Good morning.
I'm Wayne Mauser for Civic Media News.
The Wave AM 1600 at 93.1 FM and the Bug 102.3 FM are asking for your help.
We're teaming up with local area businesses to aid and assist in relief efforts following the massive tornado that struck Monash on Monday, July 27th.
Through this Friday, we're asking for donations of food, water, and essential items to help those impacted by the storm damage.
Items can be dropped off at the Wave and the Bug Offices at N7502 Radio Road in Ripon.
will be accepting donations until 3 p.m.
Friday afternoon.
Starting today, in addition to our offices, you can drop off items at the high v store and ripen.
Bins will be set up for donated items.
You can also take them directly to Calvary Bible Church at 1450 Oak Ridge Road in Nina.
After all items have been donated, collected and are ready to go, they will be transported to Calvary Bible Church in Nina.
List of suggested donation items can be found along with more information on our websites at wrpn.fm or thebug.fm.
Meanwhile, a curfew from 10 p.m.
until 5 a.m.
remains in effect for the village of Fox Crossing and the city of Monashia.
A burn ban remains in effect for the village of Fox Crossing, the city of Monashia and the city of Nina.
Winnebago County Emergency Management's preliminary damage assessments are ongoing and are expected to be completed by the end of the week.
The 72-year-old rippin man charged with 11 counts of possession of child pornography waved his preliminary hearing in Fond du Lac County Court on Monday.
Duane Curtis was then arraigned and pled not guilty to all counts.
A plea and sentencing hearing is scheduled for September 17th.
According to the criminal complaint, a witness told police they had seen images of child porn on Curtis' phone and computer.
Police executed a search warrant at Curtis' residence in the 600 block of State Street on July 14th.
which they located a, quote, significant amount of child sexual abuse material.
According to the criminal complaint, Curtis had possessed the images between last December 14th and July 14th.
Tips on Home Surveillance video posted on the Marcus Ann Police Department's Facebook page helped police identify juveniles wanted for questioning about theft, vandalism, and a couple of other complaints.
The video from 4.21 a.m.
on July 30th shows four kids running on a sidewalk past a residence.
Police Chief Cody McLean says the community's information on three separate incidents led to the people involved.
All the juveniles were identified and the theft and vandalism was solved.
Wayne Rollins is competent to stand trial in charges.
He killed his boyfriend during an argument, and his criminal case will resume.
The 33-year-old Rollins is charged in Winnebago County Circuit Court with first-degree intentional homicide for the January 5th shooting at a home on 9th Avenue in Oshkosh.
The results of the competency exam mean Rollins is able to understand the proceedings and assist in his own defense.
A possible plea hearing was scheduled for October 12.
Governor Evers has signed a $3.6 million contract to improve US Highway 10 westbound in Wapaka County between Old State Highway 49 and the Winnebago County line in Fremont.
Work is scheduled to begin on August 10th.
Vinton Construction Company is the prime contractor for the project.
Crews will be replacing concrete in the travel lanes, repaving the asphalt shoulders, replacing guardrails, and restriping US Highway 10.
They will also update the signals at the State Highway 96
State Highway 110 intersection and replace concrete in the travel lanes and repay the asphalt shoulders along State Highway 110 from the ramp terminals to the State Highway 96 intersection.
During construction, US Highway 10 will be open to traffic with lane closures throughout the construction.
Additionally, there will be intermittent ramp closures with redirection to the adjacent ramps.
Construction is scheduled for completion by October 30th.
Communities around the nation will be participating in the Community Building event National Night Out tonight.
It brings together law enforcement, fire, EMS, and other public safety organizations.
They will have vehicle displays and demonstrations, food, music, kids activities, and more.
The Fond du Lac County Fairgrounds will be hosting one such event from 4 until 7 p.m.
Wapaka will host that event at South Park beginning at 5.30 p.m.
featuring a showing of Disney's Zootopia 2 at dusk.
The Washera County Fairgrounds will host an event at the fairgrounds in Watsoma from 4 until 7 p.m.
Mayville will have a National Night Out event at the Tag Center from 5 until 8 p.m.
Green Lake County's version will be in Princeton at the City Park on Tuesday, August 18 from 4.30 until 7 p.m.
