‘I Make America’ tour stops at Prairie du Chien business

Tour puts emphasis on infrastructure, passage of federal highway bill

PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, Wis. (WKBT) — A nationwide pro-manufacturing campaign made a stop in western Wisconsin Tuesday.

The “I Make America” tour stopped at Dillman Equipment in Praire du Chien. The company makes heavy equipment, some of which is used for road construction.

That’s important for the tour, which is putting an emphasis on getting the federal government to pass a long-term highway bill.

Right now, Wisconsin is looking at patching its own roads. An upcoming statewide referendum proposes a constitutional amendment to make sure money that’s supposed to go to roads is actually used to fix roads.

State Representative Lee Nerison believes a strong infrastructure will lead to a stronger economy.

“It’s jobs, jobs for the area,” said Rep. Nerison, who represents the 96th assembly district. “If we can make the conditions right and have the confidence or owners have the confidence to re-invest their money in their business and grow their business, that’s going to be more jobs in the area, and it keeps the jobs here instead of seeing them go some place else.”

Rep. Nerison hopes the bipartisan effort is the start of things to come.

“We have to get the economy moving faster than it is, it has turned around a bit, but we’ve got to get it moving to get the people back to work, so we have to work together,” said Nerison.

The federal highway bill expires in June 2015.