• Interstate 41 Corridor
Brown, Calumet, Fond du Lac, Outagamie, Winnebago Counties
Five-year I-41 project begins
Expansion work on I-41 between De Pere and Appleton started in April. The project will add a lane in each direction for 23 miles from Wisconsin Avenue in Grand Chute to Scheuring Road in De Pere. It will create six lanes matching the existing six lanes on either end of the project.
The project will reconstruct the system interchange at the junction of I-41 and WIS 441, and it will reconstruct or improve the nine existing service interchanges on this corridor. A new service interchange at I-41 and Southbridge Road will be constructed.
Construction is scheduled to last through fall 2029. According to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, four lanes of traffic will remain open during peak hours.
Work this year began around the Highway 15/County OO interchange and Capital Drive overpass, with additional work planned this summer and fall around the Highway N interchange.
In addition, work is planned in 2024 on I-41 from Breezewood Lane to Highway 15 for pavement repair as well as rehabilitation of approaches, bridges and other structures. That will lead to lane closures and the longer-term closure of the County II northbound ramp and some local roads.
Froedtert ThedaCare Health breaks ground on Oshkosh hospital
In March, Froedtert ThedaCare Health broke ground on an 85,000-square-foot, $84 million hospital on Sixth Street in Oshkosh.
When complete, the Oshkosh campus is expected to have emergency care, inpatient beds and 24/7 coverage. Plans also call for 24/7 computed tomography scans, X-ray, ultrasound, mammogram, MRI and lab services. Also included in the plans are a retail pharmacy, an ambulatory surgery center with operating rooms, and a medical office building for primary care and specialties.
More services may be added over time based on community need. The work will be completed in 2025, and about 60 new jobs will be created.
Nearly 73% of Oshkosh’s residents live east of I-41, while most of the current health care services are located west of I-41, meaning east-side residents are more than 15 minutes away from a hospital or emergency room.
The planned project furthers community development efforts underway in the area. The campus will be located at 250 W. 6th Ave. on the Fox River in downtown Oshkosh and will complement the area’s redevelopment, which includes new condominiums, restaurants and retail.
• The Northwoods
Florence, Marinette, Menominee, Oconto Counties
New CEO named for Oconto Electric Cooperative
Ryan Miller has been named Oconto Electric Cooperative’s CEO following the retirement of Byron Nolde.
“We are delighted to welcome Ryan Miller as the next CEO of OEC,” said Todd Duame, board chairman. “After a nationwide search, the board of directors decided [he] was the best candidate to be the next great leader for OEC, so that we can continue providing affordable and reliable electricity to our consumer members.”
Miller grew up in the electrical industry, working in his family’s high-voltage electrical construction company. He has also worked as a substation operations manager. He previously served as chief operating officer of Southland Utility Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Choctawhatchee Electric Cooperative, where he oversaw day-to-day operations. He holds a bachelor of science in business information systems, a master’s in business administration and a certificate in utility management from Willamette University.
Nolde served as manager and CEO of OEC for the past 20 years, making him one of the longest serving CEOs of the cooperative.
“We appreciate all that Byron has contributed to the success of the cooperative,” Duame said. “We look forward to [Ryan’s] deep understanding of the energy industry and that he will continue to build on the strong foundation we have and guide the cooperative toward a successful future.”
Oconto Electric Cooperative serves more than 9,600 members throughout Oconto and Marinette counties, as well as small portions of Shawano and Brown counties.
M&M Area Community Foundation executive director steps down
Paula Gruszynski, executive director of the M&M Area Community Foundation, has announced her resignation.
Gruszynski took the helm of the foundation in February 2015 and spearheaded numerous initiatives focused on enhancing the lives of residents across Marinette and Menominee counties. Among her many accomplishments, she championed the Future Fund Children’s Savings Account Program to ensure that every kindergarten student in the region benefited from both financial literacy education and a $50 savings account to support their aspirations after high school.
The MMACF Board will commence a search for an executive director. No timeline was provided for the search. For more information about the M&M Area Community Foundation, visit mmacf.org.
