Here & Now

Sadie Howell on Fond du Lac's Relocation Incentives Program

Frederica Freyberg:
Up next, a push to attract a working age population. Would you consider moving to the small city of Fond du Lac to work? There’s an incentive for that, actually two. One offers $9,500 to individuals from out of state to move to the city and maintain their remote jobs. The other helps employers recruit employees from areas at least 100 miles away and helps them offer prospective workers a $15,000 hiring bonus. Here to explain the program is Sadie Howell of Envision Greater Fond du Lac. And thanks very much for being here.

Sadie Howell:
Thanks for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:
So why the push to help people move to Fond du Lac?

Sadie Howell:
In Fond du Lac County, we’re facing a population decline which isn’t unlike the rest of the state, most of the state of Wisconsin. And at Envision, we are the combined Chamber of Commerce and economic development organization and so we have heard from our members and businesses for years that it’s really hard to attract talent and find workers. So this has been a push at Envision and our strategic plan on talent attraction campaigns. The $15,000 one you referenced, we’ve had for quite a few years. And then most recently, we launched a talent attraction with Make My Move due to a grant from the state of Wisconsin.

Frederica Freyberg:
So how bad is that population decline?

Sadie Howell:
I would say we’re pretty stagnant right now. So in Fond du Lac County, it has been about a 1% population growth. We don’t have a lot of natural birth, but we do have net in-migration. And so we do an okay job of attracting people from different counties in Wisconsin and from out of the state. However, we’re facing two really big years. 2030 is when a lot of the baby boomers will retire. And in 2040 is when our population is really expected to start to decline quite a bit. And in preparation for that, we wanted to make sure that we were starting to attract people before 2030 into 2040.

Frederica Freyberg:
How many new residents and workers are you hoping to lure to your city?

Sadie Howell:
With the grant program, so that was from the state Legislature put $5 million into a new grant through the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and Envision applied. We received $346,000 from WEDC. Envision’s board of directors is putting about $100,000 towards it. And with that money, we are partnering with Make My Move. They are a national platform that helps relocate individuals that are looking for a new place to call home, and our goal is 32 families.

Frederica Freyberg:
So for both programs, individuals or employers have to fill out applications. What is interest looking like right now?

Sadie Howell:
For our Make My Move platform? It is pretty crazy. We actually just got our new statistics yesterday and 1700 people from around the country have expressed interest. 900 of them have applied to move to Fond du Lac County. And then from those, it’s trickled down a little bit. We have six accepted movers already. We launched this May 14th. So about a month and a half, two months almost in, we have six people already moving. One person already purchased a home in Fond du Lac County. So it’s incredible. It’s really incredible. And what Make My Move does and why they have been a great partner, we’ve been working with them for about 6 to 9 months on creating all of the storytelling of why would somebody want to live in Fond du Lac County. So they sell the community first and then people apply. So we are resonating with an incredible number of people from around the country who want to come and live here.

Frederica Freyberg:
So if you were trying, as you are, to entice someone to move to Fond du Lac, what are its selling points?

Sadie Howell:
It’s not a lot different than what I think you would probably hear from other communities that come on. We have a little bit slower pace of life. We are a little bit smaller. We do have affordable homes. We do have a wonderful mix of private and public schools. We have three institutions of higher learning in our county and a plethora of careers. So there — you will have no problem trying to find your right career here. It’s really do you like outdoor recreation? Do you still like to talk to your neighbors and find a place that you call community, where non-profits are looking for volunteers? That’s the kind of community that still exists in Fond du Lac County.

Frederica Freyberg:
So briefly here, this obviously really works, this incentive program that you’ve set up. Are other cities across the state looking at something similar?

Sadie Howell:
Yeah. So we were one of 17 communities that actually received this grant from WEDC. So our neighbors to the east, Sheboygan and two of our neighbors to the north, Oshkosh and the city of Appleton, both received similar grants. Now their programs look a little bit different than ours, but all of us had to follow the same basic guidelines when we received the grant.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. Well, Sadie Howell, thanks very much for joining us.

Sadie Howell:
Thank you.