What is it about Crivitz?

Last week your humble correspondent had occasion
 to travel to Green Bay by car. It had been about a
year since I last made the same trip. As a convenient
stopping point, a McDonalds with senior coffee and
restrooms, has existed there for some time now, I
usually stop for a few minutes and while there, smell
the local roses. Another stop to an interesting new
place is usually in order.

It is now well past obvious that Crivitz knows how
to build businesses. Properties on both sides of the
highway have been filling in with new businesses
that were not there just a few years ago. Considering
that the town is situated about 50 miles away from the
nearest regional shopping region (much like us,) Green
Bay, and the population of 984 (in the year 2000)
is significantly smaller than Iron River, we have to
wonder what it is that Crivitz gets right that Iron River
fails to do.

Once you begin to experience growth as Crivitz has,
the community becomes an attractive spot for people
driving through, as I do, to stop and to engage in
business. Obviously catering only to the local
population isn’t sufficient to attract the business
of those driving through. For one thing,
mom&pop style businesses that are closed
on Sundays and holidays, and keep 10AM to
5PM hours the rest of the time are losing a full
half, or more,  of the peak traffic that passes
through.

What is there about Iron River that makes people
driving through want to stop?

In a word, nothing.

What catches the eye of the passer by? Is it
the swamp loving vegetation that chokes the
Iron River downtown? That’s one of the things
few things we’re noted for!

There are four gas stations on US2 available
to people passing through. And generally
speaking, they provide the highest price
gasoline along the US2 route in this region.

So that’s a reason to stop only for a bathroom call
or because the gas gauge is bouncing off the peg
at “empty.”

Other than that, we have the Riverside Mall and
McDonalds. So people who tend to stop, just passing
through, have nothing other than immediate necessity
to catch their eye and their imagination, and, really,
nothing worthwhile to come back to, just another bland
little town en route to the driver’s destination.

The most elementary marketing definition is, “the
process of developing, promoting, and distributing
products to satisfy customers' needs and wants.”
Here’s the thing….we have traffic passing through the
region. That means that potential customers/consumers
are already here because of the highway. So how much
does it take to capture a few dollars in profit from each?

Marketing 101 strategy says, “not very much.” But
primarily you have to want to, and given some thought,
act to capture that income that presently complains
about the 25 mile per hour speed limit as their only
exposure to what Iron River has to offer to most of
them. If only they had something to actually look at
and enjoy as they drive through town! The situation
isn’t much different at Crystal falls. Once you’ve seen
the courthouse, you’ve seen the courthouse. 20 years
from now, if one repeats the experience, nothing of
visitor consequence will have changed. Everything

that can be said about Iron River can be said about
the experience of driving through Crystal Falls.

Obviously the powers that be don’t want additional
income for this community? Good grief, is it going
to hurt them economically? Or are they afraid of real
economic progress because their personal power
might be diluted? I suspect that personal power can,
in this instance, be equated to prestige.

Tell you what folks, if you had anything worthwhile
beyond personal power in the community, that personal
power wouldn’t be so very important to you!

We have a county Economic Development
Corporation that ignores profit centers that are,
given the Crivitz example, are ripe for the plucking.
And it, too, is run by the same “powers that be”
who hold back this community.

Wake up and smell the coffee folks. Expand your
horizons. Personal power isn’t all that it is cracked
up to be, especially once you get your noses out of
this community and into the real world. Those of you
who are interested in a  new, bigger, airport can
easily have one once the tax base in this county
improves and usage justifies it to the taxpayer. How
will the tax base improve? Not by providing more
bedrooms in the forests and on the lakefronts. It
improves the most through creating an economic
advantage by bringing more businesses into the
community. Closing a Wardo’s and opening yet
another dollar store isn’t a wash, it is a step
backwards. The ball has been in your court for
some decades now. How come you haven’t done
a better job than this?

Hint to the local oligarchy: Making Iron County
your economic fiefdom doesn’t cut the mustard.
The only reason you’ve done that is because you
can’t make it elsewhere.

Prove me wrong.

Bill Vajk