By Josh Staloch
Staff Writer
HOBART – In the year 2000, census data shows Hobart had a population of roughly 5,100 people.
By today’s count, based on current census estimates, 20 years later, the Village of Hobart has more than doubled in size, its population now just short of 12,000.
May 13 marks the 20-year anniversary of Hobart’s incorporation as a village.
In the two decades since then, the unique community, on the one hand, a suburb of Green Bay, while on the other existing entirely within the boundaries of the Oneida Nation Reservation, has had to overcome its fair share of hurdles on its way to becoming one of the area’s fastest growing villages.
The history
Village Board President Rich Heidel, who has served as the head of the board since Hobart became a village, said he likes to look to the early 1900s, when Hobart was first incorporated as a town, to tell the story of how the current Hobart came to be.
“The push behind that, at the time, was the Oneida (Nation) Tribe,” he said. “There were no roads to speak of, just cow paths and dirt roads. So members of the tribe petitioned for the state to incorporate Hobart. And, in 1908, the state did so. Our first two town chairmen were both enrolled members of the Oneida (Nation) Tribe. So, tribal members actually led our community here for the first several years.”
The switch
Heidel said the motive for Hobart to change its status from a town to a village was to protect the community from what he called further annexation by the City of Green Bay.
As a town, Hobart was at risk of losing land parcels within its borders, which had the potential of bringing in valuable tax revenue.
So, in April 2002, Heidel said the citizens of Hobart voted 794 to 141 to incorporate into a village through referendum, thereby protecting Hobart’s borders and opening up new avenues for commerce and governing.
The challenges
Heidel said the amount of land contained within village borders, at 33 square miles, is significant and presents unique challenges.
For comparison, the Village of Howard is about half the size of Hobart, yet much larger in terms of population at nearly double the residents.
Trustee Dave Dillenberg has served on Hobart’s board since 1999, with a one-year lapse in his tenure.
He said he’s seen quite a bit from his seat as a board member, both when it was a town and then as a village, and even he’s surprised at how far and how quickly Hobart has grown in 20 years.
“I didn’t expect us to see this much growth, not this fast,” he said.
As rapidly as growth has come to Hobart, the village has done well to maintain its small-town charm.
“Sometimes, I hear complaints from people who wonder why we’re growing so fast,” Village Administrator Aaron Kramer said. “Well, if you just get in your car and go five minutes west or south, you wouldn’t think we’re growing. I mean, I drove home last week and there was a cow standing in the middle of the road. Big heifer standing right in the middle of Overland. So, we’ve still got that extreme rural flavor here. I think that’s part of the appeal of Hobart.”
The payoff
The village’s new look took shape quickly.
“It was 2008 and all of that which you see along Highway 29 now, where the new water tower is, Centennial Centre and so forth, that was all just soybeans or corn,” Heidel said. “The land came up for sale and the only two entities that could afford to buy it were the village itself or the (Oneida Nation) Tribe. So we bonded and we bought the land, in the worst economic environment in 75 years.”
The strategy to buy the land for roughly $6 million during turbulent financial times, Heidel said, was to get it developed and expand the village’s tax base.
In that regard, Hobart was successful.
In retrospect, Kramer said the move was necessary for the village’s economic viability.
“The board was frustrated in 2008,” Kramer said. “They could have sat around and pouted. But they didn’t, they went and spent $6 million.”
The Centennial Centre tax incremental district (TID), which, at the time of its creation, had a total of less than $21 million in taxable property, has turned into one of the most successful TIDs in the state as its tax base has grown enormously, valued at more than $218 million in 2020
“It’s paid for itself many times over,” Heidel said. “It accomplished the mission, it was wildly successful.”
Whats next
The village continues to grow, both in population and in the number of new businesses setting up shop within its borders.
D2, a sports pub and restaurant off Larsen Orchard Parkway has settled in since opening in 2020.
The Workshop, a basketball facility located on Centerline Drive, which offers training sessions and advanced hoops instruction, is currently gearing up for summer sessions and Scott Subs, a sandwich shop with locations currently in De Pere and on Green Bay’s east side, will soon open its doors on Centennial Centre Boulevard.
With all the growth comes a need for expanding services and Heidel said Hobart is getting ahead of those challenges by moving forward with a new fire station – replacing the current, 60-year old facility – which will be constructed at the site of Hobart’s Fire Department No. 1 at 2703 S. Pine Tree Rd.
“We have had a team of village staff, including some firefighters, who have spent some time specing this out, what they’d like to see,” Heidel said. “And they have in fact, on their own time, I might add, have visited several neighboring municipalities and their new stations, just to get ideas on what what to do and what should be included in the plan.”
He said the new fire station is still in the planning stage as information is gathered.
Also contributing to Hobart’s business viability is the addition of a soon-to-be open interchange at Highway 29 and County VV.
Not only will an overpass and easy access to the 65 mph Highway 29 traffic via on-ramps greatly improve safety in the heavily-traveled area, Heidel said the interchange will make Hobart that much more attractive for businesses.
“It’s primarily going to be for safety,” Heidel said. “Accidents at that intersection of County VV and Highway 29, it was an extremely dangerous intersection. As a measure to address that, they built what are known as j-turns. A j-turn is really a u-turn, it allows you to move over to the high-speed lane so that you can then make a u-turn, in the median, so that you could move in the opposite direction. It truly is a safety issue. Now, instead of stop signs, we’ll have on- and off-ramps. This is also occurring on the west side of the village, where most of our growth is happening, so it’s timely also. Job number two for this project is economic development, the opportunities it offers. It’s something businesses interested in coming to the village are interested in.”