Downtown Eagle River has been bustling lately.
As WXPR reported last year, more than 31 news businesses opened in the area since the pandemic.
Eagle River Revitalization Program Executive Director Karen Margelofsky says more continue to open.
“Which is great for our economy,” Margelofsky.
That growth comes with challenges. Margelofsky says hiring and retaining qualified employees is a common issue among many businesses.
It’s led to some places changing up the operations to compensate.
“For example, River Stone is open now and they knew that there was the labor shortage. Restaurants have such long hours that they have to have just so much more staff than, maybe a retail business. They kind of reworked it, and it's kind of like an order yourself, pick up your food from the kitchen. They did that knowing they were going to have a problem getting waitstaff.”
Margelofsky says one downtown business switched to online sales because of a lack of consistent employees.
The shortage of workers is not a unique problem to Eagle River.
“It's a nationwide issue. It's not, you know, just Wisconsin. It's not just the Northwoods. It's everywhere,” she said.
The Eagle River Revitalization Program is working to tackle the issue from all angles.
It has task forces for Labor, housing, and childcare.
Right now, the labor task force is asking businesses in or that have a connection to Eagle River to fill out a survey.
Margelofsky they need to determine what businesses need before they can start building up things like housing and childcare.
“The housing [task force] is going to use it because we have developers and builders that do everything from apartment buildings to like dormitory type buildings to just housing, whether it's duplexes or condos or even single family houses, or maybe rehabbing some houses that just need work that people can't afford to do. They're going to use those numbers as to what are we looking for, for people coming in,” said Margelofsky. “The Childcare Task Force is looking at, you know, is this a big issue, is it not only because they can't get housing, or maybe they can get housing, because their family has a cottage here, but now they can't come because they don't have the quality childcare, they can't get a slot.”
Margelofsky says the survey is for Eagle River businesses and those in the surrounding area like resorts, summer camps, and school districts.
The survey closes December 31st. You can take the survey here.
Margelofsky says the Eagle River Revitalization Programalso always looking for people to join their task forces.
