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New life to the battery packaging plant?
CEO Greene eyeing former Energizer building for proposed plant
New life wis batt
Jason Kreul
Fennimore Times
Published: Jan 16, 2025, 2:52 PM

   It appears that Wisconsin Battery Company CEO Jeff Greene is a believer in the old saying “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

   Back in June, Greene announced plans to lease the former Family Dollar building  in Fennimore, stating the building could become a battery packaging plant for the Wisconsin Battery Company.

   In an interview with the Fennimore Times on June 9, Greene stated that “ideally, we’ll be able to start in Fennimore in 10 to 12 weeks.” He went on say that as of June 9, he had received 30-40 resumes, and he hoped to “have the first 12 employees dialed in the next four weeks, which at that time would have meant mid to late July.

   He had also stated he hoped to possibly lease or buy the former World of Variety building next door.

   Additionally, in April of last year, the Wisconsin  Battery Company broke ground in Portage on a new facility to produce batteries. The Portage location was to be a packaging plant until the new facility is completed, hopefully in a year at time of the ground breaking.

   And then things went quiet.

   The former Family Dollar building still remains empty and available for purchase or lease, and the World of Variety building has been purchased by Rob Krantz, owner of Krantz Auto Parts, with the building to become a hardware store later in this year.

   According to an article in last week’s Telegraph Herald,  Greene stated that the company missed out on a $50 million U.S. Department of Energy grant, which was part of $3 billion the department awarded this year for battery manufacturing and recycling operations.

   Additionally, in her October report to the Fennimore City Council regarding the Wisconsin Battery Company and its CEO Jeff Greene, then Fennimore Community Development Manager Lydia McLimans stated, “Despite promises of a ‘big announcement’ in September, no announcement has been made, and we don’t expect one to ever be made. Their project in Portage is on hold for lack of funding, as they did not receive the grants they were banking on. Jeff Greene did ask me to write a grant on their behalf which we  declined to do based on our research of the grant that led us to believe his proposal didn’t meet the grant requirements.”

   “We didn’t win the grant. We’re going to have to do this on our own,” Greene told the Herald.

   This month, Greene is hoping to round out a drive for $12 million in private investments through Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s Qualified New Business Venture Program, which offers incentives, such as tax credits, for investment in early-stage Wisconsin businesses.

   This, combined with $40 million in industrial revenue bonds, will “kickstart the enterprise,” Greene said, although the company will need immediate revenue to pay off the bonds.

   “We’ve had lots of pivots during this process,” Greene stated to the Fennimore Times. “We’ve had to modify our business plan. Mostly shifting from a private company to a public one.”

   “We’re working very diligently to finally get this done,” Greene went on to say.

   Greene also stated to the Herald that one benefit came from not receiving the grant, that being now having the ability to use the approximately 200,000-square-foot former Energizer facility.

   He hopes to start a lease-purchase agreement with the former Energizer building’s new owners next month for the site of the new plant.

   As he stated back in June, should the packaging plant come to fruition, Greene said he still hoping to hire locals, especially those who previously worked at the Energizer plant, with the former Energizer space serving as a warehouse for reselling Chinese-made batteries as his team conducts research and development for future manufacturing at the facility.

     Down the road, Greene stated the company would sell green graphite and hard carbon to other battery manufacturers and would also manufacture its own specialty batteries.

   “If Wisconsin Battery is able to get up and running in Fennimore, they’ll be able to attract talented workers,” Ron Brisbois, Grant County Economic Development Corporation executive director, said to the Herald. “I know we have that (manufacturing) skillset in the area.”

   “We’ll grow slow,” Greene stated in his interview. “But we hope to have 200 to 300 employees in the next three to five years at the plant.”

   When asked if he was concerned about attracting employees, as his original plan had his plant opening at or near the same time Energizer closed, Greene stated, “Our plan is to offer the highest wages and best benefits in the area. Attracting employees shouldn’t be an issue.”

   Greene also stated the company still has similar plans for the Portage location, but with the Fennimore plant ready for use once nearly $3 million in equipment is added, and with the Portage plant still needing construction, Fennimore is his company’s main focus as of now.

