Focus on Calumet Newsletter

Focus on Calumet

A bi-weekly update on economic development opportunities in Calumet County

and the region for businesses, entrepreneurs, and communities.

Monday, March 15, 2021

American Rescue Plan Act Offers More Business Support

The American Rescue Plan Ac t has passed the US House and Senate, and was signed into law by President Biden on March 11. In addition to financial support for households, families and schools, the legislation adds $50 billion in aid for small business through the Paycheck Protection Program, as well as grants for bars and restaurants and shuttered venues. See the business funding summary below, thanks to Inc. Magazine’s Diana Ransom, text of the Congressional bill, and the Independent Restaurant Association.

$7.25 billion more for the PPP, to be allocated by March 31, 2021. Businesses that haven’t yet taken advantage of this forgivable loan program are strongly encouraged to explore eligibility at their earliest convenience. To apply, businesses need to work with an SBA lender, which locally include State Bank of Chilton, Verve Credit Union, PayPal, and Kabbage.
$28.6 billion in restaurant revitalization grants for restaurants, airport restaurants, food stands, food trucks, food carts, caterers, saloons, inns, taverns, bars, lounges, brewpubs, tasting rooms, taprooms, or facility with an alcohol license. The grants would be equal to the difference between a business's gross receipts in 2019 and 2020. If the business has fewer than 20 locations, it can get a grant of up to $5 million per location, up to $10 million in total. About a fifth of the funds are reserved for small, independent restaurants. Interested applicants will need to be prepared to act fast; funds will be distributed in order of application receipt.
$15 billion for Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Advance Grants: Small businesses in low-income communities that have been most affected by the pandemic will be eligible for up to $10,000 each. These funds will be directed at businesses that had previously applied but received less than the qualifying amount, or no funding at all.
Extends the Employee Retention Credit: The ERC gets extended until year end. In the new bill, businesses can claim the refundable credit equal to as much as $7,000 per employee per quarter during the last half of the year.
An additional $1.25 billion for shuttered venue operators, bringing that program total to $15 billion once it goes live. The grants are available to movie theaters, museums, performance venues, and other institutions whose principal business activity is live events.

Additional information will be shared with businesses as it becomes available.

Calumet County's COVID-19 Vaccination Eligibility List Expands

Local employers are encouraged to follow updates on the Calumet County Public COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic available at the county’s website. This site is updated regularly and provides the most up-to-date information available about the public clinic. Interested parties can sign up to receive ongoing email updates from this site as well.

As of March 15, Calumet County is opening vaccinations at its Chilton vaccination clinic to an expanded list of workers including:

Public facing essential workers, including essential food supply chain workers such as grocery store employees and people who work in facilities that process and produce food; utility workers, and public transit employees
Health care supply chains and supporting businesses such as cleaning and HVAC
Congregate living facilities

While demand for the vaccine continues to exceed availability, the county is doing its best to meet the demand as greater supplies become available, and continues to coordinate with public clinics offered in neighboring communities such as Appleton. In addition to the public clinic, employers are also encouraged to have employees check with personal physicians and local pharmacies as their age and employment categories become eligible to be vaccinated.

Calumet County Offers COVID-19 Testing

Calumet County currently offers two FREE drive-thru testing sites utilizing a federal mobile testing unit operated by ThedaCare. This “self-swab” and appointment-only registration process operates

Mondays from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at Chilton High School, 530 W. Main Street, Chilton
Thursdays from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm at Christ the Rock Church Community Church, W6254 US Highway 10/114, Menasha

Anyone experiencing symptoms, those who believe they may have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, and anyone who is worried about possibly having the virus can be tested. The site is open to anyone regardless of county of residence, and testing is not limited to ThedaCare patients.

People planning to use the test site must pre-register for an appointment at https://doineedacovid19test.com/.

Charter Plans Expansion Along East Shore of Lake

Tri County News, March 11, 2021

Officials of Charter Communications, Inc. have announced plans to deliver gigabit high-speed broadband to approximately 143,000 unserved Wisconsin homes and small businesses, as estimated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The proposed area of expansion includes a large portion of Calumet County along the east shore of Lake Winnebago.

