families and all sorts of people from the community and have that kind of low stress, fun atmosphere that we can engage with the community in.

Kind of my highlight of just, you know, there's no like particular event of national night out.

It's just getting in, getting together with the community and spending a lot of quality time, fun time with the people from our community.

I know this is a national thing, obviously by its title, but not every county does this, do they?

Nope.

Nope.

Nope.

Not every county, not every community does this.

This is something we started.

Um, I'm trying to think, are we on our sixth year now?

I believe it's six.

Yep.

And, uh,

And I'm sure I'm glad it's something we did, because like I said, it has been a highlight of my year for the last few years.

And yeah, I look forward to it all the time.

Billy, what's your favorite part of the whole thing?

I would have to echo with Clay.

Just getting the community together, keeping it light.

talking a little shop with the community, talking about our vehicles and what specialties that we see, but really just connecting with people.

Just seeing faces we haven't seen for a while, remembering names we haven't spoke a while, we haven't talked to people, and just seeing everybody have a good time.

It's a great family event, isn't it?

Absolutely.

I know a lot of my family comes.

A lot of my nieces and nephews come out.

They love seeing the dogs.

They love seeing the cop cars and the SRT trucks and the fire trucks and the ambulances.

MedFlight is going to be there this year.

Weather pending and everything else.

I mean, obviously things happen, but we're hoping to get them to land right at the fairgrounds.

People will be able to walk around and take a real close look at MedFlight.

come out and enjoy some food, some music, some good fellowship, and meet your first responders.

Talk to them a little bit and see what it's all about.

The extended forecast sounds pretty favorable, at least better than it's been this week.

Yeah, I think Sunny in 86 is the last time I looked out now.

I mean, it can change.

We do live in Wisconsin pretty fast.

But right now, yeah, Sunny in 86.

So there's going to be food vendors.

Bring some water if you want.

There'll be stuff to purchase on the grounds.

But yeah, just come out and enjoy the sun and the good times.

And we'll also have a lot of vendors there.

kind of talking about health and community, services in our community that offer out good healthy services.

And they always hand out good little toys and trinkets, and they play little games at their booth.

So it should be a really good time.

It concerns me though, Clay.

It's going to be kind of sticky.

If you get hit in the face with a pie, that's going to be kind of a mess, isn't it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's another thing too.

We're adding in this year is you'll have your opportunity to pick who gets a pie in the face.

So it would be myself, Chief Jones here, Chief Scott Gould from the fire department.

And did we get Barb?

Did we get Barb Scott roped into this?

I think we did.

Okay.

So Barb Scott from Richland EMS and yeah, we're

We'll see who raises the most amount of money to get a pie in the face.

Is that how I so explain how that's going to work?

Yes.

So it's kind of new this year.

But we're going to have four, five gallon pails out on the law enforcement booth is where it's going to be set up at or near the law enforcement booth.

And we'll have faces.

our own pictures on each bucket.

Mug shots, right?

Yep, mug shots.

We'll have our mug shots up there on each bucket and you just come on up and put a little donation in each bucket and at the end of the night or close to the end of the night, we'll go through and we'll tally up how much money was raised and keep it divided, of course, out of each bucket and the bucket with the highest number of donation in it.

That's how we're going to choose who gets the pie in the face.

So if you've always wanted to see Fire Chief Scott Gald get a pie in the face, make sure you drop that hundo in there and keep it rolling nice and high.

I

hope so.

That's awesome.

Clay, I hope this is going to be legal.

You know, you know, have somebody watching this, making sure that somebody's not stuffing the ballot.

And for instance, to, you know, make sure that Scott Gull gets it.

I mean, is somebody going to be monitoring this or what?

Well, I imagine we'll have a few law enforcement officers in the area observing the buckets.

Oh boy.

And Scott's not here to defend himself either.

He was

invited.

He was invited.

He didn't show up.

So that's what happens.

That's

exactly.

