Vernon County, Wisconsin

VERNON COUNTY , WI SCONS IN offices, and production floor are powered by a 96-panel, 30-Kilowatt solar array that sits just outside its front door. Borah Teamwear in Coon Valley, a manufacturer of premium custom cycling jerseys and kits, and the Viroqua Food Cooperative are also using solar and wind to generate significant portions of their electric usage. While agriculture and tourism are Vernon County’s mainstays, Dollhausen says that attracting new manufacturing businesses is also a key part of her agenda. There are industrial parks in Coon Valley, Hillsboro, Viola, Viroqua, and Westby, with dozens of tenants already established and more site-ready acres available for development, including the new Viroqua Business Park. The County, as well as several communities along the Kickapoo River, have received federal Economic Development Administration (EDA) grants to aid them in building up infrastructure in their business parks, while also helping them to re-envision their communities in the wake of devastating floods that occurred in 2018. Dollhausen believes that Vernon County is “fertile ground” for doing business. “We’re able to grow businesses, especially from the inside- out,” she claims. “There’s an entrepreneurial spirit here in Vernon County; we’re smart, resilient, and innovative people with access to technology. And we’re laying the land so these businesses can be able to grow. If we can grow from the inside out, that’s the goal. But if a business wants to come from the outside, we have various programs in the County, as well as state and federal resources, to help them flourish here.” An incentive for new businesses, and a significant amenity for existing ones, is the County’s broadband infrastructure. “That’s something that we can brag about versus other rural counties,” Dollhausen states. “We have an extensive fiber-optic network. Vernon Communications Cooperative invested over $25