Economic Development & UW-Extension Committee — Agenda Packet

1 Sawyer County Economic Development & UW-Extension Committee Meeting Monday, March 9, 2026 @ 8:30 AM Sawyer County Board Room AGENDA 1. ZOOM LINK a. To view or participate in the virtual meeting from a computer, iPad, or Android device please go to https://zoom.us/j/97642007840. You can also use the dial in at 1-312-626-6799 with the Webinar ID: 976 4200 7840. Use *9 to Raise/lower hand and *6 to Unmute/mute. If you are on a computer, click the "Raise Hand" button and wait to be recognized. If you are on a telephone, dial *9 and wait to be recognized. If additional assistance is needed please contact the County Clerk's Office at 715- 634-4866 prior to the meeting. This meeting will be recorded and will be available on our website at: https://sawyercountygov.org. 2. CALL TO ORDER 3. ROLL CALL 4. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE 5. CERTIFICATION OF COMPLIANCE WITH THE OPEN MEETINGS LAW 6. MEETING AGENDA 7. PUBLIC COMMENTS At this time, members of the public will be given the opportunity to address the Board. Please adhere to the following when addressing the Board: • Comments will be limited to 3 minutes or less per individual. • Comments should be directed to the Board as a whole and not directed to individual Board members. • The Board cannot respond to your comments during this time. • Please sign in and fill out a public comment sheet if you wish to speak on an item. 8. CONSIDER APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM PREVIOUS MEETING a. Draft Econ Minutes 2.9.26 9. LIBRARY UPDATES (JAN, APR, JUL, OCT) a. Weiss Library Report b. Winter Library Report Page 1 of 7 2 c. LCO Library Report 10. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-EXTENSION REPORT (FEB, MAY, AUG, NOV) 11. HAYWARD LAKES VISITORS & CONVENTION BUREAU REPORT a. HLVCB Report 12. NORTHWEST REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION REPORT a. NWRPC Report 13. SC/LCO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION REPORT a. EDC REPORT 1. Thrive Grant Update: Meeting 3/3 with community partners 2. Lumber Exchange update 3. Forestry Revitalization Update 4. Sponsorship Drive 14. TRAIL REPORTS- MOTORIZED AND NON-MOTORIZED a. Motorized b. Non-motorized 15. BOARD APPOINTED COMMITTEE UPDATES 16. CORRESPONDENCE, REPORTS FROM CONFERENCES AND MEETINGS 17. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS 18. ADJOURNMENT DISCLAIMER: A quorum of the County Board of Supervisors or of any of its committees may be present at this meeting to listen and observe. Neither the Board nor any of the committees have established attendance at this meeting as an official function of the Board or committee(s) or otherwise made a determination that attendance at the meeting is necessary to carry out the Board or committee’s function. The only purpose for other supervisors attending the meeting is to listen to the information presented. Neither the Board nor any committee (other than the committee providing this notice and agenda) will take any official action with respect to this noticed meeting. Copy sent via email to: Committee Members, Associated Staff and News Media. Note: Any Page 2 of 7 3 person wishing to attend whom, because of a disability, requires accommodation should call the Sawyer County Clerk’s Office (715.634.4866) at least 24 hours before the scheduled meeting so appropriate arrangements can be made. Mission Statement: The Sawyer County Board of Supervisors will strive to provide excellent services and responsible leadership to protect and enhance Sawyer County citizens, businesses, and resources, while preserving our unique heritage. Page 3 of 7 Minutes of the February 9, 2026 Meeting of the Sawyer County Economic Development and UW-Extension Committee of the Sawyer County Board of Supervisors Board Room; Sawyer County Voting Committee Members Present: Others Present: Chair: John Righeimer Mike Markgren Mindy Simons Vice Chair: Stacey Hessel Laura Bruce Ariga Grigoryan Tom Duffy Lori Baltrusis Steve Kariainen Tawonga Zakeyu Randy Neumann Call to Order – Chair Righeimer called the meeting to order at 8:30 am. Certification of Compliance with the open meeting law was met. Roll Call was taken. Quorum was met. Meeting Agenda -- Set Public Comments – None Minutes from the previous meeting dated: January 5, 2025 Motion to approve made by: Mr. Neumann Second by: Mr. Kariainen Motion carried without negative vote. Library— UW Extension—Ms. Baltrusis reported on the vision statement and County goals. Ms. Zakeyu, the new Regional Agriculture Educator, was introduced. Ms. Grigoryan discussed the results from the Town of Draper’s community survey. Mr. Righeimer requested information on other township participation in similar surveys. Hayward Lakes Visitors & Convention Bureau Report— Ms. Simons reported on search