Around the Corner with John McGivern

sy listening music) I am in the southern-most part of Milwaukee County. This is the city of Oak Creek. (light bouncy music) I'm in Oak Creek at Bender Park. We're at the boathouse and John said to meet him at the end of the pier. John's at the end of the pier. Hey John. Hi John. I thought we'd start on Oak Creek's east side and you can't get more east than this. Ha ha ha. - This is really east, isn't it? - Yeah. Why are we here? Because Oak Creek's story is very different from other places we've been. In most towns we've visited it's usually a dam or a harbor or a railroad that got things started. You've heard all those stories. Sure. - In Oak Creek it's a power plant. Right there. - That one there, yep. And it looks brand new to me. It's pretty new. What I'm talking about is Oak Creek in it's modern form. In the early years this was a rural township like so many others in Wisconsin. Mostly German, mostly farmers and the only settlements here were just the tiny crossroad trading centers. The biggest was up in the northeast corner and that split off on it's own in 1892 with South Milwaukee and it became a very important industrial suburb. Everything else around was farmland. And how did Oak Creek become it's own city? That's where the power plant comes in. Okay. - Back in 1950, what's now We Energies announced plans to build, what was then, it's biggest plant ever, right here on the lake shore in Oak Creek. And back in those years, most of a power plant's tax dollars went straight to the community it was in. And that might have been Milwaukee. Milwaukee was growing in this direction, and they showed some interest in annexing the entire town. The only defense the town board had was to incorporate themselves, and also to keep those tax dollars. The trouble was Oak Creek was so rural, it couldn't begin to qualify, as even a fourth class city. So what did they do? They asked a very rural-friendly state legislature to change the laws and after some smart legal advice, and a lot of lobbying, that's just what happened. In 1955, the state adopted new incorporation standards that pretty much fit Oak Creek like a glove. So the town became a city, and that law's been known ever since as the Oak Creek Law. Okay. - And a lot of rural areas have used that to become cities and villages. And Oak Creek got to keep the power plant. They got to keep it, and taxes from that plant pretty much funded the city's operations for years. And suburbanites were coming here anyway, but the fact that you had low taxes here was certainly an added attraction. They changed the law to put that money in the general fund, but Oak Creek kept on growing. All residential? Pretty much, but there was some commercial development along Howell Avenue and just like South Milwaukee kinda did to the north, they attracted industries as well. By far the largest was AC Spark Plug Sure. - which opened in 1957 on Howell Avenue. High tech. Besides automotive components, they made guidance systems for ballistic missiles as well as the space program. 7,000 people in that plant at one time. I was one of those 7,000. - You were? What was your job? I worked catalytic converter line, I put washers on bolts. Really? - I lasted about four and half months, - Ha ha ha. and I was like, "I can't do this anymore." But I did work there. And AC Spark Plug, is it still there? No they're gone. They closed back in 2008, but there's new life in that old site. Oak Creek never really had a downtown. Now there's one emerging called Drexel Town Square, right on the site of your old employer. A very impressive mix of commerce and housing, and civic buildings and green space. So after all these years, Oak Creek finally has a center. It's great isn't it? - Yup. Yeah, population? About 35,000 and still growing. And boundaries? They're big, aren't they? They're very big. - Yeah It's pretty much the southeast corner of Milwaukee County. Oak Creek runs right here at Lake Michigan to 27th Street and from the Racine County Line up to South Milwaukee and College Avenue. Well, I would like to see you continue biking east. Ha ha ha. - Try it, let me see how far you can get. I'm pointed west, John, - Ha ha ha. I'm goin' with that. Thanks John. See ya. (playful music) Talk about a company that everybody knows

in southeastern Wisconsin

The Master Lock Company. Now as a kid, we used to travel up North Avenue to see my grandma, and we saw their building. It was so cool, and I was like, "What are they doing in Oak Creek? So I looked it up. They moved their headquarters to Oak Creek 15 years ago. Here they are, Master Lock, in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Who knew? We're at GO Riteway Transportation. Can you talk a little history for us? Yeah, my grandparents started our company in Germantown with four school buses in 1957. Germantown High School was just getting started, and my grandfather was an entrepreneur and he figured that those kids had to get to schools somehow and so he decided to hire some farmer friends, buy some buses, and take 'em to school. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

So four buses, and how many buses today? I've got 1,200 units total. 1,200 units? - Units on the road daily. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

How many people in an average week, or month, or year, however you wanna talk about it, do you help or transport? This is deluxe. -

