The parking lot of bustling metal fabricator Wenthe-Davidson Engineering Co. was the site of a welcome announcement for New Berlin and Oak Creek employers on Monday morning.
Milwaukee nonprofit MobiliSE joined with municipal and business leaders from the two suburbs to announce the expansion of its FlexRide service to the west and south.
FlexRid provides on-demand transportation from “neighborhood zones” in Milwaukee to “employment zones” in select suburban communities for $3 a ride or less.
“FlexRide is an ap for workforce transportation. Anyone can download it. Anyone can use it to get to a job in Menomonee Falls, Franklin, and now New Berlin and Oak Creek,” Dave Steele, executive director of MobiliSe, which oversees FlexRide Milwaukee, told attendees.
“When we launched this program in March of 2022, we had about five riders, maybe 10 on a good day. Well, that five or 10 riders became 20, and then 20 became 100, and 35,000 rides later we are just continuing to grow and serve more people getting from Milwaukee to great jobs in the suburbs, including at places like Wenthe-Davidson,” Steele added. “At any given time, about 200 to 300, are accessing 185 jobs sites (through FlexRide).”
Getting to work
Fred Anderson, president and CEO, of the employee-owned Wenthe-Davidson, which makes electric motor, generator housing, steel tubular housing, emissions housing for companies like ABB and Generac, said workers at the company – 42% of whom live in central city neighborhoods in Milwaukee – are eager to utilize FlexRide.
Right now, most of them carpool or rely on rides from family members, Anderson said.
“Their biggest concerns, believe it or not, are not making motor housings… their concern is their families – getting their kids to a good childcare. That’s the first step, taking care of their families, then it is getting here. … We used to have bus service. But, they were on the bus for two and a half hours. That is not sustainable,” Anderson said.
The expansion to New Berlin and Oak Creek follows the September launch of FlexRide for Working Parents, a partnership with Employ Milwaukee connecting Milwaukeeans with rides to daycare, work, and back, for free. Earlier this year, FlexRide added its South Zone, expanded hours to 24-7 on weekdays, and put into service a new fleet of branded vehicles.
Wenthe-Davidson currently employs 215 people, and it’s hiring weld-techs, CNC programmers and welders, Anderson said. The business isn’t expecting people who are already trained for those jobs, just people who are interested and can get to the New Berlin business, he said.
“If I get somebody in the door that gives me any indication that that is what they want to do, then we will train them. They will be welders or CNC operators,” he said.
Suzanne Kelley, President and CEO of the Waukesha County Business Alliance noted in her remarks that hiring remains the single biggest challenge facing employers in Waukesha County.
“FlexRide has been a tremendous, and innovative transportation solution to connect our employers to employees they would otherwise struggle to hire,” Kelley said. “Programs like FlexRide are critical to county’s economic growth”
Oak Creek Mayor Dan Bukiewicz echoed Kelley’s remarks, noting that businesses in his community have long bemoaned the struggle to get workers.
“We have limited county bus service, and those last two miles are crucial. We could not fill those jobs, so FlexRide is the answer. It is going to benefit businesses throughout Waukesha County,” he said.
Cooperation and support
Thanking supporters, including the Waukesha County Business Alliance, the Department of Workforce Development, Milwaukee County, which provided ARPA funding for the effort, and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., which provided a $4.2 million Workforce Innovation Grant, Steele called Monday’s gathering a family reunion.
He also thanked Eve Hall, president and CEO of the Greater Milwaukee Urban League, Waukesha County Board Chairman Paul Decker and Kathy Ehley, the former Mayor of Wauwatosa, who founded MobiliSE in 2015 as the Regional Transit Leadership Council. Today Ehly serves as the chair of MobiliSE’s board of directors.
The council began as a coalition of regional leaders who came together to address workforce transportation needs in the region.
Previous efforts to connect workers in the city to jobs in the suburbs had mostly focused on bus service. A lawsuit settlement over the reconstruction of the Zoo Interchange created a pool of money to support bus routes that went to Menomonee Falls, Germantown and New Berlin. While the JobLines, as they were called, had some success, the number of passengers per bus hour was lower than other Milwaukee County Transit System routes and the funding ran out in 2019, ending the service.
When members of the Region Transit Leadership Council initially began meeting eight years ago, it was a long slog through meeting after meeting, but eventually the council proved that vision, along with cooperation, could turn into something, Decker told supporters on Monday.
“We knew we had to have something different. We had to look at transit and transportation in a whole new way. We had to make it palatable,” Decker said. “FlexRide has really propelled us into a better method (for transporting) people … Transit is not going to go away. The need for it is not going to go away. How do we do it correctly? That is our job – all of our jobs. I believe we have done it with MobiliSE.”
Hall, who works with working-class families in the city of Milwaukee, said FlexRide is really about providing options to people.
“I think it is important for us to look at where the jobs are, and how we can get people to those jobs, whether it is in the city or a suburb,” she said. “It is about families having access to good jobs. It also makes businesses better, helping them attract and retain good talent.”
