Around the Corner with John McGivern

(upbeat music) We are in the county seat in the largest city in Rock County, this is Janesville. (upbeat theme song) -

All

Hey! So we're in Janesville and John Gurda asked me to meet him on the the Rock River. You're walking your bike John Gurda, why's that? -

John G.

High water, no biking today. Yeah. I love that we're on the Rock River 'cause we have seen this stream before, haven't we? This is actually the seventh city we've visted on the Rock. From Mayville way upstream down to Beloit on the state line, we saved the biggest for last. Janesville began on the same river as all the others for the same reasons, but it developed its own story. -

John M.

How so? -

John G.

To begin with, it started as three rival settlements who tried hard to put each other out of business. On this side you had Wisconsin City, a bit north you had Rockport, and across on the East bank you had Janesville. You know who won. 1837 a guy named Henry Janes arrives here and within a couple years he had opened a tavern, started a ferry, right where the crane is right upstream, and got himself appointed postmaster. So that was enough to dry up his rivals and that's why we're in Janesville today. -

John M.

What made Janesville prosper? -

John G.

Water power. -

John M.

Of course. -

John G.

You see it today. There were two dams across the rocks, and by 1860 they powered a saw mill, two woolen mills, and ten flour mills. Farmers came from miles around to have their wheat ground into flour and they stayed to shop at local stores, so Janesville became an important farm trading center. It also developed some important farm based industries. At one time there was a plant here that made 12,000 bushels of pickles every year. -

John M.

Yikes! -

John G.

Another one made half a million buckles for horse harnesses. But you also had companies that made farm based machinery and the most important by far was a tractor plant started by General Motors back in 1919. -

John M.

Tractor? -

John G.

Tractor. -

John M.

I thought GM was all about cars. -

John G.

Not early on but you're right. They switched from tractors to car production in 1922 and that probably is the biggest thing that ever happened to Janesville. Before long, GM employed about half of the industrial workers in town. And those who didn't work at GM probably worked for Parker Pen which began back in 1888 and before long had the largest fountain pen factory in the entire world. But that GM plant, just downstream here, it's hard to exaggerate its importance. At one point that had nearly half a million square feet of floor space and employed 7000 workers. -

John M.

7000. -

John G.

Almost a Detroit. So as a result, Janesville prospered, especially after World War 2. Between 1950 and 1970 the city's population just about doubled. -

John M.

But GM didn't last. -

John G.

No, like a lot of plants they closed back in 2008 and took about 5000 good jobs with it. A little later, 2010, Parker Pen closed for good. But if there is one town in Wisconsin that has a can-do spirit, it's Janesville. In the last ten years Janesville has shown more growth in both income and jobs than the state as a whole. You have new plans for the GM redevelopment site, look at downtown, it's all cranes. -

John M.

Yeah, yeah. -

John G.

Whole lot of energy downtown. -

John M.

There sure is. Uh, population? -

John G.

About 64,000 - Okay Which is an all-time high. And, uh, the location? -

John G.

Janesville is in South Central Wisconsin about 35 miles Southeast of Madison, and a dozen miles North of the Illinois line. And are you going to get some biking in? Not today, but they call themselves Wisconsin Park Place and there's some really nice trails, right along the river here - when it's low! -

John M.

Thanks, John! -

John G.

See ya, John. There is a brand new community gathering place in Downtown Janesville it's called Town Square. You know how I know it's called Town Square? 'Cause there's 83 signs all over saying "Welcome to Town Square!" They're branding it, it's brand new. Just hatched. It's not a duck, it's not a chicken, this is a pheasant. I'm not your mom. no. -

Ryan

We're the largest pheasant producer in North America. -

John

See I think that's very cool. -

Ryan

It is cool. -

John

And here in Janesville, how long has this business been here? 1929. Bill MacFarlane's uncle actually started raising pheasants and then convinced his brother, Dom MacFarlane, Bill's dad, to help him with pheasants as well and so they both kinda were raising pheasants together then they combined. We have 210 acres of these pens. We have about 85 employees. What's in this lane right now is 800 birds. These birds are about 26 weeks old. These birds are getting crated up and they are going to go to Alberta, and then they are going to get released into the wild to stock their public lands. Some years up to 30,000 eggs a day we've been picking up and setting in the incubators. Where are they hatched? How does it work? And who gets in here? -

Ryan

Nobody gets to come in here. See I told you, we'd get in. -

Ryan

This is the incubator room. -

John

How many are being incubated as we speak? -

Ryan

There's 12 incubators and they hold over 21000 eggs each. So what's important as far as incubating eggs? Is it temperature? Temperature, humidity, we can collect eggs for several weeks, hold them at 50 degrees, put them all in here in the same day, they'll hatch in the same day. So the eggs get dumped into these boxes and this is where they hatch. -

