— This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann.
The discussion centers on the county’s Next Generation Housing initiative, which aims to expand affordable, high-quality housing options for the local community with a focus on the next generation of residents.
“Owning that first home is the definition of the American dream, and it’s the greatest generational wealth builder in America,” he said. “And so, for us, Next Generation Housing is how do we allow for the starter home of yesteryear … and give the next generation the same opportunity previous generations have had.”
County officials are targeting 1,000 owner-occupied units by 2032, with 40% priced under $340,000, 80% under $360,000 and 100% under $420,000, including both the home and lot. While some of the price points have shifted over the life of the project, Schoemann emphasizes his office’s commitment to keeping homes attainable.
The idea originated in 2019 when Schoemann was first running for county executive, and was later expanded into a formal strategy in 2021. Following a housing analysis that identified a shortage of around 3,000 homes in the “missing middle” price point, the county set out to create the first 1,000 units. The initiative has completed about 210 units, Schoemann said.
“Governments from all levels have their fingers in everything housing, so it’s really about how do we do this smarter, and work a little harder … and really kind of cut back on some of the regulatory burden, the permitting burden, and allow the private sector to act,” he said.
Officials have laid out a number of barriers to housing, such as high development costs and zoning and land division regulations, along with related objectives to address these challenges. These include forming partnerships with developers, creating tools to provide partially forgivable loans for down payments, offering educational resources to first-time homebuyers and more.
The first developments advanced under the initiative are located in the village of Jackson — where first home sales were finalized in April 2024 — and the city of Hartford.
“We’re kind of building the plane as we fly it, so to speak, but I feel really good about where we’ve gotten to with municipal partners, realtors, builders, developers,” Schoemann said. “Pretty much everyone who touches this space, they have a confidence in the reliability of the systems and the processes that we’ve helped build out.”
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— A UW-Madison study found strategies for “deimplementing” opioids in primary care settings led to lower levels of these drugs being prescribed.
The university in a release yesterday put a spotlight on the study’s findings, which focus on an approach for prescribing opioids that involves educating clinicians and patient monitoring. Researchers found doctors at clinics using these strategies used lower opioid dosing levels.
Andrew Quanbeck, an associate professor of family medicine and community health at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, led the research effort. He notes that health systems have responded to the opioid epidemic with prescribing policies “to support safer opioid prescribing,” but adds “policies don’t implement themselves.”
“We need robust and effective implementation strategies to promote practice change,” he said in a statement.
The researchers studied different approaches to training clinicians on chronic pain management for nearly 9,000 patients in 56 clinics, according to the study.
By combining CDC opioid prescribing guidelines with the “deimplementing” strategies, they found clinics that followed this approach had a 6% decline in daily opioid use among patients. Study authors say this is a “modest” but statistically significant difference.
Quanbeck says the CDC’s 2022 guidelines, which call for a low opioid dose to start and a slow approach to new prescriptions, “seems to be the most solid recommendation” based on the study’s findings.
Study authors wrote that “clinic- and prescriber-level deimplementation strategies may help health systems take positive steps toward reducing reliance on opioid medications for chronic pain management in primary care settings.”
See the release.
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— Madison startup WellStack’s data platform will be used by Hartford HealthCare for patient care management, the company announced.
The collaboration is aimed at accelerating Hartford HealthCare’s digital health strategy, according to the release. Through the partnership, WellStack’s platform also will provide Hartford HealthCare with real-time analytics and advanced predictive modeling.
“We are thrilled to partner with Hartford HealthCare, a system known for its commitment to innovation and excellence,” WellStack CEO Rich Waller said in a statement. “Together, we will enable better clinical decisions, improve operational workflows, and ultimately deliver better care outcomes for patients.”
Hartford HealthCare, based in Connecticut, has more than 500 locations.
See more at Madison Startups.
— UW-Madison’s Division of Extension is continuing a farming climate outlook series, covering topics like crop trends, weather patterns, soil quality and more.
The Wisconsin Ag Climate Outlook started during the 2024 growing season in response to farmer questions following drought conditions in 2023. It was created by Natasha Paris, a regional crops educator who works in Adams, Green Lake, Marquette and Waushara counties.
“We had a lot of meetings last year to bring everybody in the climate space together to have conversations,” she said in an online post announcing the series’ continuation.
The planning team included Josh Bendorf, an agricultural climatologist with the USDA Midwest Climate Hub, who says the report aims to “help farmers make well-informed decisions” while providing insights to conservationists, ag advisors and others.
Outlook reports are created by the university with participation from the USDA and the Wisconsin State Climatology Office.
See the latest reports and find more information here.
— The president and CEO of Milwaukee-based Landmark Credit Union, Jay Magulski, plans to retire at the end of this year.
The credit union yesterday announced Magulski’s plan to step down, which comes after 23 years with the business. Landmark Credit Union’s board of directors, alongside its succession committee and executive search firm Korn Ferry, plan to name the company’s next leader by this summer.
See the release.
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