Since We Last Met is a digest of business related news occurring in the Green Bay, Fox Cities, Oshkosh and Fond du Lac areas in the one month since the previous issue of New North B2B.

May 25

Newly-elected Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach refused to approve a county board decision to increase the number of supervisory districts from 26 to 29, arguing the county can’t afford such an expansion during this period of budget shortfalls. The move could push the issue to the Brown County Circuit Court to determine an alternative redistricting plan. The proposal to increase the number of board supervisors developed from the 2010 U.S. Census statistics which indicated the county’s population grew by nearly 20,000 during the past decade. County officials indicated adding three more supervisory seats could cost taxpayers as much as $369,000 over the next 10 years in annual salaries paid and in health insurance benefits offered to supervisors.

May 25

The Oshkosh Area School District Board of Education approved laying off 12 teachers for the coming 2011-12 school year in order to raise class sizes at the middle and high school levels in anticipation of even larger budget issues looming for the 2012-13 school year and beyond. The layoffs are expected to save the district an estimated $568,000 in salary and benefit costs for the next year. The district had already developed a balanced budget for the coming 2011-12 year with assistance from a wage freeze and larger employee contributions toward health and retirement benefits.

May 26

The Bergstrom-Mahler Museum in Neenah was awarded a $13,731 Joint Effort Marketing grant from the state Department of Tourism for its Arts of Fire event in October 2011. The second annual event is expected to draw 1,600 visitors and 125 additional room night bookings for a local economic impact estimated at $111,100. The event features an outdoor mobile glass making studio from The Corning Museum of Glass in New York, with four master artists creating works from molten glass on special staging, equipped with two glass furnaces.

May 31

Ripon Medical Center merged with Fond du Lac-based Agnesian HealthCare as part of an agreement in which Agnesian commited to plan for a replacement hospital facility in Ripon, enhance service lines and implement an electronic medical record at RMC. Ripon Medical Center will retain its name, and the services currently provided to the community will be expanded with additional specialties. The Ripon Medical Center Foundation will remain a separate entity outside of the affiliation of Agnesian to continue its mission of philanthropic support to benefit the 40-bed hospital.

June 1

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation approved plans for three pedestrian overpasses in the Green Bay area crossing over U.S. Highway 41 and State Highway 172. The overpasses will cost between $1.65 million to $2.25 million each, with the state picking up 75 percent of the construction costs from the U.S. 41 enhancement project budget. Municipalities would have to cover the remaining 25 percent of the construction costs, in addition to costs for connecting the path to the existing facilities, any necessary land acquisitions, and ongoing maintenance.

June 2

Fall Fest De Pere was awarded an $18,328 Joint Effort Marketing grant from the state Department of Tourism to help market its fourth annual event on Sept. 17 which includes a Best of the Midwest Rib Cook-Off, live entertainment, family activities and cultural performances. The downtown event is expected to draw 20,000 attendees and generate more than $400,000 in traveler spending at area hotels, restaurants and stores.

June 2

The City of Fond du Lac Police & Fire Commission hired William Lamb, chief of police for the Village of North Fond du Lac, as its new police chief. He will succeed Tony Barthuly, who retired from the department on June 30. Lamb has 23 years experience in law enforcement.

June 2

The state legislature’s joint finance committee decided to expand the school voucher program to Racine and all of Milwaukee County, but decided not to expand the program into Green Bay, arguing there wasn’t enough support for the idea. The City of Milwaukee has had a voucher program for the past 20 years which enables students to attend a private or religious school in the city at taxpayers’ expense.

June 3

The U.S. Department of Labor reported 54,000 jobs were created in May, leaving the national unemployment rate essentially unchanged at 9.1 percent. Job gains continued in professional and business services, health care and mining.

June 7

Schreiber Foods announced plans to build a new $50 million corporate headquarters and technology center in downtown Green Bay on the site of the former J. C. Penney Co. store in the closed Washington Commons mall and the Days Inn building. City of Green Bay officials plan to provide $14.5 million in assistance to acquire adjacent properties, pay off existing debt on the mall property and demolish the mall structure. The city funding is projected to come exclusively from tax incremental financing and from New Market Tax Credits, and isn’t expected to increase property taxes for city residents. Mall demolition should be complete by the end of 2011, with construction of the new Schreiber facilities starting early next year and scheduled for completion in 2014. Though designs have not been finalized, the corporate office is expected to be about 130,000 square feet and at least three stories, while the technology center will be about 90,000 square feet. The dairy processor is expected to consolidate positions from other facilities and employ an estimated 550 staff members at the new location.

June 7

NewPage Corp. agreed to sell its closed paper mill in Kimberly to AIM Demolition, an affiliate of Montreal-based American Iron & Metal Co. Inc. The metal recycling company scraps metal for resale to foundries and also specializes in the manufacture of solder wire, solder paste and alloys. Officials from AIM declined to outline their plans for the mill, which NewPage closed in September 2008, putting 600 people out of work.