Wendy

in southeastern Wisconsin

Oh thousands, tens of thousands, within a week. Between the school children and all the commercial services. We have 32 motor-coaches, 11 mini-coaches, black cars, sedans and transit vehicles. This is our executive bus. TV, restroom, AV equipment. We have a bar. - Sure. It's travelers, it's conventions, it's school groups. A lot of school groups. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

You provide not only the actual vehicle, but the- -

Wendy

in southeastern Wisconsin

We do the driver, we do the vehicle, we do all the planning, the route construction, the safety, evaluation of the parking lot, Yeah. - and the roads where we're gonna be driving. It's the experience, -_ Sure. - It's not only being with friends, or co-workers or family, it's the experience that you're going to have with them on the way to wherever you're going. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

What is this? -

Driver

in southeastern Wisconsin

This is the 12 passenger executive van. The height is nice, isn't it? - Yeah, yeah. This is what weddings typically go to, because they can stand up in it, the girls' dresses, they don't typically have to get into a seat - Oh right. that's cramped like a limo. The sound system is fantastic. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

I saw, as we drove up, that you're hiring. Ha ha ha. -

Wendy

in southeastern Wisconsin

Hey if you want me to put you in a black car, I could probably get you goin' next week. Really? - Yeah. (funky music) - You wanna show how it's done? - Sure. Push really hard. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

This place is huge, and you just started here? -

Jeff

in southeastern Wisconsin

No, no, started it many years ago in the basement. This building's about 100,000 square feet. Yeah. - Moved here in 2015. Is there a minimum. I'm thinking, I wanted three t-shirts. - Oh yeah, we do that. You do that? - Absolutely. But that's not typical? - No it is. Yeah. - It is? -

Jeff

in southeastern Wisconsin

We have a one-piece minimum. We'll do one piece or we'll do a million pieces. And it's kinda what's caused the growth too, because the customer wants to have a 12-color print and they want 10,000 by Tuesday, I wanna be able to say yes, and we can do that. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

And who's typical customer-wise? It's all across the board. - Is it? -

Jeff

in southeastern Wisconsin

It's local businesses, it's large marketing firms. It's internet e-commerce sales. It's all over the place. Not just t-shirts, - Yeah. We mainly, it's the bulk of what we do. Sure. - We also do hats, embroidery, we do offer stickers and patches, skateboard, which we don't do a lot of (chuckling) honestly. - But you do some. But we can do it, yeah. - Yeah. -

Jeff

in southeastern Wisconsin

Like I mentioned before, if we can figure out how to get a screen on it and print it, we'll give it a try. Screen printing's been around for a very long time. It's really, I mean even though we have automatic equipment, it's still kind of a manual process of, you have a stencil and you're pushing ink through that screen onto the shirt. It's been the same concept for hundreds if not thousands of years. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

How many pieces a year? - Sure, sure. I believe last year, we did about, I'm gonna say about six and half million. Then you got the folding machines. We probably do between 10 to 20 thousand units a day. This is so brilliant, I love it. Whoops, Oh. (John apologizing and laughing) How many people work here on a daily basis? -

Jeff

in southeastern Wisconsin

About 75 right now. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

So this is an automatic puller? Yeah, we don't have this on all machines but we do for machines that are doing really high volume. He's probably running about 750 shirts an hour right now. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

How fast can you be at this thing? -

Worker

in southeastern Wisconsin

Hundred an hour. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

Hundred an Hour? Wow, people will want these t-shirts once they see 'em. I'm tellin' 'ya. (easy listening music) This isn't your initial home. -

Jodi

in southeastern Wisconsin

This company started in 1887 in Milwaukee Nice. - by seven Eder brothers. They started making rag dolls, canvas bags and felt pennants. It moved in the '70s, in the late '70s. And now it's just flags right? No. - No, what else? We do everything. We're a one-stop shop. So we have flags, flag poles, and all the accessories that go along with it. - Okay. This is where our flagpole production is. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

Wow, have flags changed much? They're very traditional. - They are. -

Jodi

in southeastern Wisconsin

So there will be designs that change. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

What is that? -

Jodi

in southeastern Wisconsin

The Virgin Islands. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

Oh it is? -

Jodi

in southeastern Wisconsin

There will be countries and states that change their design along the way. But basically we sell a very traditional product. Yeah. - We're making a special flag right over here. - What the, what? Come on! (playful music) - And we also make custom aplique flags. And each of these are individual. Yes, yes they are individually cut and sewn. We can design all of those types of flags. And over 93% of our components are made in USA. That's great. - Our US flags are made in USA from USA made component parts and USA labor. That's great. - Yeah. So they're taking all of those twists and turns on every star. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