Employee

They hatched about 12 hours ago. All the fertile eggs that get transferred into the hatching baskets, 91% of them will actually hatch out. -

Ryan

A lot of times when it arrives to the customer, it's one day old. Oh they're sure cute, aren't they? We are at the armory, this is Chris Ramos. Yes. -

John

With Best Events Catering. -

Chris

We're a division of Kandu Industries here in Janesville. Kandu Industries is a sheltered workshop for developmentally disabled adults. Everything we do at Best Events goes back towards the Kandu mission. We do everything from weddings to corporate groups to fundraisers, and we have three properties that we manage as banquet halls and event sites, the armory being one of them. It was a long history here of the National Guard, the Wisconsin National Guard. And then we have our plaque here for the Janesville 99. And that these people walked the floors that we're walking today. Right, yeah. We're very proud to actually keep this as a historical landmark in Downtown Janesville. We do about 3000 events a year and our staff swells between 80 to 100 employees. This is our second annual Around the Corner with John McGivern bus tour. Our people who came on this tour, which is two full buses, are coming to have dinner here. -

Ryan

So we split today's event in two, half of it is going to be sit-down dinner. They'll move over and actually John you'll be giving your discussion here I love that it's a discussion! And that's where we spent our two weeks of vacation. -

Ryan

Everyone nowadays is looking for something that's totally unique so we rarely get a customer who says "I wanna do the same thing that I did last week." I realized that I didn't like it! (laughter) With the bar and the event space and the kitchen and outdoor patio, it's just a really nice little spot. We're a creative company, we're full of creative people. It's gotta be exciting and terrifying at the same breath. Well yes, yes. - Always gotta be different. -

All

We love PBS! (cheering) -

Ryan

We always say you're only as good as your last event. So Town Square in Downtown Janesville has a great slogan. Engage, Explore, Enjoy- (rewind) Oh, okay. Engage, Explore, Enjoy- (rewind) How many times am I supposed to repeat that? So it's the Wisconsin Wagon Company. -

Britten

We always say that we're building something that is gonna be a family heirloom. -

John

These are very solid, beautiful pieces. Talk about the history of this wagon. It actually started off Janesville Products Company. They made all sorts of what they called sidewalk toys. This is our coaster wagon which is the original wagon that we started building. What are the skills that it takes to make this place operate? We put it in here Barney, he really specializes in the assembly of them. I'll just have you take the drill and drill two holes. (drill whirs) It's really labor intensive. (drill whirs) Stick this down in here. We've had wagons that we built that while I'm assembling the wagons. You gotta drill again. (drill whirs) Grandpa and Grandma will come in and use a felt marker and mark on the bottom, you know? That hole has to be lined up with this hole. There its in there and I see the hole. (drill whirs) To so-and-so, on such and such a date. Okay, now we're doing this guy? (drill whirs) Is it a wagon yet? (laughter) This is a toddler you're making here. Oh my lord. -

Britten

Bob really specializes in the finishing. Time consuming. You know this board can be touched 10 or 12 or 15 times before it ever gets assembled into a wagon. Would you let me do something? Oh, yeah you could do the whole cart if you wanted. (laughter) I wouldn't mind it one bit That whole edge, top to bottom, both ends, tada! One done! Yeah good. Doesn't get shoved into a machine and made by a machine, it's all hand-built, hand-cut, hand-finished, and hand-assembled so. -

Britten

Built with pride to be owned with pride, you know, to have for generations to come. = Yeah, did the whole thing, didn't I Barney? Yeah, isn't this beautiful? Yeah, you're welcome. Janesville has an incredibly gorgeous historic neighborhood. It's called Courthouse Hill. It's on the East side of the river, it's over 30 square blocks and over 219 homes. Historic homes makes this beautiful neighborhood. They don't build them like this anymore. -

Nathan

What I think was really cool that Janesville did looked at a building that wasn't gonna be activated anymore, found a way to reactivate it. That is one of the many things of this space that are original that we wanted to keep. I don't know of this place as anything really other than a performing arts center because I never went to school here. But I know lots of people that did. We'll have people who are 25 to 95 in our audience now. It's a great repurpose and if you look at like, the building as a whole, they stayed true to that. So when you come in it looks like something that you would have seen in the 1920's. (bell rings) It looks just like a school, look at this. All of the lockers are still here, the room numbers are on the apartment doors. This looks like a school but it's now a place of residence. And you've been here how long? 17 years. In a classroom that used to be what? -