Riffin's version of National Night Out has evolved into a touch of truck event that is hosted at Barlow Park in September.
I'm Wayne Mauser for Civic Media News.
Joining us this morning, we have Sadie Howell, who is the CEO and president of Envision Greater Fond du Lac.
How long you been in that position now?
A little over six years.
Wow.
Time goes fast,
huh?
Yeah, it does.
It flies.
Now, you did a presentation to the Rip and Common Council last week.
Tell us about that, if you would.
Yes.
So Envision as the Combined Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Organization, we have a few MOUs, basically a few contracts with the city of Rippon, the city of LaPon and the village of Campbell Sport, where we provide very specific economic development services specific to that.
municipality.
And so part of, excuse me, I'm still getting over a cold, so forgive me.
Part of that contract includes giving a presentation to the council annually.
So this was our annual presentation and we talked about the business retention expansion visits that we do.
So, BREs is what we call them internally, and we do about 125 of those to 150 of those every year throughout Fond du Lac County.
We talk to different industries, different size businesses, and we ask them a few standard questions so we can collect some data.
It's really just a conversation to learn what's going well, maybe what's not going well.
And then through these conversations, we can often identify if they might be having an expansion soon and maybe there's some resources that we can offer, connect to them with, or sometimes things aren't going so well.
And we can still offer assistance and resources in different ways.
And that's a really important piece of what we do is to keep that pulse on the economy and the health of our economy in Fond du Lac County.
We also do advocacy work, and so that includes things like shared municipal revenues, KIF, the tax incremental financing,
That's really the only way municipalities have an economic development tool, so we're supportive of those.
And then we also help with business attraction, particularly in the industrial parks.
And making sure that we're showcasing all of what RIPID has available and if a business fits or maybe a business is looking for another location that we showcase RIPID.
And then we talked a little bit about our chamber side as well, but really focused on that economic development that we do.
And one of the things you mentioned was the WRNC fund upon the Ripon North Fond du Lac Campbell Sport Fund.
And that is absolutely still active.
That is we receive some funds through the state of Wisconsin.
to start a revolving loan fund for those four specific communities.
So if you are located in Rippon, Lopon, North Fond du Lac, or Campbell Sport, there is a specific pot of money for new businesses or business expansions that have access to very low interest.
The interest rates that we've approved lately have been
two or three percent and then usually a five-year repayment so they are very accessible low monthly payments in order to help those new businesses or small business expansions and have access to capital.
And then at the end, the last 20 percent of the loan can turn into a forgivable grant.
And that money is still available.
We have to make sure to get out the rest of that money by the end of 2026 because that's the grant specifications.
Again, if you are in any of those four communities or know anyone in those four communities that wants to start a business or has a business and is thinking about an expansion,
please reach out to Zach Beesum at Envision Greater Fond du Lac, and we can get you set up with that application.
You can also get information on the Envision website about that.
Absolutely.
All right.
Well, Monday, Envision released a quarterly report.
Is that something that's new?
It is.
As you may know, Envision has the Chamber of Commerce
Is really a member investor based organization so a lot of the events that we host a lot of the.
Newsletters like our ally newsletter we put out our for our members and member specific what we wanted to also have was a quarterly.
newsletter that was for everyone in Fond du Lac County, because it's important they know about both the membership work, but also the economic development work that we do across the county that benefits everyone, whether you are an envisioned member investor or not.
And this is our way of showing the entire Fond du Lac County community the great things that are happening.
where there's some opportunities for growth and then introducing ourselves.
You know, a lot of people still don't know who Envision Greater Fundalac is or exactly what we do and this is our way of connecting with the general community as well as continuing to serve our members.
So how is the report delivered?
Is it like an email blast to memberships?
It is an email, so we have collected, as you can imagine, we've collected quite a lot of emails over the years.
And it is also, you can subscribe.
So again, you can go to our website.
We also asked folks that received the first impact report.
to share it with friends, families, neighbors, and you can subscribe on that email.
So it will be delivered to your inbox quarterly.
We don't share email addresses or sell them, so you don't have to worry about getting signed up for any spam communications from us.
And again, you can go to our website to sign up for the impact report email.