Yikes. -

Jodi

in southeastern Wisconsin

50 times. This is the end of the prep. This area is only used for folding, so it stays very clean. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

That's really what you do most of? Mostly US flags, - Yeah. -

Jodi

in southeastern Wisconsin

so about five million per year, give or take. This is all hand-produced, and that's the most exciting part of our business. I guarantee that you're going to drive away from here, and you're going to start noticing the flags that you see. (playful music) - Hey dog lovers, you're gonna love this. You know where we're at. Runway Dog Park. 26 acres, it's Milwaukee's largest dog park. Fenced-in area, off-leash dogs. They have a smaller area, for guess what? Smaller dogs. It's really smart. And trails, and they've got picnic tables and water for these dogs. And you know why it's called Runway? If you stood here for four minutes you'd realize. Here comes a plane, (airplane flying overhead) 'cause the airport's right there. This is kind of amazing what's happened here isn't it? Really transformational, yeah. - Yeah. As little as four years ago there wasn't a single building here. And you can see the growth and development of the community. This is really kind of formed as our downtown. Our traditional town center. We really didn't have that. We're a relatively young community in the city of Oak Creek, - Right. having only incorporated as a city in the mid 1950s. Sure. - So we were missing this. Part of the creation of a traditional town center, we wanted to make this attractive for all ages. You see the young kids in the splash pad every day here in the summer. We're building a senior housing complex over here that will house 140 units of assisted and independent living for the seniors. You'll see restaurants and retail and those sorts of things, Right. - on the first floor, and then you'll have nice apartments above. And then a little ways away there, you see-- -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

The Health Center. Froedtert Health Center. - Yup. -

Andrew

in southeastern Wisconsin

Kinda a full-service medical office and clinic space and the library. You can't forget the library. It's really a state of the art library facility. We get tons of traffic and it's really unique that folks coming into city hall are actually happy to be there. We appreciate that. There's always smiles because there's so much-- -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

Look at these happy people comin' in here. -

Andrew

in southeastern Wisconsin

Usually, maybe not at tax time. You can't do much more than that. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

How many people live downtown? -

Andrew

in southeastern Wisconsin

You know there's probably 700-900 just within earshot of this town center. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

Who moved into these? -

Andrew

in southeastern Wisconsin

Really kind of a diverse mix. Yeah. - You see all the things that we tried to do to make this an urban downtown center Yeah. - really manifest itself when folks come down here and there's a sense of vibrancy. That's why we created it. To bring people here. To bring people in our community together. This is Jill and this is Marcus. How are you guys? Good. - Good, good. Yeah, so you are my Oak Creek friends. We are the Oak Creakians in your life. (western banjo music) We've been here since 2002. Before, actually, Jill was brought up here. - Already a, I'm a native of Oak Creek. I was here since '72, 1972. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

And you decided that you raise your family here? Yeah. - Absolutely. See when we came here we kinda knew that this city was up-and-coming. It had potential. It had promise. And what's been great is that our kids have grown along with the city. The city has boomed. It's a fantastic city to live in and bring our kids up in now. And that's just the start of it. I think the Ikea is kind of bringing a new focus to the city that says, "Hey this city is pretty darn good." And of course we here in the city, we welcome it. We love having new people move to our city and enjoying the very same things that we've been enjoying for years. Yeah, do your friends live in this neighborhood? Yeah all of my friends. They do? - Yeah. We actually rarely have to leave Oak Creek. There's so many activities, their activities are here, their sports are here. Everything we do is here. You know, and that's one of the great things about Oak Creek, too, is it's 20 minutes everywhere. - Yeah. I mean, you want to go downtown? Takes you no more than 20 minutes. You wanna go out to Waukesha? Takes no more than 20 minutes. You wanna get down to the Illinois border for whatever reason? No more than 20 minutes. And it's, the great thing is that even though this is a suburb, and a great suburb, and you really don't have to go too far out of Oak Creek if you need to do something, but if you do things are still close enough that they're easily accessible. Yeah. - And that's one of the great things about the location of Oak Creek. It sounds like your husband Marcus, my friend, wants to run for mayor. (Jill and Marcus laughing) Just so you know. That's what it sounds like to me, Jill. You dance. I do. You've been dancing forever. And what do you dance. Everything. I dance tap, hip hop, jazz, ballet. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

