Virginia Street in Antigo has seen better days. The roadway is more patchwork than smooth asphalt.
“I’ve got three of them like that,” said Mayor Bill Brandt.
Brandt says the city has submitted a $3.3 million dollar grant request for federal infrastructure funds to help rebuild these roads.
It’s one of the reason’s Brandt was happy to host Governor Tony Evers Tuesday during the Governor’s ‘Pothole Patrol’ stop in Antigo.
“We’re a small community, but our people deserve the best we can give them. That’s what we’re shooting for here. It was great of the Governor to come. It was good for him to see firsthand where that money would go if we received that grant,” said Brandt.
The Governor has been going around the state helping fill potholes to shine a lot on the work road crews do as well the need for funding for infrastructure projects.
“We had several decades worth of letting this go to seed. Now we’re paying price. But we’re getting it done. 4,000 to 7,000 miles is a lot of miles, but we’ve got a lot more to do,” said Evers.
Since 2019, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation says it’s improved more than 4,600 miles of highways and roads, including more than 1,700 locally owned roads across the state.
Brandt knows the difference major investments can make in the city, all it takes is walk down 5th Avenue.
The city invested more than $6 million on the streetscape project in downtown Antigo that that included improved roads, more parking, new streetlights, and benches.
On top of that there’s been building improvements and more businesses moving in.
“As of right now, if I had to do a count, we probably would have four vacant buildings that would be available to rent. That’s huge compared to what we have previously, two years ago,” said Angie Close, Executive Director of the Langlade County Economic Development Corporation.
She attributes a lot of the change to major grant programs the county and city were able to take advantage of.
“There have been many businesses that have opened up in our downtown, even during the COVID period, which we are so blessed to have and that they’re still here today,” said Close. “I think it’s due to the fact that our city and our county has come together, our businesses have come together to support these projects. The state has come together to put some dollars into these types of programs to help us sustain and regrow our main streets and downtown.”
Evers took in the changes himself as he walked around downtown Antigo after filling potholes.
One of his stops included Flowers from the Heart on Fifth.
Store manager Josh Jameson said the last two years have definitely been a struggle between COVID and the streetscape project downtown.
But still the business has found success.
“You never know from one day to the next what business we’re going to have. I think it’s increased since we’ve moved. We’re a little more visible and other businesses have opened downtown. I think that’s why it’s been a better place for us because there’s other things going on around us downtown,” said Jameson.
Close believes the growth in downtown will continue as business owners support one another, something Jameson says already happens.
“We partner with the winery. We partner with another business, Harper’s, across the road. There’s a lot of collaboration between us now. We do ads together. We do events together,” he said.
Between seeing the state of the roads and what the city has been able to do with funding in the downtown area, Mayor Brandt hopes Evers and his administration will disburse the federal funding to the community and help keep it on its path of growth.
“We’re trying to take advantage every cent we can get. On our own a lot of these projects we can’t afford,” said Brandt.
