Lambeau Field in Green Bay | Photo by Jason Kerzinski for Wisconsin Examiner
Gov. Tony Evers announced Wednesday that he’s awarding $1.8 million to the city of Green Bay to cover the public safety costs associated with hosting the NFL draft in April.
The event drew more than 600,000 visitors to the city which, with a population of about 105,000, is the smallest NFL city in the country. Initial estimates say the draft generated $94 million in economic activity across the state and $20 million for the Green Bay area specifically.
Prior to the draft, a pair of Republican lawmakers had requested that the Republicans in control of the budget writing Joint Finance Committee include $1.25 million in the next state budget to help cover public safety costs. That request has not yet been addressed as Republicans continue to work on delivering a state budget to Evers.
The money Evers awarded is being disbursed from the Opportunity Attraction and Promotion Fund, a program proposed by Evers in his last state budget proposal to help the state recruit and host large-scale events. The 2023-25 budget included $10 million for the program and Evers had proposed an additional $5 million in his latest budget proposal.
“The 2025 NFL Draft was a booming success, and I’ve said all along that nobody could have pulled it off other than the Green Bay Packers and the good folks in Green Bay and across the region,” Evers said in a statement. “So, it was critically important to me that Green Bay and our local partners received the support they need to cover public safety costs, and I’m glad we were able to get this done.”
According to a news release, the grant will also help the village of Ashwaubenon and Brown County cover their costs associated with the event. Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich said the money will keep the burden of the event off city taxpayers.
“We’re incredibly grateful to Gov. Evers and WEDC for their critical support in covering public safety expenses related to the NFL Draft,” Genrich said. “This was a historic event that brought enormous economic benefits to our community and the entire state of Wisconsin. The allocation of this funding recognizes that positive statewide economic effect and protects our local taxpayers from bearing the costs—a win-win for our state’s and our city’s residents.”
Snowflakes fell last February as bundled-up women walked into a downtown Green Bay coffee shop. Inside, Third Space Green Bay was celebrating its one-year anniversary as a group that creates a gathering space for local queer, Black and Indigenous residents and other people of color.
Soft rhythm and blues — from SZA to Solange — filled the room as the group’s three co-founders led a Sunday morning clothes-mending and craft event that promised “healing through creativity.”
In launching Third Space, Jasmine Gordon, Ivy McGee and Sarah Titus aim to help people with a range of backgrounds feel at home in a city that’s 70% white and in a state where less than 4% of people identify as LGBTQ+.
The women met at St. Norbert College, a Catholic liberal arts institution in De Pere, just outside of Green Bay. McGee grew up in De Pere, and Titus, a native Minnesotan, moved to Green Bay in 2008. They had worked together for years as librarians at the college when Gordon, a St. Norbert alum, became the library’s community engagement coordinator in 2021. Seeing a gap to fill on campus, the women rolled out library programming that engaged LGBTQ+ students and people of color.
Mulva Library is seen through a gateway Dec. 16, 2024, at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis. Before founding the nonprofit Third Space, founders Jasmine Gordon, Ivy McGee and Sarah Titus worked for St. Norbert College together at Mulva Library.
Events like “The Transperience,” an art installation in partnership with the Bay Area Council on Gender Diversity and the Trans Artist Collaborative, and a farmers market featuring more than 40 Black-owned businesses prompted feedback from residents who said they had never felt so seen, loved or cared for.
“We would have people come up to us afterwards expressing, ‘Oh my gosh, I never knew I needed this,’” Titus said.
But St. Norbert’s climate of inclusion changed over the years, the women said. In fall 2024, for instance, the college changed its gender policy, aligning with Catholic church guidelines recognizing only two genders: male and female. While leaders said the college remained committed to supporting people of diverse backgrounds, many students and staff said the change sent a different message.
At the same time, Gordon, McGee and Titus envisioned a larger, independent project to promote inclusion across Green Bay — beyond the confines of campus.
