Hometown Hero - Patti Balacek

 

This week’s Hometown Hero is Patti Balacek of La Crescent, Minnesota. That’s right. Minnesota. Now normally I don’t make it a habit to choose people from outside my district let alone outside my state, but for Patti I just had to make an exception.

I have been working with Patti a lot recently, ever since she came up with an idea for a bill that would not cost any money. I know I know, too good to be true right? Turns out that Patti and her co-workers at Western Tech came up with a proposal that would create jobs and promote business expansion without costing any additional taxpayer dollars. The long and technical name for the bill that I drafted out of their proposal is the Small Business Diversification and Market Expansion Initiative. We just call it the WAT Grant bill. In a nutshell, it expands the scope of the already existing Workforce Advancement Training Grants available to Wisconsin Technical Colleges. In the past this grant money could only be used for training but now with the WAT Grant bill, schools like Western will now be able to help local businesses strategically plan for their future in this changing economy. This bill was the third jobs bill passed by the Assembly and like the previous two, it had wide bi-partisan support.

With the passage of this bill yesterday, I wanted to take a moment to honor the lady behind this fantastic idea. Patti is the Director of Business and Industry Services and Lifelong Learning at Western Technical College where she has worked for the past seven years. She oversees all the customized and contract trainings where the college works with local businesses to provide special trainings for their employees. She is also in charge of most of the continuing education and non-credit courses at Western.

 

Patti’s first foray into education was as a high school teacher in Idaho and in Minneapolis. She then switched gears to coordinate construction apprenticeship programs and then focusing on electrical apprenticeship courses with a construction electrical association. While working for the association, Patti was involved in all aspects of training including customized programs for various construction companies and lobbying at the state capitol in St. Paul. After her son was born, Patti moved with her family to the La Crosse area. She began working at Western and went on to earn her Masters in Training and Performance Improvement while working. 

For Patti, the most rewarding part of her job is working with businesses. She says it is a privilege to meet with them and to discuss the history of their work, their goals and plans for the future, and what obstacles may be in their way. She is honored to be trusted with that type of information and able to be a part of the team that gets to provide relevant and quality solutions.

The most frustrating part of her job she says is when a business knows that it needs help but there just is not enough time to fix it. Sometimes it may be because things are just moving too fast or other times it may just be the nature of the industry. For Patti though it is hard to watch businesses and people that she cares about run into trouble.

Patti’s family roots are strong in the La Crosse area. One of her parents was a high school public school teacher in La Crescent for 40 years and the other still works as a bookkeeper for a firm in La Crosse. She and her husband moved to Onalaska in 2004 and then to La Crescent in 2007. They both work full-time in La Crosse and are very involved in community organizations in the area. Patti is the proud mother of three children: Ethan is 10, Hayley is 8 and Grace is 2.

Patti likes to spend most of her spare time with her kids. She loves cheering them on at sporting events and encouraging their love of music and the arts. She regularly volunteers for her children’s school helping with activities like working with their computer system and counting box tops. She says that she works hard to balance her time between her family, work, church and school in a way that is healthy for her, her husband and her children.

We need more people like you, Patti; people who are willing to look for creative and inexpensive solutions to the problems facing our workforce today. Together with other representatives from Western Technical College, Workforce Connections, the La Crosse Chamber of Commerce, the La Crosse Area Development Corporation, Union officials and other members of the Seven Rivers Alliance, we were able to draft innovative and timely legislation that helps out small businesses all over the state. So thank you Patti and to everyone who worked hard to help make this proposal a reality.

Congratulations to you, Patti. Keep up the good work and continue to be a Hometown Hero.

 

Hometown Hero is a weekly feature put together by Rep. Steve Doyle (D-Onalaska). If you have any suggestions of a Hometown Hero, send a short description of why you think this person should be a Hometown Hero and contact information of both you and the nominee to rep.doyle@legis.wisconsin.gov.