Business View Magazine | September 2020

303 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2020 JANESVILLE’S CITY FLAG is a symbol of the Janesville community’s past, present and future. 1853 is the year in which the City of Janesville was incorporated. The four stars stand for the original four wards in the city. The green color represents the farm fields which provided a foundation for a healthy agricultural industry. The black color represents the rich soil for which the Janesville region is famous, as well as the heavy smoke that billowed from the smoke stacks as the city developed into a manufacturing economy. The “squiggly tree” is the City of Janesville’s logo and symbolizes Janesville’s identity as “Wisconsin’s Park Place.” Finally, the circle represents the unity of Janesville, a community that is united in working together for a better future. years, Janesville was home to a General Motors manufacturing plant. That plant closed in 2008 at the beginning of the great recession and as a result we were in our own very serious state of recession – so we got a double whammy.” During that time, unemployment was up over 13 percent and there was 4 million square feet of vacant industrial space in Janesville and Rock County. So in 2010, a consortium of private businesses, Rock County, the Janesville Economic Development office, and the local chamber (Forward Janesville), incorporated and partnered with the Beloit Chamber and Beloit Economic Development to create Rock County 5.0. The JANESV I LLE , WI SCONS IN Economic Development Director, Gale Price