As part of this effort, more than $668 million will be invested in Wisconsin, which includes an expected private investment of at least $500 million by Charter and more than $168 million in support won by Charter in the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity (RDOF) auction. The effort is part of the company’s recently announced expected investment of approximately $5 billion—offset by $1.2 billion in RDOF support—to expand Charter’s network to what the FCC estimates to be more than 1 million homes and small businesses in lower-density, mostly rural communities across 24 states.

What Do Real Estate Trends Tell Us About the Migration Back to Cities?

By Kaley Overstreet, ArchDaily, 2/26/21

Almost one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, life is starting to feel like it might regain its sense of normalcy. With promising vaccines being slowly rolled around the globe, the focus is shifting away from the immediate, and into what the future looks like--including where people want to live.

Photo Courtesy of ASGG and Wordsearch

At the beginning of the pandemic, stories all across the media claimed that cities were dead, people were leaving as a permanent measure of safety and well-being, and that the real estate market would experience a long and slow recovery to the boom it had experienced in the pre-pandemic world. But there’s been a shift, and it’s happening fast--people are returning to cities almost as suddenly as they once left them.

Although it’s true to say that some city residents are now favoring a long-term future in suburbs where they can trade a small high-rise apartment for the sprawling space of a single-family home and a front yard, it’s yet to be determined how long this change will last. There are still too many unknowns about what our daily routines will look like, how cities might change for the better, and how the predicted future of hybrid work will impact our daily lives. There’s still a belief that the social distancing measures will remain prevalent in our society, and in cities where it’s hard to carve out your own small space at an affordable price, many people were convinced that this was the opportune time to leave.

Data collected by the Pew Research Center, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, shows that nearly one in ten young Americans moved during the pandemic for a number of reasons.

Residential Home Sale Stats Indicate Higher Median Sale Prices

The Wisconsin Realtor’s Association provides monthly data on home sales volume and median prices. Data are available on a regional basis for six regions in Wisconsin. They are also available on a monthly and quarterly basis by county.

There were 713 homes sold in Calumet County in 2020, a decline from 758 sold in 2019. Median home values have increased every year but one since the initial data was posted in 2007, topping out at $218,000 in 2020. In comparison, the median value of a home sold in Calumet County in 2007 was $151,500.

Access the WI Realtor's Association Housing Statistics

Calumet County Business Assistance

Ray York of the Small Business Development Center serves Calumet County with business assistance to existing and start-up businesses throughout the county. Small Business Development Center services are available at no cost to businesses. Ray’s goal is to provide opportunity to clients by guiding them to make informed decisions to start, expand, or transition their business. He can be reached by phone at 920-946-9379 or email.

Aging & Disability Resource Center Needs Your Input

Calumet County’s ADRC (Aging and Disability Resource Center) is working on a state-required three-year aging plan. This plan consists of goals the department creates based on the needs of the aging and disabled residents of all our local communities. Please help our ADRC by taking their survey.

Take the survey

Local Business Updates

Happy 57^th Year – Vern’s Cheese

By Nannette Jodar, Chilton Journal, March 4, 2021

Congratulations is in order for Vern’s Cheese! They have survived the peaks and valleys of life and economic situations for 57 years now!

Vern’s has grown from a truck and a rented cooler on March 1, 1964, to a gorgeous, somewhere around 10,000 square foot retail and production building which was built in 2010 on 312 W. Main Street in Chilton. Vern and Edith had been running their business and growing from this location since 1984 when they purchased the plot of land where they expanded from a warehouse in rural Chilton to an office and warehouse. Now they were able to have everything in one location.

In 1967, when Vern and Edith Knoespel purchased the small warehouse in rural Chilton, the whole family was chipping in with delivering orders, packing gift boxes during the holidays, helping customers and just whatever else needed to be done to grow the business. Which they did. In 1992, they added an addition to the office/warehouse to handle production and cheese cutting. This was a huge move forward because in the growth of Vern’s Cheese because it amplified the availability to provide more product and services. So, they kept adding more company space. The last being in 2010 with what you see today when you visit their impressive retail store.

Country Visions Corporate Transitions to Brillion

The Brillion News, March 11, 2021

Country Visions Cooperative officially moved its corporate office to Brillion earlier this week.

