January 12, 2015 at 4:40 p.m.
Kuzlik named new DRI board president
Kuzlik named new DRI board president
Kuzlik, who currently serves as an outreach specialist and academic advisor for UW-Superior but is located in Rhinelander, has been a part of DRI since its inception in 2006 when Rhinelander was designated a Main Street Community.
"When I was working with the UW-Extension, I was doing some work with some of the leaders in the downtown area, first getting them kind of getting them organized as to what could happen in terms of an organization to represent downtown Rhinelander," he said.
"From there, after getting organized, we formed a BID, which is a Business Improvement District, and that gave us some funding. From that funding, we actually incorporated Downtown Rhinelander, Inc., and then after that we applied for Main Street status."
Kuzlik is taking over for outgoing president Mark Gutteter. His term officially began Jan. 1. He said he had a strong inclination he was going to be named the new president, but that didn't make it any less exciting.
"I kind of knew it was coming. Unless somebody did a coup, I knew it was heading in that direction," he said with a laugh. "It was something that I'm very interested in. I've seen (DRI) develop from the very beginning. I think it's something we definitely need for our downtown, especially now with the city moving forward with their plans to redo much of the downtown area. There's going to have to be an organization there to communicate with the people and to keep everyone informed."
Kuzlik said that communication will be especially important as work begins on the downtown revitalization project.
"During the time it happens, it really affects downtown. People don't like to come to downtown when it's all torn up," he said. "You need an organization that keeps communication going with weekly meetings. You need an organization that's going to help with signage. The good news is that we have some back parking lots so, even though the street is torn up, most of the places will have access to their businessess, but that has to be communicated to people and you need a central organization to do that, and I believe DRI is the one to do that."
As for his other goals, Kuzlik said he will be focusing on economic development for the downtown area.
"We have, in the last few months, developed a new strategic plan that was approved by the board. A strong part of that plan is economic development," he said.
"Yes, we need to continue to do some of the things we've been doing like events downtown that bring people downtown and we need to continue to be there in the office so when people want to relocate their business to downtown they can walk in and talk to staff about what's available, but we also need to go and do some economic development and go around and look for people and actively solicit businesses to come to our downtown area."
Kuzlik said DRI will cut its office assistant position and utilize the money saved from that move to work with a recruiter in an attempt to draw more businesses to downtown Rhinelander.
"We're going to cut our staff at the office by 50 percent and we're going to do that by eliminating the assistant's position. Then we're going to take some of those resources and enter into a contract with a contractor who is basically going to just be doing economic development and recruitment for our members," he said.
"That will entail that person going out and visiting businesses and surrounding communities and telling them about our downtown area - what the benefits are, talking about our demographics and the economics of our downtown. Then we'll see if they're interested in expanding their businesses into our downtown area."
With the change in staffing, Kuzlik said the duties of Maggie Steffen, executive director of DRI, will be adjusted.
"We're going to realign the duties of the executive director and have (Steffen) focus more on assisting and working with the people in our downtown and the recruiter will be going out actually looking to bring new businesses into the community," Kuzlik said.
Steffen said she's excited to work with a new president that has such a strong background.
"Dan has been involved with DRI since its inception. Having someone with the knowledge of how and why the organization was formed is a wonderful asset," she said. "A new strategic plan plus a new president equals an exciting year ahead."
Marcus Nesemann may be reached at [email protected].
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