(This interview was edited for time and clarity. Listen to the full conversation in the link above.)
Jason Cregier: There has been a lot going on in southern Wisconsin of late, so we called on a newsmaker in that area to give us an update on some of the news making headlines. Alex Gary is a reporter for the Beloit Daily News and joins us now.
So, Alex, let us dive right in. Beloit recently named a new City Manager, who is it?
Alex Gary: The man’s name is Daniel Ortiz Hernandez. He has been around the United States and that was the difference between himself and other finalists for the position.
The other finalist for the position was the City Manager for Whitewater, which is less than an hour away from Beloit, and that man has only worked in Wisconsin.
So, it was an interesting choice: Hernandez came from California; he worked in Iowa and worked in Texas…versus someone who knows the state of Wisconsin and how it operates. I thought it was an interesting choice that Beloit made for its city manager position.
Now, the last time we chatted, we discussed the possibility of a data center being built near Beloit. Since then, there is also talk about a liquefied natural gas plant coming to Beloit. How are people reacting to that news?
They call it LNG for liquefied natural gas.
It was proposed, gosh, early in 2025 or late 2024 and it has been going through an approval process.
Environmentalists hate it, but it was not generating much controversy, until the data center possibility came along. The environmentalists are tying it all together saying, “Look what they’re doing out there.” They built a much bigger power plant in 2020, they were approved to add more megawatts to the plant in 2025, and now they want to build an LNG plant.
Theoretically it is like a “peaker” thing, right?
When there is peak demand in the system.
Environmentalists see it as a way to add more power to the grid for a data center and are tying it all together as one grand plan to supply power to data centers.
The people who are against data centers have now adopted the plan for an LNG plant as something else they do not want in Beloit.
Let us end our conversation on a lighter note. Farmers' markets are opening across the Stateline now that the weather is warming, and that includes the farmers' market in Beloit. Beloit’s farmers' market is recognized as being one of the better ones around the area. Why is that?
Well, it is the second largest farmers' market in Wisconsin. Only the Dane County Farmers’ Market in Madison is bigger.
In Beloit, it is not just locals who come to shop at the farmer’s market. People and vendors come from all over, with good vendor support too. The Beloit Farmers' Market has survived 51 years, even through the 1990s when Beloit was suffering economic hardships due to the closure of Beloit Corp.
The Beloit Farmers' Market is now based on State and Grand St., which has had tons of investment. Downtown Beloit has improved over the last 20 years and has many advantages for the Farmers' Market being held there.
The only thing that separates Madison and Beloit’s farmers' market is just the difference in the respective cities’ size. Many shoppers that go to the Beloit Farmers' Market come from Rockford, the DeKalb area, Madison, and Milwaukee… It draws from at least two hours away.
That is Alex Gary of the Beloit Daily News.
You can check out Alex’s work at beloitdailynews.com.
Alex, thanks for joining us today.
Thanks a lot, I hope to talk with you soon.