The purchase of the former Shopko building in Brillion a year ago has enabled Country Visions Cooperative to move on from several facilities that are aging and undersized for the current company. Several of the Cooperative’s operations are consolidating into this single location which will bring added efficiencies to the Cooperative.

The Country Store in Reedsville and the product warehousing from Whitelaw moved to Brillion in late November. The corporate office staff will be in their new home office under the same roof as the Country Store and warehousing that are already in operation.

Everything will be underneath one roof for Country Visions Cooperative. The company's long-term plan to relocate its corporate office from Reedsville to Brillion came to fruition this week. (Submitted photos)

The new office address is 1010 W. Ryan Street, Brillion, WI 54110. As of March 8, the building will be closed at the Mill Street location in Reedsville and Country Visions will not be conducting any business from that office.

“This is an exciting move for Country Visions as we design our operation to meet the needs of our customers long into the future. Rest assured, moving doesn’t change who we are and Country Visions Cooperative is here to serve your needs,” stated Steve Zutz, CEO. “If you have any questions about the new location or our services, please call us and we’ll be happy to help. Our phone numbers remain the same, 800-236-4047 or 920-754-4321, and you can continue to use the same email address to contact us or reach out directly to your contact person at the Co-op. We look forward to seeing you at our new location.”

Later this year, when the shop construction is completed on the adjoining property and the demands of the spring planting season have settled down, the Energy Division of Country Visions will be moving their operations to the Brillion location, too.

Country Visions Cooperative is a farm supply cooperative whose corporate office is now located in Brillion. Serving northeastern Wisconsin and the UP of Michigan, Country Visions offers a unique blend of agriculture and consumer related products and services. The business includes Propane, Refined Fuels, Agronomy and Grain divisions, with Convenience Stores, Country Stores, and quick food restaurants.

Upcoming Events

Contracting Assistance Programs

Did you know that the federal government buys more than $500 billion in goods and services each year--and that 23% of those dollars are intended to go to small businesses? SBA and Wisconsin's Procurement Technical Assistance Center, the Wisconsin Procurement Institute, can help your businesses get certified to sell to the government. During March, SBA staff are speaking at two trainings with WPI.

Acquisition Hour: The HUBZone Program –

Certification Benefits and Regulations - March 16, 1:00 pm
Moving the Northwest Wisconsin Advantage Forward - March 25, noon

SBA's Contracting Guide and Assistance Programs

Digital Readiness Series

Small and medium sized businesses are encouraged to take advantage of a free four-part Digital Readiness Series designed to help small and medium-sized business owners develop the skills needed to succeed online. The series aims to help small and medium-sized businesses owners:

Get found online: Get your business online and improve your digital presence.
Reach more customers: Connect with more customers in more places.
Sell online: Make it easy for customers to shop with you on your website.
Work remotely: Run your business from anywhere.

WWBIC is Here for You!

WWBIC offers classes statewide for new entrepreneurs, seasoned business owners, and anyone looking to improve their financial health.

One-hour, online classes, held in English and Spanish, are available in the following categories:

Starting a business
Managing a business
Growing a business
Financial capabilities

View the program offerings catalog, and sign up today!

It can be in times of crisis that new opportunities arise. Companies will emerge stronger from the current economic downturn if they take steps now to pursue opportunities and new ways of doing business—and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) is here to support them. To help Wisconsin companies make connections in Canada, WEDC is organizing a virtual Global Trade Venture from March 22-26, 2021.

To adapt to the pandemic, WEDC has converted its Global Trade Ventures into a virtual format that consists of online meetings between Wisconsin companies and potential customers, distributors and other prospective partners in international markets. After learning about your company and products, WEDC’s in-country trade representatives will bring potential partners and distributors to you. All participants need to do is show up ready to make their pitch and ask questions to determine if the potential partner is a good fit.

For more information or to register

This trade mission will focus on water technology and water management systems.

For more information or to register

Explore Starting a Business

April 14, 2021

May 12, 2021

Details | Register

Work for Yourself at 50+

April 7, 2021

May 10, 2021

Details | Register

Innovation Accelerator for Veterans

Grant Funded Program!

Starts March 16, 2021

Learn more | Apply now

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