Whitewater’s residents may have recently read (just yesterday) a City of Whitewater press release about a Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) designation for the city’s thirty-five empty acres of tech park land.
I’ve reproduced the release in full at the bottom of this post. A few key points:
1. The simplest condition for a “shovel ready” site is a vacant lot. Whitewater has (at least) thirty-five acres of vacant lot space. The city doesn’t need a ‘certified in Wisconsin’ designation to meet that condition; she only needs lots of empty space.
2. Millions upon millions of state money for businesses in this city, over so many years, and still here we are with another I-feel-it-this-time program.
3. The announcement is old news. The WEDC announced this program on December 15th, and a story about it ran in a local paper on December 16th. If this news were really so important, the municipal government wouldn’t have waited 75 days from the WEDC announcement date. (One should be fair: conservatively, it’s only been 74 days from the newspaper story.)
4. Now that the city’s raised the subject, how has Whitewater performed with the many grants and loans she’s already distributed, all these many years? Before actual performance, has the city been in compliance with even the weak standards the state has imposed on these programs?
There must be some way to determine that: what’s a five-letter word for an official inspection of an individual’s or organization’s accounts?
(If Whitewater ever came across something like that, surely they’d let the community know in full, promptly, as these are publicly-paid officials, extending publicly-funded grants and loans, and they’ve a publicly-fund funded website on which they could post that information.)
5. Where are those other “elite” locations the City of Whitewater press release mentions? Here they are: Beaver Dam, Beloit, Chippewa Falls, DeForest, Fitchburg, Green Bay, Howard, Janesville, Menomonie, Prescott, Stevens Point, Verona, West Bend, Westport and Wisconsin Rapids.
All black-tie locations, I’m sure.
6. Why is it so hard to speak in simple language (without describing everything in grandiose terms)? Whitewater has a high school and a university – is there no one in all the city who can teach officials to speak or write plainly?
City of Whitewater press release follows:
A Whitewater Site Joins the Elite List of Certified in Wisconsin Locations
Whitewater, Wis. February 28th, 2017 – The Whitewater University Technology Park joins 15 other locations statewide as a Certified in Wisconsin® site, allowing businesses and developers to have many questions answered and possible delays prevented prior to purchasing land for their growing companies.
The Certified in Wisconsin Program, offered in partnership by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) and Deloitte Consulting was created in 2012 in hopes to make the process easier in purchasing industrial “shovel ready” properties, 20 acres or larger in the state of Wisconsin. It has since seen 17 development projects completed or underway on 10 of the 16 sites, expecting to create more than 1,600 jobs and generate more than $315 million in capital investment when completed.
A site classified as Certified answers a wide range of concerns such as utility and infrastructure capacity, zoning property rights, environmental and geological factors, transportation access, and that the site is ready for industrial development. This information is already compiled and confirmed, allowing the decision process to be easier and less stressful for those in the market to build on a timeline.
The 35-acre site in Whitewater is located less than one mile from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. The new park will help to cultivate successful businesses and research by collaborating closely with UW-Whitewater and the City, serving as a foundation for a diversified and robust regional economy.
Lt. Governor, Rebecca Kleefisch and UW-W Chancellor Beverly Kopper have both spoken on behalf of the new site and discussed the positive opportunities that a partnership may burgeon between the university and the newly certified Whitewater University Technology Park.
“I know that property managers searching for industrial land want to minimize their risks,” says Whitewater Community Development Authority Chairman, Jeffery Knight. “They can be assured that when they look at Whitewater there is certainty, and what they get is the best the state has to offer”.
Whitewater will also have an ad in the Site Selection Magazine with details about the site and be included in the state database which allows site selectors to search for desired sites that meet their criteria in a fast and simple fashion.
To learn more about the Whitewater University Technology Park and other “shovel-ready” Wisconsin destinations, visit www.inwisconsin.com.
Via http://www.whitewater-wi.gov/residents/recent-news/3265-a-whitewater-site-joins-the-elite-list-of-certified-in-wisconsin-locations.