How do small communities grow? How do they attract in visitors, residents, businesses? How do they retain what they have?

Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation held a roundtable in Argyle last Thursday, bringing together local officials, business leaders, and specialists from across the state to talk about the challenges they have in small towns, from how to have an identity to how to retain family businesses as they change generations, and how to be a stop and not simply a drive through in a changing world where it’s the destination, and not the journey.

Attending were individuals from communities across Wisconsin. While mainly focused on the southwestern corner of the state, with officials and community leaders from Lafayette,Iowa, Green, and Crawford counties, there were additional individuals from as far as Sheboygan.

Kelly Shannon, Colette Spranger and Shawn Dunphy from Evansville spoke up about the issue some communities face when a longtime event is thrown in flux when the organization that has operated it for a long time decides to disband. In Evansville, their Fourth of July celebration had to quickly pivot to new volunteers when the long-time ones stepped away.

Spranger, Dunphy and Shannon explained the new organizers dealt with details like how to cover the costs of the annual fireworks display, and the costs of increased law enforcement coverage for the large crowds.

“It has always been free to the community,” they stated, when in reality thousands of dollars had to be raised to put on the event.

Along the lines of attracting visitors and getting them to return, Alicia Kleiber said for her bed and breakfast business, she found that curating the experience for guests was important. This meant having information of where they could go to eat, what was open on what day, so that people unfamiliar with the area would not have to go searching.

Unlike larger metro areas, information about popular places in Southwest Wisconsin may not be as readily available online, so showing people the best places to go makes their experience better, and likely means return trips.

Having that information is helpful for trying to bring in individuals who may visit during the normally slower weekday.

Sometimes things move slowly to get a project moving forward, as was shared about Argyle and the property where the former high school sat. One person remarked that the community spent eight years debating what to do with the former school, talking about making it into apartments or retail space, before ultimately it was torn down.

From there, it was eventually decided to allow for duplexes to be built, and the property is also going to be the site of the upcoming daycare facility.

Childcare was brought up as part of the discussion of having a successful business climate, as it was needed for employees to be able to have a place for their children.

“Having daycare is as important as the internet,” one person remarked.

But getting childcare off the ground is difficult, even when needed. Before developers of the daycare facility in Argyle started their project, they surveyed the area. “It was telling,” with respondents noting that there were few options around, which is what motivated Tina and Keith Ritschard to build a daycare facility in Argyle.

Collaboration amongst businesses and communities was seen as important for rural regions.

Kelsey Jenson, New Glarus Village Administrator, shared their ideas on embracing tourism. Jenson noted that they had a building in the city with Swiss accents, which allowed them to easily lean into the embracing their founders’ heritage. 

Getting the youth involved

Schutte noted that giving the next generation awareness of their community is important.

Schutte said that he went to talk with high school students to get their input on what is needed for Argyle. He wondered if they were thinking about things like where they would work, or if they worried about childcare for when they would have a family.

“All these kids wanted was a Taco Bell,” Joe quipped. 

The youth did not think about the possibility of living in their hometown, or working in their hometown during the conversation. 

WEDC Specialist Errin Welty stated that one way to get youth active and interested is to create a position on a given board. 

One person in the roundtable said they did such a thing on their local library board. “It’s the best move we did.”

By getting youth directly involved, they learn more about their community and the challenges that are faced when they become adults.

Interaction with the schools

Another item brought up was the interaction between the business community, the municipality and the local school district.

Forced to deal with the consequences of state-imposed budget limits that have not increased to match inflation, school districts and municipal governments are dealing with smaller budgets. That focus has often left them working independently of one another, when mutual problems can be felt by them both.

“Once your school district is hurting, your community is hurting,” one participant said, with another noting that when a school has to hold a referendum, it can be a wake-up call of issues.

UW-Extension Agent Todd Barman shared that there are examples in the state where a municipality and school district work together proactively. Barman mentioned Phillips, where the school district jumped in to help with planning for housing, or worked to help with planning for the downtown.

Other examples involved the technical college working with the high schools within its region on culinary arts, training youth to be able to work in restaurants in the region.

It can be a slow start, however. 

Bryan Ritschard of BSR Construction told how he approached the local technical education teacher, looking for students who may want to apprentice with the firm. The instructor told him there was not a student who would be interested.

“It was eye-opening,” Ritschard explained.

Eventually, they were able to find a student who joined, learning a skill and working for the firm. “The kid wants to work, wants to learn.”

Ritschard hopes that the trade community gets involved to help show the next generation a career available to them in their hometowns.

Another project brought up was in Sun Prairie, where the community has a memorandum of understanding with the Future Business Leaders of America chapters to help with projects in their business improvement district. The students work with businesses within the district on ways to promote and bring in customers.

Making it the journey, again

In this current era where people program their destination into their smartphones or their vehicle’s GPS, what is between home and there is now just a blur on their trip.

Several people wondered — was there a way to make people stop in their communities?

