Doyle to Close Welcome Centers
Good. Shut them down.
The eight Wisconsin Welcome Centers, where visitors have long stopped to pick up information about Wisconsin Dells, state parks and other attractions, could be closed by May under Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget proposal. The shutdown will help the Department of Tourism, which operates the centers, cut $1.7 million from its upcoming two-year budget.
The Welcome Centers have eight full-time and five part-time employees, along with 30 seasonal workers, according to the department’s budget summary. The centers include rest stops operated by the Department of Transportation, which will determine whether to keep that function open.
Fewer tourists have been stopping at the centers in recent years, and have been instead getting information from the Internet. The department’s Web site, travelwisconsin.com, has seen consistent traffic increases over the past five years, according to the budget summary.
I’ve never understood these things. Same with rest stops. Perhaps there was a time for them, but in the age of the internet and a gas station on practically every exit, it seems pointless.
While I agree with you about the information centers, I disagree with you about rest stops. they provide a servicve to truckers who need a place to sleep at night. It also provides rest areas for people who drive long distances and to pet owners to let their dogs roam. So, keep the rest stops.
In addition, the rest stops provide real jobs with people with disabilities.Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 26, 2009 at 1759 hrs
Perhaps Doyle will erect “Goodbye” centers, as all the businesses make their exodus from Wisconsin.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 26, 2009 at 1806 hrs
I agree on closing the welcome centers, but not the rest stops. I have never mindlessly driven into a state and gone, “Hmm, I wonder what there is to do and stopped for some brochures.”
Yes, there are many more gas stations out there. But having truckers parking their car at a rest stop means they aren’t parking them on off-ramps and the side of the interstate, keeping the roads safer. Most private businesses do not allow truckers to park overnight. And I would rather have a tired truck driver stopping at a rest stop instead of driving “just 20 more miles” to a gas station. It does provide a relatively safe, clean place for people to stop in the middle of the night. Running the rest stops doesn’t cost that much: lights, someone to clean it, someone to stock the vending machines and having a State Trooper drive through every couple of hours to make sure everything is OK. Stick the brochures at the rest stops and everything will be fine.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 26, 2009 at 1820 hrs
I hear you on the truckers, but I think there are better ways to achieve the same goal for far less money. For example, the state could pay a small stipend to certain roadside businesses along the routes that have ample room for trucks to allow the truckers to sleep there. Or heck, even build the blacktop in those spaces and then turn it over to the business owners to maintain them without a stipend. It wouldn’t work for everyone, but probably for enough to give plenty of rest stops along the way.
Posted by Owen on February 26, 2009 at 1830 hrs
This road warrior is already lamenting the closing of half of Vermont’s Interstate rest stops. At least here in VT, an exit is not a promise of anything resembling civilization, and I’m getting too modest to pull over and whizz over the guardrail.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 26, 2009 at 1831 hrs
I agree on the welcome centers. On rest stops, I see value, but I like Owen’s idea of incorporating private business into them to relieve the state of the maintenance burden. It would also provide additional revenue for any gas station facilitating it.
Posted by Joey on February 26, 2009 at 1942 hrs
I am constantly amazed how government always threatens to close down highly visible things under the guise of saving money. The feds said they would close the Washington monument, National parks, Military bases.
Cut the bull——and eliminate ridiculous programs like Governor Doyle and President Obama are pushingPosted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 26, 2009 at 2237 hrs
Looking at a map of Wisconsin rest stops, there are seven rest stops with welcome centers. If it is just about closing those particular rest stops, I don’t have a big problem with that. All of them are close enough to civilization to allow people to find a restroom/place to park. And you can place the brochures in nearby gas stations. But I do think there is value in keeping the rest stops open generally. I don’t think a stipend to gas stations would save that much money.
Wisconsin has a structural deficit that isn’t going to be solved by replacing rest stops with stipend-paid gas stations (and how many gas station rest rooms do you like using? Put most gas stations against most rest stops and I will choose the rest stop almost every time when I am painting the town yellow or taking the Browns to the Super Bowl). Changes need to be made to the relationship between state and local governments. Massive changes. But removing rest stops is taking away a governmental service that does what it was intended to do at a reasonable price. Those are not the cuts we need to be making.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 26, 2009 at 2248 hrs
I spent most of my childhood traveling between here and Kansas. I have to say that rest stops are nice in the areas that have no where else to stop for a bathroom break.
However, in all the years I spent traveling back and forth, I could count on one finger the number of times we stopped at one of those information centers, and that was only because my mom found out they sold locally made items.
Posted by MommaBlogger on February 27, 2009 at 0927 hrs
The travel information centers were basically part-time employment for retired state employees. I like the rest stops, in todays technology age the tourism information centers are not necessary.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 27, 2009 at 1049 hrs
If anyone has stopped at the rest area near Portage on I-90/94 recently, they would have seen signs that state it will be under construction to the tune of $3-4 million over the next two years. You would also notice that it already is one of the nicest rest areas as it stands. I believe that rest areas are important for many of the reasons stated, mainly for truck drivers to rest and make the road safer.
I can’t believe that there is a need to build what amounts to a convention area in these rest areas. Generally you stop, take a leak and stretch your legs and off you go. It is nice for the women not to have pit toilets at these (this one already is modern) but beyond that you don’t need to build a place where people want to hang out.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 27, 2009 at 1222 hrs
How long could a rest stop have been financed with the cash Diamond Jim is wasting in Spain to look at trains we neither need nor can afford?
Oh, that’s right, we would have to cut the police & fire protection first.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 27, 2009 at 1320 hrs
But removing rest stops is taking away a governmental service that does what it was intended to do at a reasonable price. Those are not the cuts we need to be making.
I agree with the sentiment to close the visitors centers. I too like rest stops, and am always open to exploring alternatives like Owen suggested.
Having said that rest stops are WAY low on the totem pole.
We are closing rest stops that provide a service (potentially) to all and INCREASING funding for entitlements that benefit only a select privileged few.
Thats wrong. If the rest stops should go fine… but AFTER all the other bullshit entitlements that don’t have half the REAL social benefit that a rest stop does.
I saw on the news yesterday wisconsin was getting like 3 billion in “stimulus”
money.of that 500 million was going to roads and infrastructure and the remainder to education and healthcare???????? What the fuck?
Why are the priorities so drastically shifting from the core services government should provide like roads and buildings and instead social spending on healthcare and education? Thats NOT stimulus my friends. Thats socialism in a “stimulus” costume.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 27, 2009 at 1625 hrs
I agree with Sonny. Close the welcome centers, but keep a few brochures at the rest stops. Most of those brochures are probably paid for by the businessman who owns whatever attraction they’re advertising anyway.
However, in my opinion this is just rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic. There is a lot more waste in Wisconsin’s government than rest stops.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 27, 2009 at 2334 hrs
So what do truckers do in states that don’t have welcome centers? Maybe they go to a… truck stop?
Shut these down. Waste of money. Truckers have plenty of other places to go.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 28, 2009 at 0941 hrs
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