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Eau Claire. Jake Holsclaw.
>> Thank you.

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>> Up next, a push to
attract a working age

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population. Would you
consider moving to the

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small city of fond du Lac
to work? There's an

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incentive for that.
Actually, two one offers

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$9,500 to individuals from
out of state to move to the

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city and maintain their
remote jobs. The other

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helps employers recruit
employees from areas at

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least 100 miles away, and
helps them offer

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prospective workers a
$15,000 hiring bonus. Here

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to explain the program is
Sadie Howell of Envision

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Greater Fond du Lac. And
thanks very much for being

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here.
>> Thanks for having me.

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>> So why the push to help
people move to fond du Lac.

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>> In Fond du Lac County?
We're facing a population

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decline which isn't unlike
the rest of the state. Most

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of the state of Wisconsin
and at envision, we are the

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combined Chamber of
Commerce and Economic

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Development organization.
And so we have heard from

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our members and businesses
for years that it's really

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hard to attract talent and
find workers. So this has

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been a push at envision and
our strategic plan on

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talent attraction campaigns.
The $15,000 one you

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referenced, we've had for
quite a few years. And then

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most recently we launched a
talent attraction with Make

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My Move due to a grant from
the state of Wisconsin.

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>> So how bad is that
population decline?

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>> I would say we're we're
pretty stagnant right now.

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So in fond du Lac County,
it has been about a 1%

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population growth. We don't
have a lot of natural birth,

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but we do have net
in-migration. And so we do

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an okay job of attracting
people from different

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counties in Wisconsin and
from out of the state.

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However, we're we're facing
two really big years. 2030

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is when a lot of the baby
boomers will retire. And in

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2040 is when our population
is really expected to start

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to decline quite a bit. And
in preparation for that, we

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wanted to make sure that we
were starting to attract

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people before 2030 into
2040.

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>> How many new residents
and workers are you hoping

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to lure to your city.
>> With the grant program?

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So that was from the state
legislature, put $5 million

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into a new grant through
the Wisconsin Economic

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Development Corporation and
Envision Applied. We

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received $346,000 from.
WEDC envisions. Board of

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directors is putting about
100,000 towards it. And

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with that money, we are
partnering with Make My

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Move. They are a national
platform that helps

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relocate individuals that
are looking for a new place

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to call home, and our goal
is 32 families.

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>> So for both programs,
individuals or employers

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have to fill out
applications. What is

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interest looking like right
now?

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>> For our Make My Move
platform? It is pretty

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crazy. We actually just got
our new statistics

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yesterday and 1700 people
from around the country

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have expressed interest.
900 of them have applied to

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move to fond du Lac County.
And then from those it's

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trickled down a little bit.
We have six accepted movers

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already. We launched this
May 14th, so about a month

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and a half, two months
almost in. We have six

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people already moving. One
person already purchased a

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home in fond du Lac County.
So it's it's incredible.

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It's really incredible. And
what what Make My Move does

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and why they have been a
great partner. We've been

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working with them for about
6 to 9 months. On creating

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all of the storytelling of
why would somebody want to

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live in fond du Lac County?
So they sell the community

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first and then people apply.
So we are resonating with

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an incredible number of
people from around the

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country who want to come
and live here.

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>> So if you were trying,
as you are, to entice

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someone to move to fond du
Lac, what are its selling

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points?
>> It's not a lot different

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than what I think you would
probably hear from other

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communities that come on,
we have a a little bit

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slower pace of life. We are
a little bit smaller. We do

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have affordable homes. We
do have a wonderful mix of

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private and public schools.
We have three institutions

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of higher learning in our
county and a plethora of

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careers. So there you will
have no problem trying to

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find your right career here.
It's really. Do you like

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outdoor recreation? Do you
still like to talk to your

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neighbors and find a place
that you call community,

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where non-profits are
looking for volunteers?

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That's the kind of
community that still exists

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in fond du Lac County.
>> So briefly here, this

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obviously really works.
This incentive program that

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you've set up are other
cities across the state

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looking at something
similar?

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>> Yeah. So we were one of
17 communities that

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actually received this
grant from WEDC. So our

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neighbors to the east,
Sheboygan and two of our

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neighbors to the north,
Oshkosh and the city of

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Appleton both received
similar grants. Now their

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programs look a little bit
different than ours, but

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all of us had to follow the
same basic guidelines when

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we received the grant.
we received the grant.