engine optimization, which includes Google and YouTube ads, publication ads and social media engagement, and how it impacts Sawyer County. She spoke regarding the excellent winter conditions as it relates to outdoor recreation and sports and the positive impact it has on the community. NWRPC Report— None SC/LCO Economic Development Corporation Report— Ms. Hessel read an email report from Mr. Lamoureaux. She reported on the Talent Recruitment and Thrive Grants. Mr. Righeimer requested an update on a proposal for commercial EV charging station. Trail Reports-- Mr. Neumann reported for the Sawyer County Snowmobile Alliance on motorized trails; the report included updates on the current trail conditions, local business updates, snowmobile safety classes, and fundraisers. There was no report for Non-Motorized trails . Board Appointed Committee Updates – No reports Page 4 of 7 Correspondence, Reports from Conferences— Ms. Hessel reported the Biofuel bill will be voted on this week. Future Agenda Items – None Adjournment – 8:57 am Meeting Date/Time – The next meeting of the Economic Development and UW-Extension Committee will be Monday, March 9, 2026 at 8:30 am in the Board Room. Minutes recorded by Laura Bruce, Elected Official Deputy Clerk Page 5 of 7 March 9, 2026, HLVCB Marketing Report YouTube Ad Performance (Winter Campaign): Over the past year we have been running selected YouTube advertising campaigns as a different option for digital advertising that allows us to track results and engagement. This winter we began another campaign on December 15; set to run through February 27. I pulled some analytics early, to see how things were looking...and was extremely impressed with the results. We ran two identical campaigns, each with a different end goal in mind: • The first campaign was for Video Views, with the goal to increase awareness of the Hayward Lakes Area and Winter Outdoor Recreation. As of February 3rd, when I had the analytics pulled, we had a total of 488K Impressions with 374K of engagement. *Impressions measure how many times your videos are shown to potential viewers, while engagement measures active interactions with content such as clicks, likes, comments, and shares. • The second campaign was for Demand Generation, with the goal of obtaining engagement that led to clicks into our website. On this campaign we got an impressive 1.2million impressions, but the most exciting part was that of the 30K of engagement we received 28,500 clicks into haywardlakes.com. These are active users going straight from our ad on YouTube directly into our website to learn more. Very Exciting! Looking forward to Spring: As we transition out of winter and into spring, we have a full docket of spring marketing set to try to get visitors here before the summer rush. Since the Hayward Lakes area will be hosting the 60th Annual Governor’s Fishing Opener, we have geared our marketing efforts to lean into spring fishing. Page 6 of 7 Here is a list of Ad Buys and Campaigns we will be participating in: • Fox 6 Milwaukee (TV)- FOX Focus with Meg McKenzie-interview that will air late March/Early April and will air twice on their channel. Spring Fishing Focus • Backroads with Ron Schara (TV)- Spring Fishing commercial and sponsorship running March 1-May 31 • WGN (Radio) Best of the Midwest- Interview and Commercial-spring fishing-April 9 • WTMJ (Radio) Experience Wisconsin with John Mercure-Interview April 11 and June 6 • Fun in Wisconsin and Wisconsin Outdoors Magazines (Print)- Spring/Summer ads and advertorial story on family-friendly activities in the Hayward Lakes Area • On Wisconsin Outdoors (Print)-Ad + advertorial story for March/April (spring turkey hunting) and May/June (spring fishing) • Star Tribune (Digital)– Social media digital advertising- April (spring fishing) May (spring ATV/UTV) • Milwaukee Magazine -March (Print + Digital)-Ad, small story print and online + social media • State Point Media- (Print + Digital) Mid-May-story of our choosing (topic not selected yet) • Midwest Outdoors- (Digital)-April- Spring dedicated newsletter + digital ads/ May/June- digital ads • Midwest Outdoors Podcast- Mindy will appear April, May, and June WIGCOT (Wisconsin Governor’s Conference on Tourism) – March 15-18 • Host destination is Milwaukee-at the newly renovated Baird Center • 2- Governor’s Tourism Award nominees from Hayward Lakes: o Legacy Award-honors an individual who has made a long-lasting and permanent contribution to the industry. Nominee must have 25 or more years of distinguished service to the tourism industry with at least 15 or more years in Wisconsin- Nominee-Cheryl Treland o Rising Star Award-recognizes an individual who is new to the tourism industry within the last five years and has shown leadership, commitment, and passion for Wisconsin’s tourism industry. Nominee-Mindy Simons Page 7 of 7