Civil Municipal - May 2024

States. During World War I, Hillsboro milk was transported to U.S. soldiers fighting on the front lines in Europe. Life nowadays is laid-back, says Hillsboro Mayor Gregory Kubarski. Agriculture drives the city’s economy, while the area’s natural amenities offer plenty for residents to keep busy. “We’re in the unglaciated part of Wisconsin,” says Kubarski. “It’s a beautiful area. The people that live here want to live here because of the seasons and because of hunting and fishing. You’ve got all the seasons here. If you don’t like the heat, well, just wait a few months and you’ll see white snow.” There’s plenty of cultural history in Hillsboro, where the area’s earliest settlers came from Germany and Bohemia, leading the city to be coined the Czech capital of Wisconsin. Many current residents are descendants of those early settlers, as families have thrived in Hillsboro for generations,maintaining that tight-knit sense of community along the way. Expansion, both demographically and economically, takes a greater effort in small rural establishments such as Hillsboro. Slowly but surely, this place is growing, and the city’s administration has high hopes for what’s to come. SMALL-BUSINESS SUCCESSES When Josh Finch, Hillsboro’s City Administrator, assumed his role in 2021, the city’s downtown area had 10 vacant buildings. Some of those vacancies were due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but others were unoccupied for a decade. Action was needed, so Finch and Kubarski turned to the city council and the Community Development Authority group for aid. “When I got here, it was very apparent that the council wanted to see the downtown flourish, and rightfully so,” says Finch. First, the local council groups established internal revolving loan funds, plus façade improvement grants, to incentivize the rehabilitation and revitalization of Hillsboro’s commercial buildings, says Finch. Eventually, as a result of diligent effort, the city, under two administrators, procured two 101 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 05, ISSUE 05 HI LLSBORO, WI