Oh, it's all in good fun though, Clay.

And I think this is important for the kids and adults alike is to kind of see you guys in a casual, fun atmosphere.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's just it.

And, you know, I had mentioned earlier community, part of that community, you know, a lot of times we don't get together with

fire departments and EMS outside of an event, right?

Outside of, outside of some sort of crisis.

So besides engaging with the community, it also gives us as, as first responders an opportunity to just go have some fun together as well, right?

Um, so yeah, it's all, you know, it's, it's a great event.

This, this pie in the face thing, you know, show a little bit more of our human side, right?

And then raise some money to help sustain the event.

So yeah.

Yeah.

And that goes along with our first responder challenge.

You know, we have the first responder challenge.

It's also, you know, we have a, we'll have different teams.

Teams from EMS teams from fire teams from law enforcement.

I believe last year We even pulled some people out of the crowd and did kind of a community team as well And maybe this year we might do a kids team So so be prepared if you show up you might get asked to come on out kids And and and do the little first responder challenge, you know And it's just a it's just it's just fun

competition amongst the first responders that just continues to build relationships.

We've always worked well together no matter what.

We got an extremely unbelievable fire department and EMS services in our area.

They're just like we are.

They like to come out, have a little fun, blow off a little steam, however you want to say it, and just show the community that, hey, this is what we do.

This is how we get along.

And for a lot of our units, they're volunteer units, right?

The fire volunteer, EMS volunteer.

And if anything, it's kind of a little recruiting tool as well.

We can maybe get some people interested to come in and talk to Barb Scott and talk to Chief Gald.

and take a tour, take a tour of a truck, take a tour of a rig, of an ambulance rig, and maybe it's something you'd like to come and do someday, you know, so.

Do you recall, gentlemen, what you had to do last year in the obstacle course, because it was a hoot to watch that, but actually it was kind of a physical challenge too, wasn't it?

Yeah, there was a little bit of a dummy drag, or a small dummy drag.

We actually, you know, one of our shout-outs, the Richland Center High School Wrestling,

Coaches up there they let us use they let us use bill the throwing dummy So we bring bill out and we we put him on a cot

And we are a stretcher, I guess, and we do do a little bit of carrying with him.

I think last year it was a three-legged carry, if I remember right.

That sounds right.

We actually strapped two of your legs together with your partner.

We had four team members.

We did a football throwing contest.

I think we're going to try to change it up this year.

So I'm not giving anything away so that some of these team members can't cheat and won't practice first.

So we want to spring it on them.

Um, and then, uh, and then if I remember right, we did a, we did, we did a, uh, I can't even remember it now.

Um, but there were, there were just some, it was all involving a team.

So you gotta have, you kind of had to work together, you know, which again is kind of what we're all about, right?

We're, we're just a big team.

We work together all the time.

And the more, the more.

Time you can take to work together and talk to each other and build those relationships We kind of intertwine that into these into these challenges that we get to do

right and in real life clay You know let's say there's a traffic accident that probably involves all of the different

entities does yeah, it does it does it's We really have you know a team of first responders a team of agencies and and whether it's you know

you know, whether we're working with Lone Rock Fire Department or CAS Fire Department.

I mean, we have to have these relationships built with all these area fire departments.

You know, Billy doesn't work with those other agencies as much, but there's nothing saying that Lone Rock Fire, CAS Fire, Viola doesn't end up in Richland Center supporting.

So kind of building those relationships and getting to know who your other responders are in the area is so important.

So, yeah.

Yeah, I also marvel at the fire department because if you have an accident, they're out helping direct traffic and doing all kinds of things, aren't they?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Exactly.

So it's, you know, we, we are, we're always working together and it, you know, on a, on a, on a variety of calls, um, but we're always working together with these other, you know, the, this first responder team, I would say we have in the community.

Will other departments you mentioned a violence something will they all be a part of national night out?

I don't know if Iola will be down.

