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Planners update economic-development chapter; focus on talent attraction, childcare and tourism
Summary
Marathon County staff updated Chapter 10 of the comprehensive plan with newer data, proposed adding childcare and airport considerations, and flagged outdoor tourism and workforce attraction as priorities.
County planners presented updates to Chapter 10 (Education, Workforce Development, Economic Development), noting they replaced some 2020 data with more recent figures from 2022–2025 and added employers and sector analyses.
Laurie Kimmons said staff updated employer tables and added a location‑quotient analysis to highlight industry concentrations. "It looks at how concentrated a specific industry is within a region, and then we compare that to concentration nationwide," an RPC representative explained.
Planners proposed adding a section on childcare to reflect local challenges and suggested including growth in outdoor regional tourism for Wausau and Marathon County. Vice Chair Dickinson asked the chapter to better reflect the role of Central Wisconsin Airport in talent attraction, retention and tourism; staff agreed to expand that material.
Supervisors recommended integrating external resources: Supervisor John Robinson suggested reviewing a National Association of Counties (NACo) report on the future of work and the Chamber of Commerce's strategic-plan updates. Supervisor Sherifick questioned a passage that called Marathon County Development Corporation (McDevco) "the county funded economic development corporation," noting county funding has decreased and asking staff to clarify the wording.
Planners said action strategies that tie to chapter objectives will be developed in Chapter 13 and that staff will continue to update data and coordinate with regional partners.