   One potential obstacle in Greene’s battery reselling plan is President-Elect Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on China. However, Greene believes these tariffs in the long-term could benefit domestic battery manufacturers like his own.

            The Telegraph Herald contributed to this article.
It was quite an election
On April 1
Election Results_April 1, 2025 Crawford County
GILLIAN POMPLUN
Crawford County Independent & Kickapoo Scout
Published: Apr 2, 2025, 5:05 PM

Politics-weary Wisconsin citizens mustered the verve to once again go to the polls in Wisconsin’s April 1 spring election. With record spending, a barrage of campaign literature in mailboxes, chaos on the federal level, and an endless stream of divisive TV advertising, voters on both sides turned out in record numbers to support the candidates of their choice.

Happy or sad, it’s likely the vast majority is just glad it’s over. While most spring elections draw much lower turnout than a presidential election, voter turnout in this year’s race was on par with last November’s contentious election in which Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris for the office of President of the United States.

Of course, the Wisconsin Supreme Court election took top billing, garnering record amounts of spending. Conservative versus liberal control of the court was on the line with the retirement of liberal justice Ann Walsh Bradley. Contending for the 10-year term were Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel and Dane County Judge Susan Crawford.

The race was called for Crawford around 10 p.m. after Schimel called her to concede. The unofficial results show Crawford winning with 55% of the statewide vote to Schimel’s 45%.

Crawford County voters bucked recent electoral trends, carrying for the liberal candidate. In the county, Crawford took 51% of the vote, defeating Schimel with 49%. Crawford’s candidacy also prevailed in Vernon County with 54% of the vote, Richland County with 52% of the vote, La Crosse County with 63% of the vote, Sauk County with 57% of the vote, Iowa County with 62% of the vote, and Green County with 58% of the vote. Crawford’s victory was propelled by massive turnout and majorities in Dane, Milwaukee, Rock, Eau Claire and Bayfield counties. Voters in Dane County cast 82% of their votes for Crawford, in Milwaukee County 75%, in Rock County 61%, in Eau Claire 63%, and in Bayfield 61%.

Schimel’s campaign prevailed locally in Grant, Lafayette and Monroe counties, earning 52%, 51%, and 55% of votes cast respectively.

Incumbents prevail

It was also a night for incumbent candidates to prevail in races pertaining to public education in the state. Incumbent Wisconsin State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jill Underly won her race against charter school advocate Brittany Kinser, taking 53% of the statewide vote to Kinser’s 47%.

Locally, Underly outperformed Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford, winning her contest in counties that carried for Waukesha County judge Brad Schimel. Those counties include Grant and Lafayette counties, where Underly took 52% of votes cast. Kinser held on to votes cast for Schimel in Monroe County, taking 56% of votes cast.

Underly’s candidacy prevailed in Crawford, Vernon, Richland, Iowa, Sauk, and La Crosse counties. In those counties, Underly took 53%, 54%, 56%, 61%, 57%, and 61% respectively.

Mirroring the results in the statewide Superintendent of Public Instruction race, incumbent candidates Jerry Coleman and Charissa Richter prevailed against challengers Jesse Swenson and Melany Jelinek winning two three-year terms on the North Crawford School Board.

Coleman was the top vote-getter, with 660 votes, followed by Richter with 532 votes. Richter and challenger Melany Jelinek ran neck-in-neck for much of the night until results came in for the villages of Gays Mills and Bell Center, which pushed Richter over the finish line ahead. Jelinek finished with 502 votes, and Swenson with 412 votes.

Coleman took the most votes in the towns of Clayton, Haney, Scott, Utica, and in the villages of Bell Center, Gays Mills, and Soldiers Grove. Richter took the second most votes in the towns of Clayton, Haney, Scott, and Utica, and in the villages of Gays Mills and Soldiers Grove. Jelinek took more votes than Richter in the town of Freeman, and in the villages of Bell Center and Mt. Sterling.

Voter ID

Voters across the state voted to amend the Wisconsin Constitution to require photo identification to vote. The measure failed only in Dane and Milwaukee counties. Wisconsin had already required voters to show identification, but passage of the Republican-backed ballot question will make it harder for that requirement to be removed by the courts or the state legislature.

Statewide, the measure passed with 63% of the vote, with 37% of the voters voting against it.