“Do we need a gimmick?” Schutte wondered. He noted he planned a trip with his family awhile back, and it was to a community which had one of the ‘biggest’ attractions. With the destination set, he planned a map off the interstate, specifically stopping in communities along the way.

This used to be the way families traveled on vacation, but now it’s mapped out for the fastest way to get where you plan on going.

“People are not stopping randomly — we know where we are going,” one person responded at the roundtable.

Schutte admitted that he is often the same, pointing to Brodhead. “It’s a gorgeous place to drive through, but I have never gotten out of my car,” Schutte reflected.

“How do we get them to stop?” he asked.

Was it having an identity? For some communities like Shullsburg and New Glarus, the responses were the same and in unison (cheese, Swiss, respectively). 

For other communities, the responses were strained. For Darlington, outdoor use of the river came up, while for Monroe, it was the downtown.

For places like Platteville, Brodhead, and Dodgeville, the crowd had a difficult time coming up with a unified response.

Outside of the people who live there, how many people know of the Rollo Jamison Museum in Platteville, as opposed to simply thinking of the community as the home of UW-Platteville?

Schutte wondered about creating something for people to stop, like large murals that push people to get out and take a picture.

Beyond trying to have a gimmick, Jenson suggested that communities build on something they are already doing. She noted that in New Glarus, they have pretty successful fish fries, but they began adding to the events to help entertain others who may not be drawn in to a fish fry.

“Maybe they don’t love a fish fry, but they like X, Y, or Z,” Jenson shared.

Todd Johnson from UW-Extension noted that there has been a change in the mindset of people, where their own plans with family have superseded work in the community.

“In 2026, we are not good at community,” he said. “We are out of practice. We don’t join clubs anymore.”

“We don’t make community a priority.”

Johnson continued that when there is a crisis, there is a clarity and an urgency to get moving on something.

Bringing back practices

Sometimes, the best idea is one that has already been tried, but may have been lost.

Green County Development Corporation Executive Director Olivia Otte said that they had retained several of the programs that had been spearheaded by UW-Extension over the years which has led to success for her county.

One such program is leadership development. In 2000, the community resource agents from southwest Wisconsin created the Community Leadership Alliance to help interested residents learn how to organize and build programs in their communities.

This program led to many community based organizations.

COVID, along with changes in agents, saw the program disappear regionally.

Green County retained the program, calling it Green County Leaders, which has continued to churn out people motivated to get involved in their community, including half of the Green County Board.

Ben Gruber, who is running in the 51st State Assembly race, noted how important building that leader base in a community is for trying something. “The community already trusted you,” Gruber remarked, noting that meant they bought in to help make a new idea a success.

Otte also explained that they are actively using the First Impressions program. Created in Grant County in the 1990s, this program has two communities of similar size send a delegation to each of the their communities, giving feedback on what they encounter coming to a town for the first time.

“It’s cheap, fast, and easy,” Todd Johnson said, adding they also have expanded to use high school students in the program to get a youth perspective.

The program has allowed communities to get an idea how outsiders and visitors see their community.

Dealing with changing landscape

One of the issues small communities deal with are storefronts that may or not may be available.

The Village of Monticello, as one example, has several storefronts in their downtown which are being used for storage. Several of the buildings are owned by people living outside the area, and hard to reach, meaning they cannot gauge their interest in making the building available to would-be tenants.

Cassidy Mackey from Advance Shullsburg talked about dealing with two businesses that closed at the start of this year, an alterations shop that is moving into the person’s home, and an indoor market that closed.

Visibility and walk-up traffic was an issue for one of the locations, as it is located across the street from the firehouse on the edge of the downtown district, so people may not realize the business district has begun.

Shullsburg was dealing with several issues related to its business district identity. For another building, what was a restaurant now was turned into an office for the family who owns the building, and lives on the second floor.

Tyson Morrissey brought up that a building next to one he owns was recently sold, and due to the state of the building, the new owners were looking to convert the commercial space on the first floor to housing, which may further fracture the view of the business district.

Several of the representatives participating shared their own concern about limitations of improving their business districts, stating that the businesses renting have limitation on what they can do to improve the buildings they are in, while building owners have few incentives to make other improvements.

One idea offered was profit-sharing leases, where the rent changes based on the viability of the business. Not often used in Wisconsin, the type of lease offered incentives for the building owner to make improvements to help improve the business.

Another idea would be to have escalating leases, ones that start lower to let a business establish itself.

Several of the communities shared the issue of business succession, and losing key businesses for the next generation.

Several of the communities have seen reductions in specialized trades, like law offices or dental clinics, causing more and more business to go outside of the community.

One person brought up that the grocery store in Spring Green is being kept afloat by community groups helping in keeping the doors open.

To make sure that types of businesses remain, offering more programs related to succession planing is pivotal.

Taking a wider view, several people who participated in the event talked about businesses working with one another, buying from one another, and supporting one another.