Episode 22
La Crosse Park & Rec Director Odegaard on New Docks, Flood Cleanup, Boating
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We bring you news from the business community. From startups to experienced problem solvers, you’ll get in-depth insight on the challenges and opportunities of doing business in Greater La Crosse. Our show is a collaboration between WIZMNews.com and BizNews Greater La Crosse ( GreaterLaCrosse.media ).
Full Transcript [ generated by AI]
Jay Odegaard 0:04
And I’m a firm believer, people come here and they get to see the downtown and the nightlife and then the bluffs. And, you know, we just have such an amazing community to draw tourism.
Vicki Markussen 0:19
Welcome to Biz Cast Greater La Crosse. I’m your host, Vicki Markussen. This is brought to you by BizNews Greater La Crosse. We bring you news out of the business community. And joining me today is Jay Odegard. And I got a chuckle, as I said, is your title still director of Parks and Recreation? And he said, and forest and grounds, forestry and gown grounds and the La Crosse Center. So it’s just going to keep getting added on to and our informal conversation initially was, you’ve taken a lot on, and it keeps going. But all good things. So I had the pleasure of listening to Jay, update the Explorer La Crosse board, and I said, I need to get you on this podcast, because there is a lot going through your department that I think most people don’t even realize. So we broke it into categories. That’s how much you have to talk about. So we’re going to talk first about water and under your realm was dealing with a lot of the cleanup from flooding. Do you want to talk about what particularly because this is coming out of the business community what was impacted economically by the flooding?
Jay Odegaard 1:27
Well, the the flooding here this year, like many years creates a lot of concern for those recreational type businesses that are along the river. I mean, they they benefit greatly when the river is at good levels. And when the river rises, like this petty bone campground, petty bone bowl club, obviously, they’re not getting the boat traffic, but they’re also not able to get vehicle traffic. We work with Pettibone campground to move their campers out of the campground and got them in some dry areas. But one of the projects that we completed last year was the road that went by Pettibone Beach to the ballclub and we raise that two feet. And so that has made a tremendous difference for the you know, their ability to stay open longer, they were forced to shut down this year. But you know, here in Wisconsin was such a short boating season, when you’re shut down for a month that that really has an impact. So we do our best to get things open back up as fast as possible. You know, really, we just see a lot of the delivery and a lot of roads washed out in our lower lying parks like petty bone or Copeland Park and, you know, just trying to get it back up and running as soon as possible.
Vicki Markussen 2:50
And then this also creates a mad dash for all of the docks, if you will, where the slips of getting the boats in as we head into that boating season, and you have a few new transient docks. So the one on the Mississippi was new last year. Correct. That’s right in front of the waterfront was that the first year second year I can even remember this is
Jay Odegaard 3:11
this, it’ll be our third year with that transient dock. It’s been very successful for the downtown area. And now we have added one up at Copeland Park adjacent to logger field. And we really hope that that does the same thing kind of for that north side. Whether it be a loggers game or, you know, a stopover to get chicken wings at sports not or whatever it might be. But we found that those transient docks really kind of are a portal to that part of town for boaters and fall in that they’ve been very well respected.
Vicki Markussen 3:50
Yes, so there aren’t too many places where you can just pull a boat up that aren’t privately owned. And so this is an opportunity for people to get off their boats go find a bite to eat. So the area that we’re talking about is that stretch where all the boat houses are correct.
Jay Odegaard 4:05
Yeah, just slightly to the south of that it literally is right across the road there from Copeland Park, you know, in the in the ball field. So
Vicki Markussen 4:15
and it will be on the logger side, I assume, correct where that rip rap is the rocks and where the boat is that Julian Bell swaying that was parked there for a while. That’s the area that we’re talking about right there. Correct. Yeah. So that’ll be a great addition for the north side. And you were saying before this too, that there’s some really interesting information about who’s using our boat docks, the ramps getting boats in and out that is gathered through the parking information that because now they have to pay to park their vehicle while they are out on their boat. Can you share some of that information?
Jay Odegaard 4:49
Yeah, one thing that we’ve found and this really peaked after the 2015 Bassmasters championship that was brought into La Crosse here is just a no Number of boulders that are coming from far outside the area. I think last year we had 38 states represented in, you know, people that had come here. You know, we live on one of the country’s largest fisheries and best fisheries and we maybe sometimes take it for granted but you just see and the number of individuals especially coming regionally from the Illinois and Iowa really just wanting to come here and get on you know, this this great fishery and enjoy it not just fishermen to you know, we’re we’re talking about just outdoor recreation enthusiast, and that boating to kayaking canoeing, so
Vicki Markussen 5:45
to birdwatching to the eagle watch, yeah, we take it for granted, I agree completely, which is also why we attract the big boats. And we have how many cruise lines come now and dock and La Crosse.
Jay Odegaard 5:59
So we currently have three Viking cruise lines has been added. Now we are just finishing up the expansion of our Lavy, which will allow us to be one of the very few ports on the Mississippi that can handle all three companies at the same time. That’s crucial because waterway travel is very unpredictable. Oftentimes we have sets of dates when they could possibly show up. One of the other interesting notes so that is last year, we actually had Viking had some some mechanical issues. And we’re spending a night here along the levee. And it happened to be the same night as one of our moon tunes festival. And the staff and the clients of Viking enjoyed the concert so much that we actually have multiple overnight stays by Viking. Coming up here and we are one of the only ports on the Mississippi were overnight stays are scheduled for Viking. So that’s pretty, pretty exciting as well.
