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WHO: Mike Rindo.
WHAT: Executive director of communication and assistant chancellor for facilities and university relations, UWEC.
LIVES: Town of Washington, near Lowes Creek County Park.
IN THE VALLEY SINCE: 1974 (with a nine-year gap).

As UW-Eau Claire’s top spokesman, Mike Rindo stepped onto center stage last year with the announcement of the Confluence Project, a public-private proposal to build an arts-residential-commercial facility in downtown Eau Claire. But Rindo’s no stranger to the limelight: While he’s been with UWEC since 2001, Rindo first spent nearly 25 years in TV news, including anchor stints at WEAU-TV (Channel 13) and WQOW-TV (Channel 18). Below he talks about the Confluence, brags about Little Niagara, and recommends some presidential reading.

What places would consider you a regular?
Houligans. The Mousetrap. Court’n House.

Any places that no longer exist?
The Camaraderie – I practically lived there as a student. My wife was a waitress there, in fact. I used to be a big regular of Sammy’s Pizza when it was downtown.

Water Street or Downtown?
Downtown. I think that there’s a nice variety of places to go and walk. I really like Phoenix Park, being able to go there. I like the sculpture tour that’s downtown. Everything’s in pretty close proximity. You can go to the Downtown Cinema and catch a movie and either go to Houligans before or after.

When you’re in the grocery store, do people recognize you as that guy from TV or that guy they see on TV talking about the university?
A little of both. I think that some people became accustomed to seeing me in a setting of delivering the news, so that may be their frame of reference, even though I’ve been out of it for 11 years. And others recognize that I’ve been in the public view for a number of years now with the university talking about a variety of issues, and most recently predominantly about the Confluence Project.

The Confluence Project was announced nearly a year ago. Have you reached the stage you expected to by this point? What are the prospects moving forward for the project?
I think these kinds of projects require a lot of engagement and patience. … If you really go back, five years is where we started talking about the idea of improved or new community event facilities and the university being a partner, and that required a lot of discussion just to get us to the point where we really had an understanding of what the university’s role might be in a shared facility and what the community was looking for in those kinds of facilities. From there we were working on the idea of the Confluence, and made the announcement. Whenever you have as many governmental bodies and groups that are primary, key constituents – including art organizations – you need to make sure that you are doing the exploration and formulation in a very diligent and deliberate manner, and that’s what we’re trying to do. So it takes as long as it takes, you don’t want to rush something like this and be staring something unexpected in the face. … We’re still in the conceptual stage and still validating the operating model and governance model to ensure that it’s a sustainable and viable project in the near term and in the long term.

How has the relationship between the community and the university changed during your time in Eau Claire?
I think the university has become more outward-looking through a variety of ways, for example the service learning (program). That really engages our students in meaningful work with local organizations, especially nonprofits. I also think that a lot of the internships that our students are engaged in with local businesses are another way that we engage. And then of course (there are) the shared facilities, (including) Hobbs Ice Arena, which we really worked closely with the city and with the users of Hobbs to make the improvements.

UW-Eau Claire prides itself as having the most beautiful campus in the UW System. If another campus challenges you, how do you defend that claim?
We can defend the claim by saying, “Do you have a river running through your campus that is one of the best rivers in Wisconsin? Do you have a state natural area that will stay forever natural in Putnam Park? Oh, and by the way we have this little thing called Little Niagara that comes through campus, and a river bluff.”

If you had to choose, who is the greatest Wisconsinite of all time?
I’m going to go with Gaylord Nelson. I just think about what he did to kindle the whole environmental movement. We forget that when I was a student here, you wouldn’t go in the Chippewa River because it was so polluted. When you go back to the creation of Earth Day, that’s a legacy that I think has led to a lot of people thinking differently about the world, whether it be our natural resources, population, poverty, all of those things.

If you have to describe Eau Claire with three adjectives, what would they be?
Beautiful. Hard-working. Collaborative.

If you could recommend any book to the members of the City Council, what would it be?
I would recommend Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris. It starts the day that Theodore Roosevelt learns that (President) McKinley has been assassinated and he’s the new president of the United States, and I think it speaks to how there are moments presented in history that are unique, and if you seize the opportunities that the moment in history presents, great things can happen.