Really? This is a great place. - Thank you. (lighthearted music) -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

and I only know it because I have friends whose kids go here. Let's talk about how this happened. So the story kinda started 16 years ago already. (funky house music) I started in my parents' backyard right out of high school. I just thought, you know, this would be really fun if we could start teaching middle schoolers how to dance and compete. So we just started. We had 17 girls and then within thre- In your parents' backyard? Yes. - Ha ha ha. And then within three years we had a hundred girls coming to my parents' backyard. We are over 900 right now. What? (dancers counting jumps) -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

Programming-wise, what do you have? -

Stacy

in southeastern Wisconsin

We first started with dance. So we have ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop. (student practicing violin) And now we've added in music. We teach piano, voice, guitar, violin. (student practicing piano) And then we have a little fine arts preschool that's also state-licensed. Preschool? - Yeah. (kids saying hi and laughing) Are a lot of the kids from Oak Creek? Lots of kids from Oak Creek. I think we have 37 different cities that come here, which is crazy. It's more than dance, though, isn't it? Oh yeah, I mean there's so many good things that come out of this, and yes, there's that those friendships, but I think it also teaches you team work, Yeah. - hard work, discipline, all of that. So I have my daughters enrolled. I want them to experience this too. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

And how many people work here? -

Stacy

in southeastern Wisconsin

We have about 40 employees. You do? - Yeah. So a lot of our instructors danced from when they were very little. They have fallen in love with it just as much as everybody else. And they just love it so much that they can't imagine not doing it. Yeah. - So some of them have degrees in dance. Some of them have just continued on. We always say they have real jobs but they still come here at night because they just want to be with the kids and continue to share their passion with them. You have seen this building from the freeway. You know what it is? Saint Mary and Saint Antonius Coptic Church. You're wondering what is Coptic? (Middle Eastern music) A Copt is a direct descendant from ancient Egyptians, meaning that there is an Orthodox Coptic Church right here in Oak Creek. That's it. (peaceful guitar music) Should we talk about Sikhs? -

Nirmal

in southeastern Wisconsin

Our first ruler, Guru Nanak Dev Ji, he started the religion to finish the caste system, the class system, and tell people we all are same. Everyone is equal. - No one, everybody's equal. Yeah. - Yes. This is our prayer room. And we believe in one god. One. - There's only one god. Yes. - And we all pray. My god is your god. Yes. - And your god is my god. Yes, we were all created by one. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

Right. -

Nirmal

in southeastern Wisconsin

Sikh means a student. Student. - Yes. Disciple, yes. - Yes, disciple. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

So we walked in and we were told to take our shoes off. -

Nirmal

in southeastern Wisconsin

Yes that means we leave the dirt back. We don't want to take the dirt into our prayer room. Yeah. - That means we have to take in our clean heart also inside. Yeah. - The covering head is out of respect. This religion has been around for over 500 years. It's been in the United States over 100 years. And we have over about 500,000 people in the United States. We have respect for every religion and we welcome every religion in our temple. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

Are your services Sundays? We have a Sunday service. - Sunday service. -

Nirmal

in southeastern Wisconsin

And then we have a Thursday service in the evening. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

And your temple is open for prayer? -

Nirmal

in southeastern Wisconsin

Yes you can come here. Anytime you want to do your own prayer, you can. Mm hmm. - You know, you just come and pay your respect here. Yes. - You also can do that. Otherwise we have meals here seven days a week. Whenever you feel hungry, John, you can come here-- Is that right? Yes. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

And can non-Sikhs come to your service? Oh yes. - They can? -

Nirmal

in southeastern Wisconsin

Why not? Since 2012 everything has changed, and more and more people want to know, and every year that we have an anniversary here for the 2012 and we have every community come here. Yeah. - You know, they just want to come here, pay their respect, and let everybody know that no matter what religion they we belong to at the end of the day we all are the same. Right. (whistle blowing) Michael, Oak Creek Knights. The Lady Knights. - The Lady Knights. Sure. - So we're talkin' softball? We are John. -

Players

in southeastern Wisconsin

One, two, three, Knights. -

Mike

in southeastern Wisconsin

For two reasons. Their coach does a great job. Coach Trass, six years he's been here. They're about to win their third southeast conference championship. The other reason I picked this. This is the one you're really excited about. I am. - Ha ha ha. You've got Becca Oleniczak. She's the pitcher. She's their best player. Senior captain of this team. She threw a no-hitter as a pitcher and she hit three home runs outta the park. That's a good game. - It's a great game. And she could play at the next level at a lot of different places. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