Louise

The home ec room. Of course. We've never seen a model like this. Oh well it's wonderful because it's all new, but it's old. Many of the apartments have blackboards. -

John

B gym, is that boys gym? As you walk down the hallway, there is red circles and free throw lines. They kept the floors? - Yes! Wow, look at this! I have friends over in the old gymnasium who have apartments on 3 levels that are very interesting. And it used to be the gym? - Yes! -

Nathan

Somebody loved this, somebody cherished this. This was what they were proud of and that's why it's important that you just don't tear buildings like that down. You keep all the memories that everybody has in the community and then you create new ones. We provide entertainment for the residents who live here, we provide entertainment for the community. It's designed for somebody to come in and have an intimate experience but at the same time, you know maximize the amount of opportunity that we have to impact people in the community. If you look at what we've been able to accomplish since we opened 15 years ago, you know, we impact nearly 30,000 people a year through the arts. This place exists because of the people that love it. (sirens wailing) At first glance, I thought it was an ambulance, but it's not, it's the Bookmobile. I have an emergency, I need a good read. (light upbeat music) -

Bekki

We wanted to be a place that people could come and connect in the community. You really need a heart of the city, where people can come and bring kids and different generations. -

John

There's a great symbiotic relationship between these three places. -

Bekki

Absolutely. And the fact that there are three that as I said are one, it makes so much sense. So I love it that they're interconnected because you really can explore no matter what the weather is. So this is Bodacious Olive and this is a tasting room. -

Kris

This is a Chiquitita. -

John

All olive oil does not taste the same. -

Kris

Exactly. Olive oil, the flavor is gonna come from the type of olive crushed and then where it's grown in the world. So it should be light, it shouldn't feel like heavy or coating. - It's not. -

Kris

Different olives some will be stronger some will be milder. -

Bekki

The Bodacious Brew which actually is coffee at night, it's handcrafted, trying to make it be a place where you can just come and hang out. So we use all of the oils and vinegars in our cooking in the brew, and then we also have a So Chopped which is a salad bistro. It's all fresh prep so I think the lovely thing is to be able to get things that are fresh and you can customize it. Aged pure maple balsamic. And then our dressings are made using the oils and vinegar. So that's it for the dressing. Which we just got it right out of the shop. Right. -

John

And the fourth space? Which is not connected. -

Bekki

Right, is a cupcake shop. -

John

Because? -

Bekki

Well it makes good sense, yes. You need some desert. -

John

You better! -

Bekki

Right, right. We really wanted to highlight the water. -

John

So you can extend through the fall, yes? Right, we will have like the music here, and this is filled. The more businesses that we can get downtown to give people more reasons to come and explore, the better we'll all be. Look at this! It's a ton of fun being downtown. This is the new GM Legacy Center. It used to be a bank, look at what they're doing to the building. They're pulling off all of this concrete cladding. Why would people put that on that building in the first place, that's what I wanna know. -

Mark

Actually this is the site of an old sand and gravel pit. So you flash back a hundred years ago, they were mining sand and gravel. They hit natural springs and this filled up with water back in the early 1900's. -

John

So these gardens were built around these bodies of water? -

Mark

Correct. We have about 100,000 visitors a year And what it started as is a brainchild of our founder Dr. Robert Yahr. But he walked this site and had the vision for this internationally themed botanic garden. And it snowballed and it continues to snowball in terms of development, support, and visitation as well. -

John

What's it take, staff wise, to do this? Volunteer wise, how many do you have? So the ground staff is quite small, it's a skeleton crew, literally, of only 6 others. And they're mostly seasonals and we infill with literally hundreds of volunteers. It's so much fun to share what you know about those with the public. If you're giving a tour, what's something that you don't want them to miss here? Point out that we're gonna talk a little bit about the history of the garden, the amazing history. When Dr. Yahr walked this 20 acres- Some eyebrow raising factoids. And they used to use these moreso in the ship building industry. Some of the physical features of the garden. -

John

We're going to the Crooked Bridge? -

Art

The Crooked Bridge! And some of horticulture therapy, and I kinda mix that all up. They're called the plants of the world. And I bet you learn something everyday, don't you? I do, I come down here and I will see something that I hadn't really noticed before from a different angle or something like that. And I say "Oh! Like I got ya!" Over the 20 acres, there's actually 26 distinct garden themes, do you change them up at all? -

Mark

The primary themes, the types of gardens stay the same but the content will change in many of them. So 40% of the gardens every year is entirely different. Touch and smell please. -

Mark

We had to let people know that they can engage with these plants. It's like a citrus mint is what that is. It's the orange scented geranium. -