Vicki Markussen 7:14
That’s very exciting. I know from sitting on the tourism board that people that stay overnight spend significantly more dollars in our community. So that is significant having three boats and that exposure. And I know a lot of times they want to come back to the area. So it is that was a big investment in the levee. I know that that doesn’t happen just in any community. But we’re seeing it pay off through those boats coming into town and now choosing to stay overnight as opposed to staying on the boat, which is great. So that’s a good transition to let’s stay with the water theme, if you will. And let’s talk about the fishing tournaments that come to town. I think a lot of people see the boats, they may not know what’s going on. They may see that isn’t veterans, the ramp right there by the that gets filled up. Are they still doing their like weigh ins and whatnot there? Yep. Yeah. So talk about fishing tournaments of impact I have.
Jay Odegaard 8:07
Well, the fishing tournaments, you know, it really started back in about 2015 with that first initial Bassmasters, which is like the Super Bowl of professional fishing. And now it’s really expanded out to not only professional bass tournaments, but also walleye and some even catfish tournaments. We see all the way from, you know, what we kind of refer to as the pros down to the National High School fishing tournament championship. And, you know, we have we have that coming up here June 19, through the 24th. So, we see that these tournaments not only show the the participants and the anglers the benefits of coming here to the Coulee Region, but you know, all the media and marketing, it’s kind of like, you know, growing up, I used to love Larry Bird. And if I could add the opportunity to go play in the Boston Garden, you know, court, I would go do that. So what we’re seeing I think is a lot of these fishermen that want to say, Hey, I went and fished where the Champs fish. And then I’m a firm believer, people come here and they get to see the downtown and the nightlife and then the bluffs and, you know, we just have such an amazing community to draw tourism,
Vicki Markussen 9:32
and what’s the role of the city in that?
Jay Odegaard 9:36
Well, I think, you know, the city’s role is to always, you know, benefit its community members and specifically in the in the departments that I oversee. You know, we have focused our kind of resources towards tourism and not all only bringing people into the community, but but offering great playgrounds, and parks for our community members. And we know we’re so fortunate here with 47 public parks. And that doesn’t include the hundreds and hundreds of acres of blah, Flynn and Marsh property. But at the end of the day, that all costs money, and that is something that, you know, we as municipal employees, and staff have to figure out not only what is best, but then how do you pay for it. And so our focus has really been on capturing the user groups and having them pay. So we love it when somebody comes from out of town, hiker, you know, to use our boat landings and go out on the river. But there is a fee associated with that. And what that has been able to allow us is to not go into, you know, the general operating fund that the tax dollars go to. So it’s really a win win. Because while there are fees associated, it also just tremendously raises the experience in the facilities we offer.
Vicki Markussen 11:20
I always talk about our economy as this barrel. So you need the money coming from the outside into our barrel, and it swirls around the barrel. Particularly, it’s amazing if it stays in these local companies, because they hire local accountants and, and cleaning companies. And so those dollars just stay in the community. If we didn’t have those dollars coming in. Inevitably, everything leaks out at some point, right? Whether you’re paying taxes, whether you’re paying an out of town company for services, and so if we didn’t have those dollars coming in, it wouldn’t make our barrel our community as vibrant. But it’s a challenge, right, because taxpayers see their dollars being spent in a particular way to attract outside people. And so how do you this is a tougher question, how do you ensure that the taxpayers understand that relationship that what’s good for the city that helps our businesses is good for a local homeowner? Well, I
Jay Odegaard 12:18
think, you know, that’s a great question. And in, in all reality, I don’t necessarily know if that’s something we do a good job at. And I think largely in part is because this is a step in a different direction from what was traditional, what the role of a, you know, a traditional city department did. But, you know, again, one of the things I always focus on it, no matter what you do, you need to evolve with, you know, the evolving society or, you know, what are the needs COVID showed us that, you know, while we had certain facilities shut down, we had other recreational amenities like Forest Hills Golf Course, that, you know, had some of its best years on record, our trails, you know, amazing. And, you know, so that just shows that, you know, that constant evolvement, and I think we will do a better job educating the public on that. But a lot of that is to just answering the questions as often as we can, and getting out there and talking to people.
Vicki Markussen 13:35
And a lot of times that critical conversation is when these ideas get proposed, right. So I don’t want to miss we’ll circle back to that. But I don’t want to miss that we have a world war two boat coming. You want to talk about that?
Jay Odegaard 13:49
Yeah, so August 29th, through September 4, down at Riverside Park, lovey. There will be the LS t 325. World War Two ship, and that is a traveling museum, so to speak. It draws a tremendous number of people this will be its first port since COVID. And the last one, prior to COVID Will had over 30,000 people visit it. So again, you know, these are the types of attractions that not only are a benefit to the community itself, but also draw in the tourism dollars. And, you know, a lot of this gets talked about over, you know, Oktoberfest or River Fest and these festivals that do create a significant kin expense to the city. And how does that affect the taxpayers but, you know, what we see is the taxpayers are the ones that are benefiting from that dollar being spent in the country. And it whether it be directly to them or their employer or whether it’s, you know, those businesses hiring that their business for something I mean it like you said it kind of stays in the barrel and that’s what we need to try to do is just continue to push that to the barrel so to speak and and the more of that that we can do, the better it serves everybody with the amenities were able to afford not putting that pressure on the taxpayer.
Vicki Markussen 15:33
And the other side of that too is those amenities they increase our quality of life right so La Crosse is a fun place that people love to live in as well as visit but but the array of businesses is much greater because of tourism right? So if we were just relying on our people hear we wouldn’t have this wide variety of things to do. We wouldn’t have as many restaurants and so they help enhance our quality of life. You’ve been listening to Jay Odegard with the city park and rec forestry grounds, La Crosse sentry, we covered a lot. You’ve been listening to him on BizCast Greatrer La Cxrosse. I’m your host, Vicki Markussen. Catch us wherever you listen to your podcast and we’ll catch you next week.
