By Kris Leonhardt

WISCONSIN RAPIDS – Governor Scott Walker toured the state by bus – visiting 21 cities in five days – making a stop in the Wisconsin Rapids area Aug. 11.

“We started on Thursday, and we’ll be back Monday night, before the primary,” Walker said. “Part of it is to remind people that they actually have a primary. I am not the only Republican on the ballot on Tuesday, and then obviously part of it – now we are looking for Tuesday asking people for their vote. Then, again, asking for their vote on Nov. 6.”

Among the visits Governor Walker made on Aug. 11, were the Rapids stop and one at the Clark County Fair in Neillsville.

“We started off at a field office in Plover for Portage County,” he said. “We had a nice turnout just outside of Wisconsin Rapids. We were at a business there that makes log cabins, so it was kind of cool and customized homes.

“We will be up in Ladysmith for the Rusk County Fair, so another fair opportunity at the county level; and then we will be at a dairy later tonight in Hayward. We will finish up staying overnight in Chippewa Falls.”

Walker said that he had a good turnout at each location and had a chance to speak with rural Wisconsin on their concerns.

“One of the biggest things I hear statewide is an interest in education, particularly a lot of talk about how to get people more into technical education and provide more opportunities there,” Walker recalled.

“I hear from employers, small business owners, and others all of the time about how they have jobs, they just don’t have the people to fill them. So, part of our hope is to make sure that every child, every student in the state graduates, and they graduate with a game plan for what their career step is going to be.

“I also heard on several stops along the way, concerns from dairy farmers and others. We’ve seen over the last year or two, there has been real challenges out there in terms of milk prices in particular. We started out in January issuing an executive order to try to expand market development to open up more markets for our dairy farmers.

“One of the specific things I’ve talked to a number of folks about today at the last couple of stops was the changes we made with our Wisconsin Health Care Stability Plan. We got broad bipartisan support for it earlier this year. The Trump Administration just signed off on it about two weeks ago, and I signed it to help drop premiums.”

While the governor was touring the state, it was announced that President Donald Trump had approved a disaster declaration for Clark County, along with five other counties, due to the affects of the flooding that hit portions of Wisconsin in June.

FEMA damage assessments declared $13.1 million dollars in damage to public infrastructure. Communities in Clark County may now apply for federal disaster assistance. FEMA contributes 75 percent of the reimbursement costs, while state and local agencies cover the remaining 25 percent.