September 12, 2022 at 1:43 p.m.
Minocqua to form committee to study housing, labor issues
Walker: 'There's some major concerns out there'
Minocqua to form committee to study housing, labor issues
That was the consensus reached following a nearly hour-long discussion Sept. 6 that also included other aspects besides the housing issue in the Minocqua and Lakeland area, such as the shortage of labor and not just in the restaurant and lodging businesses but difficulty in nearly all, including public safety, the medical field and the town itself.
One other aspect brought up related to the area's growth was the need for improvements in infrastructure as well, infrastructure to include what's provided by the Lakeland Sanitary District.
In opening the discussion, town chairman Mark Hartzheim said he anticipated a "wide-ranging discussion" and that the town board was "pretty aware and sensitive to the fact that Minocqua, like many places, our whole area, is challenged with labor and low to moderate income housing issues and sometimes, those felt to be related in some ways."
He said Gregg Walker, publisher of The Lakeland Times and the River News, had approached him and asked if the matter could be included on a meeting agenda for discussion "and try to move forward with some kind of a committee to look into this."
"You know, take a deeper dive than the town board ... we've never really tackled this or attempted to explore the options that are out there and some of the programs and things that may be available," Hartzheim said, adding the Let's Minocqua Visitors Bureau and Chamber of Commerce had an "in-depth housing market study" that was presented in the past few months.
Krystal Westfahl, Let's Minocqua's executive director, later said the study cost $40,000.
"That's another resource," Hartzheim said. "So, it's here, the possibility of forming a committee to look deeper into this and hopefully end up with some strategies and potential implementation of things to make a difference in the housing availability."
He called on Walker, who thanked Hartzheim for placing the item on the agenda.
"As you all know, we've had our disagreements at times on certain things but again, I think at the end of the day, I think we all care about Minocqua and we definitely care about the Northwoods," Walker said. "I'll tell ya, since 2019, the start of 2020, I think we've seen some significant changes in our area."
In his capacity as publisher of the Times, Walker said he sees a number of businesses "on a weekly basis."
"I can't walk into a business without somebody saying 'This is a catastrophe,' 'This is a crisis,'" he said. "You guys gotta be hearing it. I'm not telling you anything you're not hearing. You can see businesses are closing, reduced hours. What we have, seems like to me ... what's really changed is you have a bunch of people here, not our regular tourists but the demand on our resources is starting to tax. It's taxing the Lakeland Sanitary District, it's taxing us in our work force. What workforce we have is extremely burned out. There's some major concerns out there."
Walker said at the Aspirus Howard Young Medical Center, 15 full-time employees are needed.
"Marshfield Clinic/Northern Region I'm told it could be up to 100 (needed)," he said. "Our hospice ... you know, things that the locals, us as residents, we need to rely on as much as the tourists. You're starting to see some real stresses in those areas."
Walker said he wasn't at the meeting to point fingers.
"I'm not here to say who's responsible, who's not responsible," he said. "I'm here to ask you guys to task a committee for solutions and if there is any. I don't know if it's housing. I've been on committees the town board's created ... it's not unusual for a town to create this."
What Walker said he hasn't seen is much, if any, support from the Oneida County Economic Development Corporation.
"I will tell you don't waste your time," he said. "We have enough talented people in our own area. We can build our own committee and I think we can look and gather information on what it's gonna take. If it's more macro or micro, I don't know. We've got to gather the information, get this information, give this committee some ability to make some decisions and look at all the information. I'm not an expert in government housing. I couldn't begin to tell ya, ya gotta have X amount of minorities, I don't what the town can create without being a city ... but I can tell you that it's ugly. It's as bad as I've ever seen. I can't even compare it to anything because there's nothing to compare it to."
Walker said what "really scares" him as he looks at people like Hartzheim, town supervisor John Thompson, a building contractor, town clerk Roben Haggart and himself as a newspaper publisher and business owner is "when we phase out, what's left of our workforce?"
"That's what really scares me," he said, using the recent acquisitions of Eagle Waste and Island Collision by what he described as "giant corporations" as examples.
"We lose donations, we lose the support of our community," Walker said. "I'm just saying you're seeing this turnover ... as we phase out, I don't see much of a younger generation. We might be the two oldest counties (Vilas and Oneida) in the state."
He said again what he was asking of the town board was to assemble a committee to "look at our demographics, how much it's changed."
"We should look at the feasibility of what we can and can't do," Walker said. "I'm surely not here to say ... someone once said 'We should put a gate on the Minocqua bridge.' I'm not saying we do that, either, we want the tourists. But it's changed and I know you've all seen it ... I'm just saying. It's across the board."
Ultimately, with the town board agreeing there is a need for a committee, the question came down to how many people should be on the committee, Hartzheim suggesting five as he felt three would be too few and more than five would be too many.
He said the town board at its next meeting would work on finalizing the tasks of the committee as well as its size and the possibility of subcommittees if needed.
"It is a big task especially because there aren't any easy answers," he said. "It's gonna be a job and it's gonna take work but I think there will be enough people that are passionate about it and want to try to tie everything together and see if there's a strategy that makes sense for the town. Not just the town but the whole community, the business community especially."
Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].
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