We usually have some representation from Kaz loan rocks been there Blue

River

has showed up

one year.

Yep.

Yeah

Yeah.

So, so we, we, we definitely invite, invite, um, all of the surrounding smaller departments to come in and participate.

Um, you know, it's all about availability and, and summer plans and things like that.

And we totally get it.

Um, but, but they're, they're all welcome.

They're all

welcome.

I know it's a benefit for the, the canines and Clay talk about, uh, the importance of having that ability to have that canine in use.

Yeah.

So, I mean, we have, we have the two canines at.

at Richland County and we wouldn't have them without community support.

They're such an important vital tool that we use not only for you know the obvious thing everybody thinks of as the drug enforcement but for search and rescue.

It also is a great community engagement tool just in general for

my office to have those dogs and be able to go do school programs and, you know, go see the Boy Scouts or whoever may want to have a demo done.

It's such an awesome community engagement tool, but we wouldn't have that tool without the support of the community.

And this is just another way that the community can support it.

So we're having the K95K starting at 530 the night of national night out.

We've done it last few years and all of those proceeds

then get split between the sheriff's office and the police department to support our canine programs.

Takes a little bit to feed the dog and keep him healthy too, don't

they?

It does.

It does.

And really, it's just about sustainability.

We do a lot of things for National Night Out, but one of the big things is just the sustainability of our canine units.

Our canine units

you know, eight to ten years is probably a lifespan of a working dog.

They're pretty high drive, high adrenaline, so we got to kind of keep an eye on it, but we want to just make sure that when one of the dogs is ready to retire that we can replace that dog with another really, really good asset to our communities.

So that's why we do this kind of thing and we just appreciate the community's

willingness to donate and to keep helping support a really, really good tool in our toolbox.

I know there was a pre-registration time, but people still can register, can't

they?

Yep, you can still register.

It's $35 up till the day of the fourth, up to August fourth, $35.

And then on the day, it jumps up to 40 bucks.

So you still have a little time to save five bucks.

So jump on there and run signup.com and get your registration done and make sure you get registered in time and you'll get a t-shirt and some other little goodies.

And then we also

out awards at the at the end for for some of the top finishers and we're just yeah looking looking for a great night and even if you're not a runner you can come out and walk it as well come out on walk and just enjoy the enjoy the time enjoy the night it should should be a really nice one

So many from either one of your staffs be involved in that particular walk run.

I have a couple that have talked about it.

I don't

know.

I don't have any confirmation if there'll be any officers running or not, but, um, but, but I have had a few talk about it.

So we'll see.

Okay.

And I've had, I've had, uh, staff that have run in the past.

I don't know for sure that I have anybody running it this year.

Um, but yeah, we have, we have had staff run in the past.

and I imagine that I'll have staff and we'll have people that are out be out on the run course itself supporting the runners.

Yeah.

Maybe they're saving themselves for the obstacle course,

right?

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Speaking of which, though, I'm reminded of both of you guys.

Your departments were represented at the walk with Grace when they had the walk run or the race for Grace.

Yeah, we did.

That was a great event, wasn't

it?

Yeah, it was unbelievable.

The race for Grace, Alan puts on a great, great event.

Yeah, we had, we had some pretty really good representation, I thought, from both departments at the

race for grace, the one mile challenge.

And we just had a ton of community support again with the first responders with fire department.

Sock County ERT brought a small team over and supported us and supported our community and that as well.

So it was really cool to see.

Yeah,

they come from far and wide.

The one that always amazes me is that fire, a group from Hickston,

you know,

not even where that was last year.

We're driving to a ball game somewhere and it's, you know, about two hours away.

Well,

there it is.

I've no where it

was, you

know, and they find their way to original center every year.

So

that's, it's pretty cool.

That's, that's, that's a great event.

And I've had a lot of fun doing it.

No, I think that was my, that was my second year doing the first responder challenge for the race for grace.