All right.
Next question is going to be a little bit longer.
During your presentation to the Rip and Common Council, you talked a little bit about the Make My Move program.
And then later on, the council actually voted on Ripon adding its own incentive to the program.
I don't know if you were around for that part, were you?
We were.
We did stay for that.
OK.
OK.
So tell us a little bit about that.
Well, the Make My Move talent attraction program is something that Envision has been working on for about a year and through a grant from the state of Wisconsin, the state legislature put five million dollars towards talent attraction and we applied for a portion of that grant and received three hundred and forty six thousand dollars.
We are partnering with
a national platform called Make My Move and they help move people across the country.
Every year seven to ten million people move across state lines and about one million of those people go to Make My Move's website.
What's unique about Make My Move is there is often a cash incentive along with these experience packages in order to
get people's interest.
And the reason why a lot of places are offering cash or offering these incentives is it's a way in this very busy world where we're constantly scrolling, we're constantly inundated with information that this platform allows us to get Fundlack County out nationwide
and have people stop scrolling for maybe a few seconds to think, you know what, I am interested in moving and I have never heard of Fond du Lac County before but it sounds interesting.
I want to learn more.
I was actually thinking about it as, you know, a lot of businesses offer coupons or first-time customer discounts and it's that way to
invite people to become a customer of yours that maybe never otherwise other would have heard of you.
And we're having a lot of success.
We have 900 people that have applied to move to Fond du Lac County from across the country.
What's also great about this program is there are some requirements.
You have to make over $55,000.
You have to pass a criminal background check and you have to be from outside the state of Wisconsin.
And then we help those people, if they don't have a remote job they're coming with, we help match them with local employers and then get them introduced.
So we actually have a mover.
from outside the state of Wisconsin that has already decided to rent in the city of Ripon.
And when he was looking across the whole county, he said the city of Ripon really resonated with him.
He liked the downtown.
He liked the commercial about what Ripon was.
And so he chose to rent in Ripon.
All right.
Good to hear.
Sadie, thank you very much for joining us this morning.
Appreciate your time.
Thank you.
We've been talking with Sadie Howell, who is the CEO and President of Envision Greater Vondellac.
Joining us this morning, we have Sadie Howell, who is the CEO and president of Envision Greater Fond du Lac.
How long you been in that position now?
A little over six years.
Wow.
Time goes fast,
huh?
Yeah, it does.
It flies.
Now, you did a presentation to the Rip and Common Council last week.
Tell us about that, if you would.
Yes.
So Envision as the Combined Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Organization, we have a few MOUs, basically a few contracts with the city of Rippon, the city of LaPon and the village of Campbell Sport, where we provide very specific economic development services specific to that.
municipality.
And so part of, excuse me, I'm still getting over a cold, so forgive me.
Part of that contract includes giving a presentation to the council annually.
So this was our annual presentation and we talked about the business retention expansion visits that we do.
So, BREs is what we call them internally, and we do about 125 of those to 150 of those every year throughout Fond du Lac County.
We talk to different industries, different size businesses, and we ask them a few standard questions so we can collect some data.
It's really just a conversation to learn what's going well, maybe what's not going well.
And then through these conversations, we can often identify if they might be having an expansion soon and maybe there's some resources that we can offer, connect to them with, or sometimes things aren't going so well.
And we can still offer assistance and resources in different ways.
And that's a really important piece of what we do is to keep that pulse on the economy and the health of our economy in Fond du Lac County.
We also do advocacy work, and so that includes things like shared municipal revenues, KIF, the tax incremental financing,
That's really the only way municipalities have an economic development tool, so we're supportive of those.
And then we also help with business attraction, particularly in the industrial parks.
And making sure that we're showcasing all of what RIPID has available and if a business fits or maybe a business is looking for another location that we showcase RIPID.
And then we talked a little bit about our chamber side as well, but really focused on that economic development that we do.
And one of the things you mentioned was the WRNC fund upon the Ripon North Fond du Lac Campbell Sport Fund.
And that is absolutely still active.
That is we receive some funds through the state of Wisconsin.
to start a revolving loan fund for those four specific communities.