Right, and is she going to? -

Mike

in southeastern Wisconsin

She's probably not. She's going to Wisconsin. She's got a 4.2 cumulative. She wants to be a chemical engineer. So does Madison have a good softball team? Really good, yeah, really good. - And will she walk on? Do you know, when I asked her that, it was 50/50. Really. - It didn't seem like it was that important to her. And here's my hope for them. Last year they got to the state semifinals and got beat. And my hope is that they get one more game this year and get to state, I like these kids, I like the coach a lot. He does a great job. Thanks John. - Thanks Mike. (playful music) You have no idea how disappointed I was that we didn't cover a restaurant in Oak Creek, but we had so much to do in Oak Creek. And you know what? This town has some hometown favorites. They sure do, 'cause a ton of people said, "Are you going to di Carlo's? "You'd better go to Erv's Mug. "It's been there forever." Someone said, "John, I know you're gonna go to Georgie Porgie's." And in my mind I thought, for puddin' and pie? Mm hmm. (marching band music) We are talking Oak Creek Marching Knights. First let's talk how many kids in this whole program? Oh man. - 340. (crowd cheering) We're at about 30% of the student body are in the Oak Creek high school band. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

How does that happen? Band was my thing. Band was the thing that made me come to school. Somebody did this for me, Hmm. - as a teenager. That was great Jill. - Thank you. -

Amy

in southeastern Wisconsin

And it just gives every kid who wants a place to be a place to be. -

Announcer

in southeastern Wisconsin

Please welcome your Oak Creek High School Marching Knights. (marching band music) Wow. - And it it's safe and we're this big family. We take everybody. And we will find a space and a place and a thing for you to do. In a situation where a lot of places have dwindling band programs, ours is just exploding. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

What do these kids leave here with? What kind of life skills is going on here? Time management, prioritization, just help management. They are workin' so hard and just to be able to get the things they need to get done on a daily basis. That's life. Life gets busy sometimes. Yeah. - Sometimes it gets hard and you gotta push through it. (marching band music) And they do it. -

Amy

in southeastern Wisconsin

And also I think band is a very non-instant gratification thing. And so it's them putting in little bits of hard work over a long period of time Yup. - and waiting for the reward, which is really-- - That's a lesson. Isn't it? - I think so. Yeah. - I really think so, -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

And aren't you proud to walk by this? I'm super proud of it. Our kids are the top notch of the whole school and they're doing this plus everything else that they do. -

Game Character

in southeastern Wisconsin

Welcome to City 13 heroes. (spaghetti western music) -

Nick

in southeastern Wisconsin

The whole story behind City 13 is that you're actually, we're having superheroes come here to actually save the city. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

This place is very cool. -

Nick

in southeastern Wisconsin

And then they come into this room. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

How do you know about these escape rooms? Have you been to others? Actually yes. But actually this all started with my passion for Halloween and I actually wanted to open my own haunted house, and then when these started gettin' popular I figured this was a little bit of a better choice then because it's year-round and I can do it inside, Sure. - And it brings smiles to faces instead of, you know, Yeah. - Scares? Yeah, ha ha. There we go, you're tryin' to reflect it right inside there. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

This is like a real life video game isn't it? It is. - That's exactly what it is, yeah. And I'm a gamer. So I built an escape room that I want to do, Yeah. - and so I'm kinda jealous because I don't get to do it and everyone who comes through here just loves it. So inside here is the rail car. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

Who the, did you build this? Yeah. You're kidding. -

Nick

in southeastern Wisconsin

It's the paint that kinda sets it apart. I'm tryin' to do that right rust paint and everything like that. We're actually trying to evolve the escape room because most places have that drywall kind of feel where it's like, it's kinda just a just a regular office door and then they just kinda decorate the door and say, you're about to go inside a tomb in the Egypt, or something like that. And really, it's not that. So we're like, no we actually want to give people the immersion. It's less about the puzzles and more about them being in an adventure and actually having fun. It's the only place where you can have grandma and grandson inside there and they're high fiving 'cause grandma just solved the puzzle while the kids were over there finding all the pieces, runnin' around. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

We need a clue. How do we do it? You gotta do your superhero poses. -

Computer Voice

in southeastern Wisconsin

Incoming message. -

Nick

in southeastern Wisconsin

Around the Corner season, times two. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

