The New Shawano Plaza Ground-Breaking Ceremony 

Wow, a new project in downtown Shawano is about to begin construction. The long anticipated Shawano Downtown Plaza. After five years and three mayors the Downtown Plaza Groundbreaking marks the start of connecting parking and businesses to Franklin Park downtown. The plaza will include water features, a large walkway and even a stage by Stubborn Brothers Brewery.

transcript

– Good morning and
welcome to Shawano News.

Your positive source in a crazy world.

I’m your host, Jamie Lee.

Today we are at Shawano
Plaza groundbreaking

where we connect Franklin Park

and the heart of downtown Shawano.

Let’s get digging.

(upbeat music)

(upbeat music continues)

I am here with my good
friend, Chelsea Gilling

from The Stock Market.

– Hello.

– Tell me, what are you so excited

about with downtown and
all the development here?

– We have so many new
businesses that came,

that joined our downtown this last year.

We’re so excited for all of them.

And this is just such a natural flow from

Thursdays at Franklin, over
at Franklin Park there.

And this is just going to
be such an amazing asset

to downtown Shawano.

The little gathering space.

It’s just going to be
wonderful. So exciting.

– And it really looks
like you really didn’t

dress for the occasion.

We have sandals on. I think
it’s like 50 degrees here.

– I’m just trying to pretend
that it’s summer in Shawano.

It’s just my favorite place to be.

– Here’s the day. The day is finally here.

Thank you all for coming out.

I know we lured a lot of you out here

with the promise of free beer and steaks.

(crowd laughs)

Tom especially.

That part fell through, but you know

thanks for coming out anyway.

It’s a big day.

It’s so cool to see so
many people out here.

So many people have had a part in this.

The staff is ecstatic to
get this thing moving.

And obviously we’ve already seen it start

over on Washington Street and behind you.

So maybe we didn’t quite
make the groundbreaking

but pretty close.

– Thanks everyone for coming today.

I certainly am the recipient
mayor of three mayors

this has been through.

So this started back in 2016 with Jeanne.

I want to thank you so much.

In fact, I’m going to put you on the spot

here in just a second.

Went through Ed.

Got to me and here we
are today and you are all

here to be part of this.

When people ask me, “What’s
going on in Shawano?”

As far as

I take it, maybe they don’t know.

No, their question of
what’s going on in Shawano

is why is so much going on in Shawano?

So you should all be proud

because it’s all because of
what you folks have done.

And I just want to thank you.

There’s so many people we
could thank for this project.

But the list just goes on and on.

And I want you all to pat
yourselves on the back

and I just want to thank you for coming.

– All right.

Back in 2016, the idea came forward to

create a plaza connecting
Main Street to Franklin Park.

Franklin Park was just a wonderful idea.

So a group of people
that we connected with

took a bus tour on a very
cold and kind of rainy day

to several cities that had plazas.

And we took ideas from those places

and tried to incorporate their best ideas

into what we are going to
see develop here in Shawano.

(crowd applauds)

– Thanks, Jeanne.

I guess I wanted to
mention other thing is that

what you’re going to see
in the next few months,

hopefully by the end of
August when this is completed,

was the ideas of all
these different people.

But 35 to 40 got together and brainstormed

for about six or seven months.

And so as this develops, this
is what came out of that.

So just want to thank
everybody who was part of that.

I’m so grateful that I was
able to be a part of that

as a citizen and wanted to
make sure I mention that.

So thank you again

– You know, our goal for
this space was to create

a downtown anchor for tourism events

and really breathe new life into

the downtown business community.

So many of you are here today and it’s

what we can do as our
part to kind of support

the things that you’ve been doing downtown

and that’s been so great.

– I am currently with generations

of past mayors that made
this project possible.

It goes to show that with
a simple idea, hard work,

and a vision, that you can
make your dreams come true.

Just like Shawano News here.

Things are growing and changing
and expanding in Shawano.

So thank you to all these
great leaders of this town

for making this possible.

It is such a great place
to be part of Shawano.

I’m here with the current
mayor, Bruce Milavitz.

Can you tell me how this
project came to be and

what we can expect from it?

– Well, again, thanks for
being here as part of this

because you are part of the community.

As everybody knows it’s a positive

function that’s going on here.

There’s always negative news
but this is certainly positive.

And as you heard earlier

due to previous
administrations, back in 2016,

there was a vision to bring
this plaza idea to Shawano.

To be able to connect

downtown to Franklin and quite honestly,

to connect our downtown to the community

and the county quite honestly.

So what you see today with everybody here

it’s an idea that came
together and we’re just

so happy that we’re at this
point and looking forward

to the end of August
to be able to enjoy it.

– I keep on hearing that
this would not be possible

without the City Council.

So let’s say thank you
to all the fine people

that work behind the scenes.

Shawano City Council!

– [Announcer] On three, okay?

Three

Two

One

Shovel!

(crowd cheers and applauds)

– [Announcer] Yay!

(crowd cheers and applauds)

(crowd chattering and laughing)

[Announcer] Thanks again everybody.

Feel free to hang out and mingle.

– [Jaime] Yay!

Now we are with Aaron Gilling
from Stubborn Brothers.

And I feel like this
project might positively

affect your brewery.

We’re going to have a
stage here, beer gardens.

What does this project mean
to you and your business?

– It’s a great opportunity
for us to expand

and work with the city
on a group partnership.

Basically we are going to be
providing alcohol for the area

which will be great.

And we’ll be doing that
for city sponsored events

as well as people just coming to enjoy.

We’ll be working with them
to provide the musical acts

that will be out here
which will be very fun

and very complimentary to this scene.

And I think overall it’s just going to be

a great team partnership
between the city and us.

– And there’s going to
be additional parking.

It’s going to be.. at this time next year,

we’re going to be having
a beer in the beer garden

listening to some music.

So much coming to Shawano.

– Prost!

– Prost!

– Prost!

– Cheers.

– Cheers.

What a wonderful morning
connecting with community members

and waiting for this
project to get underway.

Stay tuned for all the progress.

Until next time, this is Jamie Lee

signing off for Shawano News.

Keep living and loving in the 54166.

(upbeat guitar music)