TOWN OF PARIS — TMJ4 is the official home to the 2024 Summer Olympics, you can watch the games live from Paris and today marks 100 days to Paris!
Preserving Agrarian Life
Like many, TMJ4's Andrea Williams is excited about the summer games. So excited, she made a special wish to be in the City of Paris but somehow ended up in the Town of Paris in Kenosha County, Wisconsin. The Town was organized in 1842, and the residents have been dedicated to preserving an agrarian way of life.
John Holloway is the Town Chair in the Town of Paris. The population is 1,375 with a few interesting landmarks including a Civil War monument.
"This is the oldest publicly funded Civil War monument in the state of Wisconsin. It was funded by the people of the Town of Paris in 1866 to commemorate the Paris residents who were involved in the civil war," said Holloway. His job as Town Chair is administering the day-to-day activities of the town. His father served in the Navy during WWII. His grandfather, also named John Holloway, served as Town Chair 64 years before his grandson.
The monument can be seen at the Paris Town Hall, and you can catch the white marble obelisk lit every night in Paris. Andrea and John were then off to Kenosha Beef International/ Birchwood Foods where they met the President and CEO Dennis Vignieri.
From Borrowed Money to Global Success
Vignieri has lived in the Town of Paris for 72 years. His grandfather, Frank Vignieri, was an Italian immigrant and borrowed $35 from his grandmother's cookie jar to start the meat packing company in 1936.
"We are now a further processor of beef and we create ground beef products and our products go into quick service restaurants," said Vignieri.
"I'm very proud of the fact that my Grandpa struck out and dared to do that. My Dad took the ball and ran with it and got it to where it is today and I say I'm just trying to hang on and keep it going."
Hundreds of employees produce 3 to 4 million pounds of beef a week that is then shipped around the world. Charlie Tamburelli is the Vice President of Operations and keeps everything on track.
"We mix both lean and fat together for a respective lean point. We have inspectors on the line to look for anything that shouldn't be in the meat...bones, tissue, those types of things," said Tamburelli.
A Familiar Sight Along I-94
Next on the list was a place you've likely driven past on I-94, the Mars Cheese Castle. Michael Ventura serves as General Manager.
"My grandparents started the business in 1947. Putting Paris, Wisconsin on the map, right? We hope so, in our little way," said Ventura.
He has worked in the family business for the past 25 years. You can find everything from cheese to wine and even Cheeseheads!
"We like to think of ourselves as ambassadors to Wisconsin in that we are so close to the border, we get a lot of travelers shopping here and they get to shop for all these great Wisconsin products, we're proud of that," he said.
In case you were wondering, they call it a castle because they consider their customers royalty.
"We've got wines from all over the world as well as here in Wisconsin, and we can't leave out the French wines, they make some of the best," said Ventura.
After tasting a few of their 500+ varieties of cheese, it was time to say au revoir.
Wearing his Mars Cheese Castle crown, Ventura helped Andrea get back to TMJ4 News. "Click your heels three times and say there's no place like home!"
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