Lisa McArthur is looking forward to the day when economic growth isn’t just defined by job creation.
Since recently moving from her education post with Envision Greater Fond du Lac into a new role as the organization’s director of economic and workforce outreach, McArthur says the county’s business leaders have been clear: They need infrastructure, manufacturing space, and people to fill the jobs they already have.
“Federally, at the state [level] and even locally we have to get past ‘How many jobs are you creating?’” she says. “It’s got to be, are you helping businesses grow? That’s what we need to be paying attention to.”
Its own economic development successes serve to illustrate the county’s conundrum. In May Advocate Aurora broke ground on a new hospital in Fond du Lac — a boon for the community that brings with it 100 jobs, but because of slow population growth the project failed to meet the threshold for justifying the addition of a maternity ward.
Smart, sustainable growth now becomes a guidepost for Envision Greater Fond du Lac, which was created five years ago as the county’s joint chamber of commerce and economic development organization. Today, President and CEO Sadie Parafiniuk Vander Velde says it’s leaning harder into the latter role. Two years ago, she says, the organization employed just one person dedicated to economic development: Vice President Jim Cleveland. In the last year the team has grown to five, including specialists in the areas of business intelligence and entrepreneurship.
“They’re leading the charge on a lot of initiatives in the county so that we can be proactive rather than reactive,” Vander Velde says.
McArthur says there’s “no one silver bullet,” but many of Envision’s latest efforts are indeed moving the needle on workforce growth and retention, including its Worker Relocation Incentive Program, a child care partnership with Dodge and Winnebago counties and a unique new program called Fond du Lac R.O.C.K.
R.O.C.K., which stands for retention, opportunity, community, knowledge, is targeted toward high school students who self-identified as having no post-graduation plans. Fond du Lac R.O.C.K. gets in front of those students with resources, connections and opportunities designed to keep them in Fond du Lac.
McArthur says a lot of students are surprised by the options they have, including opportunities to defer higher education or have their advanced education paid for through apprenticeship programs. Local businesses were more than willing to provide job shadowing experiences, she adds.
“We wanted them to get into these businesses and say, ‘OK, I do picture myself working here,’” McArthur says. “This has been a really good experience so far, and we’re hoping to scale it.”
Meanwhile, despite many challenges and threats of a looming recession, business is booming in Fond du Lac. Dairy businesses are thriving, especially the ever-expanding LaClare Creamery, Grande Cheese and Baker Cheese — which was recently acquired by Sargento. The community has added a Hobby Lobby store in its former Shopko, and Cellar District has been a wildly successful addition to the dining scene. In addition to the construction of Aurora Medical Center-Fond du Lac, SSM Health’s Dale Michels Heart & Vascular Care recently announced an $8.5 million expansion.
Ripon is anticipating the construction of a new $2.4 million community center. The building, which will also function part of each day as a dedicated senior activities center, is being constructed in Murray Park on the Mascoutin Valley State Trail that connects Berlin and Ripon — another community project that is currently under construction.
“Where the trail comes into Ripon, right now it sort of just dumps you off in the middle of the street, so we’re excited to use this building as a trailhead as well. Hopefully, by the start of next year you’ll be able to start in Ripon and go to Berlin and back, or start in Ripon and go all the way to Green Lake,” says Ripon City Administrator Adam Sonntag.
The renovation of Ripon’s former American House into the upscale Watson Street Condos project also represents the end of an era for the city’s downtown. It is the last of the properties to be resurrected since the souring of the Boca Grande Capital development deal in 2011 and subsequent downtown fire.
“There were some pretty dark times — some big ideas and dreams that never came to fruition,” Sonntag says. “It’s a very unique situation that we still deal with, but I think we have done a pretty fantastic job of overcoming as a community.”
Craig Tebon, executive director of Ripon Main Street, Inc., says the project will offer much-needed housing as well as commercial space. The development will complement both the downtown beautification efforts and doubling in size of The Village Green downtown park that are underway in Ripon this summer.