June 8

Gov. Scott Walker appointed Scott Baumbach as secretary of the state Department of Workforce Development. Baumbach had served in the role as interim secretary for the previous month in the wake of the sudden resignation of Manny Perez. Baumbach was named deputy secretary of the department in January, having previously been an associate and partner at the Milwaukee law firm Michael Best & Friedrich since 2001.

June 9

The Green Bay Area School District hired Michelle Langenfeld as its new superintendent to succeed Greg Maass, who resigned at the end of June for another job in Massachusetts. Langenfeld previously worked as associate superintendent in the Anoka-Hennepin School District near the Twin Cities, which educates about 40,000 students, more than double the amount of students in the Green Bay district. In Minnesota, Langenfeld helped create magnet schools focused on fine arts, as well as others centered around science, technology, engineering and math.

June 14

Public transit officials in Green Bay and Appleton announced plans to hire a consultant to study the concept of providing a commuter route service between the two communities to help larger businesses in the region with employees who commute. Certain employers could be asked to help subsidize the cost of the service to help make it financially viable. The idea for a commuter route between the two metropolitan areas surfaced two years ago with the idea of providing as many as eight daily trips in each direction along U.S. Highway 41. At the time, such a program was estimated to cost $240,000 a year.

June 14

At the filing deadline to register for candidacy in the races for nine state senate seats up for recall, enough challengers filed nomination papers to force a primary election in all four recalls in northeast Wisconsin. In the 18^th Senate District held by Sen. Randy Hopper (R-Fond du Lac), three candidates registered as Democrats: Jessica King of Oshkosh, endorsed by the Democratic Party; John Buckstaff of the town of Vinland, who was recruited by Republicans to run as a “spoiler” candidate; and John Michael Curry of Waupun. In the 14^th Senate District held by Sen. Luther Olsen (R-Ripon), three candidates registered as Democrats: Assembly Rep. Fred Clark, (D-Baraboo); Rol Church of Wautoma, who was recruited by Republicans as a spoiler candidate; and Robert Forseth of Waupaca. In the 2^nd Senate District held by Sen. Robert Cowles (R-Allouez), there were also three candidates registered as Democrats: Nancy Nusbaum of De Pere, a former Brown County executive; Otto Junkermann of Green Bay, a former Republican assemblyman recruited by Republicans as a spoiler candidate; and Mert Summers of De Pere. A Democratic primary will be held in each of the three races on July 12, and the general election is scheduled for Aug. 9. Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) in the 30^th Senate District also faces a recall election against the winner of a July 19 primary.

June 14

The Outagamie County Board of Supervisors voted to consider selling property near its downtown Appleton Justice Center for a proposed new convention center. The proposed convention center – spearheaded by a group of community leaders under the auspices of Fox Cities Exhibition Center Inc. – would be a roughly $20 million, 30,000-sq. ft. facility attached by skywalk over Lawrence Street to the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel. The county had previously acquired the property for future expansion of county facilities, but has primarily used it for parking. County officials will still need to negotiate an agreement to sell the property. The Fox Cities Exhibition Center group would purchase the property and construct the convention facility primarily through an anticipated increase in hotel room taxes, in addition to redevelopment support from the City of Appleton and a public fundraising campaign.

June 14

The City of Oshkosh Common Council rezoned nearly two acres of existing residential property near the northeast side of the Ninth Street and U.S. Highway 41 interchange to commercial, paving the way for a possible national retail pharmacy store. The rezoned area – which currently includes existing single- and multi-family residences – has been part of the city’s comprehensive plan.

June 15

The City of Neenah Common Council approved two agreements which will allow Plexus Corp. to build a $7 million, 20,000-sq. ft. development center adjacent to its 1-year-old corporate headquarters on the site of the former Glatfelter paper mill in downtown Neenah. The city agreed to spend up to $400,000 to remove contaminants from the soil at the site, and will redevelop the site with funds generated through an existing tax incremental finance district. Construction of the two-story facility is expected to begin in July and be complete by the summer of 2012.

June 16

The U.S. Venture Fund for Basic Needs of the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation awarded 11 projects or programs a total of $248,000, including $35,000 to Tri-County Community Dental Clinic for its Focus on the Children program; $20,000 to Clarity Care, Inc. for its Help at Home program; and $68,000 over three years to Fox Valley Technical College for its Career Kickstart program, a collaboration between the Oshkosh Area School District and FVTC’s Riverside Campus to help 60 at-risk high school students.

June 17

The state Department of Transportation approved a $965,000 project to build a general aviation ramp at Austin Straubel International Airport in Green Bay, allowing more space for general aviation aircraft to park on the east side of the airport terminal, along with providing access to a fixed-base operator on the airport. The state will provide $772,000 toward the cost of the project, while Brown County will contribute the remaining $193,000. The project is expected to be complete this summer.