Sheboygan is a really nice community. I know. I lived there from 1998 to 2000 when I worked as a reporter for The Sheboygan Press.
It’s a small, blue collar city of about 50,000 residents. But it has a beautiful beach and marina on the shores of Lake Michigan. Blue Harbor Resort is a fun family destination. There’s a gorgeous historic theater downtown and a great art museum. Just outside the city are world class golf courses and the Village of Kohler has first class hotels and dining.
Despite those amenities, Sheboygan suffers from the image of a small, quirky beer and brats town. In some ways, it’s a mini-Milwaukee.
Sheboygan faces an interesting challenge. In November, the Sheboygan metro area had an unemployment rate of only 3.3 percent. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that low unemployment rate is a reflection that many Sheboygan employers are struggling to attract workers they need to fill open positions. Sheboygan suffers from a classic small town brain drain as kids grow and move away to larger, more exciting cities. Some come back when they start a family, but others do not. At the same time, Sheboygan struggles to attract newcomers.
That’s why Sheboygan County business leaders recently unveiled a new marketing campaign aimed at drawing potential employees to the area. The “Someplace Better” campaign is intended to sell job candidates on the quality of life assets in Sheboygan County. Those assets include the area’s economy and its schools, but the campaign also has a heavy emphasis on selling the Sheboygan area’s lifestyle amenities, including parks, arts and culture.
Major Sheboygan County employers Kohler Co., Sargento Foods Inc. and Bemis Manufacturing Co. threw their support behind the Someplace Better campaign and said they have hundreds of jobs to fill.
As the baby boomer generation moves into retirement, every community is going to find itself in Sheboygan’s boat. There will be an intense war for talent. Communities that invest in parks, sports, arts and cultural amenities are going to have an advantage in attracting talented workers who could choose to live anywhere and are looking for someplace special.
For those same reasons, leaders of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce are pushing for increased public funds for the Milwaukee area’s quality of life amenities. Last fall, a 50-member task force of regional community leaders, convened by the MMAC, issued a report concluding that additional public funding is needed to preserve and protect the region’s signature cultural and entertainment assets, including the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Milwaukee Public Museum, the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts and the Milwaukee County Zoo.
The MMAC pushed hard for public funding for a new downtown Milwaukee arena, which was approved last year. A major upgrade was just completed at the Milwaukee Art Museum. That’s a good start.
For the region to remain competitive in the war for talent, investment in community assets must remain a priority and can’t be allowed to deteriorate.
