Eau Claire. Jake Holsclaw. >> Thank you.
>> Up next, a push to attract a working age
population. Would you consider moving to the
small city of fond du Lac to work? There's an
incentive for that. Actually, two one offers
$9,500 to individuals from out of state to move to the
city and maintain their remote jobs. The other
helps employers recruit employees from areas at
least 100 miles away, and helps them offer
prospective workers a $15,000 hiring bonus. Here
to explain the program is Sadie Howell of Envision
Greater Fond du Lac. And thanks very much for being
here. >> Thanks for having me.
>> So why the push to help people move to fond du Lac.
>> In Fond du Lac County? We're facing a population
decline which isn't unlike the rest of the state. Most
of the state of Wisconsin and at envision, we are the
combined Chamber of Commerce and Economic
Development organization. And so we have heard from
our members and businesses for years that it's really
hard to attract talent and find workers. So this has
been a push at envision and our strategic plan on
talent attraction campaigns. The $15,000 one you
referenced, we've had for quite a few years. And then
most recently we launched a talent attraction with Make
My Move due to a grant from the state of Wisconsin.
>> So how bad is that population decline?
>> I would say we're we're pretty stagnant right now.
So in fond du Lac County, it has been about a 1%
population growth. We don't have a lot of natural birth,
but we do have net in-migration. And so we do
an okay job of attracting people from different
counties in Wisconsin and from out of the state.
However, we're we're facing two really big years. 2030
is when a lot of the baby boomers will retire. And in
2040 is when our population is really expected to start
to decline quite a bit. And in preparation for that, we
wanted to make sure that we were starting to attract
people before 2030 into 2040.
>> How many new residents and workers are you hoping
to lure to your city. >> With the grant program?
So that was from the state legislature, put $5 million
into a new grant through the Wisconsin Economic
Development Corporation and Envision Applied. We
received $346,000 from. WEDC envisions. Board of
directors is putting about 100,000 towards it. And
with that money, we are partnering with Make My
Move. They are a national platform that helps
relocate individuals that are looking for a new place
to call home, and our goal is 32 families.
>> So for both programs, individuals or employers
have to fill out applications. What is
interest looking like right now?
>> For our Make My Move platform? It is pretty
crazy. We actually just got our new statistics
yesterday and 1700 people from around the country
have expressed interest. 900 of them have applied to
move to fond du Lac County. And then from those it's
trickled down a little bit. We have six accepted movers
already. We launched this May 14th, so about a month
and a half, two months almost in. We have six
people already moving. One person already purchased a
home in fond du Lac County. So it's it's incredible.
It's really incredible. And what what Make My Move does
and why they have been a great partner. We've been
working with them for about 6 to 9 months. On creating
all of the storytelling of why would somebody want to
live in fond du Lac County? So they sell the community
first and then people apply. So we are resonating with
an incredible number of people from around the
country who want to come and live here.
>> So if you were trying, as you are, to entice
someone to move to fond du Lac, what are its selling
points? >> It's not a lot different
than what I think you would probably hear from other
communities that come on, we have a a little bit
slower pace of life. We are a little bit smaller. We do
have affordable homes. We do have a wonderful mix of
private and public schools. We have three institutions
of higher learning in our county and a plethora of
careers. So there you will have no problem trying to
find your right career here. It's really. Do you like
outdoor recreation? Do you still like to talk to your
neighbors and find a place that you call community,
where non-profits are looking for volunteers?
That's the kind of community that still exists
in fond du Lac County. >> So briefly here, this
obviously really works. This incentive program that
you've set up are other cities across the state
looking at something similar?
>> Yeah. So we were one of 17 communities that
actually received this grant from WEDC. So our
neighbors to the east, Sheboygan and two of our
neighbors to the north, Oshkosh and the city of
Appleton both received similar grants. Now their
programs look a little bit different than ours, but
all of us had to follow the same basic guidelines when
we received the grant. we received the grant.