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Evers hosts roundtable with Rhinelander community leaders

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RHINELANDER – Governor Tony Evers declared 2025 the “Year of the Kid” in his State of the State address.

That message resonated with a lot of Rhinelander community leaders, whether or not they provide services directly for children.

“We know that when adults have the ability to keep kids healthy and safe, our community is so much better for it,” said Courtney Smith, Executive Director of the Rhinelander Area Food Pantry.

She, along with representatives from Nicolet College, NATH, the Rhinelander District Library, League of Women Voters of the Northwoods and the Rhinelander Fire Department, sat in a roundtable with Governor Tony Evers at Morgue Coffee in Rhinelander last Thursday.

Increase in food insecure families

The food pantry typically serves about 800 households in the area. They’ve recently hit a record of more than 1,000. Most of that increase is seen in families with young children.

“What we're seeing really are households that are employed, that are working, that aren't able to meet their most basic needs,” said Smith.

In his address, Evers said he wanted to lower out-of-pocket costs for Wisconsinites to make living more affordable. This ranges from childcare to prescriptions to affordable housing.

“Obviously politics play a role in that, so we're hopeful that the legislature will be helpful and we can get something done for the people in Wisconsin and the people in Rhinelander,” said Evers.

The food pantry has added two nutritional programs aimed at children to help meet the gaps in the community. Smith said she’d like to see expanded eligibility guidelines for who can shop the food pantry. More food through their doors would also directly help the food pantry.

During the roundtable, Smith pointed out that during the COVID pandemic, when households had a lot more resources and benefits, the pantry saw fewer people needing their services.

“We dropped down to just over 500 households. Now, post COVID, we're over 1,025 households,” said Smith.

Affordable housing and childcare are also directly linked to the food pantry.

“I think what we fail to realize is when we have a childcare crisis, food insecurity has its claws deep into the back of that childcare crisis. So not only are underpaid childcare workers food insecure, but then households that can't afford childcare, become food insecure,” said Smith. “We're kind of hiding and lurking around behind all of the issues that we have.”

Sustaining and maintaining

Many of the organizations at the roundtable stressed how much they depend on the generosity of their communities to keep their organizations operational.

Nicolet College President Kate Ferrel spoke to the Governor about how the college partners with dozens of organizations, including the ones sitting at that table. They’re often drawing from the same resources.

“We're drawing so much on the good will of our communities, that I think it's hard to sustain and maintain and really get that inertia and forward momentum if we're always sort of relying on really just generous benefactors in the community that have been generous. It's remarkable. It's unbelievable,” said Ferrel. “But, when do we get out of playing defense and into more playing offense.”

Affordable living

The Northwoods Alliance for Temporary Housing (NATH) has three families at Frederick Place.

Executive Director Abby Dall Lukowski said they can’t afford more than $750.00, all inclusive, for housing.

“The housing situation here, there's absolutely no way I can confidently suggest that they go around the place for $1,500.00. They'd be right back at our house,” said Dall Lukowski.

Rhinelander Fire Chief Brian Tonnancour brought up issues he’s seen, including a lot of housing not up to code, limited land available to build new housing within the city limits and 60% of housing within the city being rentals, not owner-occupied.

“That availability isn't really there for people to buy a house, and when they do become available, the people who are selling it know that they're in the position that they're going to gain on it. Those house housing prices raise up that much more because of that position. So how do we beat that? I don't know,” said Tonnaceuor.

While both there in their professional capacities, Di Wu of Nicolet College and Elisha Sheffer of the Rhinelander District Library spoke to some of the struggles young professionals in the area face.

Wu said his rent has increased a couple of times in the last two years because of inflation.

“I'm lucky I have a good job that can provide me for that, but I’m really concerned for other people who live with the minimum wage,” said Wu. “How do we retain the young professionals and laborers in this area to keep the community going? We need those talents.”

Minimum wage in Wisconsin matches the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.

Rhinelander District Library Director Virginia Roberts said about a third of her staff doesn’t have a living wage, with some taking second jobs.

Sheffer is one of those people. She told the Governor she worked four jobs over the summer to be able to afford a car on top of her student loans and costs of living.

“Even the thought of having kids is just completely off the table because I can't afford to feed myself, let alone… so it just all compounds,” said Sheffer.

As part of an effort to reduce some cost-of-living expenses for Wisconsinites, Evers specifically called for creating new programs to set price ceilings for prescription drugs and better oversight of drug companies in his address.

Youth mental health

Governor Evers is calling for spending $300 million to provide comprehensive mental health services in schools statewide. It was another of his announcements during his State of the State address.

“It's not just schools. It's about whether it's affordable housing, whether it's making sure that kids are safe, whether it's about gun issues,” said Evers. “We're looking at making this a holistic way of making lives better for people in Wisconsin.”

Wu is also a co-advisor for the Rainbow Hodags, the LGBT+ student club at Nicolet College

He said the group is putting a large focus on mental health this year because of the high rates of mental health issues among youth in Oneida County.

“I think that's a really awakening call that we should not neglect the mental health for the whole community,” Wu told the Governor. “I think it's a really good thing to focus on that, because that's really like the starting point, and really connect everybody together.”

Sheffer pointed out how the suicide rate among LGBTQ youth goes down significantly if they have one accepting adult in their life.

Sheffer says the library tries to be that place, but lack of public transportation in the area can be a barrier.

“We ask nothing of you. You can exist here as yourself, and they can't make it in. They can't make it to those services. That's so much of what the kids want, is they just want to be able to exist,” said Sheffer.

Roberts added, “Particularly in our books and our materials, ‘Here’s somebody who looks like you. There are other people out there in the world.’”

Mental health is one of four major health priorities in the recently updated Community Health Improvement Plan for Oneida County.

Emergency services

The last state budget included a 20% shared revenue increase to help municipalities cover increased costs, especially for fire and police services. Ahead of that budget, Evers had visited the Rhinelander Fire Department to hear about struggles they’ve been facing because of lack of funding.

The first question Evers had at the roundtable was for Fire Chief Tonnancour, “Has that made any difference?”

“Unfortunately, not. Maybe too little, too late, possibly,” Tonnancour told him.

Tonnancour said expenses are still going up. Health insurance, for example, went up 16.5%.

“For the city to be able to bite the bullet on that is very difficult when we're already, you know, counting down to zero every year,” said Tonnancour. “We're at the point where, for public safety, we're probably going to have to go to referendum to continue public safety services here, even with the shared revenue increase.”

Later in the discussions, Tonnancour brought up how the School District of Rhinelander has to go to referendums because of lack of school funding from the state.

“I don't think people realize that we fight for the tax levy money with the schools, so if the schools aren't getting funded correctly, or what they need from the state, public safety also suffers,” said Tonnancour.

Talking to reporters after the roundtable, Evers said schools going to referendum every couple of years is not sustainable.

Over the years, many administrators in districts within the Northwoods have called on legislators to change the funding formula for how money is distributed to districts.

“Would I love at some point in time to change the funding system? Yes. It's so complex, it's hard to even talk about,” said Evers. “What we can do in the meantime is get the money to the school districts in a place, whether it’s a special education or any other categorical aid, that will allow them to spend that money for kids.”

Wisconsin has a new budget every two years. The process takes several months.

The Joint Finance Committee typically hosts several budget listening sessions across the state. Dates and locations for those have not yet been announced.

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