Mark

We've had three weddings in three different gardens in a day so nine weddings is our capacity. We're accommodating a lot of different activities here, all in the interest of supporting the operational income of the gardens itself. We had a tagline where we said we we're a community garden good enough to show the world, and I think what we are now is a world-class garden that expands beyond our community. This is Janesville's Veterans Memorial which pays tribute to those that gave the ultimate sacrifice. And the medal of honor walkway which pays tribute to the individuals from this community that went beyond call of duty. Janesville's Veterans Memorial, a place of honor here in Janesville. (whistle) So Michael we're at Craig High School in Janesville. It's home of the Cougars! It is. Yeah, what are we talking? We could be talking baseball, they got a really good baseball program, John. But I wanna talk girl's cross country and for a number of reasons. One, it's successful program, they're very good. All the way though, all the way through. Jessica Laughton is their coach, and Jessica ran here at Craig, and she had a great experience as a runner here at Craig, and always wanted to come home and coach here. She's been coaching here 11 years. Here we go ladies! -

Mike

And when you ask "why the success?" she said "look a couple of things. One, we have a lot of fun and its a co-ed team, so we train together 9th grade through 12th. We talk about how good runners were in the past, and we show them records." We publish a post-season book for the students to just see what their part of history is every year and some of them scour that, try to figure out where their place in history can be. -

John

How many kids at the school? -

Mike

About 1,700 so they're division 1. -

John

Do they have any star runners on this team? Mike] Yeah these five seniors all have done really well and got a chance to excel at state. So it's not just about running, it's not just about winning, not just about cross country to her, it's about life and it's really good. It's Craig High School, Janesville Wisconsin, home of the Cougars. -

John

Thanks Mike. -

Mike

Thanks John. I guess Janesville wants you to be healthy. This is the Janesville Fitness Court, it's free and open to the public in Downtown Janesville. It's got 30 pieces of fitness equipment and a shock resistant floor. So there is no excuse not to be healthy in Janesville, except I didn't wear my tennis shoes! One excuse. -

Tim

We are in the 1996 edition to the Hellen Jefris Wood museum center. This is where the historical society's home base is. -

John

In this building as well is the permanent collection of Parker Pen? -

Tim

Yes. Which is such a deep, rich history of the story of Janesville. It was a tradition to get a Parker Pen for graduating from high school, when it was kind of your initiation to college. Mine kind of looked like this one, the green and silver. If it was my dad shopping for it was probably the cheapest Parker Pen that they had. The collection that we have out is only a portion of it 'cause we have so many things that we could be showing. This is where it starts and begins to tell the story of the Pickard china. We have over 800 pieces and that is rooted in Rock County, through the Pauline Pottery Company. -

John

It's so rich, isn't it? -

Tim

Yeah, especially having as many pieces from the same collection together, that is just rare in and of itself, so that adds to the value of it. This is so worth the visit here, alone. Mhm. We have a tour called Help Wanted, where you arrive as it's your first day as a servant on the job. We're the help today, we're doing the Help Wanted Tour. So actually, we don't get to go in the front door, we're going to be going in the back door because today, we've got a house to clean. So the large, mansion-looking home on the corner is the Tallman's home. -

Todd

Yes. -

John

And they gave this to the city as long as the city -

Todd

Operates it as a historic home museum. We gotta go straighten up the bedroom and get that ready for the day. Okay I'm ready. The Tallmans were very very emphatic that not only did it need to be a house museum but it needed to be called the Lincoln-Tallman house, to keep the story alive. -

John

And what was Lincoln doing here? So Mr. Lincoln came to stay here in 1859, actually ended up staying for two nights. He was campaigning and he was down in Beloit and Mr. Tallman was a big follower of him on the campaign trail, went down there and urged him to come up and stay the night and have dinner and stay over. Why don't we make the bed I'll help you out with that. This is their original bed, that was here at the time of Mr. And Mrs. Tallman. Yikes. This goes down? This'll actually go into the closet here if you'd like to put it down here, that's where our scullery maid will pick it up from. -

Tim

And it's an immersive tour. Do we have a vacuum cleaner? Now one of our next jobs is we've gotta empty out the chamber pots. This one's yours? The chamber pot would be in their room if you had to use the restroom in the middle of the night, and then the servants would come by in the morning, grab those pots, and empty them out. -

John

Oh, Lord Mrs. Tallman. We can keep the cover on, yes? -

Todd

We can keep the cover on. Jamesville is home to a national champion water ski show team. The name is the Rock Aqua Jays. Interesting thing is that they don't ski on a lake. They ski on the Rock River. We're here in October and if they were skiing today, the water is so high that they could ski right into the stands. Yeah, that would be cool! -