“We saw an opportunity and a responsibility to separate ourselves from the institution and develop something that felt more aligned with our core values, and that was including folks from all different walks of life regardless of who they love or what color their skin is or how they identify,” McGee said.
A young girl picks out craft materials alongside co-founder Jasmine Gordon, right, during a Third Space Green Bay event at The Nightly Buzz in Green Bay, Wis.
Tote bags, T-shirts and stickers are for sale alongside a donation box during a Third Space Green Bay event at The Nightly Buzz on Feb. 16, 2025, in Green Bay, Wis.
Sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined the term “third space” in 1989, with home being someone’s “first place” and work as a “second place.” Third spaces are where people publicly gather informally, such as coffee shops, restaurants, coworking spaces and libraries. Third Space Green Bay seeks to create places for people to “just be,” its founders said.
Its programs are free and “open and welcoming to folks that are on the margins,” McGee said.
Third Space isn’t the only local group serving LGBTQ+ populations. The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Pride Center provides resources and holds events. But Third Space is rare in that it also intentionally serves Black and Indigenous residents, alongside other people of color.
“When we were thinking of how we wanted this organization to exist, we were really thinking about it as a coalition,” Titus said, adding that the group is “building and intertwining” multiple communities that are often marginalized locally.
Third Space, which filed to become a nonprofit in April 2024, has hosted more than 10 hours of community programming and raised more than $11,000 in grants and $6,700 in donations.
Earlier this year, Third Space hosted an International Women’s Day pop-up shop that included a poetry writing workshop and a live performance from a local poet.
McGee said joining other women in that space made her feel her organization was “absolutely on the right track” and helped her imagine what it could do with a permanent location.
Paige Berg, left, a Third Space Green Bay board member and trauma-informed art therapist, laughs with Essence Wilks, center, and Taiyana Plummer, whose hands are shown, during a Third Space event at The Nightly Buzz on Feb. 16, 2025, in Green Bay, Wis. Third Space hosted the free hands-on crafts workshop at the bar during its off hours. “Seeing this makes me so happy,” Plummer said. “I’ve been looking for community.”
The trio of founders said they are building the scaffolding for Third Space’s future. Until they secure a permanent location in downtown Green Bay, they’ll continue borrowing spaces from like-minded people in the community.
At the February anniversary event, Essence Wilks, a Milwaukee native who recently moved to Green Bay, and Taiyana Plummer, a Green Bay native, learned about Third Space after walking into the coffee shop in search of matcha tea. Plummer said she and Wilks had just been discussing a shortage of inclusive gathering spaces in Green Bay.
“Growing up here, especially when I was younger, it was harder to find people similar to me or spaces where I felt welcomed or heard and seen,” Plummer said. “So seeing this was very nice and made me feel very comfortable and just really excited for what’s moving forward with Third Space.”
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For the people of Green Bay, the long-awaited deal to move century-old coal piles from the riverfront near downtown is a big deal.
How big?
“This is our Louisiana Purchase. This is our purchasing of Alaska,” said state Rep. Dave Steffen, R-Howard. “It doesn’t get any bigger than this. We are not only just witnessing history, we’re part of it today.”
Steffen was one of the Green Bay-area lawmakers of both parties who were on hand Thursday before the Brown County Board of Supervisors approved a deal that will pave the way toward moving the hulking black piles that local officials and residents have hoped to oust for decades.
Thursday’s deal, approved unanimously after a closed session of the county board, sets the general framework for a lease agreement that will allow the coal to be relocated.
The coal sits on land along the Fox River that community leaders see as ripe for redevelopment. A very visible and not-so-pretty symbol of the city’s industrial heritage, it is also a nuisance for some residents who say dust from the piles blows into nearby neighborhoods.
A desire to move the coal piles to someplace less visible has been on the wish list of generations of city leaders.
“It’s literally something that mayors of the city of Green Bay and other community leaders have been working on for upwards of 75 years,” said Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich.