We're in season eight. 16. - 16. -

Nick

in southeastern Wisconsin

Do you see 16 anywhere around the room? 19, 15, wait. 18, 16. 16. -

Nick

in southeastern Wisconsin

Give it a shot. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

There we go. Around the Corner with John McGivern, season eight, times two. -

Nick

in southeastern Wisconsin

Mission complete. - 16. Okay, we don't cover big box stores, but we're going to cover this one. Why? Because it's the only one in Wisconsin, c'mon. (playful music) Can we tell just a little bit of history of this company? Show rooms are first. -

Samantha

in southeastern Wisconsin

Ikea started back in the late 1940s, early fifties, That's a Billy bookcase. Here it is. offering furniture in rural areas in Sweden. Now we're in the show rooms. Quickly found that there was a need for low priced, quality furniture, so one thing led to another and here we are 75 years later. I love it. It's so smartly done, Uh huh. - This store. You want a smart home? Watch this. You can touch, play, feel. Your kids can jump on it if they need to. Everything you need to do to try out to see if this is gonna be right for your home. Have at it. That's what the store is of. Smart. (Swedish oompa music) Here's something you might not know, that all of the names of everything here in Ikea is named after either a city or a town or a village or an area in Europe. Ypperlig. Fjallbo. Svartasen. Who's your customer? -

Samantha

in southeastern Wisconsin

It's been a variety of different families, (playful music) people just getting started, empty nesters, who are now able to redecorate without destruction from their children. - Yeah. I am in aisle 34, I'm at bin 12, and I need one, two, and three boxes. -

Samantha

in southeastern Wisconsin

You know, so it's a little bit of every type of lifestyle. And that's been great for us because we have something for all of them. It may seem a little overwhelming but the best part is that you can see it, love it, and get it today. Don't be overwhelmed. Call me, I'll help you. We all know what's inside Ikea. Do you know what's on top of Ikea? It's the largest solar field in the state of Wisconsin. Ikea, the name? -

Samantha

in southeastern Wisconsin

It's a acronym for our founder, the town he grew up in, and the farm he lived on. So I is Ingvar. K is Kamprad. E is Elmtaryd, which is the town. And Agunnaryd I the farm on which he grew up on. (bright music) That was Oak Creek, the definition of a present day boom town. We're here with mayor Dan Bukiewicz. How are you sir? Very good. Good to see you, you have a great city. Thank you it's a beautiful town. Most of it's brand new. Yeah this is the deal. You have 30 seconds to tell us why Oak Creek, Wisconsin, is the best place in the world to live, work, and play. And mayor Dan, you can start now. (bell dinging) Quite simply the people. We're 28 square miles yet everybody's a neighbor to everybody. Everybody knows everybody's name and we conduct ourselves that way. We've got great schools, a stable tax base, and we are the fastest growing city in southeastern Wisconsin. We have over 20 city parks. We just opened up our lake front. We have an incredible lake front. We have Fortune 500 companies to work in, right on down to family run businesses. And shopping and dining experiences are unique and simple down here. (John counting down from five) So please get out there, discover and celebrate Oak Creek. We are really unique. -

John

in southeastern Wisconsin

That's it Dan, you got it. Good job Mayor. -

Dan

in southeastern Wisconsin

Alright. It's a little chilly. - Just a little. Yeah. (both men laughing) We're here with the mayor of Oak Creek, mayor Dan... Bukiewicz. - Mm hmm, c'mon. (crew laughing) I worked there. What was your job? I worked, um, at the, um. (both men laughing) Let's do that again. (peaceful music) -

Narrator

in southeastern Wisconsin

The Greater Milwaukee Foundation's Ernest C. and Florence M. Schocke fund. And by the David A. and Nancy E. Putz fund. The Greater Milwaukee Foundation, inspiring philanthropy, serving donors, and strengthening communities now and for the future. -

Narrator

in southeastern Wisconsin

Michels Corporation. (inspirational music) Serving the energy, transportation, telecommunications, and utility industries. Michel's, constructing north America's infrastructure for our future. (peaceful music) -

Narrator

in southeastern Wisconsin

WE Energies Foundation and Wisconsin Public Service Foundation are proud to support public television. Together we create a brighter future for the communities we serve. (upbeat music) - ATC moves electricity from where it's generated to communities where it's needed. American Transmission Company. Helping to keep the lights on, businesses running, and communities strong. (busy crowd sounds)