City of Gillett receives Thrive Rural Wisconsin grant

GILLETT – The City of Gillett is among 10 rural communities across the state that recently received a grant from the Thrive Rural Wisconsin program.

This program is administered by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) and aims to support communities by helping them reach their biggest economic development goals and plan for long-term needs.

Secretary and CEO of WEDC John W. Miller shared in a press release, “Building an economy for all means investing in our entire state, especially our rural communities.”

“Small communities often have big goals and big ideas, but they don’t always have the staff or the experience to make those plans a reality. The goal of the Thrive Rural program is to help them build their economic development muscles so their communities will thrive.”

Under this grant, the Tourism and Economic Development Corporation for the Oconto County Region (TEDCOR) will support the City of Gillett in two areas — creating attainable housing and revitalizing the downtown area.

TEDCOR Executive Director Jayme Sellen explained, “We are really excited about this opportunity. There are two initiatives that the City is looking to work on. First is housing, the City of Gillett doesn’t have any available housing for new people or returning residents to live in; that includes single, multi-family and senior residential options.”

“The second initiative under this grant is to assess how the City can help improve upon the downtown areas, including Main Street and McKenzie Avenue, and drive more visitors into Gillett for shopping, recreation and dining,” he continued.

The City of Gillett Mayor Jon Blaskowski echoed these ideas, “Our plan with the grant is to do kind of what Bonduel did. We want to use the grant to start taking the steps necessary to work on our downtown area. We also hope to use the grant to address the housing shortage in the City of Gillett.”

During the first cohort of this grant, Bonduel was assisted by the Shawano County Economic Progress organization to create single-family and multi-family housing, revive the downtown area and consolidate municipal offices.

Chief Economic Development Officer of Shawano County Economic Progress, Inc. Peter Thillman shared in a press release, “We have seen the impact that Thrive Rural Wisconsin has had on other neighboring communities and how Thrive Rural Wisconsin resources and assistance have turbo-charged development there.”

As a part of this grant, each participant will have access to up to $50,000 in grants, two years of technical assistance in planning and grant writing, as well as other services that are usually only accessible to larger communities.

Additionally, TEDCOR and other members of the team will work to identify areas of land adjacent to the city that can be used for housing and economic growth.

“Our goal is to make our downtown area a place to visit and try to figure out a way to bring more housing to the City of Gillett,” Blaskowski explained.

For more information about the work conducted by TEDCOR in Gillett and across Oconto County, visit https://tedcor.org/.