Thursday’s vote means the county will not lose a $15 million federally-funded state grant that was in jeopardy after the county board altered a previous deal in December and negotiations stalled. The county had until Tuesday to come to an agreement and until Friday for the board to approve it, or risk losing the grant.
C. Reiss Co. owns the coal piles. The company has operated the bulk commodities storage facility on Mason Street, located along the the Fox River, since 1900.
Under the deal, C. Reiss and the county will work to finalize a lease agreement for a 16-acre parcel of land at a former power plant site the county is redeveloping for the Port of Green Bay. The company would also lease up to 1.5 acres for a stormwater pond that it would maintain.
But the agreement stipulates that C. Reiss, or other users, may not store coal at the power plant site.
Rather, CEO Keith Hasselhoff said coal would be stored at a site near the power plant, known as the Fox River Terminal. C. Reiss’ parent company currently stores salt and other bulk commodities at the Fox River Terminal.
When the 16-acre parcel is ready, Hasselhoff said C. Reiss plans to move salt from the terminal site to the power plant.
“As that salt at Fox River depletes and opens up more space at Fox River, we’ll be able to land new vessels of coal at Fox River, which then will allow us to deplete the inventories that we have at Mason Street,” Hasselhoff said.
At a press conference before the meeting, Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach said moving the coal from downtown “is not going to happen overnight” and could take “a number of years.”
County Board chair Patrick Buckley said the final negotiations came down to the eleventh hour. He said talks were ongoing up through Tuesday night, when all parties came to a consensus. He said the county’s corporation counsel spent Wednesday and Thursday getting the agreement in writing for the board’s approval.
“It’s really a group effort here to get this done,” he said. “A lot of people did not think this was going to get done. … But a lot of hard work went into it.”
The lease for the power plant site still needs to be fully ironed out, but the agreement requires the lease be fully executed by Sept. 15 or the parties could be required to go to arbitration.
According to the conditions approved Thursday, it would run for 60 years with the annual rent set at $350,000 with inflationary increases every five years.
The length of a lease had been one of the biggest sticking points in past agreements. Back in December, C. Reiss had wanted a lease that ran up to 75 years, while the county board wanted a 30-year lease with a 10-year extension option.
Streckenbach acknowledged that the board previously had reservations about a long-term lease. But he said all sides had to make concessions in the negotiation.
“Ultimately, because of what we came to an agreement with and everybody making concessions, the county board felt comfortable going forward with the length that was proposed,” he said.
The agreement also stated that the city of Green Bay would provide up to $2.2 million if the county faces funding shortfalls related to the coal relocation effort.
Genrich said the addition of the city’s financial commitment was “one of the latter changes” that was made to the agreement and was something that he and Council President Brian Johnson had committed to in their discussions with county officials.
“Our priority is Mason Street and (doing) whatever was necessary within reason to make that redevelopment project possible,” he said. “The commitment that we all made to each other in the room was like, ‘We’re going to get this done regardless.’”
Genrich said the full Green Bay City Council will discuss the up to $2.2 million in funding at its meeting on Tuesday.
March marked three years since Paula Jolly opened Amanda’s House, a long-term, sober living home for women and their children in Green Bay.
Within four days of the opening of the home she named to memorialize her daughter, its six bedrooms were full. For the last year and a half, 40 or more people have sat on a wait list, Jolly said.
“It’s hard because a lot of times, they don’t have anywhere else to go,” Jolly said. “There’s other female sober living and male sober living (homes) in town but still not enough. They all have wait lists.”
Jolly, who grew up in Niagara, Wisconsin, has called Green Bay home since the 1990s. She has two degrees from Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, where she studied medical office management and human services and substance use counseling. Jolly said she “could have gone to be a substance abuse counselor but I decided this was my path because I can help more people this way.”
Founder Paula Jolly stands on the sidewalk outside of Amanda’s House.