Richard

We were committed to finding something downtown. -

John

Can I ask why Lark? -

Richard

It is a multidimensional name because people are happy as larks, trying new food would be going out on a lark, we love bird imagery, I like it 'cause the name is short and so the sign's are cheaper. (laughter) -

John

This is your first restaurant? We did desk jobs for a long time, that you know, they were good jobs. But we love this. Richard is the foodie, I'm a cocktail nerd. Every few months we get together at her house and we break out about 50 bottles of booze, all kinds of different syrups that we create and make on our own, and we have a play day. Some simple syrup, another half ounce. (shaking) -

Bartender

Would you have a taste? Oh, it's wonderful. Come on in John. Welcome to the kitchen. -

John

Is there an influence here, do you think? Honestly, not a single one, no because it's really about what people will enjoy. -

Joan

New American is a lovely label for cuisine which basically means you cook anything you like. -

Richard

There are a couple favorites that have been out from the beginning and will never go away. Brussel sprouts, they're the single best-selling item on the menu. -

John

There's a crispness to them that go through the whole thing which is great. -

Richard

Now this is macaroni and cheese with kimchi, and then Korean fried chicken. There's a little bit of a heat there that says hello! People love you and they love the fact that you're down here. You're really filling a need in this community. -

Joan

Thank you. -

Richard

Thank you so much. -

John

Congratulations. -

Scott

This is our sixth generation, we've only been on this farm though since 1912. Prior to that we were- -

John

This is the new one? -

Scott

This is the new one. -

John

Apple Cannon, there it is. Alright so there's your apples, come on over we'll show you how it works. Whenever you're ready, fire away. We used to shoot pumpkins and apples explode a lot more so they're a lot more fun. (Cannon firing) (laughter) It's a lot different than when we were a dairy farm, it's a different type of farming, but it's something we love. We've been doing this for 22 years now. I started designing our mazes here when I was 9. -

John

No you didn't. -

Scott

I did, yeah! We were actually, that was back in 1998, we were one of the first farms in the country to have corn mazes. So that's one right there. Pretty much all the corn you're seeing out here is covering the two mazes. Once the corn about knee high, we come through and cut the mazes. -

John

And its GPS, isn't it? -

Scott

It's kind of like a video game, you basically see a map of the maze, and you keep your dot on the line as you drive through, and cut the paths. I think this is the best place to start. -

Scott

It's about a little over a mile, if you don't make any wrong turns. But there's about two miles of trails in here. So on your smartphone you can pull up and see right where you are in the maze as you go through. So if you're the type of person that doesn't feel real confident about mazes, it's going to help you out along the way and you don't have to worry about getting lost. Dead end. Story of my life! And will they get lost? -

Scott

Oh, definitely of course. -

John

And then what? -

Scott

We eventually find them, we pick the corn in November so by that point we've never had anybody lost after that. -

John

How many people will be in there? -

Scott

My wife Laura is our bakery and manages a lot of our retail. Apple cider and pumpkin donuts that's what fall is all about. They're really pretty, too, aren't they? They are, yes. I had no idea that cake doughnuts existed until I started here. They mix it here and then we bring it over to the fryer here. You just dump the batter in, you hook this baby up, and you turn on the machine and it's all automatic. Mmm. They're delicious aren't they, though? This isn't open all year is it? -

Laura

June through October, so June through Halloween. -

John

This is quite an operation, too. -

Laura

It is, yeah. -

John

And a lot of work! -

Laura

It is a lot of work, yes. -

John

There's a lot of work. -

Laura

I say that we sleep in November. -

Scott

It's really cool, it's different than what you see almost anywhere else. 12 years after the closing of the GM plant, the energy and heartbeat of Janesville is beating stronger than ever. You have a job right now. I do, yeah! You have thirty seconds to tell us why Janesville, Wisconsin is the best place in the world to work, live, and play. And city manager Mark you can start right now. Yeah, well first and foremost, Janesville is Wisconsin's park place. So we have 65 parks, 2,600 acres dedicated to green space, open space park land. And so if you want to enjoy the outdoors you can do it right here in Janesville. The second thing is that this is the community of choice. To realize life's opportunities, so it used to be a GM town, we're not a GM town anymore. The city is prospering, it's growing, there are more things to do whether it's manufacturing, distribution, and you know whatever we want to make this as we continue- -

John

No its perfect, you're good! This is so pathetic, I'll try it later. Help me! I'm jet lagged, I just came back from Europe on Monday, no, Friday! So John it's been so great to explore Janesville in the fall. It certainly has John and it would not have been possible without our underwriters. Underwriters, thank you. -

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