So if you are located in Rippon, Lopon, North Fond du Lac, or Campbell Sport, there is a specific pot of money for new businesses or business expansions that have access to very low interest.
The interest rates that we've approved lately have been
two or three percent and then usually a five-year repayment so they are very accessible low monthly payments in order to help those new businesses or small business expansions and have access to capital.
And then at the end, the last 20 percent of the loan can turn into a forgivable grant.
And that money is still available.
We have to make sure to get out the rest of that money by the end of 2026 because that's the grant specifications.
Again, if you are in any of those four communities or know anyone in those four communities that wants to start a business or has a business and is thinking about an expansion,
please reach out to Zach Beesum at Envision Greater Fond du Lac, and we can get you set up with that application.
You can also get information on the Envision website about that.
Absolutely.
All right.
Well, Monday, Envision released a quarterly report.
Is that something that's new?
It is.
As you may know, Envision has the Chamber of Commerce
Is really a member investor based organization so a lot of the events that we host a lot of the.
Newsletters like our ally newsletter we put out our for our members and member specific what we wanted to also have was a quarterly.
newsletter that was for everyone in Fond du Lac County, because it's important they know about both the membership work, but also the economic development work that we do across the county that benefits everyone, whether you are an envisioned member investor or not.
And this is our way of showing the entire Fond du Lac County community the great things that are happening.
where there's some opportunities for growth and then introducing ourselves.
You know, a lot of people still don't know who Envision Greater Fundalac is or exactly what we do and this is our way of connecting with the general community as well as continuing to serve our members.
So how is the report delivered?
Is it like an email blast to memberships?
It is an email, so we have collected, as you can imagine, we've collected quite a lot of emails over the years.
And it is also, you can subscribe.
So again, you can go to our website.
We also asked folks that received the first impact report.
to share it with friends, families, neighbors, and you can subscribe on that email.
So it will be delivered to your inbox quarterly.
We don't share email addresses or sell them, so you don't have to worry about getting signed up for any spam communications from us.
And again, you can go to our website to sign up for the impact report email.
All right.
Next question is going to be a little bit longer.
During your presentation to the Rip and Common Council, you talked a little bit about the Make My Move program.
And then later on, the council actually voted on Ripon adding its own incentive to the program.
I don't know if you were around for that part, were you?
We were.
We did stay for that.
OK.
OK.
So tell us a little bit about that.
Well, the Make My Move talent attraction program is something that Envision has been working on for about a year and through a grant from the state of Wisconsin, the state legislature put five million dollars towards talent attraction and we applied for a portion of that grant and received three hundred and forty six thousand dollars.
We are partnering with
a national platform called Make My Move and they help move people across the country.
Every year seven to ten million people move across state lines and about one million of those people go to Make My Move's website.
What's unique about Make My Move is there is often a cash incentive along with these experience packages in order to
get people's interest.
And the reason why a lot of places are offering cash or offering these incentives is it's a way in this very busy world where we're constantly scrolling, we're constantly inundated with information that this platform allows us to get Fundlack County out nationwide
and have people stop scrolling for maybe a few seconds to think, you know what, I am interested in moving and I have never heard of Fond du Lac County before but it sounds interesting.
I want to learn more.
I was actually thinking about it as, you know, a lot of businesses offer coupons or first-time customer discounts and it's that way to
invite people to become a customer of yours that maybe never otherwise other would have heard of you.
And we're having a lot of success.
We have 900 people that have applied to move to Fond du Lac County from across the country.
What's also great about this program is there are some requirements.
You have to make over $55,000.
You have to pass a criminal background check and you have to be from outside the state of Wisconsin.
And then we help those people, if they don't have a remote job they're coming with, we help match them with local employers and then get them introduced.
So we actually have a mover.
from outside the state of Wisconsin that has already decided to rent in the city of Ripon.
And when he was looking across the whole county, he said the city of Ripon really resonated with him.
He liked the downtown.
He liked the commercial about what Ripon was.
And so he chose to rent in Ripon.
All right.
Good to hear.
Sadie, thank you very much for joining us this morning.
Appreciate your time.
Thank you.
We've been talking with Sadie Howell, who is the CEO and President of Envision Greater Vondellac.