The structure Jolly has built within Amanda’s House allowed her to escape what she described as rigid confines of typical counseling, where the state determines the terms of client services. She also made Amanda’s House a place where people could stay as long as they needed. While some may stay for just a couple of weeks, others have stayed for about two years.
Staff at Amanda’s House provides them with life skills training, mental health support, substance use support and connections to community resources.
While working at another sober living home in Green Bay, Jolly saw the need for this type of program firsthand. She watched as women left treatment prematurely to reunite with their kids — only to fall back into their previous harmful cycles.
“We’re trying to break the cycle,” she said.
Laurie Doxtator, a resident at Amanda’s House, closes her eyes during a recovery program meeting, Feb. 16, 2025.
Laurie Doxtator, 60, grew up west of Green Bay on the Oneida Reservation and returned to Wisconsin after living in California, where she said she used practically every drug you could think of and attempted suicide at one point. She said she began drinking alcohol at age 8 and experienced trauma over the decades, including the deaths of two of her children and a miscarriage.
“But then I learned, you have a life and you have better things going for you,” Doxtator said.
After 50 years of drinking, “it ain’t giving me nothing in life. It ain’t gonna bring my children back, it ain’t gonna bring my mom back,” she said.
Doxtator previously spent four months in a 30-day rehabilitation program but knew she needed more structure and more time to learn how to heal.
She has lived at Amanda’s House for more than two years.
After more than a year and a half of sobriety, aided by support from other women in the program and classes that help her heal, Doxtator said she feels safe there. “Me moving out from here into society, it’s scary for me,” Doxtator said. “I have to journey on one day but I have support here and support all over.”
Jolly has told Doxtator: “You can stay here until the wheels fall off.”
Jolly believes such assurance would have helped her daughter.
Angel decorations and a bulletin board memorializing Amanda Marcouiller hang on the wall in Paula Jolly’s Amanda’s House office on Dec. 17, 2024. Someone who attended drug court with Marcouiller made the board.
An angel statue stands outside Amanda’s House, Dec. 17, 2024. The building previously housed the Church of the Blessed Sacrament. The Episcopal Diocese of Wisconsin sold the building for $1 to the Mandolin Foundation for Amanda’s House, founder Paula Jolly says.
Amanda Marcouiller was 13 months into recovery when she died in 2020 at age 37. She spent part of her final week at her mother’s house, where Jolly could tell something was wrong.
“You’re acting like you did before, can I help you?” Jolly recalled asking her daughter, referring to Marcouiller’s previous period using substances. Marcouiller replied that she simply had a migraine. “So the last time I saw her was when she was probably under the influence, and I just couldn’t prove it or do anything about it,” Jolly recalled.
Many people in the region and state face similar challenges. United Way of Wisconsin’s 211 helpline in the past year has fielded more requests from Brown County residents for housing and shelter and mental health and addiction resources than any other broad categories.
Before lightly declining in 2023, drug overdose deaths in Wisconsin increased each year since 2016, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
Marcouiller helped Jolly launch the Mandolin Foundation, the nonprofit organization operating Amanda’s House, just a month before she died. “I wasn’t gonna continue on,” Jolly said. “But I felt like she would have wanted me to.”
Stained glass art hangs in the window at Amanda’s House, Dec. 17, 2024. An Amanda’s House volunteer made the piece and gifted it to founder Paula Jolly, who recalls “crying like a little baby” upon receiving it.
The next step for Jolly and her small staff at Amanda’s House: fundraise for a renovation to add five bedrooms. Jolly secured federal funds in January that give her a good start on that expansion.
“There’s a lot of states that are way ahead of us in recovery and substance use disorder type recovery, like eons,” Jolly said. “We have a lot of catching up to do.”
Need help for yourself or a loved one?
If you are looking for local information on substance use, call 211 or reach the Wisconsin Addiction Recovery Helpline at 833-944-4673. Additional information is available at addictionhelpwi.org or findtreatment.gov.
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