• West Central
Green Lake, Marquette, Shawano, Waupaca, Waushara Counties
Grants boost farm to school projects in pilot program
The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) announced that eight organizations, including one in Waupaca County and another in Sheboygan County, will receive grants through the Wisconsin Farm to School Grant Program. A total of $250,000 will be awarded.
The grants were awarded through a competitive review process with amounts ranging from $10,000 to $40,000. This one-time funding, provided by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service’s Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant Program, will be used to improve access to local foods in eligible schools through comprehensive farm to school programming, including local procurement and agricultural education efforts.
Piloted for one year, projects will gather impact and outcome data, measure demand for this grant program, and capture success stories to leverage ongoing support for a permanently-funded grant program.
Nourish Farms, Inc. will use the funds in Sheboygan County to increase food literacy for 600 additional students in the Sheboygan Falls, Sheboygan and Plymouth public school districts. Grant funds will grow capacity at Nourish Farms, Inc. to host additional field trips and deliver lessons to 22 more classes, increase equitable access to field trips and programs for three area low-income schools, repair garden infrastructure at partner schools and deepen school stakeholder engagement.
The Wisconsin Food Hub Cooperative will build farm to school and early childhood network and procurement systems in Waupaca County. The work will support nutrition and know-your-farmer education programming; help food service staff develop recipes and menus; build logistics, pricing models and templates to support production costs for farmers; help with the cost of aggregation and distribution; and fit within the parameters of school and early childhood provider budgets.
New job creation, livability cited as keys to rural development
Rapid shifts in the workforce and increasing hybrid and remote work opportunities are transforming rural communities in Wisconsin.
The result is a shift in how communities can and should invest in economic development efforts, with a focus on new business creation and livability potentially producing the best results.
Those were some of the takeaways from the annual Rural Economic Summit hosted by the University of Wisconsin Extension in late March.
Karl Martin, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, said the biggest challenges for Wisconsin’s rural counties are a need for health care professionals, a scarcity of affordable housing, the need for broadband access and a shortage of labor.
He said the UW Extension is trying to address those challenges in a variety of ways, but emphasized that “new business formation is critical to rural economic development.”
That point was reiterated by Steve Deller from the UWEX Department of Ag and Applied Economics.
“The engine for economic development from a jobs perspective is new business formation,” Deller said.
That should be taken into account when communities think about economic development. Deller said business development and livability initiatives should be prioritized over business attraction to produce better results.
Rural population stagnated after the 2008 recession but has since recovered. Deller said that is significant because rural job growth has not, and economists are seeing evidence that jobs follow population growth and not the other way around.
“This has kind of moved us into this new way of thinking. Maybe we need to think about quality of life, placemaking or community livability,” Deller said.
Assessing what constitutes a good quality of life or livability can be challenging because different people have different standards or judgments, Deller said, adding that it is worth figuring it out so communities can assess if they can take advantage of existing resources and opportunities or create new efforts to attract people and foster business growth.
The University of Wisconsin Extension has launched the Rural Livability Project to assess what policies and strategies can help communities address issues such as access to grocery stores, health care, and banks as well as increase civic engagement.
• The Lakeshore
Door, Kewaunee, Manitowoc, Sheboygan Counties
Broadband expansion funded in Door County
Broadband access grants will help leverage more than $18.7 million of investment from AT&T.
The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin announced the award of $43.2 million in grants funded by the American Rescue Plan Act to expand access to broadband across the state. The 30 projects awarded funding will expand high-speed internet access to approximately 16,000 residential and business locations in the state.
In Door County:
- $552,299 was awarded to build FTTP service for 609 residential properties and 67 businesses in the town of Sturgeon Bay
- $960,000 was awarded to build FTTP service for 1,573 residential and 204 business locations in the town of Egg Harbor
- $816,693 was awarded to build FTTP service for 1,749 residential and 159 business locations in the town of Sevastopol
Since 2019, the PSC has awarded grants to help more than 410,000 homes and businesses access new or improved broadband services.
